The Tale of the White Girl and the Pumpkin Spice Latte

Campaign to Bring Pumpkin Spice to the United Kingdom
WE alllll know the common joke about how in the US white girls (and honestly everyone) get's excited for pumpkin spice lattes and other assorted foods flavored like pumpkin spice. It has gone so crazy that all kinds of things are pumpkin spice flavor, we have perfume, cookies, milk, anything and everything. In my humble (white girl) opinion, IT IS AWESOME! I like that pumpkin spice is to fall/autumn the way that eggnog is to Christmas. 

So while in America, the pumpkin spice craze is EVERYWHERE, it hardly exists in the UK. I find it heartbreaking and like it is a possibly gold mine waiting to happen. After two fall/autumn seasons in England, I have only come across two things flavored with pumpkin spice. Obviously Starbucks has the pumpkin spice coffee (but it isn't super popular as far as I can tell) and in Tesco I found a special offer for Ben and Jerry's pumpkin cheesecake ice cream. So far in two weeks I have bought four pints of this stuff! (I love ice cream).

Why the difference? Two reasons I think, Halloween isn't very popular over here, nor are pumpkins in general. For Thanksgiving American have pumpkin pie, therefore the taste for pumpkinny things is bred into us by our culture. But in England there is no pumpkin pie. And carving pumpkin's isn't a common tradition, so the need to use all those extra pumpkin guts doesn't exist.

If anyone is looking to start the latest UK trend, they should start selling pumpkin spice/pumpkin flavored candy and drinks and desserts during the autumn season. I've attempted to do my part my introducing my partner to the Ben and Jerry's ice cream and I've shared a pumpkin spice hot chocolate from Starbucks with my best friend (yes hot chocolate, it is amazing!!!). So hopefully this post will also promote pumpkin spice, and when next fall rolls around I get to be inundated with all the pumpkin spice products I have grown accustomed to in America.

Should We Use Rubbers or Condoms?

A funny mid-week pick me up for all of us. Yet another one of those scenarios where the differences in the English language can be astounding!

As I have mentioned, one of my 5 housemates is a maths teacher at a UK school. One night whilst discussing our days he mentioned

"throwing some rubbers at the children"

Imagine my shock! Because as an American, rubber almost always is said in reference to one thing, and one thing only. Condoms.

So here is my close friend telling me he threw condoms at children. My jaw dropped and I started to stutter and blubber about how he shouldn't just throw condoms at children when he burst into laughter.

In the UK....rubbers means erasers...... Like the thing you use to erase pencil marks....not condoms...

Imagine just how stupid I felt. Lesson learned.

England=Rubbers=Erasers (something appropriate to daily divy out to children)

America=Rubbers=Condoms (definitely not something that should be handed out publically in the middle of class to high school students)