We’ve now been in England for three weeks. There are several reasons we began our trip here; one is that the weather here is much better during the summertime than any other season. Another reason is we knew it would be a gentle transition to being in a foreign country for everyone because we speak their language. I personally love British accents and have not tired of hearing them speak. We’ve noticed that people in different parts of England speak with different accents. For instance, we’re currently in northwestern England and the people here speak with what I previously thought of as a Scottish accent and it’s pretty different than the way people speak in London.

Besides different accents, people in Britain use some words regularly that we hardly use at all. I love how people here regularly say proper, brilliant and smashing. They also call you my love and lovely. It’s endearing. I think i’ll try using them all more often when speaking.

Besides sounding different and using words rarely spoken in America, people here are very polite and say “sorry” often – when passing you in the store isle, passing close to you to get through a door or hallway, if they can’t answer your question, etc.

And last but not least, even though British people speak English and we speak English, we’ve still had to do some translating. The following are words that have come up pretty regularly that mean something different here than they do in the United States:

• Diversion = Detour
• Chips – French Fries
• Crisps – Potato Chips
• Pavement = Sidewalk
• Lift = Elevator
• Jumper = Sweater
• To Let = For Rent
• Caravan = RV
• Jacket Potato = Baked Potato
• Buggies = Strollers
• Surgery = Doctor’s Office
• Nappy = Diaper
• Toilet = Public Restrooms
• Loo = Bathroom
• Floor 1 = 2nd Floor or a building
• Stag Do = Bachelor Party
• Hen Party = Bachelorette Party
• Cheers = Goodbye

We go to Scotland tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see if there are more word differences there. Until then lovelies, I hope you’re having a smashing weekend and get a proper night’s sleep so you can have a brilliant Sunday tomorrow. Cheers.