A Quarter of One Year

Here come the 6-10 random things about England – as I said last time – this is my subjective opinion ; ) In case you missed the first part, read up here!

6. Left driving

I guess I just can’t get used to it and those pirates are not helping either. Once again – you can read about it here. One thing I didn’t mentioned yet is how people not only drive on the wrong – I mean – left side of the road, but they also walk on that side! This makes it sometimes complicated when I have to decide where I should pass a upcoming pedestrian. I usually go for the right which caused numerous problems. Sometimes it even hurts…

7. Tea

Now, I always though the typical afternoon tea was supposed to be for well-aged ladies (sorry mami) but as I was invited to lunch by some English students from the Bournemouth  University, I was really surprised that they drank all the time as well. I mean I was already used to my lovely hostmother, who sometimes wishes a whole pool of tea, but the fact that young students are also addicted left me really puzzled.

8. Carpet In da House

Now, this one might be just a personal random thing about England and not apply to the whole country. However, I noticed in many old houses such as the one I am staying in that they have carpet in every room! Yes, this includes the kitchen and bathroom. For me this seems highly impractical when you think in terms of hygiene and cleaning. But then again for some reason snails keep finding their way in our kitchen leaving a nice trail which I can see every morning with a stone floor we probably would have never noticed. Anyone hungry?

 9. Sports

Which sport do you think is most popular in England? You guessed, it it’s fishing. I let you interpret that one yourself.They also like cricket a lot which is basically a copy from baseball or is it the other way around since it’s older. The fun thing about cricket is, there are games that are played over 5 days roughly 6 hours each day. And you thought baseball was long-going.

10. The Biggest Talent

The other day the British Got Talent crowned a dog as the biggest British talent. What does that tell you about the country of the Queen. Exactly soon the dogs will take over the horses job to pull the royal carriage for this weekend’s jubilee.

Cheers!

On my last trip I went to the famous place Stonehenge to see the iconic stone monument. Besides the interesting part about how they might have been brought there and what they were for, I was really disappointed. Due to an overrun of tourism, they put a big fence around the monument and now make you pay 7£! to get closer to the stones. Well, we didn’t pay but I was still able to get some pictures. After the click you can see some of them

Again you can get some extra credit for the contest: Tell me your favorite shot in the comments and you’ll receive 5 points just like that!
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After ten weeks living in England, I will share with you some things I found rather different from Switzerland. Some of them are clichés which have proved to be true, others are things that I found funny, random or simply hard to understand. Please notice the slight sarcasm applied and if you are a Brit, don’t feel too offended. As I learnt during my exchange year: It’s not right, it’s not wrong, it is just different ; ) All AFSler give me a yeah!

1. British Food

It is well known that the British aren’t exactly the best chefs in the world. That being said, I am lucky to experience some new combinations of different dishes each week. For example: the other day I had mashed potatoes (including some mashed carrots), a tiny little bowl of spaghetti rounded up with a nice chicken pie. I like all the dishes separately, however, why we ate them all together will be a riddle for the rest of my life. Thank God that the English have delicious Fish’n’Chips and Cornish Pasties.

2. Cheers

As much the Americans use the word ‘dude’, the British tend to over-use the word ‘cheers’. I never get out of the bus without a friendly ‘cheers’ from the bus driver. After paying in a store, the cashier says cheers. You help an old lady to get across the street she says – you guess it – cheers. You pass a friend on the street, he will say ‘cheers’. My final conclusion to this word is: It simple means: thanks, hello, good-bye, cheers, have a nice day, I don’t want to talk to you anymore, See you soon, enjoy your meal. If you use it, nobody will ever guess that you aren’t local.

3. Police Hat

Whereas I really understand the tradition behind it and I love the fact that Britain is very traditional, I still think there is now practical or even fashionable use of that gigantic helmet the police men wear over here. I am not sure how it should protect you more than a normal hat. Maybe they have an in built air conditioner – I don’t know.

4. Imperial System

Well it is basically the same story as in the US. Why still using this elaborated system?Okay for some people it might be easier to divide 12 inches through 4 or 3 than to divide 10 cm through the same numbers. But here is a little quiz for you: How many millimeters are 398.334 kilometers. Think think think – 398,334,000 voilà! Now how many inches are 849.33 miles. Think, think, think, think, think, think *brain explosion*. I personally like the metric system better ; ). Good for you if you are used to the other one!

5. Weather

Well, I already talked about this in a pervious post – But I still think it is really random to have rain in the morning sunshine at noon and then hail in the afternoon. Fortunately the last week it has been rather nice and I think I will start another no-rain-run!!! ; )

That’s my first five! Stay tuned for part II!

and as always: Let me know if you found some of those mistakes in the comments