things the brits have taught us lately...

So, we realize we are still new around these parts, but the brits have taught us some pretty crucile stuff the last 5 days. We'll fill you in on the rest once we are true "locals"

1.If it's raining outside and you tell someone "gosh, my pants got soaked!" they will look strangely because you just told them that your underwear is wet. Here pants=underwear, trousers=pants.  picky, picky..

2. The band "six pence none the richer" accuired their name from UK currency. Grace Anthony knows this very well

3.If you desire to have a TV here, you have to purchase a TV licensce, which is a mere 150 pounds (probably 230 dollars).  They even have TV police that come around and ask to see your licensce if they hear you have a TV. 

4.  England's national food is curry.  Which probably explains all 50 Indian resturants on the street next to us.

5. Used bike salemen rival American used car salesmen in terms of sleezyness.. we are so weary of getting scammed everytime we walk into the bike shop.  (which is named cyclo-analysis by the way..haha)

6. Water is a not easy to come across.  Especially if you just ask your waiter for "water please".  They will return with a bottle of sparkling water (not very thrist quencing).

7.  All the little kids here look like they could be ready for any sudden bussiness meetings that spring up.  They all walk around with little ties and suits and nice shoes with their british accents.  They really are adorable.

8.  The 100s of buses here drive extremely close to the sidewalk.  You could be walking down the sidewalk, telling a story passionatly, fling your arms in the air mid story at the wrong time and BAM- there goes your arm, next stop london.  We havent actually seen this happen yet, but I know its coming.

9. Mailboxes at the college = "piges" which is short for your piegon hole.  I like to think Hedwig is the mail man in this town.

10. No more spring and fall semester, they have much fancier names for their terms.  Right now, Jordan is about to start his "Michaelmas term", in Janurary he will begin the "Hilary term" and then finally "Trinity term".

11.  When you here people talking about "punting", they are talking about pushing a boat down the river with a stick, it kinda looks like a gondala ride.  It seems to be a very romantic thing for all the undergrads to do. A little different than punting the football up in the air and yelling jackpot.

12. First year students here are called "freshers" instead of freshmen.  It sounds much more welcoming than "freshmeat" did at Auburn.

13. When you walk into a building, you are not on the first floor, you are on the ground floor.  You have to use the stairs to reach the first floor.  The 3rd floor never seemed so far away.

14. After only being here for 5 days we have both found ourselves using uneccesary adjectives to describe daily common occurences. The Brits have such a control over the English language (it was theirs first) and they use it "rather" eloquently. They enjoy putting adjectives like "rather", "quite",  and "right"  before all forms of speech. For example: (while reading you must say out loud with an english accent)
American -  It is cold outside
Brit - It is really quite nippy out there