"It's pronounced SainT Loo-ISS. Right?"
Dear Donna,
As I’m sure you’ve gathered from my work permit paperwork, we moved from London three months ago to a city that no one back home has really heard of. That no one can pronounce properly. In Trump’s America. Safe to say, we surprised even ourselves.
St Louis (It’s pronounced SainT Loo-iss. Right?) has proved to be a good choice though. Our flat is double the size and half the price of anywhere we could find back home. We have every 90s girl’s dream: a walk-in closet. Alex’s commute is a 15 minute walk (a perk, considering his job is the reason we moved here). And there’s an Aldi and an Ikea…hurrah!
Home is the Central West End. Known for being green, old and walkable (a rarity here), there are some gems.
The owner of our local rough-around-the-edges dive bar now recognises us (!!!!) and we’ve #brunched in the urban-farm-meets-café.
There’s also a wonderful independent bookshop that counts Joe Biden as a recent visitor, has gender neutral loos and children’s books with more brown faces than white ones. It is appropriately called Left Bank Books and is every Guardian reader’s dream.
Our first two weeks amounted to finding somewhere to live and buying a car. No, we did not buy a truck. No, Alex is not emasculated. Yes, I can reach the steering wheel.
Our hood.
Once we found our flat, all we had to do was install our own AC units, a necessity considering how humid it is. Our estate agent assured us it was simple - just pick them up from Walmart and install them ourselves.
After casually strolling past the gun aisle, we found them. Quite big. Quite heavy. And they stick out of your window. Did I mention we’re on the seventh floor and our visas require we don’t murder any innocent American pedestrians?
Luckily on our way back, we drove past what would become our other local – a salt-of-the-earth hardware store where Mark, the owner, also recognises us as the Mis-Brits.
He recommended his mate Bruce and Bruce’s mate Darryl. They installed them in 45 minutes. I bet Bruce drives a truck.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon about my application for Employment Authorisation. Let me know if you need anything else! And yes, I do look grumpy in the passport photos. It was a very hot day and I’d just started my period.
Kind regards,
Daniella
Spot the seventh floor.
No two houses look the same.
Casual classical bust.
