Yes, it has started to rain, finally... so I bought my wellies (no one says 'rainboots' here, because that would just be "proper daft"!).
.:What???:.I'm still settling in and adjusting to the cultural differences here. For example, I'm still putting on a puzzled face when someone asks me "Are you alright?" My initial reaction is "Yes, I'm fine; do I look worried? Am I bleeding?" I remembered later (despite the multiple times we were told at orientation) that this phrase simply means "How are you?"
In case you're wondering, yes, I am picking up some slang such as "chav", "proper", and "yob". And I fear that I'm already starting to absorb the word "brilliant!" into my vocabulary. What's worse, it seems that "awesome!", "oh, snap", "word" and "holla" are withering away. Don't think I'm not getting vengeance though... I caught one of my flat mates saying "dude" last week. Britain: 1, Raechel: 2
.:Jay-Walking is Legal Here... And it's the Preferred Form of Transportation:.Crossing the street is still nerve wrecking at some moments for me, despite having lived here for 3 weeks already. You have tons of one way streets and also plenty of two way streets. I end up looking both ways regardless, for fear of some maniac coming out of nowhere. Also, they drive on the OTHER side here, so double caution when looking to cross the street. Bigger shock here: pedestrians do not have the right of way. I'm accustomed to lazily crossing the street at my leisure knowing that most people will slow down or stop for me, especially at cross walks. There are crossings, but here is no such thing as drivers letting you pass! If anything, they will speed up if they see you (or so I feel) and get as close to you as possible without touching more than 3 hairs on the back of your neck. I do believe this is going to be an official sport in the near future.
I cross this just about every day:
.:Getting Around... and Around, and Around:.I've been blessed with something resembling a sense of direction, so I've managed to get my bearings around the Leeds university and city center/centre, but upon arrival, it was absolute madness. I've had a good friend of mine try to follow a street to get home... she was told later that she was going to be going in circles for a while... I imagine will happen to me soon. As explained to me by my flat mates, the roads are perfectly confusing because of the city's choice of preserving old buildings. Thus the roads are built around these landmarks that were originally erected with not the slightest consideration of a city grid. Leeds looks something like this:
If you actually care to know, it looks like
this. Notice how the street names change every 2-3 blocks. Yeah, try asking for directions now.
.:Queue Up!:.Apparently there have been studies of English people queueing up (lining up) for nothing. This makes me giggle... not that I don't sometimes get in a line hoping there's free stuff at the end... But anyways, the English are very anal about their queues (this isn't too much of a shock for me since we do have "lines" in the U.S... boy, don't we have lines... Disneyland is a prime example of paying about $90 to spend a day waiting). Fun fact: I have turned around in stores or on the street to see people lined up behind me waiting to get by (because I'm the American that is oblivious and in the way. Classic.).
That's going to be all for now! Feel free to leave any queries and curiosities in the comments section! I'll get to them ASAP! ;)
Cheerio/Toodle pip,
Raechel
