Interview with Rhona Haiger
Introduction:
Before I took this class, I had very little knowledge of the underlying sociology of the immigration process, with a lot of what I knew coming from politics-related topics. Being interested in further expanding my knowledge, especially from a sociological lens, I decided to take this class. This class has given me the great opportunity to learn more about the process that built our country in a more in-depth and analytical way. This course also gave me the incredible opportunity to speak to someone about their story of migration, and what it was like for them. For this project, I decided to interview a friend of my mom, Rhona Hager. Originally, I was going to interview my oma, or grandmother, who had moved to the United States from Germany and lived here for many years with my father until she moved back to Europe when my dad was 26 in 1995, however, she was unable to do the interview. I was left with no one else to interview that I had known until my Mom suggested Rhona, who had recently gained full citizenship. My mother met her when working at the Leesburg Veterinary Hospital, in Leesburg, Virginia, where their shared shift hours in the hospital gave them the opportunity to become friends. Outside of hearing about her every once in a while from my mom, I didn’t really know much about her, but this assignment provided the perfect opportunity to do just that. So, even though it was very late in the time that the assignment was open, I was able to sit down and conduct the interview.
Summary of The Journey
Rhona was born on the eastern coast of South Africa near the city of Durban. Her early life was good in South Africa, she was provided with a good education and environment that she appreciated. Her life was similar in some aspects to what it would be like in America. The landscape and plant life resembled the East Coast of the United States, and the climate, at least during the summer, was also similar. To add to that, her family also owned a house and property that was similar to an American suburban neighborhood. Durban and the surrounding region all have what is classified as a “humid subtropical climate” on the Koppen climate classification, specifically under the classification of “humid subtropical without dry season” (Alexander). This is, in fact, the same climate classification for much of the state of Virginia, especially in the cities of Harrisonburg and Leesburg. Furthermore, the entire state is covered in this exact climate with the exception of the high-elevation areas of the Appalachians (Köppen). Although they are both similar climates, South Africa did differ in its more moderate swings in temperature during the year, whereas Virginia gets colder during the winter and experiences snow. This moderate temperature made outdoor activities great for Rhona when she was younger, and the barbecues that her family would have. However, this would change, as Rhona was going to experience the culture shock of moving to England.
From what Rhona had told me, she had family that came from the United Kingdom. On top of this, her dad had been in the Merchant Navy, which gave him ample opportunity to travel and explore the world. This is where Rhona had heard a lot about the UK from, and she became obsessed with England, and everything English. So, through her grandfather, she obtained a British passport and decided that she’d travel there for a year and travel after she finished school in South Africa. She ended up staying for 15 years instead.
England is quite different from South Africa, however, the two do have connections. South Africa had been first a colony of the Dutch under the Dutch East India Company of Table Bay, now modern-day Cape Town, during the 1600s. This is where the Boer ethnic group that resides there today and the Dutch-derived Afrikaans language come from. However, in 1806, the British gained a foothold in the region, with British settlers arriving soon after in the 1820s. The country would be under British rule until 1961 when it gained full independence and shook off its colonial status (South). This resulted in many South Africans having British cultural and familial connections (Census). However, the difference is what mattered more, and the experience of moving from South Africa was a cultural shock for Rhona. In our interview, she mentioned how when she first arrived in England she found it horrendous and admittedly hated the experience for the first six months, with the colder climate and more abundant rain. The built landscape was also a major cultural shift for her. South Africa was more open, with plenty of room to breathe. England presented a very built-up and old city, with everything very close together and concentrated.
In England she took up a job in banking, working for Visa. This provided her with the money necessary to afford the incredibly expensive life of London. She also started to make friends, eventually meeting her husband. Her husband worked in a managerial position in the group she worked with, and got to know him through that. They ended up dating for ten years and eventually getting married whilst still in England.
Her job working for Visa was something she eventually came to not like, and when she discovered that she could change her career and work as a veterinary nurse, or veterinary technician, she did. As her husband stayed working with Visa she went on to study and work for an organization called Blue Cross Animal Hospital for ten years, an experience which provided a great learning opportunity for Rhona. She eventually obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in biological science attending a night school, taking about four years to complete. Things were about to change after this.
In 2011, Rhona and her husband moved to the United States due to her husband’s work. Previous to this they had no connections within the country, and her husband had only been over a few times for work and her only once. The process was a bit difficult, as housing was scarce, and finding a place to rent that accepted their five cats was a challenge, but eventually, they found a home in Leesburg. America proved to be a much nicer place than the UK. For Rhona, the United States felt more like her home in South Africa, with the plant life and open landscape being unrestrictive in feeling. For Rhona the dollar also went a lot further than the pound, giving greater economic freedom for her and her husband.
Method
Before the interview had been done, my mom helped convince Rhona to do the interview, as I had no contact with her before. She was open to being interviewed and reacted positively to the idea, from what my mom had told me. After gaining her contact we set up a time for the interview to be done, and with her busy schedule, it was decided that the best time to do it would be late into the day, at eight o’clock p.m. which was a convenient time for me as it ensured I wouldn’t have any potential distractions that late into the day. I went into the interview with an albeit not fully comprehensive road map for the questions, more of a rough idea of how I wanted to conduct the interview. However, I did have ideas for more in-depth questions to create a comparison between the two previous countries and the United States. Rhona, having immigrated twice, provided the great opportunity to gain an opinion on not just the United States vs the United Kingdom, but the United States vs. South Africa and South Africa vs. the United Kingdom. With how late it was, and the work schedule of Rhona, the interview was conducted through Zoom. I had originally planned to do the interview in a specific study room, however, it was taken at the time, so I conducted it in my dorm room after asking my roommate for space.
Migration
Analyzing the interview, the process of migration for Rhona from South Africa to England had a pull factor of ethnic ties and cultural intrigue. This evolved later into economic opportunities, as she stayed for 15 years working first at Visa, then in the veterinary field. Her move to the United States in 2011, had the overwhelming push factor of economic opportunity, as her husband needed to move for his work with Visa. This is by far one of the most popular reasons for immigrating to the United States. Based on information sourced from the nonprofit organization KFF, 75% of immigrants state that their major reason for immigrating to the United States was because of the economic opportunity that this country provides (Understanding). As stated in the interview, the money that they had made held a higher value in purchasing goods than back in the United Kingdom in part due to the high cost of rent in London, demonstrating a cost-benefit of migration.
Integration & Membership
To gain a better outlook on this I went back and asked outside the interview format for further information, which was alright with Rhona. The immigration process was lengthy for her and her husband, however, due to it being for work with Visa, the company was able to fast-track the process of obtaining green cards. Finally, they were able to gain full citizenship last year in two-thousand and twenty-two. She states that it was a nerve-racking process, because of fear of failing the test, but after doing a FaceTime interview at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters she was pleased to find she had passed. Since then she has voted twice in local elections, being more politically active than most Americans when it comes to local elections as only fifteen percent of registered voters turnout for local elections (Devine). So she has become very integrated into the political life of the United States, even more so than many “native” American citizens.
Integration has also occurred relatively easily when it comes to the environmental and cultural aspects of the United States, specifically the state of Virginia. As mentioned above, the climate is very similar to her original home of South Africa, minus the less mild winters. Food also hasn’t been too big of an issue, as the cuisine between all of the three countries is fairly similar, with the difference of some traditional dishes. However, she does say that American food is more carbohydrate-centric, with dishes like Mac and Cheese seeming more as a main dish instead of how it’s usually treated as a side that goes with other things.
Another important part of integrating is developing a sense of membership in the new society. Immigrants feel that they have naturalized, and are a part of American society. Although I didn’t directly ask this question, based on the one I did, and the answers I received, I can conclude that this is the case for Rhona. She feels welcomed by the people she has interacted with here, and made really good friends. She feels the move from the United Kingdom to the United States was a lot easier than from South Africa to the UK.
Sociological Connections and Conclusion
Analyzing my conversation with Rhona led me to find particular theoretical connections discussed within class, the first of which I had mentioned above being an economic explanation for migration and demand in the United States for the labor her husband provided. Looking into Systems Theory, it can be found that international migration is likely to happen between past colonial powers and former colonies, due to the cultural and infrastructural similarities between the two. This theory adequately explains Rhonas’ move from South Africa to England. This can also be used partially to analyze the move from England to the United States, as the colonial connections were that the United States was a colony of England, not vice versa. Upon moving here they integrated quite fast, becoming active members of American society and engaging civicly more often than even most Americans.
I was lucky to be able to interview Rhona and learn more about her story. Getting to talk to someone who experienced what we had read and talked about in class helped me gain a greater perspective on the material, as well as help get myself into the realm of doing interviews with people for projects, something I don’t doubt will become more common-place with time due to my career choices. The interview was multi-dimensional in its insight, and Rhona was very helpful and pleasant to talk with, leading up to the interview and during it. So, I’d like to thank both Rhona and this class for this opportunity. Even though the criteria was to only speak about immigration from one country to the United States, I was able to gain a perspective on what it was like to immigrate twice and the comparisons that were produced from those experiences.
Additional Sources:
- Alexander, Mary. “South Africa’s weather and climate.” South Africa Gateway, 30 September 2023, https://southafrica-info.com/land/south-africa-weather-climate/.
- “Köppen Climate Classification | Virginia Climate.” Login to WeatherSTEM, https://learn.weatherstem.com/modules/learn/lessons/148/07.html.
- “South Africa – Apartheid, National Party, Segregation.” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/The-National-Party-and-apartheid.
- “Census 2011 Census in brief.” Statistics South Africa, https://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf.
- “Understanding the U.S. Immigrant Experience: The 2023 KFF/LA Times Survey of Immigrants – Findings – 10217.” KFF, 17 September 2023, https://www.kff.org/report-section/understanding-the-u-s-immigrant-experience-the-2023-kff-la-times-survey-of-immigrants-findings/.
- Devine, Kelly, and Mona Chalabi. “Visualizing Voter Turnout in Local and School Board Elections | Voting.” Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2 November 2022, https://www.carnegie.org/our-work/article/visualizing-voter-turnout-local-school-board-elections/.
- Link for the featured image: “….” …. – YouTube, 2 March 2023, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68410306.
Interview With Rhona
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Ian: [00:00:00] Okay, there we go. So, hello. Hi. Uh, so can you please state your name for the interview?
Rhona: Rona Haiger.
Ian: Okay, so I’m going to ask a few questions relating to, um, I guess your trip from South Africa to the UK from what my mom had told me, and then to the UK to the US.
So, uh, first question, I guess, then what was it like living in South Africa?
Rhona: Um, it was great. Um, I had a really good childhood. Um, it was, um, you know, played outside a lot and my schooling, my education was really [00:01:00] good. Um, so. Yeah, you know, um, I was, we were very lucky, um, so I can’t complain about it, had a lot of fun.
Ian: Okay, um, so what, I guess, decided to have you or your family and you move to
Rhona: the UK? So it was just me, my, um, grandfather, my dad’s dad was Scottish, and Um, my uncle, my mom’s dad’s brother, that’s my great uncle, he lived in England, um, and I had a cousin there and I was just obsessed with England and everything English.
So and my dad, he was in the Merchant Navy, uh, when he was young, so he had traveled a lot of the world. So we heard a lot about England, um, and because I could get. A British passport [00:02:00] eventually through, um, my grandfather, I decided I wanted to go to England for a year and travel after school and I ended up staying 15 years.
Ian: So uh, what was it like for the 15 years?
Rhona: So when I Flew over, um, uh, sort of to land in Heathrow, um, the first time ever in England. I thought it was horrendous. Um, it’s, you know, you’re flying, you’re flying over sort of, um, Southwest London and whatnot, and it’s very built up and it’s old and it’s very close together.
So, you know, I grew up in a house. Not unlike America, I should say, South Africa is a lot like that. You, you know, you’ve got your separate houses, um, and your piece of land. And, you know, we have a lot of, like, grew up with a sort of six foot fence and [00:03:00] whatnot. And then you, you land in England and, um, it’s extremely concentrated with people and buildings and whatnot.
So it was quite a culture shock for me. And admittedly, I hated it for probably the first six months, but I was told, you know, give it that long to see, to, you know, to try and adjust and see what you think. Um, and I, I did, um, and I, my initial, because I came from banking after school, I didn’t really have any further education.
So I went into, um, banking when I landed in England. Um, initially I hated that and then I got a job at Visa, the credit card company. Um, and that was pretty good. And, you know, so I started being able to afford to live there because it was expensive and, you know, make friends and, um, sort of have a purpose.
[00:04:00] So then I obviously started to really enjoy it. And then. I met my now husband. Um, so that’s why I was there for so long.
Ian: Oh, okay. So you had got, so you had gotten a job at the banking system there. And, uh, yeah. So why was it so expensive to live there?
Rhona: Because of the exchange rate, um, because the pound is a lot stronger than the, the Rand, um, the South African Rand.
And it was, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it is now, but, um, you know, to rent in London is very expensive. I couldn’t afford it on my own. So then I, I met up with someone who turns out was actually in my. High school in South Africa, a lot of South Africans, um, went to England at the time I did, and [00:05:00] I vaguely knew her so I started to, like, not even flat share it was sort of like bedsit share with her, and then met a couple of her friends and we rented a flat together and like a flat as an apartment.
And. You know, food was expensive travels, very expensive, you know, traveling around London. So it was just an eye opener from having lived at home and I paid rent to live at home, but it’s very different, you know, when you’re living with your parents and then all of a sudden you’re now having to manage your own finances completely on your own.
So that was a culture shock as
Ian: well. Yeah. I couldn’t imagine doing that now, uh, with how things are here in this, like just here in the States. Yeah. So how did you meet your husband? If that’s, sorry, if that is
Rhona: okay to ask. [00:06:00] Sure. So he worked at Visa. Uh, well, he still does and. Um, I was, he didn’t manage me, but he was in the team that I worked with, uh, worked, you know, as a group and, um, we sort of just got to know each other and then started going out, um, And we went out for like 10 years and then eventually got married.
Um, and he still works for Visa here. So he stayed and I, I really did not like it. And in the fact that it was great compared to the jobs I’d had prior to working there, but I just felt it wasn’t for me. And then discovered, Oh, there’s such a thing as a veterinary nurse, which is a veterinary technician over here.
Um, so I took a complete career change and studied to become a veterinary nurse.
Ian: Oh, okay. So, [00:07:00] um, so what was it like working as a veterinary nurse in the UK?
Rhona: It was great. It really was. Um, it was, it still is. It’s a very large hospital. Um, it’s a charity hospital. It’s one of the biggest ones in England. Um, and so I, I worked and I did one day release to go to college.
Um, so I took two years to get my qualification. And then I worked there for about 10 years. Um, it’s called the blue cross animal hospital. Um, and I still have a best friend from there that I keep in touch with regularly. Um, and I, you know, it was a great learning experience and because it was a, and so is a training hospital for nurses and for vets.
I saw a lot and I learned a lot. Um, and then whilst I was working there, I [00:08:00] decided to get. degree. So I went to night school and got a BSc degree in biological science. So just sort of a broad based BSc degree. And that was in London. So I’d leave work and then go into sort of inner London and, Just, you know, to do my courses and whatnot.
Um, that took about four years and then, uh, after sort of the 10 years of working there, I left and did about two years of relief work, working at various different practices. Um, and then I got into teaching at an animal management college. Um, and I was working towards. Uh, getting my teaching qualification.
It’s a lot easier than over here. That’s what your mom went through because with your nursing on board, what was that that I had on board? I, and with my degree, I could just sort of do a, do like an [00:09:00] extension to like a year’s worth of training to then become a teacher, um, to, to, you know, continue working there, but then I didn’t finish it because my husband then got transferred to the States.
Ian: Oh, so is that, um, why you guys moved here then? Yeah.
Rhona: Yeah. Purely because of his work. Um, we don’t have any connections here. So, um, but that was in 2011 we came here. So we’ve been here quite a while now as well.
Ian: So how has the U. S. been? It’s like, what was it like moving here or when you first got here?
Rhona: Um, I, I really like it here.
And even when we arrived, well, we’d done, I’d done one trip. He’d been to the States a few times for work. And then I did a trip to see, you know, what’s it like, I had no idea. Um, and. [00:10:00] We were then looking at, you know, houses, where would we live and whatnot? And it was difficult to find housing that would, where we could rent, that would accept our cats because we brought five cats over and we eventually found a place in Leesburg.
Um, and so, you know, I, I really liked it. Um, The, the vet that came to visit to examine the cats before sort of they could, I didn’t want to take them to a practice. So I got a vet to come in and she then found me a job at a veterinary practice in Lansdowne. And I started working there. Um, but the one thing that I, I like about America, it’s very similar in the plant life and the wild, the wildlife isn’t the same, but sort of having the wildlife around you, it’s very similar to South Africa and the openness.
So. I really like it for that. The weather’s a bit. more extreme, uh, in the winter. [00:11:00] So in South Africa, I grew up in Durban on the East coast. Um, so summers are hot and humid. Um, and then, you know, England when it is hot for the sort of three days a year, um, it’s also humid. And then here it’s. Hot and humid in the summer, but the winters are far more extreme.
So that was, that was fun, you know, with snow and all that. Um, I enjoy that. That’s fun. Um, so yeah, I, I really like it here. And I, I do think that. For some reason, the dollar that you earn here goes far further than the pound when you live in England. Even though you could essentially be earning the same, your money does go further and you can save more and you can have the opportunity to have more things.
So, you know, that is certainly an advantage of living here.
Ian: Oh, that’s actually really interesting. [00:12:00] I didn’t, like, think of it at all like that, because usually when, uh, I hear about countries in Europe, I think about, like, how with the taxes that they have there, it goes to a series of public services. So you have to, like, give up a lot of income, but you get all these, like, free services with it.
And, uh, I guess people made it out to seem like. Your money could go a bit further there. Technically.
Rhona: Yeah. So you do. Yes, there is the potential to get those services. Um, but when you’re working, you’re only really getting the health and the health service. Um, that is. You know, you don’t pay for that, but it’s the people that don’t work or, you know, if you’re on maternity leave or you, so if you’re, if you’re [00:13:00] looking for work and you go, you know, you get job seekers allowance or you get child benefit or, um, you know, you get all these benefits if you don’t work, but if you’re working, you, you pay your taxes and you.
essentially just get the health benefit, not dental that you pay for as well. Um, and then if you’re living outside of London and you work in London, because you’re going to make more, the travel in London is several thousand a year. So, and you know, gas is more expensive because there you’re paying per liter and not, you know, per gallon over here.
And I think a gallon is nearly four liters. Um, it’s a lot more expensive. Rent is more expensive. Um, unless obviously you’re going to live. far out, you know, but when you move to England as a young person, you tend to, you’re always going to migrate to England. I mean, to London, sorry. So, um, yeah, [00:14:00] it just, it just doesn’t go as far.
Ian: Oh, okay. So you had said that it was with, uh, London, that it was somewhat similar with like individual houses. Or was an apartment. Um,
Rhona: no. So, um, so London is, is very, um, like sort of close together in that. So you live in, um, basically they take the old houses, if you think of Victorian England. So you have these beautiful big houses and they’re all joined together.
So like attached, but then what they’ll do in London is they take that house and they’ll divide it. Each level will be divided into rooms and then you will rent out a room. And that’s how the people that own it make money. Um, you could never afford to actually rent a house. Um, whereas here. It’s a lot more open space.
So [00:15:00] you, you know, if you’re going to rent a place, it’s a lot bigger than what you would get in London. It’s, I suppose you could equate London to only what I’ve seen in the likes of New York, you know, where you’re paying a fortune for a matchbox.
Ian: Oh yeah, okay. Okay, that makes sense to me.
So, like, when you mean like open here, uh, how much more open than, like, so, like, okay, so what you said how it was similar to South Africa. So what was South Africa like with the plant life and everything there, since you said it was similar?
Rhona: Yeah, so, um, for example, I suppose not quite Virginia, but My husband and I have traveled to Maui, um, [00:16:00] and the plant life there is exactly the same as what you find in South Africa, which was lovely because I could identify them.
Um, but just, you know, um, you have a lot of, in your yard, you know, you have a lot of trees, you have a lot of plants, um, flowers, um, and it’s just in, in, for example, England. You know, your, your yard could be 50 feet by maybe, you know, 20, well, I’m not 20 feet, but, um, I think ours was about a hundred feet by 50 feet.
Um, not 50 feet, sorry, that’s the width of a house over there. Um, yeah, maybe 50 feet wide. So, you know, it’s just you don’t have the space, um, whereas here you, you just have, uh, a lot more space to your, to your yard, um, unless obviously you’re [00:17:00] living in an apartment in a city, but I’m, I’m equating this to like where I live in Purcellville.
Okay.
Ian: Yeah, so, um, I’m guessing Purcellville is like a smaller kind of village. I haven’t really been there as much or,
Rhona: um, it’s, it’s, um, like Leesburg. Um, I don’t know if you’ve been to Leesburg. So in Purcellville town center. You have separate houses. They’re not, um, I don’t know what you call them here, but like semi detached or when you have two houses sort of joined together.
But, um, in Purcellville, you have the single family homes and then we’re more rural Purcellville. Um, we’re like 10 minutes out of Purcellville. So I’m on, we’re on 10 acres. Um, it’s an old farm that was subdivided and there’s probably Gosh, I don’t know 30 houses that each on 10 acre lot. So, you know, there’s that [00:18:00] type of land that you can get and not be far out in the countryside.
So that’s a huge advantage here as well. I suppose because it’s such a bigger country. There’s more space to be able to do that, even though construction is encroaching on a lot of land every day. Um, So, and I suppose a bit like South Africa, you know, South Africa is a fairly large country at, you know, at the bottom of Africa.
So you have more space as well, whereas England’s tiny. So. It’s just different like that.
Ian: Okay. So how would you compare like, uh, the food between each three of the places?
Rhona: Um, quite different. So to some extent, you know, in South Africa, yeah, you’ve got takeaway. You’ve got, um, you can get burgers and pizzas and, [00:19:00] um, you know, fried chicken and whatnot, but I probably grew up.
healthily because my mom cooked a lot of our dinners. You, you didn’t, I find people in America eat out a lot and get takeaway a lot or take out a lot. Um, we just didn’t grow up like that. You just hardly ever, you know, you, you would go eat out maybe, I don’t know, once every two weeks or something. Um, but the food, it’s similar, it’s less probably less fried.
Um, less colorants. Although MSG, do you know MSG? Uh, a bit. It’s a, it’s a really unhealthy, it’s monosodium glutamate. It’s a really unhealthy salt that they put in food. It’s in a lot of stuff in South Africa and they’re trying, you know, not have it in foods here in England. Makes food really tasty. So there’s a lot of that in South Africa, but.
Um, there are a lot of brands that we [00:20:00] got and get that you would find here and especially you’d find in the UK. And there are specific traditional South African dishes and desserts that are probably more Afrikaans based and Afrikaans. English, um, learning Afrikaans in school and Afrikaans is derived from the Dutch settlers that settled in South Africa.
Um, so they, you know, the Afrikaans people have, do have specific, um, sort of dishes that they enjoy. We also did a lot of barbecuing. We call it, you know, to braai, B R A A I, um, which is a barbecue. And because It’s that type of weather. You do a lot of barbecuing, um, and then in England, again, you have the same takeout type food, but, um, very, um, sort of intercontinental foods, you know, you can have like 10 different nationality [00:21:00] restaurants in one street.
So you get to taste a lot of different foods there. If you eat out, um, that I’m also vegan, you know, I’m not gluten free, but I’m vegan. So, um, I wasn’t growing up in South Africa, thankfully, cause that would have been impossible. Um, but in England, you know, my choices were a little limited. It’s, it’s a lot better now, you know, 20 odd years later.
And then it’s, in fact, it’s a lot better now in England than it is here, um, for options. But then, um, cuisine over here, if you, you know, sort of typical American cuisine, I find it very carbohydrate y. Um, You know, having a main and then having Mac and cheese on the side to me, Mac and cheese is a main. And then you have, you’ll have that.
And your, [00:22:00] um, uh, what do you call it? The second scone that you guys have. Yeah, biscuit. So to us, a biscuit is what you call a cookie. But yes, so you have, you know, so there’s just a lot of carbs in your food. Um, uh, but no, you know, there’s, I, I wouldn’t say that there’s anything that’s hugely different. Yeah.
That I go, Oh, I’ve, I’ve never tasted that before. Whereas Um, you know, I’m trying to think of England has any England has, um, you know, they’re well known for their cod, their fish and chips. And you can’t get according to my husband, you can’t get that same quality here. But each country is different and they have their own thing that is unique to them, I suppose.
Um, but yeah, you know, because of my vegan diet, it’s not like I try a whole bunch of different [00:23:00] other foods, unfortunately. So I can’t, I can’t comment too much on that.
Ian: Okay, I know in England, um, a lot of South Asian cuisine is very popular, so I’m guessing it was easier to get that if you ever did get takeout, because a lot of it is more like vegetarian and vegan friendly.
Rhona: Yeah, yeah it is. Um, I suppose, um, here, like, I like Thai food here. Um, you get a few options. I love sweet and sour and American sweet and sour, or I suppose here like Chinese when they do sweet and sour, it’s not the same as what I’m used to. And I didn’t even know if it’s correct to, you know, what it actually is like in their own country.
Um, so the, there are variations. you know, what might be Thai food in England is not the same as Thai food here. [00:24:00] And I think because they cater to, to like the American palette or the, the British palette. Um, like for example, if you’re going to have a curry in South Africa, where Um, Indians are, um, you know, they live there.
Um, there’s a huge, uh, cultures part of South Africa. So Indian curries there are extremely hot and different, different, uh, herbs and spices and flavors. Um, and then in England and here, it’s probably not as hot. Unless you ask, because I don’t eat curries and some of, I can, because I don’t do spices, but over here there are some that I can manage because they’re pretty mild.
So, you know, different cultures cater for the different palates.
Ian: Okay, yeah. So, I [00:25:00] guess you wouldn’t say it wasn’t too much of a culture shock then, the moves between each countries?
Rhona: Um, South Africa to England for me was, but I was 21. So, Um, you know, like to leave home and everything that I knew, and then to move to a different country that it was quite a big thing.
So yes, there, it was a culture shock for me, but to come, um, so, you know, it’s 30 odd coming here. Um, and yeah, that it’s coming here from England is. It’s, it’s not hugely different. It’s well, it is if you’re English, but you know, again, if you look at the roads, so in England, the roads are very narrow, obviously you drive on different sides, same as in South Africa, you drive on the other side to here, but the motorways in South Africa are wide, like not nearly as wide as here.
That was something to get used to, like, you know, [00:26:00] five lane road is just crazy in one way. So that was something. Um, And malls, the strip malls. That was something to get used to as well. Cause. We don’t have the, we don’t have that, um, in South Africa or England, you just have, and we don’t call the malls as shopping centers and you just have that you don’t have these, you know, whole long strips of shops and stuff.
Um, so, but, but the people as a whole, you know, have been very welcoming and, um, I’ve made really good friends here as well. So, um, I think the move here was. A lot easier.
Ian: Okay. That’s good to hear. Uh, there’s like, I guess, um, Americans are friendly people, so yes. Yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, see, [00:27:00] I guess I don’t really have much questions left then, or really any.
So, uh, thank you for doing this interview. Pleasure. Yeah.
Rhona: Um, I hope it highlighted some things about other countries. It very much did. Yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah.
So, uh. Well, good luck with the rest of your course. Thank you.
Ian: You have a good night then.
Rhona: Thank you, Ian. You too. Thank you. Bye. Tell your mom I said hi.
Ian: I will.
Rhona: Bye.
Ian: Goodbye.
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