Some Observations of the mores and ways of the Northeast of England

1. All the shops close at 5 or 6 p.m.
This means that the day I arrived I could not purchase bedding. I slept on a bare mattress with a sweatshirt as a pillow, wearing two pairs of sweatpants and a thick jacket. This also means that after 6 p.m. there's no shopping to do in Durham. Why? Because there are a billion pubs in town and everyone wants to get their drink on... even shopkeepers.

2. Turns out, the term "geordie," when used to refer to a person, means trashy. Case and point: GEORDIE SHORE. Yes, it is exactly what you think it is.

These are the only decent ones I could find. Trust me, it's much worse.

3. People drink. Like... a lot. Mythbuster: I haven't seen anyone drinking hot beer.

4. The fashion here seems to be even more 80s than in America. It's like every single young person shops at Forever 21. This is particularly true of high school students. Postgraduates dress FANCEEEY. I mean, like magazine models for some posh brand like Calvin Klein or Tommy. I feel like a hobo in my clothes.



5. CHEERS. Apparently, we toast about everything here. Even without a drink on hand. It seems that "cheers!" it's like saying "alright!" or even "thank you!" in an enthusiastic way. I haven't ventured to use this expression (yes I have, but it was extremely awkward and I'm not sure I used it in the right situation).

6. Never worry about buying bottled water again because, you know what? The bottled water here seems to be tap water sealed in a bottle and sold at convenience stores. I just went into my bathroom, open the faucet, and poured some water into my glass. If I am still alive in ten days, I will declare Great Britain's tap water to be the most important British asset.

7. Contrary to popular belief, the British don't seem to be as punctual or as organized as we like to believe. In fact, I've noticed they're quite, quite chill. As a semi-American, I find this intolerable. But don't worry, I will get used to it. Example: the gate for my flight to Newcastle was closing at 1:20 p.m. I arrived at the gate at exactly that time. And people hadn't even started boarding the plane. Also see: both planes were late, the train was delayed, the bus is always a tad late, and people arrive kinda on time to things.

The Countess Dowager is not impressed. 

8. It rains. A lot. Remember when I told everyone that in the winter we only get 3 hours of sunshine? Well, that's only because the rest of the day is cloudy. Gray skies fo' life. Bad for my comfort-eating addiction. But you know what's worse? People don't seem to mind. Like... they... leave us out in the rain for hours for our school photo, in which we all look like this:

9. No Wal-mart, which means  that
a) you have to go to a bunch of different stores all the time.
b) you don't get to see this: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos/

10. People don't really know where Mexico is, for the most part. The only Mexican restaurant in town makes its salsa with ketchup.

 And I know they think we still ride horses in Texas... they are just embarrassed to ask. The closest I got was "you guys have rodeos, right?"

11. Burger King had no trash cans. And it's absurdly expensive.

Also, strangely, no Mcdonald's in town, but THREE SUBWAYS? LOL. 

12. Walking is a thing... which might explain why there are very few overweight people. Then again, the number of calories we take in every day--I just don't see how on earth I can lose weight.

I didn't actually search for Emma Stone gifs... she just seems to pop up everywhere. She understands me. We are BFFS.

13. THE R.C. CHURCH. Come again? That's right. After a while, I figured out what it means: Roman Catholic. It seems just a nice little euphemism/politically correct term invented by a formerly overwhelming Protestant majority/the Church of England. The funny thing is that even the R.C. churches/schools use this term. And, ironically enough, it seems that most of the people that attend church services in the UK are Catholic. L to the O to the L.

14. Most Brits I have met do not like Downton Abbey.

They blame it for making Americans think that people in the UK still live that way. I've explained that everyone who watches Downton Abbey without getting bored is cultured enough to understand the historical implications of the show and how we know it's not like that anymore. They still don't like it.

15. Brits know WAAAAY MORE about America, politically, socially, economically, than Americans know about the UK. There's been endless coverage about the government shutdown in British news channels. That just makes us look like really a-holes who don't care about other countries in the world (I'm speaking of the majority of Americans, not the minority of educated people who listen to NPR and donate to Red Cross to help Syria).

Anyway, I will post more on this subject as I continue to discover Northeast England's culture.