{"id":248,"date":"2018-08-09T21:19:19","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T01:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mendingmisconceptions.com\/?p=248"},"modified":"2018-08-09T21:19:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T01:19:19","slug":"england-day-2observations-from-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/?p=248","title":{"rendered":"Day 2, England: Observations from The House"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I woke up yesterday, or today, since I think this will upload on the 9 (probably because of where my original WordPress location is), at about seven.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I didn&#8217;t actually get out of bed, for two hours but jet lag, coupled with sleep issues made for an interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Breakfast was warm cereal (my friends tell me its an immigrant thing, but as the child of one, and with Zu being from Colombia, we definitely appreciated it), saltfish cakes, toast and tea.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I tell you about this to set the scene.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>While we&#8217;re eating, we&#8217;re also listening to the Jeremy Kyle show.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>For those of you who think of the Brits as genteel&#8230;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>you&#8217;ve never watched this show he is the British Steve Wilcose.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Except, one difference I did note was the audience.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We Americans are as animated as the people on stage.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But the people here, though they reacted, didn&#8217;t do it with the same enthusiasm I&#8217;m accustomed too.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Regardless, it was still extremely entertaining.<\/p>\n<p>It also rained all day, which is more in keeping with my English stereotypes (unlike sunfilled yesterday).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So Zu, my family and I hung around inside, watching TV, using our various devices, and debating.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And it was great.<\/p>\n<p>The atmosphere: though its warm, there&#8217; seems always to be a breeze or something to keep you from overheating.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As well as the programming, it was so weird seeing the US talked about from an outside perspective.<\/p>\n<p>That comment leads me to something else I noticed: TV.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I don&#8217;t know if this is just this family, or an east vs.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>west thing, but when we arrived, I noticed immediately that my aunt was watching TV.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And Zulay noted that in Colombia the TV is running 24\/7.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Where in Montenegro, if we watched TV.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>it was Netflix.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But, that&#8217;s also the case for many places in the US: TV&#8217;s becoming obsolete in the face of Netflix, Prime (and whatever other) subscriptions right from your device.<\/p>\n<p>The home time also gave me a chance to notice, or really consider food differences.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Here, though the portions are not small, my aunt always ensures there&#8217;s some kind of fruit or vegetable with the meal.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s just her being a former nurse and health-conscious, or specifically a non-American thing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I think we almost always had fruit and\/or veggies in Montenegro, and Zu said that that was normal practice in Colombia.<\/p>\n<p>I also began considering moving here.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Wait, hold the judgment and hear me out:<\/p>\n<p>No, I have not yet explored the city (which we should be doing later\/tomorrow if the weather allows), but I was already drawn in.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The lack of AC&#8217;s (because of that coolness I mentioned, though even if its burning, I think your just SOL unless you can get a breeze), the food thing (which yes, I&#8217;m already working on at home with my own meals), and while the TV stuff wasn&#8217;t too big a deal, since I don&#8217;t really watch TV, I still enjoyed the &#8220;programs&#8221; and &#8220;adverts&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not spontaneous enough to just pick up and move somewhere, especially to a new country (which I can&#8217;t do anyway without a visa), but I&#8217;d always been torn between Madrid and London for my study abroad, and after one day I&#8217;m already considering here.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If we get in a day trip to Espa\u00f1a, that should help me narrow things down some, as well as actually traveling into London today.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But for right now, I&#8217;m enamored with this place.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I&#8217;ve been doing Visa research, as well as double-checking my school&#8217;s study abroad requirements.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So don&#8217;t be surprised if (when) you hear I&#8217;m moving in two years.<\/p>\n<p>Along with Zu&#8217;s standard, three or four mininaps (okay, I&#8217;m exaggerating&#8230;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>two\/three), she and I both slept for about two hours (an hour and a half longer than expected).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Now, its 1:30 (8:30 back home), and we&#8217;re both pretty wide awake.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>(Well, I&#8217;m confident Zu can get back to sleep in a flash.) But I&#8217;m not so sure about myself.<\/p>\n<p>I was so certain I&#8217;d circumvented the jet lag monster&#8230;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>when I started nodding off.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But we have to be up in about 7 hours for my first foray into London proper (I&#8217;m beyond excited), so I&#8217;m about to attempt the shower again, and let you all go.<\/p>\n<p>I just wanted to give a calmer update (since there were no English oddities to marvel over today).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But in the meantime, you should check out this<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t6ya9gLVlS4\"> video<\/a> I made some years ago about blind people traveling (in case you were wondering about the process).<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Addendum: Milica said that her family&#8217;s a bit of an oddity (she probably didn&#8217;t say oddity), but that in general, TV is pretty big in Montenegrin households).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I woke up yesterday, or today, since I think this will upload on the 9 (probably because of where my original WordPress location is), at about seven.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t actually get out of bed, for two hours but jet lag, coupled with sleep issues made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[25,32],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-writes","category-travel","tag-england","tag-observations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}