You know you're an American when...
- you're at the register at Tesco and you don't even think to bag your own groceries.
- you're in class and when the tutor asks you about American history, you have no idea when the Declaration of Independence was signed. or what it says.
- your concept of something being "old" is 100 years, give or take.
- the only college dorm situation you've ever known is living with roommates. the concept of all campus housing consisting of single rooms boggles your mind.
- when people hear you're from America, they're surprised when you say that you've never been to California, or Texas, as if it's in your own backyard.
- you're sitting on a bus talking with your (American) friends and everyone else on the bus turns to look at the foreigners.
- at dinner, your table is the loudest in the refectory.
- you go to pay with your credit (or debit) card and you stick it in the card reader and the cashier says, "oh, it doesn't have a chip, does it."
- you go to pay for a post card at the Millenium Stadium souvenir shop, and while digging through your coin purse for a 50p coin, the cashier says, "it's the big silver one."
- you don't know what 'A-levels' are.
- when discussing class with your friends, you keep saying "my professor- I mean, tutor--"
- you have a hard time getting used to the fact that the SU (student union) bar --the place where students hang out and tend to get drunk on the weekends-- is right across the hall from where you go to your psych class.
- you are 19 and you can legally drink alcohol, and that is abnormal.
- you don't know much about the EU.
- you can't bring yourself to say 'cheers' to the bus driver, because it sounds fake no matter what
- the country you're staying in is approximately the size of your home state.
- you don't know what 'black Friday' or 'rag week' is.
- you pronounce 'Reading' like 'reeding', not 'reding'; 'Leicester' like (well, how would you say it?), not 'lester'
- someone has to show you how to use the oven in the kitchen.
- you love the fact that when you buy something, you pay what the price sticker says-- no sales tax!
- you haven't seen an SUV in a while and you actually take note of this.
- when you go to cross the street, out of habit you step on to the street-- just the edge-- to look for traffic, but you almost get run over. and the car doesn't slow down!
- you think red telephone booths are so cute.
- people look at you funny when you say you say you're "going to school", not university.
- you crave chocolate or ice cream almost every day; fast food at least twice a week.
- your program director has to tell your friends that: a) you have to flip the little switch next to the power outlet so the red is showing or nothing will work b) their hairdryers have been blowing out because the voltage is different here.
- you call it an 'outlet' instead of a 'socket'
- your fellow group member, while on the bus from the airport, sees a gas station and says, "oh look, they have BP here!"
- you see the price sign at the gas station says "89.9" and you think that's cheap, but that's actually more expensive than back home.
- you're sore in the morning from walking so much
- 7.95 seems like a decent price for a meal... and then you remember the exchange rate.
more to come...
posted by Anna K @ 10:28 AM
1 Comments:
That's adorable. I can't wait for the rest! :)
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