Are You Sure We Are Speaking the Same Language?

Someone much smarter than me once said, "America and England are two countries separated by a common language" (or something to that effect).  It is true, there are times when I am not even sure what language people here are speaking...

 

For example, you probably know that cookies are called biscuits here (what we call biscuits seem to have mutated into dinner rolls, that is if they exist at all, I have yet to see anything resembling a good biscuit here and people do not seem to know what I am talking about.  They seem, like grits and good pizza, not to exist here.)  One night at dinner I asked my English Friend whether the work cookie had any meaning here, she replied, "Well, those biscuits with chocolate in them, those are called cookies".  I then determined (based on this conversation and some grocery store snooping) that chocolate chip cookies have their own category here; they are the only biscuits that are granted the cookie designation.  Why I shall never know, perhaps they were imported from the States and the name stuck?  However this came to be, it is rather strange.

Another language difficulty that you will have heard of is the whole trousers/pants differential.  Here pants are undergarments (though they can also be called knickers) and trousers are anything we would call pants at home.  Simple (if sometimes hard to remember).  However, there is a third designation, trackie bums.  Trackie bums is a designation that seems to apply to all running attire and anything sweatpant like (in other lexicographic news, according to my spell check sweatpant is not a word but sweatpants is...curious).  

One more bit of word fun before I dash (gotta go to class!) here pudding is any kind of dessert and what we call pudding is called mousse.  On a related note it is very disconcerting to be asked, "What kind of pudding is there today?"  all I want to say is, "Pudding?  Isn't there only one kind of pudding...?"  (a word to the wise, don't say that, or you will find yourself suddenly surrounded by laughing British people, and no they are not laughing with you, because you have no idea what is going on.  They are laughing at you.)

Anyway, 

Love ya!!

Wow, I live here...

Just something that struck me today as I walked back from class.  I looked at a church as I walked by and realized, "Hey, this church is older than the US!".  What really struck me was that the church was just another church, there was no plaque or sign designating it a historical site, no banner promising tours.  In the states history is so important, we cling to our oldest buildings because we don't have many; here they have history coming out their ears and it becomes commonplace.  Just walking down the street there are cobblestones that are older than the printing press everywhere and no one cares...unless you imply that they don't care (then they get very offended and blustery).  I find this ambivalence mixed with pride fascinating and I thought you might be interested to.

Every once in a while as I am walking down the street something like that happens and I think "I can't believe that I actually live here" I am not a person who takes risks but I did this, I moved 4000 miles away to a different country, I still have to pinch myself now and then, just to make sure this is real life.  I still can't believe I did this but I am really happy I did.

Missing everyone!
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I've Been Busy (and This Place is Crazy!)

So, I am all moved in and (mostly) settled ( I will blog about my room soon, once I get a little more comfy).  And freshers week has started, and boy is it crazy...since everyone can drink most of the events are about drinking which is strange.  Another strange thing I have encountered was at a meeting for people living in my house, the house warden (or resident grown up) told us all about the noise policy and the policy for fire safely...and then he embarked on a discussion of stripper policy.
Yes the official policy for bringing strippers into the dorm (if you were curious, you are allowed to have strippers in the largest common room but you have to put up a sign that says "Private Party" and shut the door; also you have to remember to tell the warden, for security reasons).  The best part was the he introduced the stripper policy by asking if any boys had birthdays coming up because he knew that often for their friends birthdays boys "Like to have female guests who seem to find out air conditioning rather hot and feel the need to take off their clothes" (allow me to point out, briefly, that my warden is a professor of divinity, which I think makes the story even funnier).  Anyway, that got me thinking about the differences between here and home and one thing stands out; here the prevailing attitude seems to be 'do whatever you want just don't bother anyone else' while I think schools at home are more inclined towards trying to police everyones actions and dictate what people should do (this is all speculation of course since I have never gone to college in the US).

Tomorrow, my first meeting with the other psychology students!  And a visit to the gym!  And a literary tour of the city!
Love ya!