The first tale

So let me start with my backstory. I met Ollie online in 2013. At the time I was working at a stable taking care of horses. We met online and then spoke non-stop on Skype until he came to meet me. London Heathrow all the way to Detroit Metro Airport.

I’m leaving out tons of details, but long story short we moved heaven and earth to be together after doing approximately one year of long distance. He had one year of his undergraduate degree left, so I had a plan. I would go to his same university and get my masters degree in film. I applied and a month letter I received my acceptance letter.

I’ve just finished my first semester of my masters degree. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but I like the academic world. My studies aren’t the hard part, actually. I find writing papers and analyzing texts (whether films or books) quite enjoyable. No, what the hardest aspect for me has been the change in culture.

Let me get the big one out of the way first. Food. My god is it different. You know what they call tuna salad here? Tuna mayo. Egg salad? You guessed it, Egg mayo. Oh, here’s another one that I never knew.  On sandwiches here, they spread butter on the bread before putting the meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato. But they don’t call it that. Anything on a sandwich or burger in this country is called “salad” but it’s not the salad we Americans know. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, food isn’t my primary concern when it comes to the British culture. Let’s move on to the kitchen aspect. In Britain, paper towel is known as kitchen paper. That’s not too bad, I can justify that one; it’s technically paper. Come to think of it, we use paper in the bathroom and call it toilet paper. However, let me move on to the stove, which is called a hob here. Again, subtle differences that don’t really impact the culture, more so the dialect. British English is much different than American English.

Now, this difference in culture is less tangible than the previous. The overall vibe that British people give off is extremely different to those Americans do. In America, I can go up to someone if I’m lost and they’d happily point me in the right direction (quite literally), however here you tend not to talk to strangers. However, I just go with the fact that I’m American, and therefore seen as stereotypically outgoing so I can go and ask for directions just fine. However, Ollie does not talk to strangers unless it is the last viable option, even if it means we walk 2 miles getting lost instead of asking someone where the train station is. Yes, I realize that some people say men have a hard time asking for directions.

This next cultural difference kind of irritates me. The drinking culture in this country is on another level than the American drinking culture. Here, people go to someone’s apartment to “pre drink” around 8 PM and then by midnight people are absolutely smashed and they head to one or two bars before finishing the night at a night club. Also, what the Brits call “fancy dress” happens here. Fancy dress is basically Halloween for a night out. It’s perfectly normal here to go as Winnie the Pooh if you’re heading to a pub for drinks with friends.

This one is my favorite because it’s so bizarre. There are more cultural differences, but I wanted to start with a couple to get this blog going. In this country, it’s common for girls, or women to put kisses at the end of a text. Women do that to other women, and sometimes even to guys. Now, as an American coming into this country, I was a bit surprised. I was wondering why the hell my boyfriend kept receiving “x” or “xx” at the end of texts (to represent kisses) from his female friends. In this country it is a must that if you receive kisses from someone in a text or email, etc then you must return the sentiment. If not, the person you’re texting might think you’re mad at them. Discussing this with a professor that’s from London, he was speaking of the kisses phenomenon and if he signed off with an email to our class with kisses, he would be seen as unprofessional, or even lose his job. My friend Jilly argued that she would not have probably seen the kisses at the end of the email due to being exposed to them for so long.

Until next time

 xx (see what I did there?)

Leah