Cultural Differences #3

1) Food. Well, buying groceries, really. At home, we go grocery shopping about once a week. Some weeks, not at all. Things don't expire as quickly, and they're sold in bulk. But here, expiration dates are within a few days for a lot of things, and they're sold in smaller amounts. Families usually go shopping two or three times a week. Which is actually kind of cool; fresh is the the thing here, and that's nice.

Another lovely things is how prevalent lamb meat is. At home it's not very common, but lamb here costs about the same as pork. It's still a bit more expensive, but not by much, and the area of the meat section devoted to it is about the same size as pork or beef. It's really nice because it means I can have more variety in my meat for not too much money. Rabbit, however, is just as elusive as ever. 

The thing about food here that made me happiest is nectarines. People here eat them the way we eat, I dunno, apples or oranges. And they're cheap! You can buy a four pack of nectarines (yup, a four pack) for one pound. It's great. I have taken to cutting my nectarines into little slices and putting them into a frying pan with butter and cinnamon. Occasionally I drizzle a little nutella on top. It's delicious and takes about 3 minutes to make. 

Quick fact: baking mixes don't seem to exist. Which is OK except when all you want is two biscuits to go with your tomato soup. Then it's a bit of a bummer. 

Lastly, instant coffee seems to be the only kind you can buy. Non-instant is called "proper coffee". But in the store, instant is just about all there is. The first few weeks we had some really crappy Maxwell House instant and it was bad. Fortunately we figured out which brand is the good stuff (Kenco, if you're curious), and it's actually quite tasty. 

2) Window screens. Or rather, the lack thereof. There are screens on every window that opens in the US. I haven't seen a single window screen here. It was a little worrying at first, because we were concerned about bugs, but we haven't had any problems of that nature yet. But apparently one flat in some year past had a bird fly in the window...here's hoping that doesn't happen this year. 

3) Smoking. Everyone smokes. It's a little gross actually. I mean, not in restaurants or the tube, but on the street and outside of buildings that you're entering, and outside the flats...I do kind of miss the American attitude towards smoking. 

I'll concede that when we've gone on our day trips to smaller cities, there is a lot less smoking. So it might just be a big city thing. Either way, it's a little gross. 

4) Double decker busses actually exist. Not just for tourists. They're the most common bus type on public transport. It's always a little exciting when stereotypes turn out to be true. 

5) On the subject of transportation... getting used to the wrong side of the road thing was a little weird, mostly when it comes to cross the street, but after a few weeks it was normal. What I can't get used to is the steering wheels being on what we think of as the passenger side of the car. I frequently panic when I see a car driving down the road and there's no one on the driver's side. It usually goes along the lines of "OH MY GOD. THAT CAR IS DRIVING ITSELF! OH MY GOD! THERE'S NO DRIVER!! IT'S GOING TO VEER OUT OF CONTROL!! AHHHHH!" And then I spot the person on the other side and remember and feel silly. 

More will come! There are a lot of weird things here :)