How is it different?

(Here is a picture of the garden at Tyndale, I still have quite a bit of work to do!)

Many people have asked us here how England is different than America. In many ways, it is not. In fact we have much in common or much that is very similar. Because this is the case, the differences about our cultures can actually stand out more because we don't always expect them.

A simple difference, while looking for frozen concentrated orange juice at the supermarket, (which doesn't exist) I discovered the common alternative here. Juice in a box. Easy to store in a cupboard and in this case, comes in a six-pack. Notice that milk is also available here in a box. This can also be stored in a cupboard.


Another food difference, chocolate chips. Although they do exist, they come in 4 oz. packages and are not quite tollhouse quality. (We did happen to find normal chocolate chips at a specialty store, but since they were $7.50 a bag, we resisted!) There is no lack of excellent chocolate here, however, and so we are making our own chips. Here is Julia busy at this task while talking on the phone to her Grandma. All the children pitched in to make cookies (called 'biscuits' here) for a Tyndale chapel.



I asked my children what they found different in England:

Julia: " They have way more colleges here." (Note: there are 31 colleges here in Cambridge that make up Cambridge University. We gauge a location based on what college(s) we walk by/through to get there.)
Julia: "They talk different"
Sarah: "No, they don't talk different, but they sound different!"
Julia: "They call things different, like 'gym' is 'P.E.' and assembly meets in the 'hall' instead of the auditorium."
Sarah: The bathroom is called the 'toilet.'
Julia: "They call pants, 'trousers', and pants really mean underwear!"
Claire: "They teach differently (the teachers.) They are pretty much more polite (the children). BUT they can be just as wild as kids in the States."
Claire: "They walk more and ride their bikes more. We have a tattie way to go to church."
Mom: "What does "tattie" mean?
Claire: "Tattie means not real nice." She's right; the way we walk to church through downtown Cambridge sometimes takes us past broken glass and bad smells.

This is just a little snippet of a before dinner-time conversation, more later!