Some Quirky Things About Aberdeen (or Scotland.. or the UK.. or Europe..)
1. Rabbits come out at night. LOTS of rabbits. They're like the black squirrels at Hope College, only not quite so jumpy.
2. To turn a light on, you flip the lightswitch into what I have always believed to be the "off" position.
3. They don't believe in flat sheets here. Everywhere you go, you pretty much just get a fitted sheet and duvet and a pillow!
4. You don't say, "I'm going to college next year." You say, "I'm going to University."
5. So today I was standing in a Starbucks that was packed with UA Christian Union students, and two girls met each other for the first time. One girl says something, the other girl responds, and after only one or two words, both girls were smiling broadly, maybe laughing, and almost acting like old friends, for no apparent reason. I asked if they knew each other or something. They said they were both from Northern Ireland. How can they recognize accents so easily?!
6. Later tonight, six or seven of us were sitting in a pub playing a question game in which we ask each person questions for two minutes. These were usually very random questions like, "What's your favorite smell?" and "Do you floss your teeth?" So one of my American friends asks one of my Scottish friends, "Do you find it difficult to buy pants?" As most of us in the circle were American, we found the question normal enough. My Scottish friend proceeds to explain, probably with some hesitation, that she prefers stripes, sometimes polka dots... or something like that.. Within a few minutes, we all realized that, here, "trousers" are pants, and "pants" are underwear. We all got a good laugh :)
2. To turn a light on, you flip the lightswitch into what I have always believed to be the "off" position.
3. They don't believe in flat sheets here. Everywhere you go, you pretty much just get a fitted sheet and duvet and a pillow!
4. You don't say, "I'm going to college next year." You say, "I'm going to University."
5. So today I was standing in a Starbucks that was packed with UA Christian Union students, and two girls met each other for the first time. One girl says something, the other girl responds, and after only one or two words, both girls were smiling broadly, maybe laughing, and almost acting like old friends, for no apparent reason. I asked if they knew each other or something. They said they were both from Northern Ireland. How can they recognize accents so easily?!
6. Later tonight, six or seven of us were sitting in a pub playing a question game in which we ask each person questions for two minutes. These were usually very random questions like, "What's your favorite smell?" and "Do you floss your teeth?" So one of my American friends asks one of my Scottish friends, "Do you find it difficult to buy pants?" As most of us in the circle were American, we found the question normal enough. My Scottish friend proceeds to explain, probably with some hesitation, that she prefers stripes, sometimes polka dots... or something like that.. Within a few minutes, we all realized that, here, "trousers" are pants, and "pants" are underwear. We all got a good laugh :)