Summertime!

So I haven't blogged in a while as usual. Oh, and that computer problem that I was having last time is still there. It's like on House when no one can figure out what's wrong with the patient because only Dr. House can. I need Dr. House for my computer. Dr. Chase has already replaced my motherboard TWICE and Thirteen replaced my left fan, and although it made the colors go back to normal, my computer still has CPU usage and shut off problems. Help me Gregory House. Please! lol. This little metaphor is a result of me watching part of a House marathon today.

Anywho, on to what I wanted to blog about. As all two of you who read my blog already know, I went to the UK for two weeks a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to share a few quirky things I learned over there. :)

1. In Ireland, there is this word: "craic" which is pronounced like "crack." It's a slang word that basically means "fun." Here are some sample uses, which will make an American laugh because, well, it's pronounced "crack."

-"It was great craic!"

-"The craic was great!"

-"What's the craic?" / "How's the craic?" (meaning like "What's up?")

-"Just for the craic of it." (meaning like "just for the heck of it.")

Pretty fun, huh?

2. Yield signs look the same over there, but they say "Give Way" instead of "Yield."

3. The 1st floor of a hotel is just called the ground floor. What is our 2nd floor is their 1st floor.

4. In England, people don't say "you're welcome." Instead, they say "cheers." So if you say thank you, they'll just say "cheers." It's kinda cute.

5. In Scotland, words like "boot" and "cook" are pronounced phonetically like the word "loot." It's cute.

6. Pretty much everywhere in the UK, people don't say "excuse me" to get someone's attention or ask them to move politely. They say "sorry." I found this really weird. I can understand saying sorry to ask someone to move I guess but to get someone's attention? Like if you wanted to flag down a waiter, you'd say. "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Can you come over here please?" For example, I was at this gift shop on the Ring of Kerry in Ireland and there was a lady buying something in front of me. She walked away without her receipt and the lady at the register just kept saying "sorry." It took like 5 "sorrys" to get the lady's attention cuz she was American like me and to us, that's an apology.

7. Car trunks are called "boots."

8. Rain boots or galoshes are called "wellies."

9. In Ireland at least, a slang term for "umbrella" is "brelly." I learned this because our tour guide asked where I was from and I said "Brawley" and spelled it out for her. She laughed and said that's what they called umbrellas: "brellies."

10. When people say that the Irish are drunks they aren't kidding! Here we call it bar hopping. There, they said it's a little more literal and call it "pub crawling."

11. The police in Ireland, known as the Garda, don't carry weapons. That's how safe Ireland is. But then I don't know how they would enforce the law. "Don't move or...or...I'll yell at you really loud!" ??? Whatever.

12. Instead of a "ticket" system for breaking traffic laws, they have a point system. You have so many points on your driver's license and can get points taken off for each thing you do wrong. When you don't have any points left, you get your license taken away for a certain amount of time.

13. I had the license plates explained to me! You know how in the UK, the plates are really long? I only know how the ones in Ireland work. So first there is a little blue thing with yellow stars, which stands for the European Union. It says, IRL, which means Ireland. Then, there are two numbers like 08 or 96, which are for what year the car was made. Then, there is a letter or two letter, which stand for what county the car is registered to. Then, there is a series of numbers which is the actual like registration number. Who knew? Makes more sense than ours, I think.

14. Streets are SO narrow over there! It's kinda scary.

15. I thought Americans smoked a lot. No. They smoke more.

16. You can't drink tap water over there. They say it's too nasty.

17. The toilets don't flush like 80% of the time cuz there's no water pressure. You kinda just have to deal with going on top of someone else's pee.

18. The shower controls are all so different wherever you go and they are retarded and hard to figure out. Jut make them all the same for pete's sake!

19. You know how when you're messing around in the car and go around in really tight circles and it's called a doughnut? They don't have a word for that over there (in Ireland at least.)

That's all I can think of for now. If I think of anymore I'll add them. Until next time!