I moved to Glasgow from Las Vegas – here are the biggest culture shocks I’ve faced, from VERY strict alcohol controls in pubs to difficult 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 California-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.

Judging by the TikTok username ‘lullaby‘, Lua has amassed a following sharing her candid views on Scottish life, amassing almost 30,000 TikTok followers.

We spoke to her in June about how free healthcare and packing your own groceries proved to be major culture shocks for her in Scotland. Since then, she has posted a number of TikToks documenting how Scottish life sometimes leaves her feeling bewildered.

In one video, Lua shows how she has noticed a huge difference in the food and drink on offer in Scotland and the US

Living in the US party capital, Lua became accustomed to ‘free pours’ and ‘free shots’ on a night out, but she says Glasgow residents are notoriously strict in their measures and the first time they go to a went to a bar in the American city, they measured her drink ‘down to the last detail’.

Additionally, she says she has noticed the lack of “happy hour” offerings in bars and clubs, explaining, “I’m not sure if it exists but I’ve never seen it and I’ve been here a long time time now.’

Lua reveals how she has noticed a huge difference in the food and drink on offer in Scotland and the US

Lua decided to make the nearly 5,000-mile journey from Las Vegas to Glasgow after meeting her now husband Kevin, a Scotsman who visited the hotel where she worked in Las Vegas. She left her career in hospitality in the US and now works for the NHS

NHS worker Lua also describes the sugar tax, or Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), which was introduced across Britain in 2018 in a bid to reduce obesity, as a ‘culture shock’.

When she brought her three-year-old son to America, the TikToker said she was “hooked” on the noticeably sweeter Capri-Sun juice cartons.

Although Lua has had to get used to more expensive (and less sugary) drinks, she describes the quality of the food in Glasgow as ‘so much better’.

On the left of the photo you see Lua visiting the Kelvingrove Art Museum in Glasgow for the first time. Lua admits she has noticed that there is no ‘happy hour’ offering in bars and clubs in Scotland

Lua’s candid videos have become popular on TikTok – she has almost 30,000 followers and counting

She says, ‘Food [products] homes are filled with chemicals, dyes, fillers, enhancements, preservatives, you name it, it’s probably in there. In fact, many foods from home are illegal or severely restricted here in Britain.”

While Lua has taken the step comfortably, she admitted that a few little things confused her, such as the pronunciation of Scots words.

In a TikTok video, she warned her followers that the correct way to pronounce Edinburgh is not ‘Edinburggg’ – a common mistake among her compatriots. (It’s ‘ED-in-bruh’ or ‘ED-in-bur-uh’.)

She also revealed she couldn’t pronounce the Scottish name ‘Hamish’ [‘Hay + mish’]and admitted that she always pronounced it “Ham-eesh.”

Mother-of-three Lua at the ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ scenic lookout at Arrochar in the Scottish Highlands

Lua also notices that Scottish people often end sentences with the phrase ‘that’s how I am’. She says, “It’s so cute!”

She has noticed that certain Scottish expressions are seasonal. Lua says that during the summer, “you always hear someone say, ‘It’s getting toasted.’

Other summer habits she’s picked up? The locals make a habit of ‘doing laundry in a row to take advantage of the sun and hang out [their] clothes’. Plus, “there’s bound to be someone taking off their top somewhere and taking that vitamin D,” she says.

And even though Scotland doesn’t have the same climate as Las Vegas, there’s a lot to like about a Scottish summer, she says. ‘It’s still light outside this late. You could take a walk at 9 or 10 p.m. and it would still be very light to enjoy your walk,” she says.

In a latest video, titled ‘Things I love about living in Scotland’, mum-of-three Lua says she loves bagpipes. She notes, “Nothing excites me anymore when I see a good piper.”

She even wants to have them played at big life events, including her children’s birthday parties, wedding vow renewal ceremony, and even her funeral.