Cardiff has some freaky weather. I was walking back from the Student Union building earlier this evening and encountered what can only be described as thunderhail. Observe:
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| Close-up on the bricks |
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| It accumulates! |
It got so bad that I almost ducked into a store to escape being pelted with pea-sized pellets of ice and pain.
And now for something completely different:
Maple Syrup is for sale here. Honest-to-goodness syrup from Canadian Maples. I am on the hook for making American-style pancakes for my flatmates at some point (British-style pancakes are a bit more like crepes, whereas mine look more cake-y). Pancakes are a dessert here, and I got some weird looks for saying that they are a breakfast food. This will be the best Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras ever!
Another thing: Shrove Tuesday. The British celebrate the beginning of Lent by indulging in pancakes. Saint Mike's celebrates the beginning of Lent with drunken debauchery (I am genuinely scared to go into the dining hall during Mardi Gras weekend).
Yet another thing: I have become used to hearing British accents on TV and in ads. It was a surreal experience for me when one of my flatmates streamed a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game and there were all these American voices hawking products.
On an unrelated note: I got asked the inevitable gun question. I sensed a slight cultural divide on the issue. Hahaha, understatement of the year.
Cheers! Wish me luck with my first day of classes!
Did you tell your flat mates that you are a good shot with a Smith and Wesson .45 caliber semiautomatic? And you got high school course credit for it?
ReplyDeleteLove, Dad
I did actually! The guy I was talking to, his family owns guns (for clay pigeon shooting). They just need to be kept in a safe, out of plain sight, and inspected by the police. There's also an extensive licensing process they need to go through. I didn't know what the exact rules are in VT. I think I might have given this poor boy the impression that America hasn't changed much since the Wild West days. I did, however, tell him that a lot of America's "strangeness" is in reaction to being a colony under the British. Good going, UK.
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