17 February 2014: Happy Birthday, Cousin!

Ten years ago today, the older of my two little cousins, whom I shall not to refer to by name because she's a minor and I don't want to post information about her on a public blog for confidentiality reasons, was born. I can't help but feel a bit old as I think about the fact that the little infant that I held in the hospital while wearing an American Girl t-shirt has hit the double digits. She's just a really great kid. Smart, too, and funny. Before I left for England, she gave me a bracelet that she'd made and told me that she made a matching one for herself so that whenever we missed each other while I was away, we could look at our bracelets and think about one another. I'm not sure if she'll ever know how much that means to me or just how often I look at my bracelet.

In honor of my cousin turning 10, I thought that I'd post 10 things that I've learned about England since I've been here. Not only because she's an extremely smart kid who loves learning fun facts, but because I should probably talk about my study abroad experience in my study abroad blog ;)

1. Yellow mustard is called American hotdog mustard.
2. The Olympics aren't as big of a thing in England. America goes a lot more nuts than the majority of the world does about the Games.
3. If you think a boy/girl is attractive, you say that they are "fit."
4. There was a period in the early and mid-2000s where English people didn't listen to American music and Americans didn't listen to English music. As a result, hanging out and listening to "throwback" tunes of our childhoods can be very frustrating...especially when Smash Mouth never "crossed the ocean." (Not that you'd know Smash Mouth, either, cousin. Well, no. You're a smart kid. You've probably at LEAST heard "All Star.")
5. British television shows are a lot better than American television shows. And American television shows are a LOT better than American shows that are based off of British shows.
6. Cadbury chocolate melts more quickly than Hershey's chocolate. It tastes sweeter, too.
7. "Awesome" is a word that only Americans use. Whenever I ask my English friends to put on an American accent, the word 'awesome' will usually come up.
8. "You okay?" or "You alright?" is kind of the same thing as "What's up?" or "How are you doing?"
9. It's really hard to find stick deodorant in England. Everything here is either roll-on or spray can. And the only stick stuff that I found is over three pounds for a little stick of it, so I'm getting used to this spray can stuff.
10. No matter how different somebody's upbringing and culture was from your own, you can still make friends wherever you go.

So happy birthday, my dear cousin :) I love you so much, and I can't wait to see you and your little sister (who I also love so terribly much that I can't stand it) when I get home.