- Chicken Broth does not mean liquid made from boiling chicken parts and vegetables for hour on the stove. It actually means chicken soup with potatoes, peas and carrots. I found this out after I opened a can and dumped it into my chicken cacciatore without looking. On the bright side, I managed to hide some vegetables in my dinner.
- When someone walks up to you and says "alright?" or "are you alright?", they are not worried about your health or safety. It's a greeting that everyone says over here to mean "hey, how's it going".
- Don't order a cheese toastie over here. EVER. I ordered one, having been told that they were grilled cheese sandwiches. This was erroneous information. Really, it was two slices of bread that had been toasted with shredded fontina cheese between the slices. No butter on the bread. No gooey delicious melted cheese (I prefer swiss or American, but just about any cheese BUT fontina would do). It was terrible.
- Don't ask for a round trip ticket for the bus. The bus driver will look at you like you are crazy, and then ask why you just want to ride the bus in a circle. Instead, ask for a Return ticket (round trip) or Single ticket (one way).
- There are a lot of very cute dogs here. Should you want to pet one, you must never ask to "pet" the dog. Instead, ask to "stroke" it. Apparently, the dirty connotation that we associate with "stroking" something is what the people over here associate with "petting". I have now asked two guys to pet their dog and both times gotten two raised eyebrows, and laughter/smirk.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
One of these things is not like the other
Since I decided to stay in today and catch up on all the schoolwork I was supposed to be doing while I was out trapsing around the countryside, and both Mini and Doyle complained that they would have nothing to do while they were supposed to be working, I decided to write about the things that are different over in the UK.
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What's with this 'glorious' thing? Must be something new... Well I refuse to use it until it falls into the socks-and-sandals category. Oh, and this "alright?" thing I like. When someone asks me how's it going, I say alright. In England I could just say 'yes', which is 50% cut in syllables, though truthfully my preference would still be to just grunt. -Don
ReplyDeleteHaha - Don cracks me up. So I burst out laughing at your bus ticket comment. And then I had to explain to everybody in the lab what I found to be so funny. I cannot wait to get to England!! It is going to be GLORIOUS!!
ReplyDelete-Mini