My time in the UK thus far has been fantastic, however I have had numerous moments that had made it blatantly obvious to myself, and anyone who lives here, that I am not from England. Whenever one of these moments occur, I think about the famous tagline “that awkward moment when” and I fill in the rest of the sentence with whatever situation I have just found myself in. To switch up my blog, I decided to share some of these moments from the 5 weeks I have been here. Without further ado:

That awkward moment when….

1. You get locked inside a Starbucks bathroom, and despite throwing your entire body weight against the door, it still refuses to open. Finally with phone in hand ready to call someone, you spot a button on the wall that you have to push to exit. Would have been nice to notice before causing a commotion in the restroom!…

2. You wait a half hour for the check at a restaurant (with numerous looks from the waitress) because you have to specifically ask for the bill, it is not implied….

3. Although it is clearly written on the road to look RIGHT to cross the street, you look left (since you would do that in the US) and end up just running across the road because cars are in fact coming from the right…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.You don’t use the oven for the first two weeks here because you have no idea how it works…

5. You stand in the aisle of the grocery store trying to calculate how much you have spent in dollars…

6. You ask 3 different people for directions to a classroom and all 3 tell you different directions to go. (Seriously, Arts A is the most confusing building EVER!)…

7. You complain about the small portion sizes of all the food when you realize that the US just supersizes everything…

8. You have no idea how to pronounce the name of the town next to school. (but really is it Leuz, or Loo-iss, or Loo-eez?! because I have heard it pronounced all 3 ways!)…

9. You have random words scattered throughout your notes because you didn’t understand your professor’s accent (‘Um excuse me professor, but what is oxfursur?’)…

10. Your laundry gets locked in the launderette overnight because it is not 24 hours – in fact it closes at 10!…

11. You have no idea how to write the date, or the time after noon…

12. You have a dream you are back at home and driving recklessly because you have no idea how to drive on the correct side of the road anymore…

While all these moments may have made me blush at the time they occurred, I have to look back and laugh. I can’t expect to understand everything in a new country, and I wouldn’t trade any of these moments because they have all made my experience here in the UK all the better!

 

Location: United Kingdom