The GirlAlive Blog

Things the British Do Better

October 21, 2008 on 6:36 pm | In Scotland | 4 Comments

Okay, so I keep getting whiny emails from British people complaining that I’m too negative about this country. So this post is to address some of the things that the British do better than Americans. (I could easily come up with a list going the other direction, but I’ll save that for another day.)

Cash

The British have much better money than Americans. It took some getting used to at first when I moved here, but it is very well-designed currency. With the bills, the smaller denominations are printed on smaller paper than the larger denominations. So the blind and elderly can easily figure out what money they’ve got. The coins have two things above American coins. First, they have the amount printed on them. Look at your American coinage. None of them tell you in plain numerals how much they’re worth. The dime says “one dime” instead of “10 cents”. It is unfriendly and illogical. The second thing the British have done with their coins is the one pound coin. Seriously, Americans, ditch the one dollar bill. Dump them all in a giant shredder and switch to dollar coins. It makes bus fare and vending machines and everything so much easier. Plus, coins last longer in circulation, so in the long run they cost the government less to produce.

Dates

Why, America, are you the only country that writes your dates in the format of MM/DD/YY? The rest of the world uses the DD/MM/YY format, which is more logical. The day is the most specific part of the date, then the month is slightly less specific and the year is the most general part. So putting the day, then the month, then the year is the most logical format. Throwing the day in between the month and the year is just confusing.

Healthcare

The National Health Service in the UK is incompetent and slow. But it is available to everyone. On the other hand, health insurance companies in the US are both incompetent and malicious. I have worked for the NHS and US insurance companies, and after experiencing both, the main reason I won’t live in the US is the health care system. Profiting from the sick and injured just seems barbaric to me.

Potato Chips

The British insist on calling them “crisps”, but if you ignore that irritating terminology, they do them right. They come in a million flavors and they are always sold in little single-serving packets, so you don’t end up pigging out and eating an entire family size bag by yourself.

Chocolate

British chocolate is just better. It’s creamier and much nicer than most American chocolate. If I ever moved back to the US, I’d be ordering Galaxy chocolate from an importer.

Political Campaigns

They tell you what the candidate stands for, without insulting the opposition or generally being obnoxious. I’ve been through several elections in the UK, and never felt as manipulated and dirty as I did visiting the US during election season for two weeks.

Working Conditions

Fair amounts of sick leave, shorter hours, more vacation time and a full year (with partial pay) maternity leave. It leads to a less stressed and healthier and happier workforce. By comparison, some of the places I worked in the US seem like slavery.

Mass Transit

In some larger cities there is good transit, but in most of the US, you can’t get anywhere without a car. I lived just outside Duluth back in the states, and there was one bus an hour. I live much further outside Edinburgh, in what is termed as “rural Midlothian”, and there are four buses an hour outside my house, and if I walk 10 minutes to the main road there are more like 12 an hour.

So there. I’m not all against the British. They do some stuff right. But don’t get me started on their inability to celebrate a holiday, or their complete ignorance regarding cinnamon…

Alana

My Vacation in Minnesota

October 14, 2008 on 9:28 pm | In Life In General | 3 Comments

I was in Minnesota visiting my family and friends. I miss all of them already, and I’ve only been home about a week. Here’s how the vacation went, pretty much. Keeping in mind that I don’t remember much the further I get into a vacation, cause I just stop thinking.

Day 1, Tuesday

Got up at 2am to go to the airport. Hadn’t slept at all before that, so it was looking like a long day. Caught
early flight to Amsterdam. Then caught flight to Minneapolis from there. That flight took about 9 hours, but it
was good. We had nice flight attendants and the food was fantastic. Got to choose our own movies, so I saw a few
good ones.

Sharla picked us up from the airport, and kindly brought us to Target, so we could buy all the liquid toiletries

that the airline wouldn’t let us pack. I immediately got a bit of culture shock. I had forgotten how much stuff

is in American stores, and how big all the bottles of shampoo are. After Target we went to Mark and Sharla’s*

house and had pizza and watched a DVD of Big Bang Theory (which was really funny).

* For those that don’t know, Mark and Sharla are friends of mine who live in St. Paul. I went to high school with

Sharla and we were on the knowledge bowl team together. Then she attended InterVarsity at UMD, where she met Mark,

who is one of my brother’s best friends. Did you get all that? Good. There will be a quiz later.

Day 2, Wednesday

Sharla brought us into St. Paul when she went to work in the morning. She also supplied us with coupons for the

History Museum and the Science Museum. We visited them both, and in between had some lunch and located some

sunscreen, cause it was sunnier than I expected, and I am very pale.

In the evening, I went out for dinner with Sara (another friend from school, but we know each other all the way

back to the enrichment program in 5th grade) and her husband Fred. I also got to meet Sara’s pet rats, which made

me miss my rodents a bit.

Day 3, Thursday

We were supposed to go to the Mall of America, but my feet were killing me, so we stayed at Mark and Sharla’s house

instead, and played board games and waited until my parents picked me up to shift to a hotel.

Day 4, Friday

Stayed at a Comfort Inn, that was nicer than most. I think it was in the process of being converted into a Quality

Inn, or one of the more expensive ones, but it wasn’t finished yet, so it was still reasonably priced.

Met up with my aunt and uncle, Cheryl and Phil and their kids Raeanne and Erin and Raeanne’s boyfriend Roy. We all

went to the Renaissance Festival. My uncle Larry and aunt Karen joined us for a while. I had an entourage. A lot

of the food stands were closed because it was the only Friday that the Festival was open. So I had Ye Olde Fajitas

and a traditional Medieval blue slushy for lunch. My husband laughed and mocked all the people wearing kilts and

tube socks. We saw the best Storyteller ever. A grand time was had by all. The professional insulter called some

woman a “tree-humping hermaphroditic weasel.”

We drove to Duluth, with a stop for dinner at Toby’s in Hinckley.

Day 5, Saturday

The day started kind of early, when I woke at 4am to the sound of a small dog barking in the house. My parents do

not have a dog, so I quickly surmised that my brother must have arrived with his wife, two kids and schnauzer

(Hooch). Lest there be any confusion, it was the schnauzer barking.

Later in the day, we went to a football game at UMD. The UMD Bulldogs beat the visitors so bad that I felt sorry

for them. 44 to 7. And the 7 was scored when UMD had given up and started putting in all their injured players.

Day 6, Sunday

Went to church. Went to a party my mom threw at the Encounter. Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to my

cousin Peter for all his help. It was fun.

Day 7, Monday

Took Hooch for a walk. He was so excited he nearly exploded. Went to WalMart and had pictures taken of

everyone, against my will. But when it comes to pictures, it’s easier not to argue with Jaime. Then went home and

had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. With pumpkin pie and can-shaped cranberries and everything.

Day 8, Tuesday

My brother had to go home, so the morning was spent with the chaos of packing up two kids and a dog. Was very sad

to see them go because Zach and Rissa are so darned cute. And I even miss Hooch. He’s a very sweet dog. After

they left we hung around and went out for dinner and pretty much relaxed.

Day 9, 10 and 11, Wednesday – Friday

We spent these days chilling and doing tourist things. We went to the Depot Museum and the Aquarium. It was all

very fun. I liked the otters at the aquarium. I was amused to find a picture of my mom in the museum. To be

honest, I’m getting a bit foggy on what we did those days. I think there was a lot of shopping. It’s all a blur.

Day 12, Saturday

Went to the Bayfield Apple Festival in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was lots of fun and a very American thing for my

husband to see. We had apples with caramel and cinnamon ice cream. I also had a big bowl of Wisconsin for lunch.

By that I mean, deep fried cheese curds. (I think they need to add some apple to the curds though. They would

have been 46% better with a spicy apple chutney.)

Day 13, Sunday



Went to church. Went home and packed.

Day 14, Monday

My parents drove us back to the Twin Cities. We got checked into a hotel with an airport shuttle, and my parents

went back to Duluth.

Day 15/16, Tuesday/Wednesday

Flying home. Ugh. I hate flying. I really really hate the Amsterdam airport. You can’t just go from one gate to

another in Amsterdam. We were early for our flight to Edinburgh, so we had to stand and wait for them to open the

gate so they could security screen us, even though we’d already been screened in Minneapolis. The whole place is a

bleak horrible place, like an abandoned warehouse. They tried to cheer it up with creepy bronze sculptures and

identical fake trees in every gate area. And every 30 seconds there’s a hostile announcement over the loudspeakers

in a Dutch (nearly Nazi-German) accent saying something like, “Passenger Smith you are delaying your flight!

Report to Gate 12 immediately! Your luggage will be off-loaded!” I kept expecting someone to herd me into a room

to have my head shaved and a number tattooed on my arm.

So then we got home and I vowed to never fly through Amsterdam again. Overall, I had an excellent time, and I

didn’t want to come back to Scotland. If I still had my former job, I probably wouldn’t have come back. Having a

better job with co-workers who behave like normal adults makes all the difference.

Now I’m back at work and things are getting more “normal”. The guinea pigs are acting like spazzes. Jayne the

hamster keeps climbing the walls and falling on her head, as usual. And no, I didn’t end up getting a tattoo. Never settled on a design, and didn’t really find the time.

Alana

Home

October 8, 2008 on 4:30 pm | In Life In General | No Comments

I haven’t been posting cause I’ve been in Minnesota.  I’ll give a more detailed summary of what I did there when I can think a bit more clearly.  I spent a very long time on an airplane, and I somehow lost Tuesday.  Plus, I learned that there is absolutely nothing that I don’t hate about Amsterdam airport.  It is a model of inefficiency with all the charm and beauty of an abandoned warehouse.

Alana