British Greetings and a Poll

"Are you alright?"
"Alright?"
" Are ya'right?"
"Ya'right?"

"You alright, love?"

The first time a stranger asked me "are you alright?" it was the first day I was in the UK. I was in Birmingham, England with Ollie. I had arrived around dinner time and we decided to stay at a Holiday Inn Express rather than take the 3.5 hour train that same night. It was 4 am England time, 11 pm Detroit time and I was very jet lagged. I was headed to the lobby to ask if the hotel restaurant had any coffee I could drink and before I could say anything he asked me "are you alright?" I had heard Ollie ask his previous housemates this question before. I knew how to answer. However in that moment the appropriate reaction escaped me and it left me staring at him like a deer in headlights, stuck in my tracks. Eventually I just ignored the question, and enquired about the coffee.

It became more and more frequent, this greeting. It's a very informal way of British people saying "what's up?" The are a couple ways to respond to this. I usually stick with "yeah, you?" Sometimes instead some people will respond with "alright." In American English?
Are you alright? = Sup
Yeah, you? = hey man, what's up

Because if you think about it, a lot of times someone will come up to you and say what's up? and then one of the responses is "sup" which is also slang for what's up. I love these cultural differences!

Oh, and in the UK it's completely normal for (well, normal for them at least) men to call other men, women and children "love." The first time I was in the UK I watched a 14 year old girl at a chip shop say "thanks, love" to the 50+ aged store owner after handing her a fork like it was perfectly normal. I never experienced that until I started going to my university's cafe for coffee on Thursdays and this guy with a really London-y accent who works at the coffee bar looked at me and said "good morning, love, you a'right?" Then I saw him again and he called me love after asking me "what can I get you?" Hearing it hasn't become commonplace, but I may get used to it. I just think it's weird to call people you don't know terms of endearment.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been quite busy. Today I took grandpa to two doctors appointments and to the bank. He was very grateful We got to go to my favorite Grosse Pointe restaurant, Side Street Diner. While there we got to see Stacey, who was our regular waitress back when I lived in GP. She's very sweet and isn't afraid to sass grandpa back when he's a grump. However I've noticed that since my grandpa's heart attack he seems a lot less grumpy and more easy going. He's always been a sweetheart to me though.

My dad and Wendy come home tomorrow and I will no longer be having sleepover parties with Sailor. However I will get to see my dad and Wendy and it's always fun hanging out with all three of them.

I wanted to try something new this time; a poll. I just want to start out with something random.

POLL, clicky

Results :)

Thanks for reading <3