Shock and Confusion. And Potatoes.

I am in ENGLAND!!
I live here now. It's awesome. I love it. And no, they don't drink tea on the daily. I moved here two weeks and one day ago and although it's better than I ever imagined, there are some things that not even Rick Steves could have prepared me for. That's right. The dweeb travel god left a LOT out.

Oh Rick, what has become of you?

For example, while he pranced around London, searching for the Queen and such, he never mentioned that there are no water fountains in this country. Not once! Or that their paper towels are BLUE! Why?! Why Steve? Perhaps he feels that bathroom facilities are not important enough to discuss in his high quality programs. Fine, I'll give him that. But he could have at least warned me that Diet Coke here actually has calories. What if I was diabetic? These things are important.

Even the vacuums are different!

Obviously, I have been experiencing a lot of culture shock. Everything here is just different enough from America to make it very confusing. I could go on but I won't because I just don't have that long of an attention span. And neither do you, I'm sure. BUT I will tell you one story.

Perhaps my favorite example of culture shock so far is this:
Two boys (men, guys, bros, I don't know. Males.) rang our doorbell around 11:30.
My dear roommate Jessica answered the door.
One asked "Can we take a wee?"
To which Jessica responded "I don't think anyone here has one"

Apparently, "take a wee" means "use the restroom", but dear Jessica thought that these boys wanted to take away a wii. And she's so kind that she didn't question it. She didn't think about their motives, or whether they would bring the wii back or how they knew that we had a wii. She was just concerned that we had no wii to offer. Bless her heart.

This is the love of my life. Aka my roommate Jessica.

Maisey and I using the American Face at the bus station.

In order to cope with this, I pull the American Face. This is a combo of confusion, apology and (I hope) a certain kind of charm. With this face I have accomplished many things. I use it daily in the dining hall when I stare at the many potato concoctions that the Brits have come up with and wonder "what is this disgusting mess?"And use it when I get lost. Which, coincidentally, is also a daily occurrence.