The English's English

Thankfully I didn't have to encounter a significant language barrier studying abroad. But I will say that the language isn't the same and sometimes British accents can be a little heavy. Just last night I hung out with some basketball guys watching the NBA All-Star game and I had to ask guys to repeat themselves due to their accent. I list a few words below with their (American) English translation.

mate - friend

mince - ground beef

zed - the letter "z"

fag - cigarette 

ta - thanks

quid - money like we use "bucks"

bloody - sometimes a cuss word or sometimes not as vulgar like "freaking"

rubbish - trash

lecturer - professor

cheers - used as "have a good day", "thanks", "hello", "bye", and for dozens of other variations

Last Saturday I went to York for the day. Just like my home city of Chester, York is a Roman walled city. The walls and streets are very similar to those I see here so I wasn't in love with the city of York. I think Chester pulls off the walls a little better and the city has a more homey feel. When we arrived in York we went into the Jorvik Centre for an hour which is a small museum and recreation of viking life that inhabited the city over in the 9th century. I was very impressed with the church York Minster. The cathedral, built nearly 1000 years ago, is the largest Gothic style church in Europe North of the Alps. Inside the structure, the walls are filled with over 200 stained glass windows and on the East side of the church lies the world's largest medieval stained glass window. Although York wasn't incredible impressive, York Minster was its redeeming grace. 

York Minster

The naive 

The picture only includes 40% of the cathedral

School is picking up and I have my first essay due March 1. Lectures have been pretty standard. It's nice only going to each class once a week but at the same time I think going to class a couple times a week is better for learning the material. 

As I write this blog, I can hear the Brits loudly walking by my window to "go out" for tonight. 11:30pm and their nights are just getting started. I'll be sure to expand on the "going out" phenomenon in a future post!