Random Things about England

Here are some random things about England that are notably different than in America. I like to pick up on these cultural differences that I had no idea about until I got here.

-They don't have a sheet to cover up with. It's just a sheet to cover the mattress, and then a duvet (sp?) cover to put over a thick comforter type blanket. This was very confusing at first. In Edinburgh, I used the duvet cover as a sheet but thought it was weird that there were like 2 sheets glued together. I was also afraid to use the comforter they gave us, because it looked gross. Eventually learned that the double sheet was a duvet, and the comforter probably was gross but meant to be covered by a clean duvet.

-Bath mats. Paper squares about two feet by three feet to put on the floor instead of a rug.

-In America, on a walking path, you typically walk on the right side. We drive on the right side. Still figuring out if we should walk on the left side in England.

-Road Signs:
Give way=yield
Humps Ahead=Bumps Ahead ( I wonder if America is the only place that calls them bumps. They were called humps in Belize too )

-Wellies=Boots

-Cheers! = a commonly used parting comment that I think means, generally, "Have a good one"

-Obession with fire safety. The first week here, I noticed the large amount of green colored signs saying "fire assembly point" and "fire exit this way". Each place we go, they commnunicate over and over the fire exits and fire safety. We've also dealt with three fire alarms and evacuations--two in the flats at Edinburgh and one last night, at 3 AM, here at St. Deniol's library. Upon finding the room which made the alarms go off, which happened to be a room two from our team are staying in, the library peopel asked "We're you smoking??" to which they replied "No, we were sleeping!" to which the library people said, "Oh, another possibility is that a spider crawled in to the fire alarm." We were too tired at the time to speculate how the presence of a spider could set off fire alarms throughout the whole building.

-Obsession with their dogs. People take their dogs every where with them, and half of the articles in the daily paper are about "How to travel with your dog" and "England's Oldest Dog Dies". There are dogs tied up on their leashes outside the supermarket and other stores.