Wearing My Big Girl Pants

In honor of Guy Fawkes Day, which is kind of a big holiday in the UK, I will be posting about yet another mistranslation in English.

In America we call underwear...underwear or panties. We call the things we wear on the lower half of our body like jeans or sweats our "pants".

That is apparently not universal. Everytime I referred to my pants being dirty or needing to wash them, or shopping, people around seemed awkward and embarrassed. I couldn't understand why. Nothing strange to discussing the need to shop or do laundry.

Then someone finally explained that in the UK to say "pants" meant underwear and if I wanted to refer to the jeans I was wearing, I needed to call them trousers.

So every time I said "My pants are dirty now!" the English heard "My underwear are dirty"

I felt like such an idiot and slightly creepy. And it is still not a switch in language I have mastered.

So USA=pants=the jeans, sweats, dress bottoms or anything we wear on our legs
 UK=pants=underwear

The Day Halloween Died

My 2014 UK costume

I was quite disappointed to learn that Halloween is not a big celebration in the UK, as it is in the USA. I found it somewhat shocking and ironic, because the historical tradition of All Hallow's Eve originates in England.

In America, we very much love Halloween. As a child I can recall driving around Georgian neighborhoods to see the spookily decorated laws. As a university student in New Orleans entire streets would decorate their houses and lawns with the most expensive over the top themes. One house did giant spiders crawling up the walls, another had a yard full of mesh ghost figures. It was wonderful. My family and I always decorated for Halloween and would usually attend multiple parties with bespoke costumes (my favorite was when my entire family dressed up as characters from "The Grinch who Stole Christmas).

This year I carved a sugar skull

But none of that happened in the UK. My housemates seemed genuinely annoyed that I decorated our living room for Halloween a whole 2 weeks early. (Even going so far as to pull down my faux spider webs!) And some of them had never carved a pumpkin before! To top all that off, on Halloween night, I only got 2 trick-or-treaters....despite buying 8 bags of candy. I was largely  disappointed.

Our marzipan spooky cake

Last Halloween I didn't notice the lack of holiday spirit, because I was tipsy/drunk most of the time. But this year I definitely felt the void. I think that, like the pumpkin spice latte, Halloween needs to come to the UK. Imagine if the old manor houses did special haunted themes for the month of October, there is a gold mine right there.

A witch, a skull and Darth Vader 

My festivities this year did include carving pumpkins with my best friend and my partner, watching horror films and making a very elaborate Halloween themed cake. I'm hoping next year to throw my own big Halloween party to contribute to the addition of the All Hallow's Eve spirit in the UK.

P.S. In the UK sugar skulls and anything Day of the Dead theme is totally unknown. Literally none of my friends were aware of the sugar skull until I carved one. I chalk this up to the fact that in the USA we are neighbors with a country that celebrates it and we have many immigrants that do as well. But I think this is yet another loss for the UK

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)

Bullying in British Education

Because I live with a teacher, I have become obsessed with Educating Cardiff, Educating Essex, Educating East End and Educating Yorkshire. (Yes, more reality TV). Currently I am watching Educating Cardiff. I’m not sure why I enjoy these shows so much, honestly they can get a bit repetitive, because there are a limited number of teenage problems the schools are prepared to air on national TV. But I do enjoy learning about what high school/ secondary school is like for children in the UK. (America would never ever allow a show to film the kids and staff in school)

I admit my education experience is far from the typical American’s, but I still know how it works. And one thing that most impresses me about the “Educating” series is how the schools make an obvious concerted effort to tackle bullying. They don’t tolerate students swearing to teachers or any sort of meanness towards other students. On one episode, I witnessed a boy get in trouble for merely intimidating a younger classmate. I think that UK is really getting this right!

In America, I know schools are attempting to target bullying, and cyber bullying more, but I can say they haven’t succeeded. When I was a teenager I was constantly bullied via texts or social media or in person. In my year 6 (I was 11-12) I actually had a boy physically spit on me. And never once did the bullies get in trouble. Despite the school being aware of the issues. Similar issues happened to my sister last year in a rural Missouri school. Girls picked on her and were mean. Again, the schools made no effort to stop it. I think it is because American adults attribute it all to “kids just being kids”.

But, I think it is this very mentality of kids behaving naturally and bullying is why a lot of American adults are mean and cruel in the workplace. I would have to say overall, we are just a nastier group of people. (Which is sad)

But in the UK the teachers and school staff fight bullying in all of its forms. They are much stricter about mobile phones in school, and as soon as a child is mean towards another it is dealt with. The USA and UK both experience a bullying problem. But from what my teacher housemate and the Educating series have told me, the UK is actually attempting to manage the issue. (Not to imply that America ignores the problem, it has just yet to find a method of managing the situation.)

The Best Way To Make S'mores in Britain [Recipe]

For my one year anniversary in England my partner bought me a bag of giant marshmallows from the American food section at Tesco. I was very excited, and decided that last night I would make S'mores! A classic American campfire food, and so beloved that we have ice cream and poptarts flavored after the treat.

As I am living in England...there are no graham crackers. Heartbreaking, I know! I had to substitute for Digestive biscuits (cookies) that are kind of like sugar cookies but with a bit of graham cracker vibe to them. I also realized (and this was a shock) my candy hoard didn't have any plain chocolate bars in it, so I had to use chocolate sauce. But no matter! I was making s'mores anyways!

The first British attempt at marshmallow taffy

As many American's may be aware, s'more without an actual fire is a bit of a challenge. My solution was to use candles. The small kind that you use to scent a room. I admit....because the marshmallows were giant and the candle flame was small...it took me ages to actual get the marshmallow to desired gooeyness but I got there eventually.

My first taste of a "proper" s'mores in a year was like heaven! I immediately went back to Girl Scout camping trips and family bonfires. For four of my housemates, it was their first time sampling this American delicacy. And it was well liked!

Candle campfire

So my report this Tuesday morning is that I, Indigo Ferra, an American living in the UK am fulfilling my endeavor to bring a bit of the USA to England! First step s'mores...next step..who knows? 4th of July party?












Recipe for English S'more

Ingredients: 
Marshmallows, Digestive Biscuits, Plain Chocolate Bar

Step 1: Light something on fire (preferably a grill, candle, or campfire. See picture above)
Step 2: Find something pointy to stick your marshmallow on. A fork, knife, kebab stick, or tree branch are all appropriate
Step 3: Hold marshmallow over fire, cook until it is toasty brown all the way around (or burn it until it's black, that is my preferred taste)
Step 4: Place roasted marshmallow on digestive biscuit, add a piece of chocolate and enclose with another digestive biscuit.
Step 5: Enjoy!!

Stop Your Cock Right There

Just a funny thing I pass by everyday on my way to work.
Obviously it is a sewer cover, and this is referring to some sort of stopping method......