For the love of z’s
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: culture, humor, nick names, UK, US
People pick up all sorts of things when they come to the UK on vacation. Usually it’s some cheap souvenir item like a miniature British phone booth or a tacky t-shirt with “I heart London” on it. Whatever it is, people always want something to remember their trip by. What never crossed my mind was that I might pick up was something I’ve never had before in my life…. More
UK – the world packing champions
22 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: America, culture, England, humor
There are some things we pick up in life without realizing and most of it is down to circumstance in my experience. Where you live will dictate a lot of what you know and more importantly, what you do not know. Ask your average Brit to wax a surfboard for instance and you’ll see what I mean. I was completely unaware of my Californian weaknesses until one day when I had a gig in another city with the band I was in …. More
Brits Abroad
11 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Holiday, humor, UK, USA
I’ve had the privelege of travelling a decent amount within the UK and have been to many obscure towns as well as the bigger cities and I’ve found one thing to be consistent in all of them. Drinking! Up and down the pubs and clubs of the UK on any given weekend night, you will find scores of people drinking far more than I previously thought possible and then some. There is no occasion needed for this and it almost seems like a ritual or some sort of training regime. The same way someone might commit to practicing an instrument, these jovial masses are conditioning their livers to handle more and more alcohol as the weekends pass. Well, if this is in fact a training regime, then it is logical that they are training for something. Enter the Great British holiday abroad….. More
Fun(ny) in the Sun
10 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
I’m a self confessed sun snob as I’ve stated previously. I grew up taking the sun for granted and enjoying all of it’s many benefits on a daily basis without ever knowing how fortunate I was. Subconsciously, I also learned how to dress for the sun. There was never any formal lesson given, but you get used to it and things like sun tan lotion, flip flops and shorts are all just a part of growing up. I never realised the value of such “knowledge” until I came to the UK and had the pleasure of enjoying a summer day in a park in central England. It is still a source of constant joy for me….. More
The British Pilgrimage
10 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: culture, Florida, humor, UK, USA
Being a good young Californian, I had to get my passport before I left and did minimal research on the UK. My parents had been there and said it was great, I’d seen Mary Poppins a number of times and my friend’s mother was English. All this was substantial in my mind and I felt I’d encountered the UK enough in my local travels to know they’re pretty much just like us but talk differently. I didn’t know how people in the UK perceived Americans but I hoped a few of them would have a “deep” understanding of my culture like I had of theirs. What I found was something far different… More
The Water Shed – 9pm
02 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: culture, humor, nudity, UK, USA, water shed
I knew that Europeans were liberal and I’d heard about the nudity on TV, but it wasn’t something that was foremost in my mind when I came over to the UK on a church course. I was thinking about books and learning and all sorts. Well, it didn’t take long to remember where I was and just how different TV was. On my course, we had people from the UK, the USA and also 3 different African countries. We were all up at a hotel in Halifax for a conference and decided to congregate in one room during some of the down time. It was the beginning of the year and the excitement of getting to know new people was still in the air. While in the room, one of the older students from Zambia took charge of the remote control and switched over to a station with some “questionable” content. Actually, there was no question about what was going on or what the people on the channel were doing. What WAS questionable about it was the fact that a bunch of church going Bible students were sat around together in the room to enjoy an evening together. I don’t think this is what people had in mind when they signed up for the course….. More
Can I have a dictionary please?
19 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: culture, humor, language, UK, USA
A very attractive thing about the UK to any young traveling American is that you can see Europe without having to struggle with a new language….or so I thought. I’ve already talked about accents and how difficult those are to understand. On top of having to wade through that, there are all sorts of words that Brits have that I’d never heard before let alone using the ones I knew in a different fashion. I happen to speak Spanish as I grew up in Southern California and during the days when I was using it a lot, I didn’t really have to think about what I wanted to say. I just open my mouth and spoke what went through my head. Now that I’m not using it as much, there is a lot more thought that goes into it as I have to think it in English in my head first and then work out how to say it in Spanish. This takes a few seconds and then I speak. Speaking both UK and USA English is exactly like this. If I call back to California, there are a lot of pauses while I select the correct alternative words in my head. Who knew that you really did need to learn another language to come to the UK?!!
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My Life as a Sun Snob
18 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: culture, humor, UK, USA, weather
I’ve learned more about myself from leaving my native land than I ever thought possible. It’s like I never knew what it meant to be a Californian or an American until I left. One such thing I learned was just how much I need to be out in the sun. I suppose the fact that I’d never been without the sun for any significant length of time and didn’t know such places existed also helped keep my sun secret. All my life in Southern California consisted of surprise each and every time it rained. I expected the sun each day and it almost never let me down! Weather reports?? Don’t really need those. I’m pretty sure the weather reporters on Southern California news stations get paid minimum wage. What’s easier than pointing to a five day forecast with all sun and reading a few numbers that stay relatively the same all year?! Well if they get paid minimum wage where I’m from, the UK news casters should make more than the president because that is beyond a full time job….. More
The Great British motorist
02 Jun 2011 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: driving, humor, UK, USA
I only had one encounter driving in my first year and it was probably the worst possible way to start. I had joined a band with what was to become one of my best friends and we had a gig in Loughborough which we needed transport for. No one’s car was big enough, so we managed to wrangle a mini bus through a church contact and I was the only one over 21 meaning I had to drive. I was also the only one there with a foreign license, but that didn’t seem to matter. I had a number of issues with driving in the UK with the main one being the lack of room on the roads. Who makes a road that’s not big enough for 2 cars to pass each other?!! That was just the beginning of my frustrations… More
You’re late!…For what?
19 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: humor, UK, USA, world war 2
I think it’s an obvious point that the UK is a lot older than America, but what’s less obvious to the travelling American is how much history still weighs on people’s minds here. On top of offending people with my unaware use of words (see previous blog) and ignorance to the English code of politeness, I was having to answer for lots! World War 2 seemed to be the one that kept coming up believe it or not! It wasn’t just once or five times either. There would be comments all through out the year from many different people about how we were late for the war and we just came for the good parts at the end to claim some of the glory. Absolutely out of left field for me because it was just something I read about in a book up until this point. Now I’m standing dumbfounded in a city that was actually bombed during the whole ordeal. More
