A friend recently pointed out to me that I have developed an infuriating expat habit. Well, she didn’t exactly tell me it was infuriating. She only pointed out the habit. But I deciphered for myself how infuriating it must be.

Every time I come across a fellow brit in the USA, I feel compelled to assess how well they represent our nation. I’d love to say I do this in a totally fair, unbiased way, but alas that is not the case. In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’ll give you three examples.

The first time my friend noticed me judging my fellow brits was during a class we were taking. There was an English woman in the class who has to have been one of the most irritating women I have come across in a long time. She was the type of woman who turned up in a bad tracksuit, insisted on asking questions when it wasn’t question time, then argued with the instructor when she didn’t agree with his answer. It was pretty obvious that even the instructor wasn’t keen on her. Every week I’d comment to my friend that the woman was giving us brits a bad name.

More recently, my friend and I were in a queue at a cafe waiting to order coffee. In front of us was an attractive, well spoken British woman ordering a cup of Earl Grey tea (the tea served at Buckingham Palace Garden Parties no less). I was impressed with the way in which she was protraying brits abroad, and I immediately told my friend as much.

Then yesterday, while out for a walk, it happened again. My friend and I were standing in the middle of a trail watching the spot at which a big snake had just slithered into the undergrowth. Suddenly two girls came racing around the corner towards us carrying a tread-on-the-head dog and squealing like demented children. As they reached us they stopped to tell us about the big rattlesnake sitting in the middle of the trail up ahead. I immediately noticed that one of the irritating squealers was a brit, and I wasted no time in informing my friend that the girl was NOT giving us brits a good name, making such a spectacle of herself.

Thankfully, now that this infuriating habit has been pointed out, I will try to do something about it. In the meantime, I’m curious - do any of you other expats have this problem? Or maybe you have developed some other infuriating expat habit? If you have please share in the comments section.