Thursday 1 November 2012

Some Observations

 It was wonderful to be back in England, and I officially had my first taste of Europe! By this time I was able to confirm a few differences between the USA and the UK/Europe.
A lot more people smoke, which I do not find attractive. It seems like the mentality behind smoking is more non nonchalant, then again I think that the people here are more mellow in general. In my opinion this has it's good and bad points, depending on your standpoint. It's not unheard of for people in Oxford can wear the same outfit two days in a row. It makes perfect sense because clothes don't soil in one day, but at first it seemed like an odd concept to the girls in our group. Religion also doesn't seem as important. A study in 1999 found that only 1.9% of the population attended Church of England (Anglican) services. While Christian organizations exist, they don't seem as prolific or as 'holier than thou'. People are more liberal in general here as well. When discussing politics (not my favorite or most well versed subject) you get a lot of interesting and  different opinions because of the various political stances. I mean some of these countries have actual socialist parties etc. The most annoying thing in Oxford and London is walking behind people...THEY DO NOT MOVE. You could be running up behind them and they just chug along like nothing is going on. It's almost comical unless you're in a hurry.
Being abroad has also made the differences among people in the US stand out to me. The northeast and the southeast are very different places in the US, and I don't even know what the people out west are like. I've realized that there really is no token 'American'. So yeah, there are a few of my opinionated observations.



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