Hiya :)

[MyHeartsInScotland]

Hi everyone!

Brand new to this website. Never written on a forum before so bear with me!

I live in the US and my love lives in Scotland. We've known and talked to each other for almost six months. We met on Interpals which is a website for people who are looking for international penpals. We both were on the website for 3-4 years and never came across one another until his profile popped up on my screen one night in early January. It immediately caught my interest and I knew I had to write to him. He wrote me back the very next morning and we instantly hit it off.

I had booked a vacation for Ireland already for this past May so it was pretty easy adding Scotland to my visit so that I could meet him. Meeting him for the first time was better than I could imagine. We only had five days together, but they were the best days of my life. He showed me around his town and Edinburgh, and I got to meet his family who were warm and welcoming. Leaving him was the hardest thing I've ever done, but he's coming to visit me in the US for my birthday in November so we're both super excited to see each other again.

He is definitely my better half, and makes me want to be a better person. No one could make me smile, laugh, or blush like he does. I really couldn't ask for anything more, except maybe for not being on opposite sides of "the pond."

I love reading about all of the LDR stories, especially the ones about US/UK relationships, and there are so many of them! I'm glad my love and I aren't the only ones through this type of situation. The success stories give me hope for our relationship, and I'm comforted by knowing that we're not alone in struggling with the distance.

If anyone has any advice, I'd be happy to hear it!

[Lilly9886]

Welcome to LFAD!!

[MyHeartsInScotland]

Thank you Lilly!

[abna1]

Welcome

[Sanja]

Welcome

[MyHeartsInScotland]

Thank you abna1 and Sanja!

[Noodle]

Welcome to the community! And yay for finding your perfect guy and being able to actually meet him

[merlinkitty]

Yay! That's awesome you got to meet so quickly! I've got the UK/US thing going on too. The distance is hard but well worth it

[MyHeartsInScotland]

Welcome to the community! And yay for finding your perfect guy and being able to actually meet him

Thank you Noodle! Sounds like you found a keeper too! Oh and you're meeting him pretty soon too, aren't you? Are you excited?

Yay! That's awesome you got to meet so quickly! I've got the UK/US thing going on too. The distance is hard but well worth it

Thank you merlinkitty! Yeah, it was just perfect timing, and I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. That is so awesome! Congrats Those UK guys are quite a handful, but they're so worth it. Have you met your main squeeze yet? Do you have any plans of visiting there or him visiting here?

[jana89]

Welcome to LFAD Ireland and Scotland are on my list of countries I really wish to see, so bit envious here But I am happy for you and your SO, just keep going

[MyHeartsInScotland]

Thank you Jana! Oh you have to visit Ireland and Scotland! They're gorgeous countries with friendly people and amazing histories. Maybe you could make them a romantic holiday with your SO? Woah, you've been in an LDR for almost three years?! Congrats! Thank you so much for the encouragement and support!

[merlinkitty]

Thank you merlinkitty! Yeah, it was just perfect timing, and I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. That is so awesome! Congrats Those UK guys are quite a handful, but they're so worth it. Have you met your main squeeze yet? Do you have any plans of visiting there or him visiting here?

Haven't met yet, but we're working on something. Hoping by the end of the year, but we'll see how things go but we're both really just determined so it's going to happen soon. They are a handful keeps telling me I can't speak English lol but he still seems to understand me pretty well

[MyHeartsInScotland]

Haven't met yet, but we're working on something. Hoping by the end of the year, but we'll see how things go but we're both really just determined so it's going to happen soon. They are a handful keeps telling me I can't speak English lol but he still seems to understand me pretty well

Oh that's so awesome! Are you excited/nervous about meeting him in person? If you have any questions at all about traveling, I'd be happy to give any advice that may be helpful to you. Haha that's hilarious! We fight over who drives on the wrong side of the road, the correct way to spell words like realize and color, and have the never-ending debate of cookies vs. biscuits. I think they have an unfair advantage of being exposed to American culture a lot more than we do with their cultures. My SO constantly throws in Americanisms when we're talking and I hardly know any Scottishisms (not sure that's a word haha) to throw into the mix. Where in the UK is you're sweetie from?

[merlinkitty]

I am totally excited about meeting him finally it feels like it's been so long in the works, it's almost like a dream I'm afraid to wake up from lol I am really nervous too hahaha he teases me cause I'm still nervous to talk to him on the phone/Skype, it's just that shyness gene I'm always working around, but am totally determined to overcome it. When the time comes I will absolutely be asking you for your advice it's been so long since I've been out of the country and I've never been to the UK we haven't decided who's going where first, but I'll definitely end up there at some point, but he's promised to bring biscuits if he comes here first so we can end that debate once and for all hahaha

They absolutely have an unfair advantage! I've been telling him that since I met him lol He's been teaching me loads of filthy words though. He told me if I could master all the different usages of the word "bollocks" then I was halfway there xD My sweetie pea is "proper English" as he'd say it lol he lives down in Essex and calls me his Anglophile lol

Did you have a hard time understand your Scot when you first spoke to him? I remember the first time I watched the movie Trainspotting I had to watch it with the subtitles on cause I couldn't understand a word of it, the Scottish was so thick hahaha my guy, every once in a while he'll say something and I'm like waaaaa??? lol I'll figure it out and repeat it back to him with his accent and he gets really tickled about it

Do you two have any plans to meet here at some point?

[MyHeartsInScotland]

As you should be! It's not everyday that people in LDRs get to meet their sweethearts and it'll be so so special. How long have you two know each other? I know exactly how you feel. It felt like a dream to me up until about an hour before I met him, and then I got a serious case of the butterflies. I have the shyness gene too! It definitely took me a little while to get over my nervousness with video chatting. What helps me, and actually helped me a lot before meeting him in person, is to remind yourself that he likes you for you, both your perfections and imperfections, and being you is what attracted him in the first place. It's like that saying: if he can't handle you at your worst, then he doesn't deserve you at your best. There might be a little awkwardness when first meeting him, but it's only for a split second because a overwhelming sense of joy and giddiness immediately takes over and makes you feel like you two were never apart.

Oh please do! You'll have to tell me all about England since I only got a chance to see a little bit Northern Ireland and Scotland. I have to say that their tea is absolutely amazing. I can hardly stomach the tea here now haha. I think there are advantages to both you visiting there and him visiting the US. It'll be cheaper for him to visit the US, but you'll have a much easier time getting through US customs and such. I'm sure you two will figure out the best way to go about it.

Oh they have so many filthy words over there! In addition to my SO's help of making me swear like a sailor, I got a Scots slang book to help me out, and my face was completely read after I read the first page of it haha. Quite a colorful language for sure. Ah bollocks is a good one! Very versatile. My favorite insult is bawbag which is another word for idiot. Not sure if it's the same for the rest of the UK, but cursing is more of a norm over there than it is here. My SO use to make me say the f word like five times before signing off because he felt bad for throwing it out there every two seconds haha. There's a lot of cockney in scots slang and it drives me crazy. "Take the apples and pears." Why can't they say what they mean? Although, I do have to say that they say things that you never hear in the US, like "nigh on impossible" or "you little minx." I'm sorry, what? Aww that's so cute! My SO keeps telling me that he'll make a proper Scottish lassie out of me yet haha. Hmm I'm afraid that our boys wouldn't get along very well, yours being "proper English" and mine being as "Scottish as you can get." The English and Scots apparently really dislike each other. I knew a little about the history between them, but I didn't know that there was still such an intensity there.

I did have a hard time understanding my SO when I first spoke to him! I had to keep asking him to repeat what he said, especially if he was tired because his accent just got thicker. When I finally felt proud that I could understand him without him repeating what he said all the time, I video chatted with him and his aunt, and that sense of accomplishment went right out the window. I had no clue to what they were saying between the accent, slang, and how fast they were talking. I have yet to see Trainspotting, but it's definitely on my list of movies to watch. Oh I have that same reaction too! Could you please repeat that in English? Oh that's such a good idea! I'm definitely gonna have to repeat him in his accent next time he talks crazy haha. Mine is a terrible, terrible accent, but I have down my "oh aye" and "ach no."

Yeah, he's planning to come to the US in late November. My birthday is about a week or so before Thanksgiving so we thought it would be good timing to see me and meet my family and friends. Plus, best birthday present ever! He's in the middle of getting his passport renewed, then he has to apply for a visa waiver and book his flight. A little ways to go, but it'll get here eventually.

What's the time difference between you and your man? There's five hours between us, and I find myself constantly racing home from work to catch him on video chat right before he goes to sleep.

Yikes! Sorry for writing a book!