7.

Number 7. Notice people's attitude such as how people think about time, personal space, how to treat foreigners, or just general notions of what is right and what is wrong. Pay attention to how people respond to inappropriate behavior. Note what clues you use to figure out the attitudes of the people in the new place.

Since I have been in England I feel a lot is the same as it is back home. The only real difference is when someone is doing something 'inappropriate'. Everyone has different thought of what is and what is not appropriate. But in England it seems that if someone is breaking the rules, or behaving badly not many people will go out of their way to tell the person straight. This is the difference between here and home. In the US I feel if someone was cutting in line or something along those lines a strange would point it out in front of everyone, just to make that person stop. Or maybe not even to make them stop but to tell their opinion about the situation. Here I believe I have seem people wanting to say something but end up keeping their mouth shut. It could be that I am reading their body language wrong but I don't think so, obviously. When a person is staring at you giving you 'the eye', everyone knows that you should stop what you are doing. There are always those people that do not get those nice little looks. So then the annoyed person starts to cough a little. This is the closest I have seen someone here say something to someone who is behaving badly. I think that people back at home feel that they do not have the time to be annoyed with the situation so they just speak their mind. I have always tried to keep an open mind when meeting new people. So when I came over here I tried do keep that thought on top of my brain. I have to say so far it has done me well. I say this because there are just such big ranges of types of people that live over here just like at home. So far I haven't really found one trait that sticks with people. I think about how people do not speak up over here, well I just may have not come across that type of person yet. Lucky me. But I feel the best way to get a true way of hoe people are is to try to blend in. Doing things other peoples way, may make you look at things different. (And with these pictures I'm not trying to say that only old ladies get mad, google just didn't have any good looking angry men, so...try to take it as a compliment (: )

Number 4.

4. Noticed what surprises you in this new place. Pay attention to how you react to things that you don't expect or that you don't understand. Note which surprises are pleasant and which ones are uncomfortable.

For the most part here in England I haven't had that many surprises. It is just a little different than back at home. I think that this has a lot to do with everyone speaking the same language, just slightly different meanings. The main place that I was surprised was when I was in Italy. The first few experiences I found were uncomfortable and unpleasant. First, we get off the plane and find the information desk. I automatically assumed that people that were to provide information to travelers would normally be friendly people. Well, I was wrong. If looks could kill, both Katie and I would be dead in the airport. All we asked was how to get to our hotel. The answer we got is a map with some lines draw on it and that we needed to take a bus there. Now where the bus was, we did not get that information. Or maybe we did but, I am sorry I do not understand mumbling English. It seems the only thing she decided to grant us with was the speaking of English, other than that we were on our own. I found that funny for the information desk. After deciding that there was no way we would find this magically bus we tried to get a taxi. All the taxis outside were lined up with no drivers in them. And standing outside of an airport I could not tell who was a driver and who was not. Finally i spotted a person in the drivers seat. So I naturally went up to him and was planning on asking a question about the taxis. As soon as I went up to the window and popped my head in he just stared at me and before I could get 'Hi, Can you hel-...' out he said 'I do not speak English'. Funny the way it is, he spoke that clearer than the information lady. So it makes me wonder if his nose grew a little after I walked away. After that we found a cab who dropped us off in the area of where our hotel was susposed to be. After walking up and down the same street this sweet waiter at a cafe helped us out. Even with opening the front door to the hotel (there were two security doors to get through the the main door). After we checked in we had to get some food. As soon as we walked out the same waiter came over and asked us to sit down and get a bite to eat. God bless him, he was the sweetest waiter we could have had. After that everytime we walked into or out of our hotel and saw him he would wave and say hello to us. After those two experinces I have to look back and see if maybe I had given off the wrong vibe or something. But with the information lady I know I had not. So when people give me attitude when I am asking a question, I find it easier just to give it back. I know that they will not help me just because I do not speak thier language. I know that it is immature to do that but it makes me feel better. If your not going to be nice to me for NO reason then I won't be nice to you for NO reason. But then sometimes that pushes them to actaully help you because that shows that your not a push-over. I tend to do this back at home, it is nothing new to me. It is just the way that I am wired. But it is mostly with strangers that refuse to do thier job. And it is sad to get so excited when some strange actually goes out of thier way just a little and helps me. It makes me think that there are some nice people out there. And that this doesnt just happen in the US or Italy, it happens everywhere.

Numebr 2.

2. Pay special attention to the buildings and landscapes where you are living and taking classes. Notice the layout of the town you are living in and the places where you go for entertainment. Pay attention to how the grocery store and drug store organizes the products. Notice how people interact in these locations.

When I first arrived here I was not surprised at what I saw. The town and the manor were everything I had expected to see. It did help that I had seen some pictures of the place before I had came over. But there was one thing that did surprise me. When we were walking around out first day we walked through a neighborhood. It was like any other one back in the states with the lines of houses and cars. Then we turned the corner so the houses would be perpendicular to us walking. So then we saw the backs of the houses and back yards. And instead of having a regular back yard in the suburbs, it seemed that we were in the country. There were horses and fields everywhere. When I think about going into the country I think about driving to Harrison and how it gradually gets more 'country' but this was like black and white. It was a nice suburban neighborhood and then BAM fields of horses. And I have to say the horses were pretty cute. Other than that it was all wht I expected to see. All the buildings besides the house seem old and have a mixture between being gothic and romantic I think. It is hard to say whether I was surprised about the landscape or not. I was not surprised about how much more of it is here and how it is prettier than back at home. But I was surprised about how it is so constant throughout the EU(of what I have seen so far). And when I think about that it almost gives me a sublime feeling (I know your going to love that, Ruth). And when I put the buildings with the landscape the culture over here it makes complete sense. Everyone loves nature, but over here it seems more respected. And it the books that we have read so far the landscape has a very important role in the story. So I think that the surrondings over here play a bigger part in the culture than it would back home.