1. While driving through the English countryside I saw a field of what I thought was strangely lopsided cows. Each cow had its own little hovel and patch of land. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the animals were really pigs that were just the SIZE of cows. I knew they existed, but I had never seen one before, let a lone a field full of them.
2. We were sitting outside of Windsor Palace today waiting for our bus to show up. We were on benches in front of a crosswalk, so it was easy to peoplewatch. In the middle of my solitary observations, I noticed a fat black pidgeon walk up to the crosswalk, pause for a moment, and then cross the street with the handful of people who had been waiting to cross. It was quite amusing to see the fat little guy waddle his way across the road.
3. England is famous for the royal guards who must stand with a straight face, completely still(unless pacing), no matter what! We were walking through Windsor Palace and I happened to look out the window onto an empty courtyard with a solitary guard at the guardhouse. As I looked at him, I noticed that he was fiddling with his coat, thinking he was alone and out of sight. This may have been part of his "pace for a bit and then stand for a bit" routine which uses a lot of 90 degree knee lifts and flapping arms, but I was still amused.
4. I get the most fabulous looks when the breakfast waiters offer me tea or coffee and I politely refuse. Eyebrow twitches, double takes, you name it.
5.European Conservationism. Of course, I can't really speak for the rest of Europe, but the British Isles are astonishingly concerned about the environment. You pay money for your plastic grocery bags, the faucets and showers are all on timers and there is neither sight nor sound of paper towels for drying your hands. Most of the lights are on timers and every single outlet has a switch so you can turn the electricity off when you aren't using it. They seem to have a prejudice against regular drinking water because I've seen two drinking fountains total since coming here, and one of them was in an airport and the other was in our church building. In public parks? Nope. It's not like water is important to your survival or anything. But I think the gold medal goes to the hotel where we stayed in Bristol. In order to turn the lights on at all, you had to insert your room key into a special slot and leave it there. Without the key in this slot, you couldn't use electricity at all. I assume this was to ensure that you never left the lights on when you left the room, but I thought it was simultaneously ingenious and ridiculous. This same hotel only changed the sheets and towels every three days so that they didn't waste water washing unnecessarily. Seening all of this should inspire me to do my part to protect the enviroment and preserve our resources, but Europe's working so hard that I wonder if there is anything left for the rest of us to do. ;)
6. I heard this today: if you're driving alone, Hitler's driving with you! It was propaganda for conserving resources during World War II. I think it's a fabulous mental image.
I will now go and type up my actual blog post for the day, and believe me, it's a bit of a doozy! I just felt the need to get all of this down first as I've been collecting these little tidbits of information since the trip began. I am leaving you all with this wonderful thought to ponder: imagine the irony of being an American in England on the Fourth of July. It's been quite a source of amusement.
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