Culture Shock

When I first told people that I was studying abroad in England, everyone commented that at least they speak English and that there wouldn't really be much of a transition. But, there's been a lot of differences, some subtle, and some not so subtle that I've become accustomed to living here...

-you get called love and/or sweetheart a lot more here, which I like, but it's not really meant to be cute, just part of their vocabulary

-the price you see is the price you pay. They have a VAT [value added tax] that's already included in the prices. So, when you see 5.99, you pay 5.99

-there's no tipping involved, unless you're at a nice restaurant perhaps. Most of the time, when you go to a pub or the like, you go up to the bar, order, and pay right then. They bring your food to you but you don't necessarily get service like you would at American restaurants. Also, water refills tend to be less common.

-to catch the bus, you often have to signal to them that you'd like them to stop at the busstop. Then, when you want to get off, you press a little buzzer. Buses aren't always on schedule either.

-there's not many, if any, vegetarian options

-you have to bag your own groceries at most places...Ikea style

-our version of Lay's potato chips = Walker's potato chips here. They have flavors like, cheese & onion, prawn cocktail [which is more of a vinegar type flavor], roast chicken...etc.

-cars have the right of way despite there being so many pedestrians. Pedestrians tend to cross whenever they feel like it, despite what the cross signals say.

-stoves are called hobs and microwaves and ovens tend to be a lot smaller versus American ones

-you generally have to call a cab in advance. It's not safe to just flag down a cab so no one does it.

-you only pay for calls and texts that you send out, not incoming ones

-chips = crisps, fries = chips, cookies = biscuits

and those are just a few of the differences. Some of them I had heard about before I came out but most of these were small bits of culture shock for me. Although I've gotten used to most of them- except the food [in terms of hardly any veggie options and the roast chicken chips]. I think next time I go to the grocery, roast chicken crisps will be on my list.

xx