You never knew...

So, I've decided that today's post should include a list of some more things that are different in England. Things that you've heard about and can't believe are true, and things that you've never heard about because it's just so random. Besides, if I write them down while I'm here, then I'll remember them later, which would be tres bien. :)

Before I do that, though, I suppose I'll give a quick summary of my day:
First, I went to Portobello Road to get fruit & veg for the week. I also stopped by this awesome little store called "Books for Cooks". You guessed it: a bookstore devoted to cookbooks! Fantastic! I browsed for a while, but tore myself away before I spent the rest of my trip's money on cookbooks for everything from sushi to pastries.
After Portobello, I caught a bus to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. One of those things you just have to do in London, you know? Honestly, it was a pretty silly touristy thing, but I can say that I've seen it now, right? Essentially, they stand and play band music while pairs of guards march around the courtyard outside the palace. It's easy to tell that it's a touristy event, because not only is everything roped off, clearly labeled, and crawling with direction-giving police officers, the music the band played included a medley of Disney songs. I'm not kidding. I heard Under the Sea, The Bear Necessities, and Colors of the Wind to name a few. Oh, at the beginning and the end of the 1/2 hour ceremony they played patriotic sounding music, but the middle was all for-fun stuff. Umm...interesting? :)
I just remembered a funny story. Remember how the random French man said bonjour to me the other day? Well, while I was waiting for the changing of the guard to start, an older gentleman who looked a little confused and lost turned to me and said "Tu parle Francais?" Do I LOOK French to people? Honestly!! I don't get it! Anyway, I responded with "Un petit peu" (a little bit). Mistake. He spoke zero English, which meant that I had to struggle to understand his questions...turns out I remember nothing of the little I learned in high school. Duh. I did manage to understand that he was asking for the time when the guards would appear, and successfully remembered how to say "A midi" (at midday = noon). Anyway. Good story.
After the changing of the guard, I went to the nearby park (Green Park - another one of those fantastic humoungous royal parks) to eat my sack lunch. It was SO crowded it was almost funny! I mean, I didn't go very far into the park, so I probably could have found empty space, but it was fun to sit in the middle of all the London picnickers. Since spending an afternoon sitting on the grass in the park isn't a very touristy thing to do, it really was full of LONDON picnickers, not obnoxious gaggles of impatient picture-snapping tourists. :P I really do prefer places that are off the beaten track. I mean, Buckingham palace is pretty and all, but London has so much more to offer than that. That's my philosophy. I spent about 3 hours in the park, eating, reading, and taking a lovely nap. The weather today was just as fantastic as yesterday - blue skies, sunshine, an occasional breeze. Definitely shorts and sandals weather!! That's really why the park was so crowded, I'm sure. The news yesterday was talking about how the parks are expecting an influx of visitors over the weekend as Londoners get out to soak up the rare sunshine.
Anyway, after I spent the afternoon at the park, I just headed back to the flats. I've kept myself pretty busy, and I was just ready to crash. Mmm...comfy bed!

OK, now for a list of a few more of the unique things I've noticed about London.
1) Traffic laws. I definitely don't understand all of them, but I've figured out a couple of things. First, traffic lights. The lights are the same: red on top, yellow in the middle, green on the bottom. Green means go, red means stop. However, yellow is special. When green goes to yellow, it means the same thing as in America: be careful, the light's about to change, either speed up or stop. (Mostly speed up). Here's where it's different: when the light is about to change from red to green, the yellow light comes on again, so the red and the yellow are on together. Sometimes the yellow flashes, sometimes it doesn't. What that means is that if there are no pedestrians or cross traffic still in the way, you can go. Crazy, huh? At crosswalks, the yellow comes on when the "walk" symbol starts flashing (which means the same thing as it does here - don't start crossing, finish if you've already started).
2) Sausages are a staple member of the food pyramid. The grocery stores carry about a million different varieties. "The famous British Banger" and all that.
3) Beer is also a staple member of the food pyramid. So are cigarettes. EVERYONE smokes and drinks here...it's nasty. I think I'm going to have lung cancer from second-hand smoke by the time I get back :P
4) When you're standing at the bus stop, if you don't hail the bus, it won't stop. If you take too long to get on, it will drive away. They're not as patient as Provo bus drivers :)
5) Toilets (what they call bathrooms/restrooms) are much more private...the stall walls and doors usually go ceiling-to-floor, rather than leaving 18-inch gaps at the bottom and barely rising above head level. It's kind of nice.
6) Yes, diapers are called "nappies". It's not something the books made up.
7) Don't try to talk to anyone (except your close friends, and then talk softly) on the tube. Stare at your shoes inside your own little bubble, even when it's so crowded that you're eating someone's hair. It's funny, but true...even when the tubes are packed, they're usually pretty quiet. Ummm...antisocial, anyone? ;)
8) To get someone's attention to ask a question, most people say "sorry", not "excuse me".
9) There's a significant difference between British and English. Someone who is British is from Great Britain (Sometimes called Britain, composed of England, Scotland, and Wales) or the UK (composed of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Someone who is English is from England. I know, this isn't something unique like "nappies" or traffic lights, but it's something I learned here and it's good to know. So don't call an Scotsman "English" - he'll quite possibly be offended.
10) The first floor of a building is NOT the floor at ground level. A multi-storied building will usually be labeled something like this in an elevator: G 1 2 3 4 etc rather than our 1 2 3 4 5 etc. So, if someone tells you that womenswear is on the first floor, they mean what we would call the second floor. That totally threw me off the first time. Sometimes there's even an extra one in there, like at the Hyde Park LDS building where we have church and class. There, it's G (ground) M (Mezzanine) and then 1, 2, 3. So, it's 5 stories, but the numbers only go to 3. Weird, huh?
11) Vegetables really are called "veg" here - I'm not just being lazy and not typing it up when I say I went shopping for them. You know, like in Wallace and Gromit when they talk about feeding the rabbits "veg" or going to the "veg" festival? Most of the stands on Portobello road are labeled "Fruit and Veg", rather than "Fruit and Vegetable".

Well, I'm exhausted. I'm going to go to bed. Cheers! More later!