British-isms.

The American's Guide to BritSpeak

By: assorted British folk
with examples by actual Brits



"Are you alright?"
phrase. Hey, what's up? How are you doing?


pants
n. underwear
"I'm not wearing any pants today. And you can't even tell!"


"I can't be bothered." or "I can't be asked."
phrase. I don't feel like it; It doesn't matter enough to me to ..
"Oh, I can't be bothered to decorate my house for Christmas."
"Oh pff, I can't be asked to study for my supervision."


"Have you got ____?"
phrase. Do you have _____?
"Have you got football boots for tomorrow?"


"Have you gone ____?"
phrase. Did you go ____?
"Have you just gone to the grocery?"


washing up (liquid)
n. dishwashing (liquid)
"Well, since I cooked, you should do the washing up tonight."


fortnight
n. two weeks
"See you again in a fortnight for our semi-monthly pub crawl."


toilet
n. bathroom
"Where's the toilet? I seriously drank too much wine tonight."


buttery, canteen
n. cafeteria
"The canteen's closed tonight, so we'll have to go to Nandos for dinner!"


"sort it out" or "(get it) sorted"
phrase. get it figured out, get it organized/fixed
"New phone is a twat. Why does it automatically type 'ame' instead of 'and'? Non-word vs. most common word in the English language ... sort it out Samsung, seriously."


mental
adj. ridiculous, crazy, off the sheezy
"Mate, that concert tonight was absolutely mental!"


lash/pre-lash
n. big drinking night/pre-game
"Yeah the morning was rush cause we'd been out on a lash the night before."
"Let's hit the club at 10, but pre-lash at my place at 8!"


supper
n. dinner or snack
"Let's go to the dining hall for supper."


eggy bread
n. french toast
"Mm, delicious, eggy bread! That just sounds so delicious .. and descriptive."


custard
n. pudding
"This gooey, yellow, viscous custard will be served for dessert."

pudding
n. cake
"X: For dessert tonight, I'm making pudding.
Y: ooh, delicious, viscous gelatinous sweetness.
X: actually, no. that's custard. this is pudding.
Y: huh?
X: seriously. pudding. it's like, dough, and baked, and sweet. get with the program."


fringe
n. bangs
"I kept the fringe with my new haircut!"

football boots
n. soccer cleats
"did you see that midfield wearing the bright yellow boots on the field at the football match today?

kick-about
n. scrimmage
"the football team is having a kick-about on the back fields."

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November ...

... the Gunpowder Ttreason and Plot.
I know of no reason
why the Gunpowder Treason
should ever be forgot.


So, on Thursday 11/05, instead of doing work at the library, a bunch of us went to Midsummer Common after dinner for Guy Fawkes' Night celebrations. (Obviously Guy Fawkes Night >> working.)

First, fireworks.
Then, bonfire.
Plus, a carnival.
Ooh, rides.
And of course, carnival snacks.



["whoaaaaa guys .... check it out .. a carnival ..."]


[Burn, baby, burn.]


[Destruction. Peace?]


[Silhouettes.]


[Boom Boom.]


[POW.]


[Midsummer Common fireworks.]


[Carnival rides galore!]


[Spin-til-you-puke.]


[Cotton candy ("candy floss" HAHA) and candy apples = must-haves.]



All in all a well-spent evening. Gotta keep up with all the Brits' celebrations, after all ...

PUMPKIN TIME.

Halloween 2009

Fun fact: Americans are probably the most YAYAY-it's-Halloween-let's-celebrate! people on the planet.
Result: Saturday passed by without a single costume or mention of pumpkins, trick-or-treating, etc.
Consequence: I am disappointed.


So, dinner.
Me: aw, no pumpkin-carving or Halloween festivities here :(
Oscar: what? no, yeah, we should totally have pumpkin-carving, yeah.
Me: our own party?
Oscar: yeah yeah, we can buy pumpkins at Sainsbury's or something, and do that tonight!
Me: pumpkins.
Oscar: sainsbury's.
Me: tonight, my place.
Oscar: after bball game.
Me: done.


[Thanks to the guys for grabbing pumpkins, drinks, snacks, and hauling them all the way back from Sainsbury's and up to the top floor of Bodley's, haha]


[What's a Halloween without at least a bit of self-decoration? Facepaint buddies.]


[Party took over bedroom + living room.]


[TEAM USA is so excited about pumpkin carving!]


[Final product.]


[Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas]


[Caroline, Dave, Roman, Shayan]


[Halloween festivities]


[yeah yeah yeah.]

Vans of Life & Death.

In the wee town of Cambridge, UK, there are two places you can buy food after midnight:

Van of Life & Van of Death.

These two food trucks are located on two corners of Market Square (a free-standing block in the center of the shopping area, which during the day hosts a variety of touristy crafts/clothes and upon nightfall serves as late-night reprieve of drunken post-clubbing Cambridge students).

If
{you're a student at Cambridge;
you do not have food in your room;
you are hungry after midnight;}
Then
{you're screwed;
you can buy junk food at the food trucks;}

No 24-hour groceries, no cafes, no LaVerde's, no MacGregor convenience ... but the Van of Life and Van of Death. Luckily for us King's students, market square is literally right outside of our gates. Well, ok, one block away, but close enough.

10/30/2009

[1-minute trek to midnight greasiness.]


[Midnight snacks.]

10/16/2009

["Trailer of Life." Their prices are marginally more expensive, but quality is also marginally better.]


[Ordering cheesy fries.]


[Midnight snack with Roman and Colin.]


[Cheesy fries from Van of Life: £2.30 -- aaand everyone here eats cheesy CHIPS with mayonnaise.]

10/27/2009

["Pyjama" pub crawl. At Spoon's - Caroline, Peter, Alyssa, me, Ben]


[Wetherspoon's Bar.]


[Caroline and Roman falling asleep during said pub crawl.]


[Satisfied stomachs.]

American Breakfast

10/24/2009

For breakfast, every college dining hall, restaurant, and cafe/shop in Cambridge serves:
- Sausages (big, chunky ones)
- Toasted bread
- Baked beans
- Poached or scrambled eggs
- Tomatoes
- Mushrooms


[Standard English breakfast]

I got talkin' to an Englishman about what American breakfast entails, and harped on the fact everything in an English breakfast is salty and/or neutral-flavored. Nothing sweet. No fruit, no pancakes, no french toast. No bacon. So ... on a whim, I emailed out and got a bunch of people together for American Brunch Saturday.


[Colin and Denys cooking bacon + french toast]


[French toast and American bacon that Colin somehow acquired]


[French toast with syrup, powdered sugar, fruit ...]


[Breakfast underway]


[Buffet-style breakfast]


[Good ol' fashioned American french toast.]


[Colin, Carrie, Alex, Isaac, Arjun, Phil, and Caroline]


With the help of everyone bringing ingredients potluck-style, we got a huge breakfast and lots of satisfied appetites. Sweet success! Literally.

Ready all ... Row!

6:40am practice this morning.

We had a new coxswain - a grad student from the US who had coxed back in New Jersey in high school.
SCORE.


Oddly enough, despite his unfamiliarity with our abnormally narrow course (and our consequent running into things), I felt right at home and suddenly much more natural/comfortable this practice. Maybe it was the extra half hour of sleep, or more likely, it was being back in my familiar world of crew terminology again.

Oh
'let it run,'
'hold water,'
'ready all - row,'
... how I have missed you.

I hadn't even noticed until today that the English coxswains never said "even pressure" after asking port/starboard --excuse me, stroke-side and bow-side-- to add pressure and bring us around a turn .. I can't think of what they do say, but it's not that, cause when I heard seemingly insignificant phrases like even pressure through the speakers today, I was just so happy ...


p.s. I saw Jon Garrity (another CME '11) and Rane Nolan (MIT '09, varsity heavyweight men's crew) pass by in their college boats this morning! It's so odd to see people I know/people on my own MIT team go by in other college/team boats ...

Set at 8.

Today I had my first outing for King's Boat Club (i.e. crew)!

We were set at 8.
(a lot of the time. more than expected, at least.)



Totally out of shape; haven't really done much of anything physical since mid-February accident. Hopefully will get into the groove and suit up soon. Lack of post-practice stretching bad for muscles, but I should remember to do them on my own, at least. Found the erg room at King's and it's a tiny tiny little cellar room in the basement underneath some stairwell in a corner, that you get to by going through two meeting rooms and down an obscure set of stairs. WHAT. I wish Cambridge would compile money from its 30+ colleges and build a freakin' university athletics center. Benefit/Cost >> 1. It's odd that the colleges here are so independent.

Got off on a random tangent. Mostly wanted to comment that I'd had my first "outing" for crew today (i.e. practice, not a picnic) and smirk at some funny terminology.

outing = practice
easy there = wane'nuff/let it run
bow-side = starboard
stroke-side = port
(regardless of which side the boat is rigged)
front-stop = catch
back-stop = finish
take off the run = hold water


We have 3 weekday practices at 6:30am and 1 weekend practice in the afternoon. I'm getting up on Monday at 5:30am to bike over to the boathouse in time. fml?