The Language Barrier

    My Mother told me I need to post more things, so I thought I would write about the language barrier. Yes I know they still speak English here but there are a lot of differences that I am still trying to figure out.

1. An A4. One of my teachers this week, while reading through the syllabus, told us we should get an A4 and than proceeded to talk about it for quite awhile before I caught on that he was talking about a three ring binder. Don't ask me why they call it and A4 because I have no idea.
2. The WC. I almost gave up finding the bathroom the other day because all there was was a sign above a door that said WC. Than I remembered that the English call the restroom the water closet (WC). And if not that than it is the toilet. If you ask for the bathroom or restroom here they look at you very funny.
3. The ground floor. Not just here but all over Europe they would say that what we call the first floor is actually the ground floor, and the first floor is what we would consider the second floor. So in the building where I live I am on the fifth floor but really I am six floors up, and if you want to go to the basement you must press the button that says -1.
4. F verse C. I was talking to some Norwegian friends the other day and asked them if they were exited for it to warm up this week. They asked how much and I said it is suposed to be in the forties this week! There mouths dropped and than I remembered 40 degrees Fahrenheit is like 105 dagrees Celsius.
5. Pounds. It is very hard to go shopping here because you see the price and it says 4 but thats not 4 dollars its 4 pounds witch is equal to about six dollars. So I keep thinking I'm finding really good deals until I convert it. Plus can I just say they have way to many coins. They have a 1 pence/cent coin, a 2 pence coin, a 5 pence coin, a 10 pence coin, a 20 pence coin, a 50 pence coin, a 1 pound coin, and a 2 pound coin. Do you know how much change you end up caring around and how confusing it is to than figure out how much each coin is worth so you can actually use them.
6. Weird words. The Britts also use just some plain old weird/funny terminology that I some times have truble not laughing at. Such as dodgy witch means kind of scary, or they call the card you use to get around on the tube with an Oyster card. They aslo seem to like the word top a lot, to topup something means to put more money on a card, they are a bunch of shops with the name top including a big chain store thats kind of like Forever 21 called The Top Shop.
Thats all the big ones I can think of for now but i will try to keep thinking of more and keep you updated on any new words I come across.