First Impressions

I apologize I didn't write anything last week, whenever Jason is home it is never quiet. In fact, there is usually something noisy in every room. The TV is always on in the living room, and either the radio or the iPod dock is usually on in the kitchen or the bathroom and there is usually a King of Queens DVD playing in the bedroom. It makes it hard to sit down and write something with so many distractions everywhere. During the week when he is gone, there are days where I don't turn on the TV all day. More often than not its pretty quiet around here when its just me.

The one very good thing Jason and I did while he was home was nail down the details for my parents' visit coming up in April. I am really excited because my parents have never visited England before and don't know anything about where I live. I have been trying this week to remember my first impressions when I arrived in Britain, and here are just a few I remember...

"Wow, its hillier than I thought."

This was the first thing I thought. It was customarily a very cloudy day when my plane was landing in Manchester and the first thing I noticed when my plane descended under the clouds was how hilly the terrain was.

The next thing I thought was "That is a lot of sheep". The first living things I saw when my plane was making its final descent were thousands of sheep dotting the hills surrounding Manchester. The English often make jokes about the Welsh and their sheep, but England seems to have sheep everywhere you look so I can't imagine there can be that many more in Wales. Those who live in glass houses...

Believe it or not, the "wrong side of the road" thing didn't throw me for too much of loop because everything is completely switched around so it feels the same in many ways. What did confuse me was the zig zag lines on the side of the road. It looked like the painting machine had a major malfunction, but this actually means that you can't park in or block the area.

photo from Flickr

On the way to Hartlepool we stopped at a Little Chef, which is a chain of roadside cafes, and I was surprised by the selection of condiments including brown sauce (a delicious blend of malt vinegar and ketchup) salad cream (still haven't figured out the difference between salad cream and mayo, but apparently there is one) malt vinegar, English mustard (a very spicy mustard that will instantly clear your sinuses) and French mustard, and of course ketchup and mayonnaise.

photo from Flickr

I was also really surprised by how different the tea is. I don't know what it is about American tea but it is weak and flavorless compared to English tea. American tea takes several minutes to brew and is still weaker than a cup of English tea that has brewed for barely a minute. The color and consistency of English tea is a richer and more reddish-brown than American tea and appears to be more like the concentrated consistency of coffee so it makes sense that most English drink their tea with milk. English tea without milk would be a bit too strong, but American tea with milk would just taste like milky water. I have no idea what makes it different but there is a definitive difference between them. I have heard this could also have to do with the water in England being much harder, but I don't see how they would change the tea so much.

Another thing that surprised and really amused me was that the Ford Fiesta is still very much in production here. The Fiesta had a short life in North America, where compact cars don't dominate the market, but it has been a popular car in Europe since the mid 70s and has remained popular ever since. Every time I would see a shiny new Ford Fiesta I would laugh hysterically. Now I have had to get used to seeing the Fiesta everywhere, especially since my father-in-law drives one.

The 2008 Ford Fiesta

photo from FordEurope.net

I don't know what my parents will think when they first come here, their experience will probably be much different from mine and they will probably pick up on things I haven't thought about for a long time. I am sure my dad will be curious to pop the hood of some of the cars and check out the 1.4 litre engines. My mom will probably enjoy things like the horse drawn carts that clip-clop past our road here every day at about 10am (this isn't a joke, I am dead serious). She will surely enjoy the daffodils that should be blooming everywhere and kind of grow wild in these parts. Maybe they will pick up on things I have never noticed, but I am really excited for them to experience England for the first time.