London <3

I am on my last few days in London...I am very very sad. So I wanted to look back at some of the things I love about London/British culture and some interesting observations. Here are some random bits...

First and foremost, I LOVE TEA. I love everything about tea now, especially going for proper British tea, which I will be doing one more time with Carly on Wednesday, April 22!! Mom and Dad don't freak out when I say this, but a proper China tea set is going to be one of the first things on my wedding gift registry. I might be permanently converted from coffee, I literally could drink tea all day.

London has NO trash cans due to the Irish bombing in the 1980s...you can hold onto an empty Starbucks cup for 30 minutes before finding a trash can, especially if are venturing around in train stations.

The Tube system is the best in the world, amazingly clean, prompt, and fast. The Brisih people that complain about it have never been to Boston. And every station has a prompter that tells you exactly when the next 2 or 3 trains will be coming.

The British really are crazy about soccer and rugby. And they think that the NLF is the biggest joke ever.

British Food:

-Digestive cookies are amazing

-They are really into "prawns", which are shrimp. Prawns and mayonnaise sandwiches are very popular...I tried it but I thought it was pretty bland

-Chinese food is not good here....and no one has heard of crab rangoon :-(

-I LOVE British pub culture!! I will really miss it.

-My new favorite drink is cider (except for vodka that is...)

-Starburst Choosers are like really big "gushers" (that snack we all use to eat in 4th grade) and I have never seen them in the states

-Starbusts use to be called "Opal Fuits" here, but the company changed it to Starbursts to align with the American version

-Cheesecake here is more creamy and mousse like...to get what Americans consider cheesecake you have to look for "baked Cheesecake" on menus

-They call peppers "chili"

English (BRITISH) Language and Phrases

- "learnt" is a word here and is different from "learned", which is also a word, i think...i still don't understand the difference between them

- they spell "center" like "centre"

-"You alright?" is a phrase for "how are you?". The first time someone greeted me with this phrase at my internship i paused, looked around, and said slowly "yes, is something wrong?" hahahaha! To me "you alright?" has an urgency to it that implies something terrible has happened.

- "Bob's your uncle", a phrase that means "look how easy it is". Example: To make pasta, simply boil water, put the pasta in the water, and Bob's your uncle!

-"have a think", really popular, just means to think about something, but think can be a noun here so I find it funny. Exmaple: "I am going to have a think about my presentation"

-"proper", means the same thing but it is heavily used here

-"Cheers", used as "thanks" or as a sign off in emails, similar to "regards". Of course it is used used in the same way anyone acquinted with the Silvers is aware of :-)

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London really is the best cit in the world. It is very similar to NYC I guess with its population, geographical size, diveristy, financial districts, shopping, different nieghborhoods (Soho, Kensington, Camdon, The City, Mayfair, Knightsbridge and more). But I guess, (sorry Jimmy) its proximity to Europe gives it a slight over NYC. It also just has a history that no city in America could ever have due to the States young age as a country.

I really will truely miss London. I can honestly say that I want to live here again sometime in my life. Maybe soon, when I am young and before I have a family, or maybe later in my old age for retirement. We will see....

But I know that I will definitely be coming back <3