I just thought I'd make a post about the various British things I've picked up/adjusted to/notised in the one month (exactly!) I've been here:
1. 80% of my wardrobe is now from H&M or Primark. And 80% of that is black or burgundy.
2. January. Sales. Aka the reason I have no money anymore. (Think Black Friday type sales for an entire month, it's brilliant, but also terrible at the same time because I spend too much money).
3. Biggest lie of the century from the study abroad office in Wooster: they definitely wear leggings and jeggings as pants (or rather trousers, pants are undies) in the UK. All the time. And in fun patterns and colours.
4. I already spelled things with a 'u' (colour, neighbour, honour, etc.) most of the time in America, but now I can get away with it :-)
5. I don't particularly care for potato chips (aka crisps) in America, but Walkers salt and vinegar crisps are becoming my newest addiction, it's a problem.
6. Breakfast is the best. Baked beans (but not the American kind) and toast and eggs and tea everyday!
7. Chips, crisps, fringe, biscuits, pavement, pants, flapjacks, lift don't mean what you think they mean (although I knew what most of them meant, other than flapjack, before I got here). Also I will perpetually struggle with movie = film and movie theatre = cinema haha.
8. Everyone here ADORES Obama, it's amazing. I love telling people about my swing state adventures and how I got to see him and Michelle speak a few times during the campaign! They freak out.
9. In contrast, no one really has much passion for the Royal Family, that's definitely an American thing more than a British thing by far. When I told people I got up at 5 am to watch the Royal Wedding, they were just like 'why??' haha.
10. Being a vegetarian is SO much easier here!! I can't believe it. Every menu has a small 'v' by all the vegetarian options, and there are always multiple options, not just a Caesar salad like most restaurants in America. Even at Nando's, the best chicken place and a 'quintessential British experience' according to my flatmates, there were two veggie burgers and a few salads, which was awesome.
11. I haven't picked up a lot of slang yet, other than 'bint' which I think is just a Le Page thing haha. The first time someone used it, I was confused because bint means daughter or girl in Arabic, but it's used as an insult/term of endearment in a sense ('in certain areas of Western Sydney,' thank you Urban Dictionary) for a stupid girl or someone who is indecisive or girly and ridiculous. I don't really know how to explain it much better than that.
12. ONESIES. Seriously onesies are everywhere, and not in an ironic way. And they make fantastic animal ones, I bought a zebra onesie in Primark this weekend, it's fantastic. It even has a tail! My whole flat is like a zoo if everyone wore their animal onesies at the same time.
13. HOONED. Just to see if Clare is reading haha :-) (Hooned means really drunk/smashed and it took me a bit to figure that one out and thus it's become a bit of a joke).
14. Big nights out are Tuesday and Thursday, not Friday and Saturday like most American schools (although there is something nearly every night of the week if you want it).
15. Everything is so much more expensive, and not just with the exchange rate. Most events on campus in Wooster are completely free or like $1 (UG cover), but a lot of student organisation events here are £3 or more, and covers for clubs are wayyyy higher (£3-4.50 on average) and man am I feeling like a poorer student than ever. That's probably what's the hardest to adjust to, student events aren't free most of the time!
16. Also the fact that 18 year olds can just go out to the club and the bar and get a drink is taking a bit of adjusting after three years of American college culture haha. It's just so different when the drinking age is three years younger, and the party/drinking culture has been the biggest culture shock, I think. And there really aren't house parties, I'm missing Xi Chi a bit! I'm out of my element.
17. I'm adjusting to the public transport, finally! Trains are so easy to figure out as well, and they're quite convenient from York.
18. Chocolate is so much better here, oh goodness. Even candy bars you can get in America are so much better (like Kit Kats) or have a wider selection (peanut butter chunky kit kat anyone?!)
19. I now look the right way before crossing the street, so hopefully I won't get hit by a car anytime soon. Once I get back to America, that might be a different story.
20. Housing for uni is quite different from my tiny liberal arts college (and closer to larger American unis)- the first year you live in a hall in a dorm (although it's called a flat) but everyone has a single, with either communal or ensuite bathrooms and a kitchen shared amongst your hall/flatmates. Then you usually go off campus and rent a house in town/off campus, which has been quite an ordeal for some people I know. And they're like actual townhouses, not like a janky apartment (Wooster, take note) or program house. In some ways I might prefer this system, but at the same time, I don't mind the dorms. Everyone can't wrap their heads around having a roommate (or even two) for four years though haha.
21. There are a zillion different accents by region and I can kind of tell Northern from Southern English accents, and English from Scottish and Irish, but I'm still not 100% on most of them. Apparently I can do a pretty solid Cockney accent haha. And my flatmates trying to do American accents is hilarious, oh goodness. It's also weird because I don't really notice accents in real life as much as I notice them in tv shows and in movies? I'm not sure why, but it's just something I noticed the other day.
22. The Brits are obsessed with American tv the way Americans are with British tv, it's quite funny haha. Especially since I don't watch much American shows, other than American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time, and the Food Network. But yeah Breaking Bad, the Big Bang Theory, and all the big comedies/sitcoms are huge.
This is getting quite long, but here are some (certainly not all haha) of my observations so far! I'm really loving York, and I really haven't been homesick at all except for like three minutes when I got some sad /shocking news from a friend back home, but even then I didn't want to leave. Overall, I'm enjoying taking in all these new things and meeting so many new people. I definitely don't miss Wooster at all (sorry Nicki, I miss you!! <3) and I'm not particularly looking forward to going back haha. (Really the only things I miss is the convenience of Lowry being open for all meals- my meal plan is for breakfast and dinner Monday-Friday, not all day every day, but that's just me being lazy about cooking). I might just be in the honeymoon phase still, but who knows, I'll go with it since everything is wonderful :-)
1. 80% of my wardrobe is now from H&M or Primark. And 80% of that is black or burgundy.
2. January. Sales. Aka the reason I have no money anymore. (Think Black Friday type sales for an entire month, it's brilliant, but also terrible at the same time because I spend too much money).
3. Biggest lie of the century from the study abroad office in Wooster: they definitely wear leggings and jeggings as pants (or rather trousers, pants are undies) in the UK. All the time. And in fun patterns and colours.
4. I already spelled things with a 'u' (colour, neighbour, honour, etc.) most of the time in America, but now I can get away with it :-)
5. I don't particularly care for potato chips (aka crisps) in America, but Walkers salt and vinegar crisps are becoming my newest addiction, it's a problem.
6. Breakfast is the best. Baked beans (but not the American kind) and toast and eggs and tea everyday!
7. Chips, crisps, fringe, biscuits, pavement, pants, flapjacks, lift don't mean what you think they mean (although I knew what most of them meant, other than flapjack, before I got here). Also I will perpetually struggle with movie = film and movie theatre = cinema haha.
8. Everyone here ADORES Obama, it's amazing. I love telling people about my swing state adventures and how I got to see him and Michelle speak a few times during the campaign! They freak out.
9. In contrast, no one really has much passion for the Royal Family, that's definitely an American thing more than a British thing by far. When I told people I got up at 5 am to watch the Royal Wedding, they were just like 'why??' haha.
10. Being a vegetarian is SO much easier here!! I can't believe it. Every menu has a small 'v' by all the vegetarian options, and there are always multiple options, not just a Caesar salad like most restaurants in America. Even at Nando's, the best chicken place and a 'quintessential British experience' according to my flatmates, there were two veggie burgers and a few salads, which was awesome.
11. I haven't picked up a lot of slang yet, other than 'bint' which I think is just a Le Page thing haha. The first time someone used it, I was confused because bint means daughter or girl in Arabic, but it's used as an insult/term of endearment in a sense ('in certain areas of Western Sydney,' thank you Urban Dictionary) for a stupid girl or someone who is indecisive or girly and ridiculous. I don't really know how to explain it much better than that.
12. ONESIES. Seriously onesies are everywhere, and not in an ironic way. And they make fantastic animal ones, I bought a zebra onesie in Primark this weekend, it's fantastic. It even has a tail! My whole flat is like a zoo if everyone wore their animal onesies at the same time.
13. HOONED. Just to see if Clare is reading haha :-) (Hooned means really drunk/smashed and it took me a bit to figure that one out and thus it's become a bit of a joke).
14. Big nights out are Tuesday and Thursday, not Friday and Saturday like most American schools (although there is something nearly every night of the week if you want it).
15. Everything is so much more expensive, and not just with the exchange rate. Most events on campus in Wooster are completely free or like $1 (UG cover), but a lot of student organisation events here are £3 or more, and covers for clubs are wayyyy higher (£3-4.50 on average) and man am I feeling like a poorer student than ever. That's probably what's the hardest to adjust to, student events aren't free most of the time!
16. Also the fact that 18 year olds can just go out to the club and the bar and get a drink is taking a bit of adjusting after three years of American college culture haha. It's just so different when the drinking age is three years younger, and the party/drinking culture has been the biggest culture shock, I think. And there really aren't house parties, I'm missing Xi Chi a bit! I'm out of my element.
17. I'm adjusting to the public transport, finally! Trains are so easy to figure out as well, and they're quite convenient from York.
18. Chocolate is so much better here, oh goodness. Even candy bars you can get in America are so much better (like Kit Kats) or have a wider selection (peanut butter chunky kit kat anyone?!)
19. I now look the right way before crossing the street, so hopefully I won't get hit by a car anytime soon. Once I get back to America, that might be a different story.
20. Housing for uni is quite different from my tiny liberal arts college (and closer to larger American unis)- the first year you live in a hall in a dorm (although it's called a flat) but everyone has a single, with either communal or ensuite bathrooms and a kitchen shared amongst your hall/flatmates. Then you usually go off campus and rent a house in town/off campus, which has been quite an ordeal for some people I know. And they're like actual townhouses, not like a janky apartment (Wooster, take note) or program house. In some ways I might prefer this system, but at the same time, I don't mind the dorms. Everyone can't wrap their heads around having a roommate (or even two) for four years though haha.
21. There are a zillion different accents by region and I can kind of tell Northern from Southern English accents, and English from Scottish and Irish, but I'm still not 100% on most of them. Apparently I can do a pretty solid Cockney accent haha. And my flatmates trying to do American accents is hilarious, oh goodness. It's also weird because I don't really notice accents in real life as much as I notice them in tv shows and in movies? I'm not sure why, but it's just something I noticed the other day.
22. The Brits are obsessed with American tv the way Americans are with British tv, it's quite funny haha. Especially since I don't watch much American shows, other than American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time, and the Food Network. But yeah Breaking Bad, the Big Bang Theory, and all the big comedies/sitcoms are huge.
This is getting quite long, but here are some (certainly not all haha) of my observations so far! I'm really loving York, and I really haven't been homesick at all except for like three minutes when I got some sad /shocking news from a friend back home, but even then I didn't want to leave. Overall, I'm enjoying taking in all these new things and meeting so many new people. I definitely don't miss Wooster at all (sorry Nicki, I miss you!! <3) and I'm not particularly looking forward to going back haha. (Really the only things I miss is the convenience of Lowry being open for all meals- my meal plan is for breakfast and dinner Monday-Friday, not all day every day, but that's just me being lazy about cooking). I might just be in the honeymoon phase still, but who knows, I'll go with it since everything is wonderful :-)
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