Things I think I know

24 days till departure. It's still far too early to pack, so I get my kicks from obsessive travel research. I've loaded up on minute details of British culture, but I haven't experienced any of it firsthand, so I'm feeling kind of like a virgin sex columnist lately. Here are some tidbits I've picked up, though to what extent they are true, I won't know till I get there:

1) The vast majority of Britons hate peanut butter, because somehow their peanut butter is nearly inedible while peanut butter in the US is regarded as a veritable food of the gods. I am warned not to even buy things that are labeled "American Peanut Butter" if I would like to live to see the sun rise again. This is the reason that I am setting aside 1 pound of my 100-pound luggage allotment for a jar of my hippy-dippy all-natural peanut butter.

2) It rains. A lot.

3) It gets cold. Though as a hardened New Englander, I'm fairly certain that I can take anything they throw at me. Ice storm of 1998, anyone?

4) I received a piece of literature in my study abroad packet that gave a brief history of the UK, climate information, geography, etc. In so many words it also said that the British people are a rather private sort and you should not do things like touch them or talk about personal things like politics or religion or bowel movements. I'm okay on the personal space requirements, but I'm going to have to control my verbal diarrhea (ha!) when it comes to TMI.

posted by limeywannabe @ 4:51 PM