I moved to Glasgow from Las Vegas – here are the biggest culture shocks I’ve faced, from VERY strict alcohol measurements in pubs to hard-to-pronounce words
Their official language is the same, but America and Scotland can seem worlds apart.
A point that former Las Vegas resident Lua Rodriguez Murphy emphasizes in fascinating and often hilarious TikTok videos.
The Californian-born 33-year-old moved to Glasgow after meeting her now-husband Kevin, a Scot who visited the hotel where she worked in Las Vegas.
Go by TikTok username’luluowl‘, Lua has amassed quite a following, sharing her candid take on Scottish life and amassing nearly 30,000 TikTok followers.
We spoke to her in June about how free health care and packing your own groceries were big culture shocks for her in Scotland. Since then, she has posted several more TikToks documenting how Scottish life can sometimes leave her feeling confused.
Lua Rodriguez Murphy has moved from Las Vegas to Glasgow and revealed the biggest ‘culture shocks’ she’s faced since the move in a series of TikTok videos
In one video, Lua reveals how she noticed a big difference in the food and drink on offer in Scotland and the US
When she lived in the US party capital, Lua got used to ‘free pours’ and ‘free shots’ on a night out, but she says that Glaswegians are notoriously strict with their measures and that the first time she went to a bar in the city, they measured her drink ‘to a tee’.
Additionally, she says she has noticed the absence of a happy hour offer at bars and clubs, explaining: “I’m not sure if it exists, but I’ve never seen it and I’ve been quite a few here time now.’
Lua reveals how she noticed a big difference in the food and drink on offer in Scotland and the US
Lua decided to make the nearly 5,000-mile (8,000 km) journey from Las Vegas to Glasgow after meeting her now-husband Kevin, a Scot who was visiting the hotel where she worked in Las Vegas. She left behind her career in hospitality in the US and now works for the NHS
NHS worker Lua also describes the sugar tax, or the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL), implemented across the UK in 2018 in a bid to reduce obesity, as a ‘culture shock’.
When the TikToker took her three-year-old son to America, the TikToker says he was ‘hooked’ on the noticeably sweeter Capri-Sun juice cartons.
Although Lua had to get used to more expensive (and less sweet) drinks, she describes the quality of food in Glasgow as ‘so much better’.
Pictured on the left is Lua visiting Kelvingrove Art Museum in Glasgow for the first time. Lua admits she has noticed the absence of a ‘happy hour’ offer at bars and clubs in Scotland
Lua’s candid videos have become popular on TikTok – she has almost 30,000 followers and that’s a lot
She says: ‘Food (products) at home are filled with chemicals, dyes, fillers, enhancers, preservatives, you name it, it’s probably there. In fact, a lot of food from home is actually illegal or severely restricted here in the UK.’
While Lua took the step in her stride, she admitted that a few small things tripped her up – like the pronunciation of Scottish words.
In one TikTok video, she warned her followers that the correct way to pronounce Edinburgh is not ‘Edinburggg’ – a common mistake among her fellow Americans. (It’s ‘ED-in-bruh’ or ‘ED-in-bur-uh’.)
She also revealed that she couldn’t pronounce the Scottish name ‘Hamish’ (‘Hay + mish’), admitting that she used to pronounce it ‘Ham-eesh’.
Mum-of-three Lua at the scenic ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ lookout in Arrochar in the Scottish Highlands
Lua also finds that Scottish people often end sentences with the phrase ‘so am I’. She says: ‘That’s so cute!’
Certain Scottish phrases, she noted, are seasonal. Lua says during the summer ‘you’ll always hear someone say “it’s fried”‘.
Other summer habits she’s picked up? Locals get into the habit of ‘washing back-to-back loads of laundry to take advantage of the sun to hang out (their) clothes’. Plus, “no doubt someone somewhere will have their top off and absorb that vitamin D,” she says.
And even though Scotland doesn’t enjoy the same climate as Las Vegas, there’s a lot to love about a Scottish summer, she says. ‘It stays light out so late. You can go for a walk at 21:00, 22:00 and it will still be very light for you to enjoy your walk,’ she says.
In one final video, titled ‘Things I love about living in Scotland’, mum-of-three Lua says she loves bagpipes, noting: ‘Nothing excites me more than seeing a good piper .’
She even wants them played at major life events, including her children’s birthday parties, her wedding vow renewal ceremony and even her funeral.