For the most part of my experience, the Brits don’t really seem all that excited that we’re American. Not that they dislike us or anything, but they're just not as enthusiastic about it as we would be if the roles were reversed and a Brit was visiting us in America. But I guess I expected this, knowing how much American culture has been forced down the rest of the world’s throat. Still, it made me really happy when someone did get excited that I was American. I was at a little sweet shop in Chester, and I asked the girl behind the counter something. I saw her begin to smile when she noticed my accent. She answered my question, and I saw her try to restrain herself before she finally gave in and asked where I was from. She reacted in the same way I would have.

The other day when some of the girls and I went into town, I talked to the woman at the grocery check-out counter. She asked where we were from, how long we would be here, and what we were going to see. When I told her that we would be seeing London, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, she made a sour face. She said “London and Ireland and Wales are alright I guess, it’s bloody Scotland I don’t like.” I wondered what she had against Scotland, but I didn’t get to ask her because she had to serve other customers. It surprised me a little bit because, in all of my experience with British culture (I watch a lot of BBC shows and British movies), Wales always seems to be the place everyone looks down upon/ picks on. I’ll have to ask her why the next time I go into town.

I have found out that the British students refer to college as “uni,” that it only takes three years for them to get their undergraduate degrees, and that they don’t refer to it as undergraduate or undergrad (although I didn’t get a chance to ask what they call it). When one of the girls said something about her cell phone, one of the British boys corrected her, saying “You mean ‘mobile.’” And when one of the British boys was explaining where his dorm was, he said “You turn to the right, don’t ya?” It was a rhetorical question, almost as though he didn’t even realize it could be taken as a question. He’s the only one I’ve heard say it so far, and he’s from Leeds, so I wonder if maybe it’s a regional quirk.