Tents on the Beach: Bank Holiday

Today was sunny, warm, and a wee bit blowy and all together perfect for England's end of summer national bank holiday.

Apparently, there are eight English national holidays this year, which include New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (which is just the day after X-mas, I guess). The other holidays, like today's bank holiday are officially proclaimed by royal proclamation each year. Cool! This process is due to the Banking and Financial Dealings Act of 1971.

As I mentioned, the weather was well nice, and all the people with the day off of work decided to take advantage and enjoy the beach. I've notice this before, but English people like to bring their own little wind-breaking shields, which are just colorful plastic walls staked into the sand, and tents to the beach. Kinda of strange, right? I've never seen this before in the States.









♡ - Kristen

The Tele: Licensing & Programs

Licensing

I was surprised to discover that in order to watch TV legally in any household, one MUST have a TV License, which you must pay for and renew every year. And it costs £145.50. Say what?! So you're telling me, even though I can go and buy a TV, plug it into the wall, or even pay for digital satellite, I have to separately pay for a license just to have a TV? I don't know about you, but that seems pretty shitty to me.

According to tvlicensing.co.uk, it’s against the law to watch TV programs as they're being shown on TV without a valid license. And if you're caught without the license it's considered a criminal offense. This can lead to prosecution, a court appearance and a fine of up to £1000, not including legal costs.

Then, okay, maybe the law is old and outlandish, not even enforced anymore? No, it's just the opposite and actually quite a big deal. A random TV Licensing agent even came to one of Ashley's previous homes to check and see if they'd had a license (which they didn't). Supposedly, agencies can detect when a TV outlet is in use and if a license isn't active for that location, a little messenger is sent. That's crap!

Luckily, the boys have a license for our home, and I get to enjoy English programming, which is especially nice on all those rainy days.

Programs

Friends reruns, Fresh Prince of Bel-air reruns, America's Got Talent, Two-and-a-half Men - hmmm, this is just like America.

If it's not an American show or movie playing on TV, there's usually some version of an American show playing on TV. Instead of American Idol there's X-Factor, instead of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader there's Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?, instead of The View there's Loose Women, which I thought was particularly hilarious. In America, when a woman is loose, loose is describing her vagina more than anything, as in she sleeps around so much her vagina's loose. Here, a woman being loose, is merely a woman being independent. Ha!

And then there's the English Office (which came first, by the way), except I'm so use to the American version starring Steve Carell, that I can't help but just compare the two versions instead of enjoying the show. The English Office's humor is more dry, just so you know, and you didn't even think that was possible, right? And there's also an English version of Deal or No Deal, but instead of beautiful women with suitcases, there are hopeful contestants with bright red, glittering boxes.

Hollyoaks and Eastenders are two long-lasting soap operas that play on TV all the time. Hollyoaks being the more trendy, youthful one.

Come and Dine With Me has got to be one of my favorite original English shows. It's simply a dinner hosting competition, where four or five contestants a week have to host a dinner party for the others and then be judged on a point system. After all the contestants have hosted a dinner party, the one with the highest dinner score wins £1000. What makes the show so good is the narrator, who makes fun of everyone and everything throughout.

Another favorite show is Peep Show, which is a comedy seen alternatively through the eyes of two mid-thirties men.

Shooting Stars is a weird long-lasting comedy gameshow, where points and prizes are awarded but are meaningless. There's nothing American I can really compare it to. It's difficult to explain and at first I found it not that funny, but after seeing it a couple times, its awkwardness, stupidity and lack of direction become its best qualities.

There are tons of other shows, but I can't be assed at the moment. Anyway, too much TV rots your brains, as my mom used to say.

♡ - Kristen

Waitress in England: Where I Work

An eclectic little bistro café down the street from my house is now where I spend at least 3 days/nights a week working. It's named Number 4 after its address, which is 4 Southbourne Grove.

In the mornings, it's mostly drink orders, mostly coffees. Because I'm not a very big coffee fan, before I started working here I had not the slightest idea what espressos, lattes, or cappuccinos even were. Now I'm a frothing, pouring, mixing genius, although I can't seem to keep a steady hand and bring drinks to the table without a little dribbling.

On Friday and Saturday nights Number 4 turns into a dark candlelit wine bistro, with rotating live music. Last Friday, a great Latin jazz duo called A Bossa Imensa entertained customers with sultry and smooth classics sung in Brazilian.

The walls are decorated with paintings and photography from local artists. And quirky touches like rosebud lights, antiqued mirrors, protruding metal ceilings, shell ashtrays in the garden, and an old piano along the wall give the café that little something extra special.

Having plenty of waitress experience, I find the job just the same here in England, as it is in the States. I had the notion that Europeans don't tip (I remember numerous times when foreigners left nothing while dining out in America), but, fortunately, most English DO leave a tip at dinner.

I get paid minimum wage, which is about £5.80 per hour. And my nightly tips (while still being paid hourly) range from £20 to £40. This job and the pay isn't at all what I got my college degree for, but at the moment it's exactly what I want.

So far, I've only had one instance where the cultural barrier came into play. During my first day of work a little girl came up to me while I folded silverware and asked me for a serviette. And I had no idea what that was. As I walked to the back to ask the owner, leaving the little girl waiting, I caught the girl's mother eying me curiously. Turns out a serviette is just another word for napkin, and I had had one in my hand the whole time. Ha!













♡ - Kristen

Corfe Castle & Ferry

Despite the rain forecast, today was gorgeous! And Ashley and I took advantage of the weather and made a trip to Corfe Castle, about a 40 minute drive from home.

According to the website, it may have been a defensive site even in Roman times and the first castle buildings would have been built of wood. In 979 King Edward was reputedly murdered by his step-mother so that her own son could become King of England. In the latter half of the 11th Century the castle was rebuilt in stone by William the Conqueror and for the next six hundred years was a royal fortress used by the monarchs of England.

There was a £7 per person charge to enter the ruins, and we thought 'screw that' and decided to walk around it and enjoy the small Corfe village instead. The town was adorable having miniature homes, with tiny hobbit-sized doors and fixtures. I was surprised to discover that the homes were still in use and despite its ancient look, the town was still functioning in modern times.

Later, Ashley and I made our way back home via ferry that took us from the town of Swanage to the shores of Sandbanks.

















♡ - Kristen

Rain, rain, GO AWAY!

Hmmmmm, so the the rumors are true, England is very very rainy. And I've been told I ain't seen nothing yet! Grrrreat!

Sadly, this weekend I had plans to go to the local air show, which featured an aerial performance by the Red Arrows, England's equivalent to America's jet performers, the Blue Angels. But due to the rain, I didn't bother going to the show, and coincidentally I heard the Red Arrows performance was postponed/canceled the other day!

It's already been raining for the past 5 days straight and as you can tell by the forecast below, it's not going to get any better. And please notice how Bournemouth happens to be the only city listed for rain in that one particular graph. LOVELY! It's as if there's just a little cloud over this city at all times.

Even though currently the weather is very rainy, I noticed earlier that even in the nicest of "English summer" days the weather was still a bit dodgy. A typical summer day would include waves of weather. What I mean is, it will be hot, humid, and sunny one minute, and literally the next thing you know a gray cloud is overhead, and it's cold, rainy, and windy, BUT then another minute goes by and it's sunny and hot as hell again!

Likewise, it's been a bitch to get dressed for the entire day. I've learned to love layers. After talking to some of the girls out here, there seems to be a general consensus to stuff a purse with a scarf, sunscreen, an umbrella, and a bikini cause you never know....

Luckily, despite the rain, I've been a having a great time at my new job (but more on that later!).











We're definitely not in Cali anymore, Toto.
♡- Kristen

Pretty Money

They're orange, purple, red, or green and worth a little more than 1½ times the monetary value of the dollar. And in the place of stern-faced gentlemen is the slight smile of a young Queen Elizabeth II on each banknote. They vary in size, in length and in height, and have shiny metallic bands on them. All in all, they're more eye-catching and diverse then the money I've grown up with.

Besides the fact that when I first arrived my measly thousand dollars dwindled down to an even more measly six-hundred-and-something pounds, I find the pound sterling, also commonly referred to as quid, fun to live with and use. As I suppose it is for any visitor of a foreign country, I can't seem but to view this currency as play money or Monopoly money, like it's not real.

The coins are actually the most fun. The coin worth one pound is about the size of a nickle, but gold-colored, and thick as two stacked nickles. There's even a coin worth two pounds that's large, like a 50 cent coin, and two toned, having a silver center, and gold-colored outer ring. These coins, in particular, remind me of gold nuggets, like I'm Robin Hood or a pirate, keeping a sac of precious treasure. They're fun!

Here, since the pound is worth a bit more, I find a lot of foods from offies or grocery stores are below £1. (Mind you, a dollar will get you nothing in the States!) So, I can't help feel that everything is really cheap. But its not, I have to keep reminding myself to multiply prices by 1.6 to really compare the price to American ones. I'll make a comparative list of prices and goods sometime soon, so you can get a feel for what people are paying for things out on this island!









♡ - Kristen

Ginger Beer vs Root Beer

Ginger beer is a non-alcoholic beige-colored carbonated fizzy drink that consists of, you guessed it, ginger! It's basically the English equivalent (wannabe, really) of America's root beer. I hear it's pretty popular in Australia too.

Root beer and ginger beer are unmistakably similar as they both have ingredients that derive from the root of a plant and both have a strong distinctive bite to their taste but at the same time they taste dramatically different. I find root beer is much sweeter while ginger is more bitter. I think it really comes down to which beer you grow up with though. I'm a fan of the root, and my English friends, of course, fans of the ginger. I do NOT like ginger beer. And they do NOT like root beer.

I had never heard of ginger beer before. And I actually thought for the longest time that it was alcoholic. My friend Chaz kept coming over with cases of little glass bottles of it that the guys in the house would all guzzle down together. Later, Ashley would ask me if I wanted anything from the offie down the street since he was craving ginger beer and I would ask for cider. "You know ginger beer is non-alcoholic, right, love?" -"Ooooh, get me a sprite instead please."

The thing is, I love EATING ginger, just not drinking it. I think it taste like a bunch of ginger, an Atomic Fireball (you know the round red candy ball) mixed with root beer. The guys, on the other hand, came up with the unanimous decision that root beer taste like Deep Heat smells. Deep Heat is basically the English version of Icy Hot, both being medical ointments used to relieve muscle pain. Whatever. To each their own.







♡ - Kristen