Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Tube and English Slang

Hello again! A new blog for a new adventure.

After completing our semester abroad in Paris last fall, we decided that the experience was beneficial enough to repeat. We returned to our families for a short break, with all the joys of Christmas and family time that we could possibly tuck in. Rachael completed an independent study on the poetry of Baudelaire and Katie worked as an intern at the UNC Press in Chapel Hill.

Why the title:
(Because Rachael yelled at me for not putting it up before) So these three ideas are very popular topics in Britain. Privacy (the "I" is pronounced as in "bit." explains their cool demeanor, especially on the Tube or around strangers. Many topics that Americans would view simply as news are private personal aspects of someone's life that are not appropriate to discuss with most people. Weather is a safe topic that they absolutely love to talk about; Sara, both of our homestays, five of the professors we met, the American counselor, and the walking tour guide--literally every British person we have spoken to longer than five seconds--has discussed the fact that this January is the wettest on record in the entire record keeping history of Britain. Apologies are something that is routinely offered, even if the person using it does not actually feel sorrow for their actions. The counselor described a time when a British woman said to her, "I'm so sorry, but you're standing on my foot." So these are aspects of London that stuck out to us as being very typical of this new place we're going to lives; thus the name.

On Saturday, the first of February, we flew out of Dulles together and arrived around 9 in the morning at Heathrow, deteriorated to the mental condition of zombies. Jetlag never gets easier. Customs took us a while, but we made it out with all of our bags and our nerves intact (although Rachael had a close call, they decided to quiz her on her whole life story--she's a suspicious character apparently). We found our taxi man bearing a placard that said Footland, and we figured that was us. He drove us out on a fairly long 40 minute trip to our homestays. They were not expecting us so early, but invited us in warmly and introduced themselves. They have three cats named Lilly who chooses her warm moments and hates her children, Blade who loves everything, and Chubby...who's name is self explanatory but who is also quite beautiful. They also have three people children, one of which continues his residence here at the abode. He's quite friendly and cheerful. He reminds us of a Megan brother. Tony and Sue our homestay parents are warm and receptive to the idea of allowing us space. Tony tried to convince us to stay awake with walks to the tube station of Highgate and down to Crouch End, a little main street area--very charming and English. There's a clock tower. We did nap intermittently although it was not on purpose for the most part. We had dinner with our family where they introduced to jacket potatoes, also known as baked potatoes in 'Merica. Later there were important decisions to be made about the shower and which one we would be choosing. It's quite a strange setup. In the hallway, there is one room with a shower and a sink, and then further along, there is another room with a toilet, and then directly next door is another room with all three. That night we slept in the near comatose way only sleep deprivation and time disorientation can create and it was glorious.

So far, we have successfully secured an Oyster card for the Tube, similar to a Navigo for our Paris folk and we have attended orientation meetings where they gave us lots of information and money and phones, all of which was appreciated. Rachael got a lemon phone, naturally, so we had to take care of that today. We did a walking tour of Bloomsbury and went out to dinner to celebrate Tali's birthday in a nice pub near our school. Tonight we met a few of our professors in a munchy appetizer mixer thing, which they referred to as a buffet. We have since learned that if you hear anyone ever refer to something as a buffet outside of America, it is never how we picture it. Rachael was skeptical from the beginning but Katie was hopeful as we are prone to being.

We are still getting our schedules down, but so far it looks like our classes will include a lot of exploration and cultural exposure, which will be a great and convenient opportunity to get to know the city in a secure environment. We are also starting to plan some affordable trips around the outside of London as well as our destination for Spring Break. Planning early is the key to happiness. Lots of excitement, some trepidation. Oh and Rachael has already managed to break herself. Her hip protests. So do the tube employees. But that's something we'll catch you up on later.

Ta for now!

Some more fun slang

Potato Jackets (n) = baked potato
Pants (n) = panties
Fanny (n) = the front or back of lady bits
*Fanny pack (n)= bumbag...this has greatly perplexed Brits. When they hear it, they think we're talking about tampons.
Diary (n)= planner
Trainers (n) = sneakers (but we were already familiar with this turn)
Bugger (n) = NOT a term of endearment or a word to use lightly. It is used as a naughty swear word.
Bin it (v)=  to throw something away
Duff (adj) = useless, garbage, etc.
banged up for nicking a car =  this phrase is completely different to the English. It means someone was arrested for stealing a car.
Spinning his smalls at the launderette =  washing his underpants at the laundry facilities.




No comments:

Post a Comment