Day 26 - Talking England

During my first 25 days in England, I haven't talked to people very much. I want to change that. But I've always had a hard time talking to people. Much of the reason is, let's face it, most of the things I like to talk about are pretty boring to normal people. And the things I can talk about easily tend to be things that can't easily be brought up in casual conversation.

Today I realized that being in England turns much of that around. As a general rule, I find it easiest (and most fun) to talk to people who know a lot about a particular subject -- even more so if it's one I'm interested in. A great thing about being in England is that everyone here knows a lot about the UK, which is a subject I'm very interested in!! People here seem to enjoy talking about England, especially if they're from a different part of England. But no matter what the subject is, I learn something about England by it. Notice I said "UK" at first instead of "England" -- I absolutely LOVE hearing English people talk about the Welsh, the Scots, and the Irish. It's hillarious! So much better than just reading about them on Wikipedia. And it's just as fun when people here in the South talk about the brummies, scousers, geordies, etc. I don't mean to imply that it's in a derogatory way -- most/much of it is not. But it's amazing that there's such variation in people across such a small island(s).

Today I went to church in the morning, friend's house for lunch (had chicken with very good homemade bbq sauce that tasted nothing like american bbq sauce), and a worship/prayer meeting run by another church here aimed at international students (i'm a foreign student now, so weird!). At each place, I had a GREAT time talking to people. I learned a lot. And I got a lot of question about America too -- that's always fun. I like English people a lot, and not just because they're "actual English people" and know so much about the UK. Deep down, I think they're really not much different from you and me. They are different somehow, but I can't quite put it into words.

posted by Matt @ 11:59 PM