Things to do before leaving Edinburgh

Things to do before leaving Edinburgh:

The West Highland Line (source: BBC)

- stay up all night and watch the sun rise from Arthur's seat

- West Highland Way

- Stirling and Bannockburn

- Pentland Hills

- take the West Highland Line

- read through a book on its history

America v. Britain

I've hummed and hawed whether to post this or not, and I profusely apologize for offending anyone. This list is entirely biased and opinionated, governed by my small sphere.


1. University Life (not quality of its education): USA, simply for college sports.

2. Environmental Friendliness: UK

3. Political correctness: UK

4. Baked goods: USA

5. Christmas: Home is home.

6. Food, sensitivity to other's needs (ie Vegetarian, Gluten free): UK

7. Beer bitter: UK; Beer lager: USA.

8. Authors: Hmm... A slight advantage has to go to Britain for its history, but I prefer American modern authors.

9. Non-alcoholic drinks: USA, for lemonade and sweet tea.

10. Sunday lunches: UK, for their unadulterated meats and vegetables.

11. Libraries: USA, for their crazy public University library system

12. Night Life: UK, because you can pretty much find a place to go in any town.

13. Music: USA, for Merlefest and CatsCradle (completely biased)

14. Soccer: UK

15. Sports Coverage: USA

16. Sports Rivalries: UK. Celtic and Rangers even beats UNC v. Duke. Guys, there's blood shed.

17. Outdoors for the average person: UK

18. Outdoors for more extreme sports: USA

19. Breadth of education: USA

20. Depth of education: UK

21. Ability of majority to speak foreign languages: USA

22. Economically, Socially, and Politically aware: UK

23. Public transport: UK

24. Impressive Man-made Structures: UK

25. Impressive natural phenomenons: USA

26. Athletics for girls: USA

27. Ability to think logically: UK

28. Well-travelled: UK. Due to proximity, ya'll. And 4 week holidays, standard.

Miss America

Source: Me, Savannah, GA Summer 2010

Things I miss about America. Living abroad brings the idea of home in close pangs and brief snapshots. Here are the main things I miss:

1. College sports, especially football and basketball
2. Lemonade and sweet tea
3. Driving on country roads
4. Music, like Merlefest or Chapel Hill's Cats Cradle
5. Being able to wear dresses in warm weather
6. Barbeque, fried chicken, and real Mexican
7. Homegrown summer vegetables and canning summer fruits
8. Front porches and rocking chairs
9. Spanish moss on oak trees
10. Familiarity of the grocery stores

Things Britain Does Really Well

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1. Free Prescriptions, especially birth control: its all freeeee!!! Hallelujah!

2. Their grass is ALWAYS green. Its lush and beautiful and invigorating.

3. Christmas: their mince pies, mulled wine, and Christmas puddings are just lovely.

4. Vacations and Holidays: everyone gets 4 weeks of holidays STANDARD. That's an entire month!

5. Architecture. Have some pretty sweet buildings that are beautiful. At Durham I can study in the Cathedral.

6. Polite. I've very rarely met with an rude or overly inquisitive British person.

7. Their University accomdation: you get your own room. Not always. But often.

8. Travel. Brits are so well-travelled. Around their own country and beyond. All of my flat have been to Thailand (seperately).

9. Sunday lunches. A large meal in the middle of the day, often post church.

10. Ability to critically think. This is a bit hard to explain, but their humor is more intellectual than not.

11. Countryside walks: one is never far away, and generally astoundingly beautiful.

12. History. Such wonderful history in such a little island. A monarchy and parliament. Knights and Businessmen.

13. Tea.

14. Soccer. The Premiere League. The Champions League.

British Words: Think Twice

Source: Pinterest

Here are a lists of words that make me stop and think twice, as they are different from the American pronunciation. I will attempt to suspend judgement (in the glorious phrase of Abby Farson Pratt).

1. ' in hospital': not 'in the hospital'. Just hospital.'I was running in hospital to the psych ward because a patient had escaped.'

2. the adding of '-age' to words: slippage, spillage. 'There's a spillage in aisle 12.'

3. slippy. Not slippERy. 'The steps were rather slippy this morning so be careful.'

5. '-t' endings, as opposed to '-ed' endings, ie. learnt, learned. : 'I burnt my finger.'

6. the pronunciation of the alphabet to little ones. 'A' is not pronounced 'ey' its 'aaah'. B is not 'bee' but 'buh'

7. 'maths', plural, as opposed to 'math'. 'I'm doing long division for my maths homework.'

8. Lego, not legos. 'I going to play with lego now.'

9. The terms 'spring break' and 'fall break' don't exist. 'How was your fall break?' Cold stare. 'DID you mean "October holiday?" '

10. chips = crisps. fries = chips.

11. jelly = jello. jam = jelly. 'Yeah I made lime jelly for pudding tonight.'

12. tea= dinner, not the drink with jam and bread. 'I'm making steak pie for tea tonight.'