One Week Down

The return to Mary Washington is the true test of the side effects of studying abroad. 5 quick points for the week.

- Do not take Italian 101 and 102 with a nine month gap in between.

- American courses are more focused on reviewing material.

- One way streets are not any easier to navigate on a grid system as opposed to whatever way England lays out their roadways.

- While American drivers are more aggressive, they're also more cautious.

- While picking classes back up is fairly easy, re-integrating into social life on campus is a bit more of a process.

Reverse Culture Shock

There comes a time in every blogger's career when they find themselves opening at least one post with the general sentiment "I am a horrible blogger."

Today I join their ranks.

To be fair, it has been over a month since I last posted. I've even been back in the States for an entire week.

Which brings me to a much anticipated discussion of reverse culture shock. Mine actually hasn't been that bad, but I also haven't been out and about a ton.

Being back on the right side of the road didn't phase me a bit--I was convinced I'd look the wrong way while crossing the street and nearly get run over. Actually driving, however, is an adjustment. I already miss being able to walk everywhere.

The money looks fake, although I do appreciate it fitting properly in my wallet. The 20 pound notes always got bent in the strangest ways. What's worse, though, is the feel of the money. Americans must use bills more often and fold their bills more because American cash feels so worn while all the British notes I handled felt crisper.

The accent change hasn't phased me the way I thought it would. In the UK, whenever I met a new person with an American accent, it really weirded me out--I guess I came to expect strangers to be British. Once I was back on this side of the pond, though, it seemed perfectly normal.

There should be plenty more to come, but that covers the basics for now.

Accents

Our first week in the UK, several people continuously commented that hearing British accents everywhere really threw them for a loop. The other student interning with me at Footprint Publishing still has a little difficulty understanding our supervisor's Scottish accent. I, on the other hand, barely even noticed.

Either I'm very adaptable or I watch entirely too much Doctor Who.

Or maybe the mid-Atlantic accent I'm used to isn't as noticeably different from British as other American dialects. Over the weekends, I've had multiple people, both British and other Europeans, tell me that I don't sound that different. (I suspect, however, that such comments are fueled by high noise level and...other environmental factors.)

But lo and behold! There is an honest soul out there:

Stranger: "All Americans sound the same to me."

Me: "What? Loud and brash?"

Stranger: "Yeah, pretty much."

Me: "...Yeah, that's actually about right."

I have never felt so noisy in my entire life.

Going Metric

Time in England: about 12 hours

Time in Bath: about 4 hours

Time with working internet: about 30 minutes

But that's not what we're really talking about right now.

Because as we were loading our luggage onto the bus to Bath, the driver asked Sarah (my traveling companion and flatmate) how much her suitcase weighed.

"50 pounds."

"Oi, what's pounds then? Pounds is money!"

And I realized I have to start thinking in metric.

Fortunately, I've been familiar with the following handy guide for quite some time:

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

Finally. Mindless surfing on xkcd is completely useful and therefore completely justifiable.