One of the biggest things that has caught my attention in these first couple of weeks abroad is the amount of little nuances of the American and British cultures that constantly cause confusion when having conversations. They’re usually little words like “skint”, which means “broke” to us that I have never heard used before. Then of course there are all the parts of our daily lives that we usually take for granted that, to a British person, seem totally foreign. TV shows, for example. I have been trying to get everyone into the American version of “The Office” while all the British people here swear by the British version which, I’ll give them credit, did come first. Luckily, the TV show Lost has made its way over here so we can all talk about the crazy happenings of that show together. Another example is sports. Everyone here can’t stand baseball, it’s “the most boring sport in the world.” They can and do, however, enjoy cricket, which is just as boring as baseball, but last five straight days! Go figure. My point is that it is very interesting to see the intensely different cultures mix (there is about 25 other Americans in my dorm) and to watch what happens as a result. Even more interesting is that the one thing that seems inherently identical throughout both cultures is music. We all have listened to and heard of the same bands and musicians, although techno is quite a bit more popular over here. Anyway, I just felt like sharing this to you as my culture shock is beginning to die down. Hopefully when I come back during Christmas I won’t be completely Scottish.
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