Special treatment
After class was over at noon, I had leftover chicken cassarole for lunch and then I took a nap for a few hours -- I hadn't gotten a nap for a long time, and I was so exhausted. Everything has just been go, go, go and I've lost so much sleep because I don't want to miss anything!
All of the students here are in a Great Britain class, and today was our first meeting from 4:00-6:30 pm. A British woman came and spoke to us about the differences between the American and British cultures, and she kept us laughing the whole time :) There really are some big stereotypes about both cultures, but they come from the truth! She also talked about culture shock, and how to adjust better to living in England. I got a little bored during the class, and ended up video-taping some of it with my digital camera, haha. So now I can listen to an English accent whenever I want!
Jennifer, Courtney, and Sarah - bored during class:
For dinner, Courtney and I really wanted to go back to Pizza Express, since we had such a great time last time. We took Sarah and Jennifer with us this time, and we hoped Pete would be our waiter again :). Well, Pete wasn't our waiter but we had another waiter who was really nice. The only thing that really bugs me about restaurants here is that they really take their time waiting on their customers. In the States, the waiters want good tips so they keep checking on you as often as they can. Here, they don't really care how big their tip is - any extra money is appreciated. Every time we've gone out to eat, we've spent about 2 hours at the restaurant, even if it's just 2 of us!
We ordered 2 pizzas to split among the 4 of us. When it finally came, each pizza was cut into 8 slices! We knew this was unusual and that people here don't cut their pizza. Looking around the restaurant, everyone else had 1 pizza to themselves and they were eating it with a fork and knife. We asked the waiter, "Do you normally cut the pizzas?" and he smiled and said, "No, special treatment." He also put lots of ice in our water, and people here don't put ice in their drinks. Courtney and Jennifer loved this royal American treatment, but it made me and Sarah feel uncomfortable. We had a long conversation over dinner about blending in with society and experiencing the true culture here.
After getting back to the house, I budgeted my money for the rest of the semester. I realized I have the perfect amount of money for these next few months, and enough extra to be flexible. I felt so much better after doing this, and I went to sleep with a load off my mind.
All of the students here are in a Great Britain class, and today was our first meeting from 4:00-6:30 pm. A British woman came and spoke to us about the differences between the American and British cultures, and she kept us laughing the whole time :) There really are some big stereotypes about both cultures, but they come from the truth! She also talked about culture shock, and how to adjust better to living in England. I got a little bored during the class, and ended up video-taping some of it with my digital camera, haha. So now I can listen to an English accent whenever I want!
Jennifer, Courtney, and Sarah - bored during class:
For dinner, Courtney and I really wanted to go back to Pizza Express, since we had such a great time last time. We took Sarah and Jennifer with us this time, and we hoped Pete would be our waiter again :). Well, Pete wasn't our waiter but we had another waiter who was really nice. The only thing that really bugs me about restaurants here is that they really take their time waiting on their customers. In the States, the waiters want good tips so they keep checking on you as often as they can. Here, they don't really care how big their tip is - any extra money is appreciated. Every time we've gone out to eat, we've spent about 2 hours at the restaurant, even if it's just 2 of us!
We ordered 2 pizzas to split among the 4 of us. When it finally came, each pizza was cut into 8 slices! We knew this was unusual and that people here don't cut their pizza. Looking around the restaurant, everyone else had 1 pizza to themselves and they were eating it with a fork and knife. We asked the waiter, "Do you normally cut the pizzas?" and he smiled and said, "No, special treatment." He also put lots of ice in our water, and people here don't put ice in their drinks. Courtney and Jennifer loved this royal American treatment, but it made me and Sarah feel uncomfortable. We had a long conversation over dinner about blending in with society and experiencing the true culture here.
After getting back to the house, I budgeted my money for the rest of the semester. I realized I have the perfect amount of money for these next few months, and enough extra to be flexible. I felt so much better after doing this, and I went to sleep with a load off my mind.
posted by Lisa @ 1:16 PM
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