Random Observations Part III

So soon I will post some pics and info about my slew of daytrips over the Gigantic Failure of Spring Break 2010. But first, I have had a list of Random Observations running in my head for a while now, so I'm going to jot those down first!

1. Adorable Language Use: So obviously, as the originator of our mother tongue, there are some fun/funny/delightful phrases and words I love to see and hear in use over here. While some of you with better vocabs may have heard some of this before, it was new to me and these things make me smile every time!

Alight: to depart? get off a train. As in "Please alight here for Leicester Square". I like this idea of 'alighting'. It sounds so, I don't know, sprite or something. Like you just hop off the train with little air in your step.

"Deal with": I find this in use often and it makes me laugh. Like, when you ATM at the bank, the little screen says "We are dealing with your request. Please hold" or 'We will deal with you next'. To me it just sounds funny, like "Crap, we have DEAL with you...again?"

Scheme: not a new word either, of course, but I love this too. Here they often use it in place of 'program' or something. Like, "The student travel card scheme provides students with discounted public transportation around London". I love that this sounds so...sneaky.

"Fell pregnant": this cracks me up when I see it in Hello! or OK! celebrity gossip mags (yes, the Brits are obsessed with stars and their babies as well). The phrasing here is "Yes, last year when I fell pregnant I gained a ton of weight" or something like that. I like 'fell pregnant' because it reminds me of 'falling ill' (I guess not too far off course, right?) but also it conjures up an image of a pregnant woman falling down. And we all know, of course, that watching people fall down is always funny. Which leads me to...

2. The British are obsessed with preventing people from falling down.
Obviously the 'mind the gap' is one of these moments. But I've started to notice that these types of things are everywhere. "Mind the stairs", "Mind your head" (saw that in a short doorway once), "Don't take the stairs if they are too hard for you", etc. etc. I also read this article once about how a street was turned into a pedestrian zone, and people in the area were FREAKING OUT because they were worried about people falling and tripping on the curbs! I guess this attention to detail and worry about people falling down is cute and polite, in a way. Yet oddly, no one in Britain seems to care much about running into you (which, yes, still happens to me pretty much every single day, no matter if I veer to the left or right...)

3. Let's prevent people from shopping.
So I love these little moments here and there when something over here flies in the face of good ol' fashioned capitalism. Case in point is the Tube station for Camden Market. Now Camden market is an awesome and crazy place--a mix of street market and real stores, many of the punk and goth variety. It gets really nuts on the weekends, gets super crowded with tons of shoppers. So I loved the fact that on Sundays, the Camden Market tube station CLOSES DOWN completely, because it's trying to prevent overcrowding. Like, can you imagine a mall in the USA literally turning you away (or blocking your car from the parking lot) because "Oh no, it's just too crowded in there"?) I mean, it's a MARKETPLACE for crying out loud. And yet, here are the Brits, trying to prevent to many people tripping on each other's toes and, probably, falling on curbs and into gaps.

4. No Standing O's...ever.
For all their politeness, the British just don't get too excited about anything, or heap too much praise. Case in point was my experience at the Boat Races that I mentioned earlier--for the biggest college sporting event of the year, by the end there was literally like a golf clap--and people were even drunk! It's amazing. Well anyway, I've gone to almost 20 plays here (yes, I know, I'm broke) and I swear I don't know what it takes, but the Brits will.not.give.a.standing.ovation. Like, EVER. I saw Mark Rylance in 'Jerusalem', an AMAZING play and wonderful performance, literally the DAY AFTER he won the equivalent of the Tony Award (its the Olivier Award here) for Best Actor. I was sure that there would be all kinds of clapping and big hurrah at the show I was at. I was absolutely riveted by his performance for over three hours, it was fantastic, and when it was done, I JUMPED off my chair for a standing O. If there was ever a worthy moment for one, this was it! I was sure I was not alone...until I looked around. Of course, everyone was nicely, politely clapping, nothing else. It left me feeling like Julia Roberts in that scene in Pretty Woman, when they're at the polo match and she's 'whoop whoop'ing Arsenio Hall-style. Yeah, that was me--and still IS me half the time because I've seen so many great shows!

5. If people aren't wearing fabulous boots or expensive leather shoes here, they are wearing Converse All-Stars. Now, I have had several pairs of Chuck's in my day and like them, but they are all over the place here. I'm coming to realize that London everyday fashion right now is so circa early 1990s...like Phoebe from Friends or something.

6. Okay, I don't mean to sound all un-PC or xenophobic or something, but seriously--do Spanish people (particularly young people) ALWAYS travel in packs? Like, seriously, at any given time at a major museum or landmark (or street, for that matter) in London, I'm constantly running into packs of Spanish speaking kids, probably around the age of my 'kids' here. What the hell? They are everywhere! Am I just running into the same group over and over again (maybe people are saying that about my group as well "Dammit! Why do I keep running into this group of loud American students that talk ALL the time and take up so much space?") Yeah, it's likely.

7. This last observation is not so much random as it is to be totally true: after three months in a smallish house, 18 college students start to want to kill each other. Which makes me want to plug my ears, sing "Mary had a little lamb" over and over, and go to my 'happy place'. (yes, I have started counting down the days--only about 14 more to go!)

Over the upcoming weekend I plan to post more about my day trips and some photos and whatnot. Til then, I'll continue to observe and report on this semi-weird place...which is becoming not so weird at all (just in time for me to leave, of course!)