Foxy Foxes

`Look at this sly fox. Most would think that it is adorable.  Well when I first moved to London, I probably would have thought so too.  However, it was not until I was awakened in the middle of the night to the sound of blood curdling screams that sounded as if someone was being murdered right outside my bedroom window.  After looking around and finding nothing and realizing I was safe as I was on the 3rd floor (or was it the 2nd), I summized that it was sometype of animal as my grad student housing was right next to Richmond Park and nothing was going to get me.  After talking to some of my other international friends, they also admitted that they were terrified by the horrible screams.  Once again, one of my fellow British classmates explained and assured us that it was only the foxes as it was mating season.  

 I wish I would have known as I woke up with nightmares for about of week, dreaming that I was being attacked or witnessing something horrible.  The advisory in the travel guides should state something like this " beware of the crazy fox sex sounds that actually sound like a woman being murdered...get used to it as you will have to sleep with your window open for air circulation and heaven forbid that do not go to bed early on the night before rubbish pick up!" 

So they even go thru the rubbish (aka trash) and will tear apart and strew everything around if your rubbish is not secure in a bin (aka can).  This has also woken me up several times as they will fight over your rubbish.  All you hear is the riping sounds and the eerie crackling of plastic and scraping sounds and all your brain can think of is an intruder.

So you think that I am exaggerating a bit?  Check out these you tube videos especially in a dark room and half asleep.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az80KVbVUSs  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NuhlibHsM  (this one explains the various vocalizaitons)

The website buzzfeed.com also show confirms how scary and annoying these noises by listing them as #29 and #30 most enraging things about living in London.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/the-most-enraging-things-about-living-in-london

With that being described and highly admitt that it is annoying, I do not wish or agree that they should be harmed as we, as humans, have enroached upon their habitat and territory and the foxes are just adapting to what is the mass human urban sprawl. 

So be forewarned these fox noises are crazy sounding! 

Zero, nought, oh, nill.... whatever you call it, it is still a big fat ZERO!!!

So after reminescing with my dear American friend on our experiences in a particular stats class at a British University, I find it hilarious how naive we were to the various different versions to say "zero".  For several classes us North Americans (as there were several Canadians) along with other international students were highly confused not only because it was a statistics class but trying to figure out why the signifcance level of 0.05 had changed to "knot point knot five".   Seriously, the professor should have known it would be lost in translation and should have at least wrote it out.

May be I had not fully adjusted to the time difference and still had a serious case of jet lag, but I honestly thought it had been so long that I had been out of school that perhaps statistics had changed or I perhaps totally missed something the first time around that I took that class as an undergraduate.  Nope, come to find out the other international students were right with me in the confusion of calling "0" a "nought" (not the spelling of k-n-o-t like I wrote out in my notes) and wondered why it was the word zero was not used.  It was a silly and embarassing misunderstanding, as come to find out that there are several British terms for all sorts of things and zero is one of them.  So to clearify, "oh" - for telephone numbers (they like to say double "oh" for 00), "nought"  - for stats and other mathematics, "zero" - for temperatures, nill - for sports.  Oh, and don't forget that it is not naughty when they refer to the early 2000's as the "noughties". 

"You Alright?"

So keeping with the basics, one of the first things that I had to get used to was the differences in greetings. I assumed that the standard greetings were "Hi, How are you?" (and no not in the choppy almost evil Mazungo African greeting type way that my fellow African travelers could relate to) or "How are you doing today?"

So when I meet my first set of true British natives, I was greeted with "You alright?" or "Are you alright there?" With the tone and rhythm of these simple words, I thought "geezz, I know I am jet lagged and probably sleep deprived but do I look that bad". I then began to wonder if I had something on my face or perhaps I over or under did my make up... had my eyeliner gone astray or even worse did I have a booger on my face????

So very rapidly and quizzical I would be reply "yah" or "I'm fine; thanks for asking" and wonder why are you asking while often secretly wiping my face (just to make sure there was not anything gross on my face).

It was not until I meet one of my British classmates and she said the same thing but this timel I asked why she asked. Was it because I looked sick or something? She laughed and replied that was the standard greeting almost equivalent to the American "Wassup". With a sigh of relief, I smiled and had to laugh at myself. Here people where being nice and giving me a standard greeting while I thought they were sincerely concerned about my health or trying to let me know I had something wrong going on with my face.

After speaking with one of my North American classmates and now great friend, I found out she had the same conundrum. Oh how silly we were to think that just because we spoke the same language it was the same all around!

Skip to My Loo My Dharling and Wiggle It Just a Lil' Bit

So almost 4 years ago I left on my epic journey to study and live abroad in London, England. I was excited and nervous all at once yet mildly calmed by the fact that I could speak the same language in this distant country. Hmmpphh! Or so I thought! I thought I prepared myself in some ways by choosing to work at a retail store that sold foreign goods and eateries as my second job to save up while also trying out some of the things I may encounter whilst abroad. However, I did not have anyone tell me the basics and the more practically knowledge that would help my everyday life. In a lot of ways, I am glad I did not as I would not have the hilarious stories and tidbits to share. So throughout this blog this is my way to share as well as to educate in a humorous quasi anthropological way so do not be surprised if I go in between American and British English terms, sayings and even spellings. I hope that you enjoy my posts and leave me comments as well to share your own experiences and thoughts. And by all means, read this if you are planning on any type of foreign traveling!

So even though it is not customary to speak of digestive relieving needs (i.e. peeing, weeing, twinkling, urinating, shitting, pooing, defecating), it is vital to know the customs and practices of about this subject since it is the first thing one needs to do after a 9 hour trans-Atlantic flight! So I wish someone had told me some of the basics like which button to push or how to properly pull down the lever to flush the toilet. So I will share....

So after the plane lands from the grueling 9 plus hour flight, I literally had to run to the bathroom since I drank numerous amounts of liquids to stay hydrated. Being from the South, I was raised to be somewhat of a Southern belle in the sense of treating people nicely and asking for things sweetly. So when I used the common term of "bathroom", the place where toilets and sinks are located, I was given a strange look within the airport and then was told the "Loo" were located in that direction. Whatever, I shook it off as I had to RUN not skip to the "loo"! I was amazed how big the airport stalls were and how the doors came all the way down to the floor. It was strange to me as how was I supposed to know if it was vacant or occupied without being able to see the person's feet under the door or the shape of the person within the crack of the door. Then, I thought about it again and was surprised to realize how pervy that set of culture clues seemed. How silly of me, the door had an indicator sign to tell me if it was occupied or vacant dependent on how the door handle was turned. How clever!

So once I entered with all of my luggage and was still able to turn around and did my business, I noticed that there were two large buttons within the wall. Perplexed as to why there were two, I figured that I would press both just to be on the safe side and waited for my business to be flushed away.

The next toilet/bathroom experience was more complex (which it should have not been if my hosts would have told me the custom prior to). So anyways, after once again asking for the location to relieve myself of my bodily waste, I was corrected as I did not call it by its proper name a toilet or even more universal a "wash closet"! Really!!!! If I was trying to be crude I would have just asked for the toilet but maybe I also needed to use the sink to wash my hands or the mirror to fix my hair! And really a "WASH CLOSET"!!! That is a literal term and since when do people wash in a small tiny space like a closet. Oh well, whatever it was called I needed to use it! So in I went and used what seemed to me looked like the most ancient toilet. When I went to pull the handle, nothing went down the toilet. Tried again and again. Great I broke it! I did not want to yank or pull on the handle too hard as it looked like it was in a fragile condition and did not want to have water spurting out every where as well. So I graciously exited (thank God I only urinated!) and quietly stated to my host that I thought I broke the toilet somehow as the it was not flushing. I did not expect to see my host return my statement with a wide smile and a mischievous grin. He then said that he was just waiting for me to say that and how I actually needed to wiggle the handle of the toilet or perhaps hold it down or even pump it up and down to make it fully flush. So I tried those options and realized that it took a lot of work to flush that old ancient toilet. As I was wiggling the handle, the lyrics of that 70's disco song"wiggle it just a little bit" popped into my mind. Thus, I always silently giggle and sing that lyric when wiggling and giggling old British toilets!

Oh and later on I found out that the two buttons in the wall to flush the more modern toilets are for one a reduced water flush to conserve water and the second for a larger regular water flush. Or so I have been told. From my experience, when in doubt and to get the job done, push both. Oh and to save embarrassment from being called out by the locals, do not call it a "bathroom" unless you specifically want a bath tub to have a bath in or a "restroom" unless you plan to actually rest in that room. Silly technicalities I know but it will save you from being laughed at and clearly labeled as a foreigner.

Well, bye-bye for now my dharlings and happy trails ;)