Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Mind the Gap

This blog originate from sunny (sort of) England! I had two weeks of vacations so I decided to jump a cheap flight to the UK and see what's going on over here. I spent the first three days or so in Brighton with my friend Emrys from OU. He has a great place and the town was unbelievably entertaining. It's roughly the same size as Münster and is down on the southern coast right on the Channel. It's also a university town and there were lots of students out who had just arrived for the fall semester.

After three days in Brighton I was off to London! London is just simply amazing. It's so unbelievably HUGE! There's so much to see and do here that you can't possibly appreciate it all in a week. I'm staying with a friend of mine named Kamila who I met at OU when she was studying abroad there. She and her boyfriend, Carl, live in a borough called Herne Hill which is just south of the river. Only about a 10 minute train ride to the middle of the city which has been very convenient. I've visited lots of the interesting landmarks like Tower Bridge, the Tate, Camden street and Parliament. Kamila and Carl have been working all week so there hasn't been lots of time to hang out together but this weekend I think we'll be hitting the town.

I took lots of pictures of Brighton and London. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post them until I return from England because my internet connection doesn't seem to be strong enough. So, you'll see them as soon as I make it back to Deutschland.

Time for a new list.

Nuances of the British Accent

1. Most questions end in "then". Shall we take the Bus then? Were they Americans then?
2. The subway is the Underground or the Tube. If you ask where the subway is, they'll send you to a sandwich shop.
3. Fries are Chips. Chips are Crisps.
4. Cheers is the most useful of phrases. Cheers = Thanks, Cool, Good lookin out, Bye, See you later, etc. When in doubt use this word, you'll seem polite and friendly.
5. You alright? and You ok? are not used to figure out if something is wrong with you. Only to figure out how you're doing.
6. Bathrooms and Restrooms don't exist. They're all Loos or Laves.
7. Here I thought I was putting trash in the trash can, when I was actually putting rubbish in the rubbish bin. My bad.
8. It's always acceptable to swear.
9. Cigarettes are called fags. So if someone says that the room smells of fags, they're not being homophobic.
10. Mind the gap means watch out for that small space between the train and the platform. Very important.

1 comment:

Penny said...

OK You, now that I have an account to keep intouch with you, I am afraid you will be hearing from me often. Giggle.. Sounds like things are going well and the pics are cool. Hope you are doing well and things are as you expected. You sound very busy though. Well James is loving College and is staying very busy. As for Anthony, he is deeply into his powerline class and coming home very sore everyday. But I think this is his thing. So I will let you go for now and hope this finds you well. Take care and stay safe.
Love Ya
Aunt Penny