All Things English

2 Pence Coins
*The English have 2 cent coins that are about the size of a quarter. I think they are worthless as far as money goes and way too big to carry around. On the other hand, I've been collecting them to use at work. They are so different from anything we have back home, I'm going to pretend they are pirate treasure and bury them on the playground. I have about 50 coins so far, but I sent an email out to the group for donations so we'll see how many I can get.

Creamy Mash
*Creamy mash is nothing more than mashed potatoes, but it sounds so much more fun to say, "I'd like the creamy mash please".

Toilets
*Back home if you need to use the bathroom, you'd say "bathroom" or "restroom" or (at work) "potty". They just say "toilet" here. At first it sounded really odd to say "where are the toilets?", but now I've gotten used to it and I'm pretty sure when I come back home I'm going to offend someone by using the word toilet instead of bathroom.

Lemonade or Sprite??
*The English call Sprite "lemonade". But they call lemonade "lemonade". I still don't get it. I never know if I'm ordering a sprite or a lemonade.

Toothbrushes
*I've always used a soft bristled toothbrush, so when I lost mine I thought I could just go buy a new one lickity split. Come to find out, they really don't sell anything less than a medium. There were tons of mediums, firms and extra firms. I'm not talking 20 brushes, this was an entire wall of brushes (hundreds!). I finally found 2 extra soft way at the bottom in the back and I took the last 2. There wasn't even a spot for soft.

The Date
*Probably the thing that has gotten me the most confused has been the date. Here, the day comes first, then the month and year. It helps to realize this when looking at expiration dates on food, and when writing down your birthday. I gave the hospital my wrong birthday. I still haven't quite gotten it down.

Nutella
*For weeks and weeks everyone was talking about Nutella. Nutella crapes in Paris, Nutella for breakfast in England. I know we have Nutella at home, but it's very popular here. Steve, my flatmate, was kind and evil enough to bring me a little packet of it. It is the most delicious thing I've ever had. It's chocolate hazelnutty goodness. I went out and bought a jar. I had to throw the jar away because I kept eating it. I've been 2 days Nutella free and it's been a rough 2 days.