Big <S> To England!

[Vudak]

Got back on Sunday, enjoyed myself to no end.  Stayed in Preston, pretty much a small college city.  Man.  Loved the view.

Anywho, for you Brits, here's the things I liked, the things I didn't like, and the things I don't understand:

Things I Liked

- Drinking age
- Those nifty crosswalks with the light bulbs telling motorists to stop.
- That Alan Patridge comedy show
- Your Mayo (even though it's Helmans, I swear  it's better than our US version!)
- Mayo on fries/"chips" (this should draw a good bash or two but it really is quite good)
- Fish & Chips
- Arcade Video Games that give cash prizes (and, coincidentally, are found EVERYWHERE).
- Your hospitality right from customs (It's shameful how easy it is for me to go there, and how much of a pain in the rump it is for you to come here)
- The color of the grass between Manchester airport and Preston.  Now I know, "the grass is always greener on the other side", buuuut....  That has to be a much different species then we have over here.  It was almost the color of pistachio icecream.  Wish I could plant it in my yard.
- The Full English Breakfast.  Damn good.  Damn, Damn good.

Things I Did Not Like

- How I was very nearly hit by a car every single night (ok, maybe this is partially my fault, but really, do you have to try so hard to hit me?)
- How every place I happened to go had a seperate faucet for hot and cold water.  I was playing hot potato trying to wash my hands (I've heard "modern" faucets exist but I failed to locate one).
- How incredibly hard it is to understand the "Scaucer?" accent.

Things I Do Not Understand

- How you have a 1 penny coin of comparable size to ours, yet also have a 2 pence coin of twice that size.  It just doesn't make sense to me and I would greatly appreciate it if someone could fill me in as to why it's set up that way.  There must be a reason.

Well, anyway, hope I didn't offend anyone, as these are just my observations from an admittedly short trip.  

All in all I have to say you have a really nice country, and very friendly and very reasonable people I'd have to say.  I had some pleasant conversations with the locals about topics such as Iraq and GW Bush.  These conversations didn't turn into shouting matches...  They were more intellectual then the ones that, I at least, have found here.

Two thumbs up!

[Furball]

Glad you liked it.

I know what you mean by the grass, its different here to the other countries i have been to, much finer and softer.  Might be the climate.

Yes scousers are hard to understand.  Not as hard as Geordies and strong scottish accents though.

As for the 1 pence and 2 pence pieces, i dont really know why they confuse you so much, anyway they are worthless 1 penny = £0.01 2 pence = £0.02.

Getting hit by every car?? i never have any problem, much bigger problem in rest of europe when people see you crossing the road they actually speed up (yes, french pedestrian crossings).  May be us driving on the other side of the road than what you are used to, so you do not look properly before crossing.

[thrila]

Scousers? Can't understand what they're saying half the time myself.  Saying that i can't understand several accents in the UK.  

Mayo on chips? eeeeugh!!

If someone has't visited i recommend watching "Little Britain" for an insight into British life.

[Curval]

How every place I happened to go had a seperate faucet for hot and cold water. I was playing hot potato trying to wash my hands (I've heard "modern" faucets exist but I failed to locate one).

Even I have a hard time understanding this and I actually own a sink that has this plumbing arrangement in our downstairs bathroom.

I have to be careful with the kids using that sink because they will turn the tap on and not think twice about it...it has already scolded me once or twice.

How I was very nearly hit by a car every single night (ok, maybe this is partially my fault, but really, do you have to try so hard to hit me?)

Someone wasn't:

a.  Using the crosswalks they like so much
b.  Looking right instead of left for oncoming cars.

[scout]

Originally posted by Vudak
- How every place I happened to go had a seperate faucet for hot and cold water.  I was playing hot potato trying to wash my hands (I've heard "modern" faucets exist but I failed to locate one).

You'll have to forgive them, they're still adjusting to the 'central heating' concept.

[straffo]

Originally posted by Furball
Getting hit by every car?? i never have any problem, much bigger problem in rest of europe when people see you crossing the road they actually speed up (yes, french pedestrian crossings).  May be us driving on the other side of the road than what you are used to, so you do not look properly before crossing.

Right ,it's legal,we even paint our kill tally on our car

[eagl]

Part of the pedestrian "issue" is that sidewalks were a bit of an afterthought in much of England, so if you even get a sidewalk at all, it may only have a 2 inch rise from the street and be a foot or two wide at most.  On some streets, the sidewalks are a formality because if a truck meets a car on those streets, both will end up on the curb as they pass, and at night the sidewalks are used for parking (2 wheels up on the sidewalk) so there is room for at least one car to pass down the street between the cars parked on both sides.

Once you figure it out and learn the signs to look out for (tire marks on grassy curbs is one clue), you find yourself adjusting to how things are here.

Parking is so bad here that Cambridge has a city ordinance that forbids new dwellings and apartment complexes to have room to park more than one vehicle per residence.  If you and your spouse both work in places that don't have bus or train service, or you don't live very near a bus stop or train station, you're going to have to either break the law or be more creative getting to work.  Complaining about it earns strange looks because a household with 2 working adults is apparently not normal.  My landlady told me that she simply can't understand why a family could possibly need 2 cars, and that's pretty much the standard answer.

A friend of mine recently got cut off on the A14 and when he swerved to avoid the collision, he hit a 2 ft high concrete post cleverly hidden a couple of feet off the road in some high grass.  His car flipped a few times but he survived.  He climbed out next to the still smoking wreckage and watched traffic pass by without a single car stopping for exactly 33 minutes, even though the rubbernecking caused traffic to back up for over a mile.  A cop finally showed up after all that time.  If their injuries had been severe they'd probably be dead because I guess it's part of the british stocism to leave the wounded where they lie until "somebody else" takes care of them.  It's a wonder anyone bothered to call in the accident.

The only other time I saw an accident on that stretch of highway, there was a wreck between 2 brits and the only cars stopped to help were driven by US military members from either Lakenheath or Mildenhall.  It's just a bit odd living in a country where helping others at an accident is seen as something only strange foreigners do.  Maybe it's just here and not something prevalent around the rest of the country, but I've seen and heard too many incidents to think it's an isolated thing.

A lady near here got hit by a transit bus that went up on the sidewalk to get her, and no witnesses would come forth and the bus drove off.  

A serviceman wrecked his car on the way home from work at night, and he and his car sat wrecked on the side of the road until another serviceman driving home saw it.

The grass really is green here and the countryside is gorgeous, but if you get in serious trouble you're screwed.  There are plenty of Brits that will stop if you're changing a tire but if your car is upside down with you lying halfway out the window bleeding, you might as well get comfortable like that because it could be a while before anyone bothers to help.  Even calling the police and reporting it may not occur because it's illegal to use a cellphone while driving and they don't want to stop because that means they have to get involved, so they don't even call it in.  Maybe it's only like that in east anglia, suffolk, and cambs, but that's where I live and work and that's what I've seen.

Damn... you got me started and just look what happened.

[thrila]

Eagl it seems to be the thing to do in England.  No idea why.  I was pretty shocked when i read this a couple of months ago.   No problems with curbs in Plymouth, it was flattened in ww2- lotsa ugly 1950's concrete buildings instead though

[Kev367th]

How you have a 1 penny coin of comparable size to ours, yet also have a 2 pence coin of twice that size. It just doesn't make sense to me and I would greatly appreciate it if someone could fill me in as to why it's set up that way. There must be a reason.

As opposed to having a 10 cent coin that is smaller than a 5 cent one!!!!!
Whose doesn't make sense?

- How I was very nearly hit by a car every single night (ok, maybe this is partially my fault, but really, do you have to try so hard to hit me?)

Lol, had the same prob when I 1st moved moved to the US.

US
Things I like-
Lifestyle.
Most goods so much cheaper than UK.
Buffalo Wings

Things I dislike-
The urine, oops I mean what passes for beer:) .

Thing I don't understand-
California

Last time I had two thumbs up the doctor hadn't even warmed them.