Fun Times and American Follies in England

So, I know it has been I while since I gave any kind of update. In my defense, we don't have internet in the house and it's easier to blog on a normal computer rather than my phone. Anyways, we have gone on several adventures and come across differences in Americans and Brits (other than the slight language differences and driving on different sides of the road).

Peterborough

I will say, Peterborough is probably my least favorite place we've visited. Now, don't think just because I said it was my least favorite that it isn't a nice city. It is. I've just like the other cities we've visited more like Ely, Cambridge, and Bury St. Edmund's. I think my lack of enthusiasm is because the city didn't have that romanticized England look, not really even in a modern way. Anyways, the day we spent in Peterborough was pretty memorable.

Parking. To park in England you have to pay, nothing too unfamiliar. However, the pay station was different from any others we've encountered. Holly and I tried several times to give the meter our pound coins. We saw a person successfully get a ticket on another meter so we moved to that one. It didn't work (for us). Another person successfully got a ticket from the meter we had just tried. We asked for help and they showed us that we needed to in put part of the license plate THEN put the coins in! Light bulb!

So, I know that wasn't too exciting, but it gets better...

We decided to go eat lunch a the Japanese Buffet place called Imperial Bento. We reviewed the menu on the outside of the building (in England, most restaurants have menus outside to keep people from crowding inside) and decided to give it a try. The first clue that we didn't know what we were doing should have been the lack of prices on the menu. Buffet dining in England isn't like the states. Food does not line the walls with an abundance of selections and you go help yourself as you please.

Instead, a buffet consists of courses- appetizer, second course, main course, etc that they bring out for the whole table. Each person could pick their own dish from the menu. Here's the catch.. Everyone has to pick from the same course. For example, everyone had to choose from the appetizer menu first or skip to the next course. Now, you could order as much food as you wanted from each course. My friend Holly for instance, ordered 2 appetizers because she couldn't decide. We had several selections from the appetizers, duck for our second course (there were only 2 options here), and each had our own main course. It was quite a bit of food! We tried a little bit of everyone's. The center of the table had this rotating table.

We ate for a good hour and a half- which is fast by English standards. Here, dinner is like a three or four hour thing. It's what people do when the "go out". Our buffet was our most expensive meal so far (even with our discount). However, it was a fun experience. Poor Jacob kept getting the evil eye from one of the servers! Maybe because he kept making her refill his lemonade!

Yes, that may not have been the funniest story; I think you had to be there, but it gets better.

Car shopping. Now, I've been debating whether or not to include this portion on my blog. Not because I'm embarrassed or anything, okay well maybe a little. We were car shopping and had been to many car lots in Peterborough (some good and some NOT so good). Anyways, we found one that offered "acres" of cars. In this massive lot of cars, we found ONE that we were interested. We waved over a salesperson. The Brits are not like Americans and push sales or bug you by asking if they can help/show you something/talk your ear off. Anyways, we told him we were interested and he ran off to go get the car key.

In the meantime, we opened all the doors, the hood, the trunk and were giving it a thorough look. The salesperson comes over and says something to the effect, "Here you go, come tell me what you think in a bit, yeah". To us (Americans- there were 4 of us) that was like giving the green light to test drive the car. So we pile in and start pulling it out of its cramped parking space. We began driving through the lane of cars trying to figure out how to test drive when we see the sales person walking REALLY FAST towards us (we weren't really moving that fast in the car). The guy was pissed.

Apparently, the key was just to start it and see if we liked how it sounded. Also, car places in Britain DO NOT test drive cars on the weekends; only the weekdays! Also, this place wanted us to COMMIT to buying the car to test drive on the weekend. Why would someone commit to buying a car they haven't test drove? Well, we decided not to buy the car, obviously.

Please don't think I'm bashing the car salesman. It's their way of doing things. It was our lack of knowledge about how things work in the UK that caused the problem. We did apologize for the misunderstanding. As we were leaving though, several salespeople came to see the crazy Americans that tried to take off with their car. And walk of shame.