Dusk Through Narrow Streets

I wasn’t surprised at all to see that the UK has a number of brands and kinds of cereal that aren’t sold in the US. A lot of things are like that–Lay’s potato chips are the most common in the US; here, Walker’s crisps take that distinction. What confuses me is finding stuff that is the same thing by the same brand, and…it looks different. Pringles cans do a little bit, but it’s the cereal that I find especially odd, because it looks…outdated. Like, they sell Kellogg Rice Krispies here, and it’s the same stuff, but it looks like packaging from ten years ago. I don’t have a picture of that, but here’s one of Bran Flakes that shows the same effect:

See what I mean? I don’t get it.

Well, that was lots of fun. I had two papers due at 3 p.m. today and didn’t start either until, like, midnight last night. Because I’d put off starting them so long, mostly, but also because I saw Fleet Foxes on Tuesday night and then Olafur Arnalds last night, and they were worth it, but wow, all-nighters suck. Less here than at home, I think, because I didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up every time I went to the kitchen for more tea or whatever, but my gosh…I’m such a zombie right now, you have no idea. (Well, maybe you do. It’s not much different from a red-eye flight, except possibly more annoying.) And my nose keeps running. Apparently not sleeping does that…? My nose always gets plugged on airplanes, which I thought had something to do with the air, but may it’s the lack of sleep in, you know, a normal prone position.

What really sucks is that, um, I only finished one of those essays. And then I had maybe an hour to squeeze the other in (yes, apparently it took me more than, like, 8 hours to write a single essay. It was kind of involved, okay, and required research, and also I kept distracting myself. As one does.), and…didn’t. So I guess I’ll just have to take marks off for it being late, botherbotherbother. It would also help if I’d even finished that one by now. I know. Hours later. When I really want to be in bed. It’s just so much easier to do other stuff because writing about Gulliver’s Travels is really not that interesting…

After skipping yesterday’s blog because of the all-nighter and the boring that was this one, I promise I’ll go back to more normal (i.e. interesting) topics tomorrow.

I used to think of Converses–or Chucks or whatever they are–as just skate shoes with stupid prices that kids with more money than sense bought because they thought it looked cool. Then I saw the Tenth Doctor wearing them and thought it was the most adorable thing ever, especially when he’d wear them with a tux. So by the time I saw Chuck wearing them in Chuck and Ned in Pushing Daisies, I had the firm idea that Converses were basically a kind of shoe that cute geeks wore–part of the geek chic look, I suppose, which Ten has definitely got going on. (Skaters and punks still wear them, but whatever.)

Apparently that’s only true in America, because here, they’re everywhere. Basically everyone wears them. That’s not a bad thing, of course–I’m all the more glad I brought my own pair, which I got for $17 at a Ross store in Pennsylvania, and I love them anyway and they look better than my other shoes, but even though I tend to pride myself on not needing to fit in, it is sort of nice to have some decent shoes similar to what a lot of people wear. But it also means that here, Converses aren’t confined to the geek-chic look, which means it’s slightly less special and cute that Ten wears them.

Yes, I do know I’m a dork and a pathetic fangirl, thanks.

I’ve said I know more British slang than most Americans because of Doctor Who and Harry Potter, and that’s true, but sometimes I get tripped up even when I recognize some turn of phrase from one of those fandoms. Right now the one I keep getting stuck on is “You all right?” It threw me a bit when I first came across it in Order of the Phoenix a couple years ago, although not too much because it was used maybe twice in a flashback scene. To, like, the 1970s. So I was surprised to discover that while the phrase is still in use—which is a little surprising by itself; “cool” is about the only slang word I can think of offhand with real staying power—it’s apparently not quite the same as that used by James Potter. People tend to say “You all right?” rather than just “All right?” for one, which strikes me as odd since such things tend to get shorter over time rather than longer, but for another, it sometimes means what it sounds like and sometimes it doesn’t.

A professor of mine, who’s Canadian, commented last week that it took her a while to figure out that when people say “You all right?” it’s just a greeting, not an actual question, and that’s fine as far as it goes—“What’s up?” is also often used as a greeting demanding no more response than “Hi” or something—but apparently this isn’t always true. Like “What’s up?” or “How’s it going?” or whatever, it can also be a perfectly legitimate question, and I’m apparently missing all the British social cues that let me distinguish which is which. I spent a long time (basically all of high school and the first year or so of college) giving an answer like “Nothing” whenever someone said “What’s up?” to me before finally figuring out it was just a greeting and didn’t require a real answer, and not wanting to look like a complete idiot here, I’ve been generally assuming that a “You all right?” directed at me can be answered by “Hi” or a smile and nod or whatever. Except that about 90% of the time the person asking it repeats the question and I realize they actually meant it. So…okay, then.

Well, it finally happened. I’ve said for a while that I’d like to be the sort of person who drinks tea, I’ve never had much patience for it–even when it smells good, it has almost no flavor or just enough to be bitter, and while I’ve tried to drink it more over the last several months and have got myself to tolerate it in certain varieties, I don’t know that I’ve ever really enjoyed it.

Well, this weekend I was in Great Yarmouth for the Christian Union house party, and I drank a lot of tea, and I know I’ve been fully converted because at one point I actually chose tea over hot chocolate when both were available. As one of the other students said, the British know how to do tea; it’s not even a drink, it’s a way of life. Which is true mostly because I now know why I’ve never liked tea: I’ve always had it straight and felt vaguely guilty if I put honey or something in it.  No no no. The way you do tea is with milk and sugar and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. That’s how I take my tea–with milk and sugar–and the fact that I now have a way to take my tea means I’m a tea drinker after all.

This weekend I’ll be in Great Yarmouth again for the Christian Union Houseparty, which marks the first time I’ll miss a day or more on this blog. $1 an entry is a good motivation to keep up with it. :p Annnd I have 45 minutes to finish packing and do a little homework, which is bad, but at least I’ve been doing homework while I’ve been packing and messing around on GaiaOnline: found a site that will read Pamela out loud to me. It is awful but at least I’m multitasking.

In other travel news, RyanAir had these £5 one-way deals that expired at midnight last night, of course, and I couldn’t decide fast enough. Although now they have a thing for £10 one-way to certain places on certain dates when Saturn is rising and…still, it’s a decent price, something like $40 round-trip into Europe somewhere. Which isn’t at all bad, since for a couple days the price of sleeping at a hostel and eating wouldn’t be much. Wandering around a foreign city alone is slightly more concerning.

ISS is doing a trip to Edinburgh, though, and while it’s £85, it does include travel, board at a B&B, and some food, and it would be with people. So I’ll probably do that.

A few days ago I was in Norwich, pausing outside a shop, and a guy in a long black coat brushed by me on his way down the street. I took a few seconds to ogle his coat, and as I did I realized that while I didn’t actually get a good look at his face, the coat and the peroxide-blond hair, as well as the slightly arrogant-looking stride, definitely made…Spike. I pretty much just stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and laughed. (Also, that Superman pose makes that the funniest photo I’ve seen all day.)

A day or two ago I passed this tall, skinny guy on campus, in a shirt and tie and all, and I kept looking at him, certain he reminded me of someone (I hope I didn’t wig him out), and finally I got it: he looked like Christopher Eccleston, not as Nine (too much hair, and not as Claude Raines for the same reason, and also not as the Rider which by the way is the only reason I want to see The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising), but as one of the roles where he plays–well, some emo skinny dude in a shirt and tie. And I know he does because I’ve seen pictures, I just haven’t seen whatever that role is so I have no idea who it is offhand.

Oh, and then Monday I had this Bible study at somebody’s rather weird house shared with several other people and at one point two of said other people came barrelling through our little area from the outside door, one of whom was wearing, like, a tiger-print man’s thong or something and a pink satiny bathrobe? And the other dude was in his shorts too? Look, I don’t even know, apparently crashing a Bible study and trying to shock Christians is fun. Anyway Mr. Tiger Thong looked an awful lot like creepy Eric from True Blood except…scruffier. And with longer hair. And less clothes. So…yeah.

There was one other more recently too but I can’t remember. >_<

Yes, I really do notice these things. I’m one of those tiresome people who goes crazy at the improper use of apostrophes (but really, anyone–especially anyone professional–who puts a sign up should really know they’re/their/there, you’re/your, and its/it’s…and there’s never any excuse for the atrocious “you’r”) and that sort of thing, which I was even before I worked as a copy editor for almost two years. I notice use of language in general, though, whenever and whatever I read, and I’m definitely noticing little linguistic quirks here in England.

One that’s struck me as particularly odd? A usage of “on” that’s apparently unique to British English, where Americans would be more likely to say “at”. And this shows up everywhere. “Call such-and-such on [number], or e-mail us on [address].” “No glass bottles, alcohol or dogs allowed on the park.” I don’t get it. I understand a bit more the “different to/different from” thing, because at least that makes some sense, but this usage of “on” just sort of puzzles me.

I did my laundry today for the second time while I’ve been here. I know, real exciting. It was actually even more annoying this time round because I had even more clothes to wash–it saves me money to use the laundrette as little as possible, since it’s £3 for a wash and 24 minutes in the drier (that does not look right at all), and I even bought myself some very cheap underwear and socks at Primark so I could go longer between washings. But it also means I have to stuff more into whatever to get it there and back (a rolling suitcase, this time) and stuff it even harder to get it all into a very small washing machine (why do the dryers have about three times the capacity of the washing machines?) and that can be annoying. Although none of the annoying compares to the fact that this concentrated liquid detergent stuff I’ve got…leaks horribly the second you put it in any position except completely vertical. I don’t know if something’s wrong with the cap or what but it got all over in the suitcase and was slimy and gross and then when I fished a plastic bag from the bin for it, it still leaked through or out of the bag and got all over the floor and seat, and so I fished out yet another bag and put the whole mess in there, and after bringing it back to my room I don’t even want to look in that bag because I can feel that the whole thing is all…squishy. Like, I’m guessing a fourth of that stupid bottle is now all over the bottle and bag. I’m probably not going to deal with it until I absolutely have to, which could be a while.

I already use a few British idioms in everyday speech, like “dodgy” and “shag” and the British use of “right” and that sort of thing, most of which I picked up from Harry Potter or Doctor Who or…well, the internet. Being surrounded by these sorts of colloquialisms in my fellow students’ daily language is just intensifying that; I’m finding myself picking it up even more, like their use of “bit” (Americans are more likely to say, for example, “I was a little upset” rather than “a bit upset”, or that someone’s “kind of an idiot” instead of “a bit of an idiot”), and saying “right” even more than I already did, and their use of “proper” (used as…”genuine,” I suppose, or some meanings of “normal” or “actual”–like, “It’s not a proper forest, just a few trees off the road”).

Some of that’s just natural osmosis, since I recognize in myself mannerisms from specific friends that I’ve picked up just from being around them–but then, I’m also a giant nerd when it comes to linguistic stuff (among other things, yeah) and more than a bit of an Anglophile, so I may well be picking up more than I would otherwise because I just like their linguistic quirks.

Of course, there are certain drawbacks to understanding a good part of British slang. I would rather have not understood it when somebody in the most recent Creative Writing Society workshop made a play on words with “skullduggery” and came out with “skullbuggery”. Because…ew. (He later clarified that the orifice in question was the ear, although that really doesn’t make it much better.)