You Say Tomato...

It’s really hard to believe a month has gone by since I arrived here in Manchester!  In some ways it feels like I’ve been here longer than that, in other ways that I just got here.  In any event, I’m on a plane tomorrow back to the States – for a wedding.  It will be a whirlwind for sure, but I’m looking forward to a little mid-term break.  I certainly feels like I’ve been in school for more than 3 weeks!  I’m ready for a breather! 

So just a quick entry to pass a long some observations I’ve made in the first month here.  Did you know in England a Daschund is not nicknamed a "weiner dog", but a "sausage dog?" 

 Well now you do.  Anyway, here are some more observations I've recently made, in no particular order…

THINGS THE ENGLISH AREN’T BIG ON

~Drinking Water Fountains. 

I’m not sure why this bugs me so much, but it does.  Maybe because I’m on a budget and trying not to spend a stupid amount of money on bottled water during the day, but it would be so much easier if I could just refill a bottle every now and then from somewhere other than a public bathroom tap.  Two things – first, I’m still a bit in SEAsia mode, I suppose, where tap water is highly suspect.  Even in LA I rarely drank straight from the tap and filtered my water.  The other, I was told that drinking fountains are seen as, well, sort of gross.  I guess I see that, but how is it less gross than filling up in the bathroom of the library?  Which is apparently ok because I see people do it all the time.  Sigh.  I guess I will never know. 

 

~Reusable Drinking Apparatuses.

This is related to lack of water fountains.  Like travel mugs and reusable water bottles.  Maybe I’m not looking in the right place but I swear I have yet to see one other than the thermos I bought from IKEA – which is meant more for picnics and serves at least 5 cups of coffee – not exactly user-friendly in a lecture room.  I need a regular plastic travel mug.  Can’t find one.  I even asked an English girl in my class and the only place she could think of was Starbucks.  And those 15pound mugs aren’t exactly in my budget. 

~Clothes Dryers. 

Now, I got used to never having a washing machine and dryer in my apartments over the years – not a problem, though, as I always had a car and there was always a Laundromat nearby.  I got to actually like taking my clothes and a book and having a reason to stay put and chill out while my clothes dried.  Here, however, nearly every flat has a washer – great!! – but NO dryer.  What.  Is. The. Point.  We seriously have clothes hanging all over the house.  It’s not like you can hang your clothes outside to dry on a line on a regular basis as it is nearly always raining, so the clothes dry inside.  Fine for, say, cotton underwear, towels, maybe sheets (although I like a good fabric softener and dryer sheet on my linens, thank you very much), but what about, like, my clothes?  I’m sorry but some things just do not dry well hanging over a radiator, like shirts and pants and, well, pretty much all of my clothes.  Anyway, also, I don’t have a car and the only laundry place I’ve found has been apparently shut down for not complying with city regulations, or so says the sign on the door, and will reopen at an indeterminate date.  So I haven’t really done any laundry in a month.

~One Stop Supercenters. 

I will agree that this is probably a predominately American thing and not necessarily a good thing if you tend towards the anti-Capitalist realm, however, do not take that Target or that Wal-Mart for granted, people.  When they  don’t exist, life becomes that much more difficult.  All I want is a place to buy everything I need all at once and for not a lot of money.  Is that so hard?  Here you have to go to SEPARATE places for Food, Toiletries, Household Items (don’t even get me started – Still haven’t found regular plastic storage bins anywhere), Clothes and Office Supplies.  It’s exhausting.

~The Righthand Side

We all know they drive on the left here, which I have more or less gotten used to and have learned to look left before right when crossing the street (harder than you might think!).  But this also applies to sidewalks and stairwells, which can be very disorienting.  I am constantly bumping into people down stairs, walking down the street, etc. and it’s even more difficult around campus because not everyone is English, so it’s basically chaos on the street – constantly dancing with strangers to get around them. 

Just sayin'

~Giving Pedestrians the Right of Way.

Should be self-explanatory.  I need to learn my lesson soon or I’m going to get hit by a speeding black cab. 

~SUVs

Besides the odd Range Rover, they are nowhere to be seen.  Probably a good thing.  Also, I suppose if a VW Golf rather than an Explorer hits me I’d have a better chance of surviving.

~Separating Church and State.

Whoa!  Didn’t think I’d go there, didya?  Anyway, just an observation – did you know that the British Government funds the Church of England?  Maybe you did – it seems obvious to me now that I know, but I guess I never gave it any thought.  Also, I listen to BBC4 in the mornings on the radio (think NPR but British, and no cool music) and they have basically a bible lesson each morning at 28 past the hour.  It’s called a “Thought of the Day” but it always references the Bible and has a moral ending.  I’m not really bothered by this but I find it funny that America gets this bad wrap for being so Fundamentalist, but at least we don’t have NBC reading to us from 1^st Corinthians while delivering the evening news.   And for the record, the government does not fund any Catholic churches, temples, mosques or any other sorts of religious institutions.  Anywho….

~Welfare Reform

It’s a big deal right now.  The coalition government, in order to keep Britain from falling into financial oblivion like Greece and other EU countries, they are attempting to reform the welfare system – one way being to remove the current child benefit that many people receive.  They are removing it from people who make over 40,000GBP per year.  Now, to me, it seems silly that people making that much money (nearing $70,000) need a benefit from the state, but apparently these people say they do and everyone is all up in arms about it.  Also, they are going to start requiring people on disability insurance to actually prove that they are disabled.  Again, seems like that’s something they should have already been doing, but again, people are all up in arms and calling for a Marxist Revolution (at least fliers on campus are!).  So we’ll see. 

~Soy Milk

Can’t find it.  I found a “Soya” brand milk, which is something like a cousin of soymilk, but it’s no Silk, let me tell you.  My cereal experience has been sorely lacking in the mornings. Also, milk only comes in small containers.  Not a gallon to be seen anywhere.

~Whole Bean Roast Coffee That You Make in a Drip Coffee Maker (also hard to come by).

I mean.  Do I even have to explain why this is frustrating?  Just as I don’t have it in my budget to spring for a $30 Starbucks Mug, I also can’t afford actual Starbucks every day.  So, and my mother would just die if she had to endure this, I actually have been drinking instant, powdered, individually packaged cappuccino.  I boil water in the tea pot (which is electric and very fast – no tea-drinking problems here) and then gag down the frothy mess of an excuse for coffee.  I found a coffee maker in a shop in the city center, but I didn’t buy it because I mistakenly thought I could shop around for one.  Not so much.  Also, there’s not much choice in the shop besides the instant kind.  Gah.  I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately…

Now, I don’t want this to seem like a bunch of complaining (other than the coffee thing.  Seriously.)  Truly some of these may be minor annoyances, but they are mostly just observations I’ve found interesting.  And am having to adjust to.   Today in one lecture we were discussing Organic Solidarity, which is the theory of why humans stick together still, in communities, even though we have become technologically advanced enough to go our own ways if we wanted to.  The main reason is because we have become so specialized in our skills that we simply can’t do certain things that we need others to do for us.  For example, I cannot perform surgery, build a house or breed dairy cows (shocking!  I know!) I need other people to do these things for me in case I am sick, need a place to live and switch to cow’s milk in my cereal.  Anyway, the professor was making this point and happened to say something like, “most people can’t build a house or even do what may have once been fairly common work around the house – we can change a light bulb, but for some that might even be the extent to our household maintenance abilities. “  And I had to laugh because it took me a WEEK to find the right light bulbs for my new lamps in my bedroom.  A Week.  They’re different over here and it is confusing and there’s only one shop and I probably bought 6 different kinds before finally taking my lamp in and having him show me the bulb I needed.  Ha.

Ok, that’s enough for me.  I’m off to Phoenix for some sun and heat and an awfully long flight to and from, but also most definitely a rockin’ good time with my girls!  Much needed!