Westminster Abbey and Randomness

On Saturday I went to London, not with the Family but with my friend Courtney. It was a beautiful day. The weather here has been improving steadily and apparently it should keep warming up. It was perfectly sunny and blue-skied and warm in the sunshine. We went to Westminster Abbey and got inside this time. It was really beautiful. Our tour guide was Jeremy Irons…or at least he was the voice on the audio tour haha. The architecture was amazing, of course, but the coolest part was seeing where all these famous people were buried in these incredible tombs—Mary Queen of Scots, Edward Longshanks (who I mostly know about from Braveheart), Oliver Cromwell, Geoffrey Chaucer, and way more who I can’t even remember right now. Plus all the people in the Poets’ Corner—Jane Austen, all the Bronte sisters, Keats, the Shelleys, Ben Jonson, John Dryden, George Handel, a huge sculpture of Shakespeare…they even had actors like Laurence Olivier in there.

I got to see the tomb of Elizabeth I, which was cool because I used to read all these books about her. Apparently her death mask was very lifelike so I sort of got to see what she looked like (she wasn’t a looker). Her tomb is right over her half-sister Queen Mary’s, which is funny because they didn’t get along well in life…well at least it doesn’t seem like they did given that Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned while she was queen. Hmm. There were also a lot of tributes and sculptures that Elizabeth I had made for people who she favored who died during her reign. So many people are buried there, including random people you’ve never heard of. There was one enormous sculpture that was really chilling; it was of a man trying to shield a cowering woman from this skeleton rising up from below who was hurling a spear at her. Apparently this was something a man had had made after his young wife’s untimely death in childbirth. I also saw the oldest door in Britain, which is in the abbey and apparently from the 1000s. Lots of cool stuff!

That was the only “cultural” thing we did for the day. After that we went to Paddington Station because she wanted to get a Paddington bear. Then we went to Brick Lane to hunt down this fish and chips place someone had recommended to her. It took forever to find including a lot of wandering around and getting slightly lost and having to ask directions, but it was SO WORTH IT. It’s called Poppie’s of Spitalfields and it was the best fish and chips I’ve had. You can get it takeaway wrapped in newspaper, but we sat inside, which is set up like a fifties diner. Their chips—fries—were so good. Yum. It’s kind of pricey but you do get a huge piece of fried fish. I’m going to be craving that again soon!

That place is in kind of a hipster-y area so that was interesting. We checked out a vintage shop across the way. It was super lame. Everything in there looked old and worn and it was way overpriced for used stuff! Anyhoo. Then it was off to Oxford Street for some shopping. We went to Primark, a popular store that has cute stuff for really cheap...kind of like a mix between a Charlotte Russe, Rue 21, and Target. I got a skirt for 3 pounds. Not too shabby. After that we went back to Hatfield, had a long wait for the bus to the Forum (I—hate—buses), and got back relatively early.

On Sunday I planned a trip to Asda with Andrea and Zed, but it closes at 4 on Sundays. Lame. So we trolled around the Galleria and ate at a Chinese buffet where I ate way too much to be allowed. Then last night I made the best macaroni and cheese in the entire world (Red Leicester cheese = delicious) and Tom put out this huge fancy spread of baguettes, all these different types of cheeses, and wine. So he, his girlfriend Katie, Enda, Cameron, and I sat and had a very French meal.

It has been pointed out to me that I talk a lot about food in my blog...and I’m doing it again...whoops. I guess my priorities are pretty clear, huh? Anyway, I am going to Bath and Stonehenge on Sunday. (Wonder what I’ll get to eat there?...)

On a different note, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, so now that I’m essay-free (for a little while at least) I’m going to compose a list of British words/phrases that I hear a lot. I knew some of them, but some I had no idea about. So here goes, in no particular order:

Biscuits = cookies, but only a certain type. For instance, Chips Ahoy would be called cookies, but shortbread things or stuff that you’d have with tea are biscuits.

Chips = French fries, but again there are some differences. They call the things at McDonalds fries, but everywhere else it’s usually chips. I think maybe the really thick ones are called chips and the thin ones are fries…still trying to work it out…

Fit = attractive

Boff = attractive/good

Nice = same basic meaning but they use it way more than Americans do, and I feel like it usually refers to something that’s more like good quality/delicious. A lot of times they use it to describe a food that tastes really good. Like, “Those biscuits are quite nice, aren’t they?”

Bruv = short for ‘brother,’ like ‘bro.’ Sometimes certain London accents make the ‘th’ sound like ‘v,’ so ‘broth’ becomes ‘bruv.’ I really want to start using it but I feel like people might start looking at me funny. Yeah, bruv! (Or, if you see someone you really like, bruuuuuvaaaaay!)

Well = very (“I was well jealous!”)

Bare = very (“Oh he was bare cool!”)

Proper = very (“This room’s a proper mess!”) (They have a lot of words that mean ‘really’ or ‘very’ now that I think of it)

Innit = I initially thought it was just “isn’t it,” but it can also be used for emphasis (“Mate, we need some more food, innit!”)

Ladybirds = ladybugs

Hoover = vacuum (used as a noun and a verb, like “I need to do the Hoovering”)

Washing up liquid = dish soap

Full fat soft cheese = cream cheese (that’s what it’s called on the wrapper, anyway. Why all the adjectives? Why not call it cream cheese??)

Spirits = liquor

Sausage dog = wiener dog/dachshund (I love this one!)

Take the mick = make fun of (“You takin’ the mick, mate?”)

Take the piss = make fun of (much different from take a piss, as I’ve explained to one of my American friends)

Pikeys = Irish hooligans…kind of like gypsies…still not totally sure about exactly what they are

Other funny things: a lot of times they pronounce A’s differently than we would. Usually almost the opposite. For instance, for the word pasta we pronounce it ‘paw-stuh.’ They say ‘past-uh.’ And for nachos they say ‘naa-choes’ rather than ‘naw-choes.’ I’m probably not explaining it very well but oh well. It’s really weird and I keep getting corrected for saying these words “wrong.”

For the record, words I’ve had to explain: jerk, jetlag, sketchy, Sketchers (as in the shoe, which they don’t have here), college (here ‘college’ is more or less the same thing as American high school; while Americans use college/university interchangeably, here they only use university or uni for short to mean the stuff after high school). I’m sure there are plenty more I can’t think of right now, so the list might grow at a later date.