Weird things about living in Bath, England

• Lots of people smoke here, but you can’t always tell who’s smoking and who’s not because everyone’s breath is foggy from the cold air.
• You need gloves, lip balm, and waterproof shoes and waterproof jacket wherever you go.
• People here don’t usually sleep until midnight or later, and the shops don’t open until ten am.
• 24 hour time is used for things like bus timetables and events. Local people say time backwards; instead of saying ‘half past eleven’ or ‘eleven thirty’, they’ll say ‘half eleven’.
• I see fields of sheep on my way to class.

Yeah, slow down, sheep. The speed limit's 15.

• The grass is an almost unnaturally bright green. The colour is no doubt caused by the excessive amount of rain here.
• Today the sky is like a bright, white sheet.

Here you get my view from the library window: white sky and ultra green grass (no colours were modified)

• They have double-decker buses.



Double-decker from someone standing in the bushes, apparently.
(I got this one from the web)

• People here drive on the left, same as us, but on the stairs at uni it says 'Keep Right' (??) and on the footpath, people go wherever they like. Don't expect a large group to part for you. You might have to go on the road to get by. (Gabbie, they take up all the space on an elevator, too. But if there’s only one or two people they’ll usually move if you ask).
• Locals say ‘Alright?’ or ‘You alright?’ instead of ‘How are you?’. If I said ‘You alright?’ to one of my Aussie friends, they’d look at me strangely and say ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
• There is almost always music playing in my dorm. Usually late at night. Usually techno/ hip hop.
• Food at the supermarket is more expensive and generally worse quality than what I get at home.
• British slang for sex is ‘pulling’.
• They say ‘slag’ instead of ‘slut’ (or for a slightly milder way of saying it). However, the amount of pulling/sex or the specifics of the act (eg. location, who you do it with, the risk factor) is worn like a badge of honour and is often shared among the dorm. In saying that, the term ‘slag’ is only ever applied to females.
• There are poetry or performance events on all the time in Bath and Bristol.
• Bath Spa Uni has many amazing interest societies. Too many of them meet on a Tuesday night.
• People go out clubbing at 10/11pm on a weeknight.
• Girls will wear short skirts and thin stockings or none at all.
• The city streets are cobblestone in many places. Somehow girls manage to walk these areas in stilettos. I have a hard enough time in flats.
• The houses are usually made of stone or concrete and often have Mary Poppins-style chimneys.

Unfortunately, no chimney-sweeps were dancing on the roof (that I saw).

• I was ridiculously excited the other day to be able to say the phrase, ‘find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck!’ with no sense of exaggeration, as they use pennies and pence and pounds here.

I actually found a penny!

• Slang for pound is ‘quid’.

• McDonalds has weird prices, like 1.69 for a burger. What a strange amount. How'd they figure that one out?
• I have been mistaken for American twice, once by someone who has visited Australia three times.
• People generally don’t eat vegemite here (shock horror!)

 

Now I’ll tell you the weirdest thing of all about living in Bath. Forget that many of their buildings are over 2000 years old (such as the Roman Baths, after which the city was named). The weirdest thing about living here is that the buses actually run on time! A minute either way, but that’s it. Incredible.

Mentality of Brisbane buses: "I'll come when I feel like it"