So far, Britain has not been a hugely foreign experience.  I mean, obviously I am in a foreign country, but it hasn’t been what I expected.  I had expected there to be more barriers, making it a much more difficult experience.  But it hasn’t been nearly as hard as I had imagined which is, I suppose, a good thing.  It has been almost easy.  Culturally, there are obvious differences, but also many similarities.  It is obviously different because it is an entirely different country, but similar in that most of the differences don’t really require much more than a second glance to figure out. . .if that makes any sense.  Or maybe I just have a different way of seeing things.  I think I’m just soaking everything in and gawking around in a tourist-y fashion.  (I try not to be too obvious about it, but there are some things you just can’t help staring at with that signature tourist stare – eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape, general expression of awe.)

I really couldn’t help doing the tourist look when I saw this. It’s a castle! With a moat! And I got to go inside it!

I just absorb all the wonderfulness that is London or whatever other place I happen to be in, and I don’t question it.  I just experience it.  That’s not to say that I don’t inquire (I am doing a horrible job of trying to explain this), but I feel as if my method of experience is much more observation-based than investigation-based.

That being said, I have been keeping a running list of things that I found to be interesting or different or that I deemed to be somewhat important.

1)      “Are you ok?” – The first time someone asked me this, I was shopping.  I was looking at a shirt, and this employee asked me if I was ok.  I stuttered something to the effect of “yes, I’m fine, thanks.”   She gave me a slightly weird look and walked away.  As she was leaving, I was frantically wondering if I didn’t look ok, if I looked ill or exceptionally confused.  After being posed the same question several times in the same day in different stores, I finally figured out that asking if someone is ok is roughly the equivalent of asking how they’re doing and provides a wonderful opening if you need help finding something.

2)      “Cheers” – This word is probably the most commonly used word in the UK.  I have heard it so much in the last few weeks.  The great thing about it is that it can be used in almost any situation.  If you’re in a situation and you don’t know what to say, just say cheers because it’s probably an acceptable response.  But on a more serious note, I really had no idea how much it was used until I got here, and it took me a while to get used to because I had no idea what the proper response was.  It’s cheers. . .one possible appropriate response to cheers is cheers.

3)      Solar panels – This was one of those things that struck me as a bit strange in an ironic way.  It appealed to my strange sense of humor.  I noticed as we were driving along (well, I was riding, but the bus driver was driving) that several houses we drove past had solar panels on the roofs.  This just seemed a bit strange to me because putting solar panels on a house in London seems like putting solar panels on a house in Monmouth or Forks. . .kind of pointless for most of the year.

Moving on to something I find very interesting:

4)       Food! – The food here is very interesting.  I believe I have mentioned scones with clotted cream and jam in one of my previous posts.  They are still my favorite food that I have discovered here; I don’t know what I’m going to do without them when I get back home.  Do you think there’s a store in Monmouth that sells clotted cream?  Probably not. . .maybe Independence?  I doubt it.  I’m thinking of buying a British cookbook that has recipes for scones and clotted cream (I’m pretty sure I could make do with jam from the US).  But I have again gotten stuck ranting on about the many virtues of scones with clotted cream and jam.  The other food here is also worth mentioning.  Jaffa Cakes and Jammie Dodgers are a must-try, as they are the “stereotypical British foods” – that is to say, they are fairly well-known British foods.  (Also, Jammie Dodgers are worth trying just because of the description on the package:  “stretchy raspberry flavour jam splodged at the heart of two yummy shortcake biscuits.”)  I had a lovely cereal bar that was “Belgian Chocolate Flapjack.”  It was amazing.  The description:  “soft chewy all butter flapjack packed with Belgian chocolate chunks.”  The description does not do it justice.  The main ingredients are oat flakes, unsalted butter, golden syrup, and Belgian dark chocolate.  Oh, it was delicious.  I am not really a fan of trying new foods, but just over the last week I’ve started trying more.  I saw a package of hot cross buns at the store, and I plan on getting some before I leave.

5)      “Mind the gap” – a commonly used phrase which means “watch out for that gaping hole between the train and the platform.”  I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say “watch out for” or “be careful of” whatever needs extra caution.  It’s always “mind” this and “mind” that.  It’s quite a useful little phrase and it’s very concise.

6)      Royal Mail – I also saw this while riding a bus through the city.  The bus pulled up to this lovely red truck with an insignia and the words “Royal Mail” on its side.  I got really excited at the possibility that I was less than ten feet away from the Queen’s correspondence.  There was also a url on the back, so I looked it up when I got back to the campus.  Sadly, it was just a normal mail service and not the Queen’s personal mailman.

7)      Showers – This may seem like a weird topic, but it was very important to me.  Before my arrival, I was very concerned that the showers would be difficult and confusing, but I needn’t have worried.  There’s just a start/stop button and a knob to adjust temperature.  (Also, I felt really weird going into the bathroom to get a picture of the shower.)

The shower – very unconfusing and easy to use.

I have still been extremely busy running around doing stuff.  I went on a field trip to the Town of Bath and visited the Roman Baths there, as well as the Jane Austen Centre and the Fashion Museum.  The Fashion Museum had a special exhibit on “Dressing Royalty” and I was able to see many of the costumes that have been used in various historical movies, plays, and tv show, including some that were used in the show “Tudors.”

Costumes from “Tudors”

I went on a day trip to Stonehenge and the nearby town of Salisbury, in which there was a lovely cathedral.  I went to Cardiff and the Doctor Who Experience, and I went to Caerffilli Castle.  I went shopping at Portobello Road, although I did not get to the travel bookstore that was featured in Notting Hill.  I also went to Topshop, which was an amazing shopping experience.  I went on another field trip to Glastonbury, where I toured the Abbey, listened to Geoffrey Ashe (an eminent historian), and climbed Glastonbury Tor (a very steep, although not very high, hill with an excellent view from the top).

The Tor (and I should mention that I really don’t like hiking, but I made myself climb it).

I took a day trip to Liverpool to visit The Beatle’s Museum and The Cavern.  I went on a weekend trip to Edinburgh.  I went to see Les Miserables last night.  I have been going and going, but I haven’t crashed yet.  Hopefully I can make it for one more week.

Cheers!

Emily

I set off away from London today off to Bath, got very lost, ended up on the wrong train and traveled to Taunton instead. It was lovely though. Along the way however, I met two wonderful women from Taunton and we sat on the train together for a little over an hour and chatted. It was really nice to meet them because they were both getting ready to travel to America in a couple of months so they wanted to know as much about my culture as they could, which allowed me to ask lots of questions about theirs!! The thing that surprised me the most during our in depth conversation was their confusion regarding Soda.

They asked me, “I’ve read so many books that talk about this, what is Soda??” I was soooo stumped I didn’t know how to explain what soda was. See over here, if you order Lemonade you get sprite. When I told them that they asked what we usually drink when we ask for Lemonade. When I told her it was basically water, lemon, and sugar she was horrified. She said that sounded disgusting!!

The other thing is, with the drinks over here. You cannot find anything that is not carbonated. You order apple juice or orange juice and its carbonated…it doesn’t even really taste like orange soda..it’s just orange juice with spritzer water inside. When I explained that we drink all of our juices without carbonation she said, “so when I order a drink over in America, I should expect it to be flat??”

Then she wanted to know what an Ice cream Soda was, or a Root Bear Float….yea try explaining that to someone who doesn’t know what Root Bear is. So that took a while, and needless to say she wasn’t very excited about the prospects but I made her promise to try one when she does get over to America. Which of course led us on to compare ice cream over here. Their ice cream tastes very different from ours, and they stick (what looks like a chocolate covered churro) in their ice cream. I haven’t gotten to try it yet but it looks weird.

So we had a long conversation about the different kinds of food that each culture has, they are very excited to try some of it, and they were kind enough to recommend a lot of good stuff that I intend to try. All in all, I am rather pleased that I did in fact get lost!!

Angela

Last Weekend I went to Paris!!

So spending time in London, especially with it being so busy because of the Olympics, I have noticed that people here really like their personal space. Back home if you get on a bus or a subway there is no such thing as personal space. Everyone crowds on and gets as close together as possible so that we all can fit as many people onto the bus or subway as possible. Here however, I have found they don’t do that. We all crowd on, but if you get close enough to almost touch someone the space is full. I fell and bumped into someone on the train and she was really offended. I think it is so interesting the importance of personal space here. Is it the same for everyone else?? In Paris more people were able to crowd on. They were not interested in personal space, but they did glare at you if you got to close because they were suspicious of pick pockets!!

I am curious as to what it is with our individual cultures which allows us to be more relaxed and crowd one another, versus here were everyone walks around with their own personal bubbles.

It was also very interesting to visit Paris after a weekend in London. In London the people are a little reserved, they don’t even like to say ‘excuse me’ to a stranger. When we all load onto the bus everyone looks up or down and will not make eye contact, they don’t like to talk to strangers and they keep their opinions to themselves. In Paris, it was really different. I was walking down the street and people would holler out to you, random questions or insights or opinions. Someone yelled across a street, four lanes of traffic, to tell me they liked my bag. Paris was incredibly more relaxed and easy going. Not to say they were really friendly, because my not knowing any French set off a lot of people, which made me feel bad. I had not wanted to offend anyone, but most of the time we communicated through gesture which worked marvelously!!

It was an amazing weekend, and if anyone ever gets the chance to go to Paris, GO!!!!! Definitely check out the Louvre.

Angela

Gaining my Footing

Throughout my limited exploration this week I have noticed that a lot of the major differences are in the details. For instance on the coach buses that transported us to the college campus and also took us on the tour around London we were required to wear seat belts!

This was fascinating to me because back home buses like that do not even have seat belts. Now this does not apply to their public transportation buses, just their private tour buses. When asked about it, the tour guide Kathy, simply responded. “Well, it’s the law”. They also strap their seat belts in from right to left, while we strap ours left to right. I actually think I prefer their method better because it didn’t wrench my neck when I tried to look out the window!!

This difference I attribute to their tendency to do everything on the left. They queue on the left, they drive on the left, and they buckle on the left they even pass on the left. Everything is backwards from my practice!! It is still taking some getting used to. I finally got to the point where I can cross the street!!

Interestingly enough I learned that the reason they tend to do everything on the left is because back when they used swords as forms of defense the majority of the population, like now, was right handed. Which meant in order to fight with your right hand you would have to travel on the left side in order to face your opponent openly.

I don’t know if this is true or some fanciful excuse but I thought it was fun, I read it in one of the many brochures’ passed around in the Tube stations 🙂

Also on my first day here I saw these really wild looking, what I thought at the time to be, bike racks!! I thought they were really cool and very secure. Turns out though, after a little more investigation they are bikes set up for rent that would allow individuals to bike around town for a day! Pretty cheap, only a pound! I considered doing it, but honestly the rules of the road are so beyond my grasp at this point I decided not to risk becoming road kill!!

Also, there is a huge collection of phone booths around London! All bright read and easily located. Even though most individuals have cell phones these days and I have not seen anyone use one yet. After some consideration, and shopping, I have noticed that they are a staple of the British stigmatization so maybe they are left as more of a hall mark than for actual practical application.

Everything here is massively exciting, it’s all new and fun and I love meeting the individuals here and discussing the differences in our cultures!! I just know the rest of my month will fly by, but I’m going to love every second of it!!!   Angela