As I have been here in Wales much longer now, very little surprises me anymore. I know the slang for Wales as well as or better than I do Canada. I am starting to have to think about the correct Canadian terminology when speaking to friends back home. I still have yet to pick up any aspect of the accent though. It has been hard to think up new topics to write in these blogs because the novelty has worn off but lucky for me my partner has just moved over here and has started reminding me of the Quirks or Wales all over again.
Though my American family still have Thanksgiving, around here Christmas comes the week of Halloween. I love Halloween and dressing up is my favourite thing to do but I am also a last minute shopper, usually making my costume day of. This gets complicated in the UK because Halloween isn't so big here and usually the day by October 30th, store have taken Halloween decorations and supplies out and put Christmas decorations and supplies in. Being from North America I find this WAY TOO EARLY as there are still 2 months to go!
I have a theory as to why this might be though. I think in Canada around this time we are just getting snow and at least as children we are excited about the endless possibilities this brings! There are so many activities that you can go in the snow to stay occupied. In Wales, there is rain. not snow. Rain brings less fun activities (though I am not arguing that rain isn't fun some of the time). Getting excited about Christmas and having Christmas markets and Winter Festivals with rides and games and Mulled wine, make up for the lack of snow, and the sooner the better!
If it lifts those November blues then I say why not! Embrace the  excitement that the Winter Holidays bring! Happy Holidays!

Peanuts Vs Monkey Nuts

In Wales, peanuts in the shell are called Monkey nuts but out of the shell they are peanuts. Fun!

Image taken from: http://www.tourabsurd.com/monkey-nuts/

Welsh: Educating their Drinkers

 

If you are a drinker with a curious mind then it takes very little time to tell that all bottles of alcohol sold in Wales have two warnings on them. Each tells you how many units of alcohol you are drinking and the recommended daily values for men and women. They also have a warning to pregnant woman not to drink. If these warnings were put on bottles in the US or Canada then I wouldn’t blink an eye at them because everybody is paranoid of being sued however I feel as though they are a little out of character here. From my experience there are not many people in the UK that would follow these drinking regulations (the recommended units of alcohol not the pregnancy warnings- I am not suggesting ANYTHING about soon to be mothers here). Cardiff is rumoured to be the largest drinking city in the UK. It is almost encouraged for people to have fall-down-drunk drinking stories.   It makes me wonder how many British make fun of our coffee cups that have “Caution: contents is very hot” written on them. Country specific worries I guess.

Thinking of summer on this cold day.....

I wrote a couple of blogs over the summer but never put them online so these are a little dated...

After all my entries on how poor the weather has been over here we have had some amazing weather over the past couple weeks. I feel like they picked Britain up and moved it a bit closer to the equator with a large clear umbrella over our heads so no rain could get us. With good weather, comes tanned and fake tanned welsh men and women. Being that I was funemployed for the first part of this summer I spent much of my time at the city parks. The parks in Cardiff are lovely- you almost feel as though you are not in the city anymore but instead somewhere between the secret garden and alice in wonderland’s queen of hearts garden. They are the magical place where all welsh stuck in the city come to do pretty well anything they want. The other day there was a small festival in the park closest to me and as I walked I was watching a dog show, viewing a sports camp and became the audience participation for a medieval fight. Then came the unorganized activities of exercise camps running around, people tanning and reading, then the groups of people enjoying a case of beer and a barbeque or the line-up of children at an ice-cream truck. Off to the side, the elderly couples watched from the shade and the solo runners find serenity on the track. Parks are truly the meeting place for all social groups.

It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog entry, I apologise for this, as I was writing exams, moving, getting tattoos (plural) and learning how to relax and take care of myself (two straight months of studying also means two months of make shift meals and increased stress levels) . It’s been harder and harder to find the unique aspects about living in the UK as now I am starting to feel they are getting more and more common. I have finally trained myself to say “toilet” instead of "washroom” and “Plaster” instead of “Band-aid”. I still learn new things everyday such as “chemist” versus “pharmacy” however those are less and less common the more time I spend here.

 I am now living on the other side of Cardiff (Wales) where I have no school friends, no idea how to pay my heat or water and the only Internet I have is around the corner at my new favourite pub. It’s the first time that I have felt like I am living here instead of visiting. So far I have learned that drunk people are bold but friendly (Not a new concept anywhere I suppose but even more so here). Almost anyone is very happy coming up and talking to me about whatever interests them. The most common one that I have got so far is “what is so important that you need to bring a computer to the bar?” Fair question although the guy beside me brought his work here too so it’s not as uncommon as you think. 

I do truly appreciate everyone’s good nature and welcoming attitudes. Wales is small enough that you can feel a part of a community and yet big enough that you can go to the pub around the corner and sing your heart out at karaoke night and not know anyone in the audience (not saying that I have done that- just theoretical so far). Let’s just hope these new connections I make can help me find a job. Fingers crossed.

The challenges of packaging

While grocery shopping I often get a kick out of the information on food and clothing items. I am used to there being a few different translations of ingredients and instructions on packages (mainly French and English since I am from Canada) but not as many as there are over here. It makes perfect since because many of the countries over here speak different languages and are close enough to over lap in local food distributors but i never imagined that  there would be 18+ languages on the back of each product. If I ever need to learn another language I am going to start with a grocery store...

 

As you already know as common knowledge or if you have read my blog (because it comes up a lot in my other entries) that it rains a lot in the United Kingdom. From what I understand this is one of the rainiest years in a while too. So knowing all of this I found it rather entertaining the other day when I walked through the aisles at Tesco Extra (the store for everything possible that you could ever want) and found there to be an entire row dedicated to sunscreen, bronzer and after sun. The bronzer makes since because it’s a common trend in the UK to have a slight orange glow induced by spray tan or tanning creams but the sunscreen and after sun was a total surprise to me.  I understand that yes you can get UV radiation in cloudy whether too, but even in the hottest brightest summers in Canada you don’t usually see entire rows devoted to sun protection products and that is in a country that actually sees the sun more than 12 hours a week. It really confused me until I talked to my roommate about it and he said it was because people in the UK really like to go on vacation to warm places. TADA! Of course! That made sense to me. There are very few weeks that I don’t think at least once about how much I would prefer to be in a warm bright dry place. Even coming back to Canada to find snow on the ground and a brisk wind seemed like heaven because there was sun. I needed sunglasses! Back to the main point, I now understand the point of the mass quantities of sunscreen but I guess the traveler in me is curious as to how many bottles of sunscreen are abandoned at airport security because their owners forgot to pack them in their checked bags or maybe I’m the only one that buys things like that at the destination because I am not confident enough in my packing organization.

Free Cash!

I don't have any stories about cash machines, I just think it's funny that so many of them say "Free Cash" instead of "Free Cash Withdrawals."
I feel like that could get confusing.....

Everything that I have Learned about Leeks

In the fall I went to my first rugby game in Wales with my North American friend Sam (I swear she isn't my only friend here). Because it is the national sport of Wales we weren't sure what to expect but we knew whatever we saw would be awesome. We were like kids in a candy store. Thanks to the wonderful ticket lady, we had prime seating,beside the athletes tunnel to the field. We arrived in time to hear the anthem and see the welsh goat all dressed up and then saw Samoas Manu Siva Tau war dance. We didn't think it could get any better, but then out of the corner of our eyes we spotted them. Magical creatures. They had white heads with beards and a tall grassy hat. They looked like gnomes that just came out of hiding. I learn new things about Wales on a daily bases but this creature was beyond my understanding. I got the courage to ask the man beside me what these were. I swear to you I did not believe him when he told me his answer... "those are supposed to be leeks" what?!!? I didn't want to look like a newbie so I left my questions to that but I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that people dressed up as leeks in this country to support their rugby team. People do crazy things when they are in love with sports. The rest of the games events weren't important (Wales lost, Samoa did their chant again, we saw some British Olympians and we made new friends).

Naturally the first  thing I did when I got home was Google "leeks and Wales." It turns out not many people care to do research on leeks and all the information I got was from wikipedia  and a health food site but  the following is everything you need to know about leeks....

Leeks are from the same family as onions and garlic. Very little is known about their nutritional benefits but they are believed to be similar to that of garlic and onions (go figure). They may or may not have immune supportive properties as well and be an anti-inflammatory and have cardiovascular support (again who knows how accurate this all is). People like them because they are a fairly durable plant that can grow in Wales all year round. They eat the stalk which has a mild onion taste.

Still didn't answer my initial question about why there was a connection between leeks and Wales......

But then I found this.... Apparently there is a legend that King Cadwaladr, a British king, had ordered his soldiers to wear leeks on their helmets in battle to identify themselves against the Saxons. I'm not sure if you would have guessed this or not but the battle took place in a leek field. This was such a common legend that even the great Shakespeare wrote about wearing  leeks  on the head as an ancient tradition in Henry V.

Quote from Henry V:
"Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is
remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a
garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their
Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this
hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do
believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
upon Saint Tavy's day."


Thought this could be your fun fact of the day.....

 




















To get a better view I got the help of: http://www.welshsuperstore.co.uk/

 

 

No yellow pee!

 

I forget how commentaries work but since I have been in Wales I have noticed a few ‘gender and sport’ issues. First off, I thought when coming here I would fit right in because I used to play rugby and it is the national sport of Wales. Whenever we have conversations about sports and what sports we like or what sports we play I always bring up the fact that I used to play rugby and every single time, no matter who I talk to, they give me funny looks. Apparently Rugby is not a “girls sport” and some boldly follow that up with “don’t you have to be fat (or big) to play rugby?” (for the record some of the best players on my high school rugby team were the small mighty girls ) I always ask “what are girls’ sports?” confused because so many of my girl friends growing up played rugby like me. The responses differ but usually it is football (soccer) or netball; for the tough girls, field hockey. I don’t believe that everyone in Wales has this same opinion, just those that I have talked to thus far.

 Our Optometry society plays 3 sports; an all-girls Netball team, an all-boys football team and a co-ed badminton team. I have recently started playing  Netball which I am still not fully sure of the rules but from what I understand it’s kind of like basketball but you don’t dribble, only 2 of your teammates are allowed to shoot at the net, and there is no backboard to bounce off of. It’s been really fun to learn how to play and as our team gets better, our plays are faster and we start to create strategies. I have also learned that since it is a “girls sport” many of the players wear a skort (for those who didn't have one of these lovely pieces of clothing in their grade 2 closet it is a half skirt half shorts). Last week we had our first game and I was off the first half because I had never played netball so another teammate was teaching me the rules and we started talking about one of her friends’ netball teams. She had mentioned that there was a boy on this team and he was forced to wear a skort because his coach wanted everyone to be uniform. I am not sure how this player felt about wearing the skort (I asked but the girl didn’t know) but it seemed kind of extreme to me.

I have since taken it upon myself to break gender stereotypes in small ways, for example I made all my flatmates watch the x-women in the CIS championship. If anyone can show that rugby can be played well by females it’s those lovely ladies.

Now that you have read my rant, you have probably realized that it has nothing to do with yellow pee. That was my rugby teams cheer. You have to be hydrated out there on the field.

Ugly Christmas Sweater? No, A Christmas Treasure...

Ugly Christmas sweater parties are a big trend in Canada/ North America, and why not? Ugly Christmas sweaters are awesome! They are everyone's guilty pleasure! Its the one party theme that everyone dresses up for. Why? My  theory is because everyone wishes they could wear them all the time..... If this is true for you, then Christmas in Wales is the place for you! I have seen the transformation from September to Christmas season (there is very little in between, when September is over they start selling Christmas stuff). Christmas sweaters enter the stores beginning of December and are sold out within a week, and that's when the awesomeness begins... ugly Christmas sweaters everywhere- but here they are not ugly, they are beautiful and edgy and stylish. Big Reindeer, Snowmen, Penguins, Snowflakes; the whole lot of Christmas characters on display everywhere. And these are not jokes. People pay up to 40 pounds (64 Canadian Dollars at the moment) for some of these things that in Canada you find at Value village for $1.25.  I am wearing a reindeer right now (although mine did not cost nearly as much) as I type this in a Starbucks (the only coffee shop open until 8 on a Saturday) and I fit in. Way to go Wales for being awesome.

Caution: Confused Canadian Crossing the Street

Since I was a child, I was always taught to look both ways before crossing the street; I used to be one of the several "traffic guards" in elementary school ( we got to go to the movies at the end of term if we were crossing guards). I kind of think of myself as an expert in the "crossing the street" department- or so I thought....  Traffic here is scary.....In Heidelberg Ontario there was no traffic, so to start this one lets back up to my time in small town Nova Scotia. If you even LOOKED at the road, people would stop for you JUST IN CASE you decided that you wanted to walk across the street. I always thought that was funny but I loved the fact that pedestrians owned the town. You almost got to places faster by walking then by driving. Then I moved to to big town  Nova Scotia and drivers would stop for you but not always instantaneously, they were more likely to stop if you were at a cross-walk. Now I live in big city Wales and I have stepped back into my childhood self, waiting for my parents (my classmates) to tell me when it's safe to cross the street and I am not ashamed to ask for the help!
The cars here will not stop for you. If you are in the way they will honk and hope that makes you move fast enough  that they wont have to slow down. There are blinking crosswalks here but many of them take a long time to change and even when they do, unless you are standing right at the edge, drivers ignore the fact that its not their turn to go.
I went into lab the other day and on my way into the classroom and was making small chat with my lab instructor. This is how that conversation went:
"How was your weekend?"
"Boring I did a lot of work- how about you?"
"Not good actually, I got hit by a car."
What! The rest of the story was what you would expect of a story of a person on a bike being hit by a car, however the added extra was that the car driver didn't stop and yelled out the window with some profanity that it was not his fault (by the sounds of it, it was). I should mention at this point that my lab instructor was OK. His bike was not. Point of story; when visiting Cardiff walk with the locals until you catch on and always wear a helmet when biking. Lets just say I am happy to know I have a health plan and some patient classmates.

Being Brutally honest

If my uncle taught me anything (of significant importance) that stuck with me then it would be the lesson to be brutally honest. Usually put in the context that when someone is being ridiculous you call them out on it, but could be used for many other examples. I got together with my North American friend Sam the other day and I was telling her that I had started to write a blog and we started talking about what she found unusual and interesting and we both agreed that people from the UK are generally pretty blunt and brutally honest.
If you do something wrong, they will tell you; if they need to give you bad news they will not sugar coat it. It's not them being mean, it's them being honest.
Sam and I were exchanging stories of this when she came up with  a very surprising one. As far as I am aware Sam has been on two big trips involving train transportation and both times her trains have been delayed. The first time it was because the train before hers was stopped because someone was on the tracks. The second time they actually announced over the sound system that they had to stop because there was "a suicidal man on the tracks". It amazed us both because if this situation were to happen in North America it would be announced as "technical difficulties" and then we would wait wondering what possibly broke down and then "the technical difficulty is solved" and  you are on your way wondering if this technical difficulty is really solved or if your bus/train/plane is near the end of its life ready to be sent to Nigeria (that's where my vehicles go to die).
When talking to my Welsh and English friends they have all confirmed that this is not abnormal to hear, and most likely all think our "technical difficulties" doesn't make sense (which it doesn't). This way I feel like I am involved in everyones train gossip, maybe next time they will announce who's having a child or who got fired from their job and why. Who needs TV when you have a train.

The one place where crisps (chips) would be considered dinner

Prawn Cocktail, Pickled onion,Worcester Sauce, Steak and Onion,Cheese and Onion, Steak and Ale, Roast Chicken, Chili and Lemon, and Fish and Chips are only a few of the many many many unusual kinds on crisps they have here. It's a national staple. CRISPS ARE EVERYWHERE, and not just any old crisps, but the most unusual combinations. There are rows of grocery stores dedicated to crisps. Don't believe me? Read "The Crisp List" a website dedicated to all the crisps you can find in the UK and a "wish list" that you can add too of all the different kinds of crisps you wish there were. I have never really been a crisp eater so I unfortunately have not ventured too far from the kettle chips original or Doritos but i really feel like trying all these crisps will be my national acceptance. I'm surprised that as part of the VISA application there isn't a box asking what crisps you enjoy most- I probably would have been rejected if that were the case. Anyway-with the rest of your procrastination time I suggest you take a look at the following link and think about what you want in your dream crisp.

http://crisplist.co.uk/index.php?id=the_list#hotpick

Coffeeholic Hell

So it's that time of year when students all over the world start studying and writing papers late into the night; turning what was a 11 o'clock bedtime into a 3 o'clock bedtime. We try and push every ounce of energy into staying awake to write those last 3 paragraphs for the mornings due date. Whether you are organised or not November is a time when all students unravel and turn to caffeine as the answer. Sweet sweet caffeine, how you have saved the lives of many students. Here's the problem, in wales you can't get that night cap! I walked around for 45 minutes the other night doing my own little coffee shop research. My results? Most shops close a 6pm, some at 7, the ones in the mall are open until 8 (thank goodness!), but after 8 o'clock you switch to beer. Coming from a world of 24/7 Tim Horton's this is such a strange concept. I asked several friends why they don't serve coffee after 8 and they all thought it was a very simple answer "because it's almost bedtime. Why would you want caffeine that late at night?" The truth is this country isn't built around coffee like we were/are. As I mentioned earlier, they drink hot beverages as a social event not for the pick-me-up the caffeine gives them. If they want caffeine they reach for an energy drink, which is something that is now highly discouraged against in North America.  I guess the point of this message is that I will be making my warm beverages at home before I go to the library for a late night rendezvous with my textbooks.

Not too hot, Not to cold, Just right.

Its funny how you miss the simple things when you are travelling (or living) in another country. For example, I miss North American water taps. Wales (and I believe many other parts of the UK too) have decided that it is more suitable to have one hot tap and one cold tap; you either burn your hands or your freeze them. There have been many times that I see females leap in front of the bathroom sinks because the surprise of the hot water has hit them hard. From what I have been told, the theory behind these sinks is that it shouldn't make a difference because you are supposed to fill the sink and mix the water, which sort of makes sense with washing the dishes but not as much when you are washing your hands in a public bathroom. Plus there are always little sections of hot and cold water pooling in the sink waiting for a sneak attack on your nerves. I know what you are probably thinking... first world problems. True, but I will never take a medium tap temperature for granted ever again.

Little Black Leggings are the new Little Black Dress

I have yet to find a female in Wales that does not own a pair of black leggings. This trend makes sense to me. As previously mentioned the weather here is odd. Its cold enough that you can't just wear a skirt but warm enough that jeans are to warm (you would think I am lying because its pretty well winter back home but I am not!) Thus, the introduction to the little black leggings, a suitable choice to wear with a long sweater, or under a skirt. I bought a pair my first week here and haven't looked back since!
Another trend here is wearing tights under shorts. This is a trend that I always thought looked ridiculous on the streets of Halifax but again, it suits the whether here. People can pull it off here. It is still not acceptable in Canada.... ever.

Wellies are for farmers

As I left Canada the big joke of all my friends and family was "well you better get some wellies (rainboots) as soon as you arrive," a statement that makes much sense when it rains at least 1/3 of the year (maybe this is an incorrect fact but thus far it has been proven true). As soon as I got here I learned other wise. It is VERY rare to see people wearing wellies on the streets of Cardiff. When i told my flatmates that I was looking for a good place to buy them, they all gave me strange faces and asked "why do you want wellies?" I thought the response was obvious but I told them anyway "to keep my feet dry" and the response I got back "if you walk down the streets wearing wellies then you will look crazy. Wellies are for people that live on farms or work on farms, they are NOT meant to be worn in the city..." It took me a while to comprehend that based on the weather that I had already experienced here but I still didn't understand, so I asked " what do you do to keep your feet dry?" My flatmates response started with an unknowing shrug and ended with "we don't."..... and I'm the crazy one.....
Since then, I have learned the rules or appropriate footwear.
1) Buy shoes with high soles (It makes a difference, trust me)
2) You are allowed to wear rainboots but only when it is REALLY raining and if they are "cute" or have the Hunter label
3) You are not allowed to wear them to a bar unless it is a "fancy dress" (costume or themed nights) theme, then you just need to justify them as part of a costume.

I have also learned that the weather can change almost instantaniously. It can be patio weather one minute and then downpour the next so ALWAYS bring an umbrella (this is a new concept for me because if you open an umbrella in windy Nova Scotia then it will be broken in a dumpster 10 minutes later.

I arrived Sept 18, so that brings me to a total of 45 days of having lived in Cardiff, Wales. I picked up and moved away from my family and friends to a country that I knew nothing about but the fact that it rained a lot. I have been to the United Kingdom before on vacation and I understood some of the cultural difference but I didnt think there would be as many small differences between the 2 countires. This blog is meant to highlight some of the things that I have found to be strikingly different between Canada and Wales. Its a collboration of the things that make me chuckle in everyday living, and sometimes the things that make me wish I was back in Canada.

I named this blog "drinking tea with the locals" because quite simply that is what I do. Ever since I stepped off the bus on my first day with all the other international students I was offered tea and biscuits. After a night out with the girls, we will come back have have a glass of tea and discuss the shinanigains of the evening. Sitting in my room on a cold wet night, listening to the rain while I do my homework, I drink tea to warm me up. I have always enjoyed a cup of tea, but here it has become a part of my life. The welsh have this part of life figured out; tea isnt just a drink, its a way of socializing, getting together with friends and family and really communicating with each other OR It can also just be a way to sit and unwind, go to a cafe to read a book and people watch.
I can't promise my blog will be interesting but I will certianly try, so maybe if you come to Wales you can experience it in all it glory. Cheers.