Random Notes About the UK

A lot of people here say "all right?" when you're walking instead of "how are you." It's really confusing because I always want to answer, "yeah I'm fine, why?" It took me about two weeks to figure out that "all right?" was a form of greeting and you should respond, "Yes, you?"

They don't have grape here. I mean, they have grapes, but nothing really grape flavored that I have seen. Instead, they have black currant. It's strange. A lot of people here think the idea of peanut butter and jelly is very weird.

At UEA, a lot of people go home on the weekends, and the locals are the ones who go out. This means that nobody at this university really goes out on the weekends, but Tuesday and Thursday it's fair game. (Which works okay for me since I have no class on Wednesday, lol).

They drink a lot more frequently, and many are amazed that we can't drink until we're 21 in the US.

Apparently there's a lot of problems for redheads here. Two of my friends here have red hair and both have mentioned difficulties with it growing up. Really weird.

TOO MANY COINS. Lol. At home I rarely carry around all that much change, and while I don't waste it, I usually think of it as fairly expendable. Here, they have a pence coin, a two pence coin (tuppence, I finally understand that now), a five pence coin, a ten pence coin, a twenty pence coin, a fifty pence coin, a pound coin, and a two pound coin. The lowest denomination in a bill they have is five pounds. So if I want to carry anything less than the equivalent of about 9 or 10 US dollars, I'm carrying ALL change. I am learning very fast that coins aren't quite as expendable as they are in the US.

The American Revolution is pretty much a footnote in their history books. I learned in a conversation yesterday night that they barely learn about it at all. They just don't see it as important.

Norwich supposedly has "a church for every week and a pub for every day."

They love to queue. I don't know why. You see queues (lines) for the weirdest things. The other day there were queues about twenty people long for every ATM on campus.

They are a LOT more friendly to students. Almost every restaurant in Norwich has a student discount if you show them your student ID. Railfare and hostels are cheaper as well if you're a student. However, that is offset by the fact that almost everything is more expensive here. A "cheap" meal if you go out to eat is like 5 pounds, like ten dollars. Oy. It's pretty much a given that I'm not going to eat out much. However, the few times I have the food has been very good.

That's all I can think of for the moment. Just randomness.