8 April 2014: Grilled Cheese Confusion.

This morning, when I was browsing around the Internet, I came upon the following post:

I thought back to my first week here, where I was making a grilled cheese and a couple of people in my house...I can't remember who, since I was still learning names and tend to avoid eye contact at all costs...were looking at me funny. I thought it was because I was pathetic at using the hob, but now, I'm guessing it was because I told them that I was going to cook a grilled cheese sandwich and did it in a frying pan.

So I snapchatted some of my friends here and sent them the above image, asking them how they make their grilled cheese.

"You make cheese toasties in the pan?" my friend Mimi replied.
"What other way is there to make them?" I asked.
"On the grill," she said.
"The grill outside?" I asked her.
"No, the grill in the oven," she sent back.
"There's a grill in the oven?!" I asked, quite confused at this point.
She sent me back a picture of her oven with the grill knobs circled.
"Then what's the grill outside called?" I asked her, even more confused.
"Still the grill...confusing," she sent.
"But wouldn't you burn yourself?" I asked, thinking about sticking your hand in the oven.
"Burn yourself on what?" she asked me. I realized that she had a point, so I replied:
"Idk. But wouldn't the butter drip?"
"No, we put a pan underneath it. Not sure what that's called," she said.
"Why not just make it in a pan?" I asked her.
"Nah, too confusing," she replied to me.

It's those little things that truly remind me just how different America and England truly are.

How to make grilled cheese like an American:

How to make a cheese toasty if you're English:

http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Cheese-on-Toast 

Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to go back to the Internet to see what the good people of the world thought about this grilled cheese v. cheese toasty issue. Please note that only a very small number of the posts that I found are represented here because most people are so passionate about this matter that they decided to emphasis their points with a naughty word that starts with the letter "f."

One point to England.

Good point, America. You get a point as well.

girlsgotafacelikemurder is the ultimate peace maker, it seems.

bakiufo is just as confused as I am.

I'm not really sure if I understand that simile, but I like the enthusiasm!

This is the one that made me give up.

In conclusion: I am now extremely hungry, so I think that I'm going to go put some buttery bread and cheese into a pan and turn it into food.

4 April 2014: Regret Prevention

So ever since I started spring break, there haven't been a whole lot of posts. I would love to say that this is because I was too busy to post anything, but really, no one wants to hear stories about me eating sausage rolls while re-watching Sherlock. My American friends and my family members have all been messaging me like, "You should take a day trip someplace!" And I've been like "Um excuse me. Benedict Cumberbatch." However, after I re-watched 2x02 and found a tiny continuity error between 2x02 and 3x02-03, I decided that it was time to get out.

One of my best friends, Meaghan, is studying in Ireland right now. My mom told me that if I didn't make plans to either visit her or do something spectacular with her, I'd regret it forever. Now, that's a lot of pressure. I'm already majoring in English at an extremely expensive private college with no real idea of what I want to do after I graduate, so I already have plenty to regret. I didn't want to add "Not hanging out with my best friend in Europe" onto the list. So, after a bunch of wishy-washy back-and-forth planning, the two of us are officially going to London from April 10-14!

This trip is already exciting me and terrifying me. First of all, I'm only bringing a backpack and my purse. I tend to overpack, so it'll be interesting to see how I survive with next to nothing with me.
Second, I don't have a phone. My train gets into Kings Cross Station a little after 4, and Meaghan should be arriving at the station a little after 5, so I'm going to have an anxiety-filled hour of me imagining all of the places where Meaghan could be lying dead.
Third, for the first night, we're sleeping in one of those mixed-gender 12 bed hostel things. We got it for a great price and it includes breakfast, but like...10 strangers?! Whatever. We figured that we're both in our early 20s, so this is the kind of thing that people in their early 20s do. Thankfully, we only have to stay there for one night, though, because my friend Kelly is letting us stay at her place the other three nights :)

However, it's going to be so cool. I can already feel it. We're both huge fangirls, so we're going to go to Baker Street (where literary Sherlock Holmes lived), North Gower Street (where BBC Sherlock is filmed), eat at Speedy's Cafe (you know, the place right next door to BBC Sherlock's home), and stand outside of St. Bart's Hospital (and maybe figure out how he REALLY survived that fall...) I mean yeah, we're nerds, but whatever! I'm excited and she's excited, so like, it's fine :)

www.sherlockology.com/locations

 Actual footage of what this trip is going to be like:

Raise your hand if you can tell how nervous I am!!!!!

1 April 2014: We'll Never Be Royals?

I had the most AMAZING day yesterday! Like, words can't even describe how perfect this experience was.


So, I guess that news of this blog has gone around England, right? You know how it goes. One person reads it, tells a friend, the friend reads it, tells a couple of friends, and before you know it, my blog has several thousand hits and a whole lot of people who are emotionally invested in my Study Abroad experience. The number of people reading my words never really phased me before. I mean, yeah, I knew that I had a huge fan base, but I've never been one to let fame get to my head. It keeps me grounded to pretend that I'm just an ordinary girl without hundreds of adoring fans.

However, a few days ago, I got an e-mail that I had some post to pick up. So I walked down to reception and signed for my letter. I got a bit confused when I saw the return address. Buckingham Palace? Why was Buckingham Palace writing to me?! I opened it up and found a letter from the Queen of England. It read:

Dear Ellen,

I have enjoyed reading your blog about your stay in England, and I would love to hear about your travels in person. I would like to invite you to come to tea with me on the 31st of March. Please send along your RSVP.

-Queen Elizabeth II

I quickly jotted down my confirmation and booked my ticket to London.

The palace was beautiful! I mean, I'd thought that I'd seen what the inside is like from watching Sherlock 2x01, but the BBC didn't do it justice. It's an absolutely gorgeous building. I would've taken pictures, but that kind of thing is frowned upon.

The queen was a lovely woman. I was a bit shy at first, but she was surprisingly easy to talk to! I mean, we're not in many of the same fandoms, and I'm a lot more into Harry Potter than she is, but I knew enough about Doctor Who to hold a conversation about it.

As I was leaving, I bumped into Prince Harry. He smiled and told me that he's a huge fan of my blog, and that if I'd like to, the two of us should go for Chinese food sometime. So even though we don't have a proper date set yet, I know that I have that to look forward to ;)

Gah :) What an amazing experience tea with the Royals truly was :)

(April fools!)