UK culture and interesting things - Julian

Initially, I didn´t think that the UK’s culture would be much different from Austria’s, now that I have been here for a month, I can tell you that I was wrong but sort of right as well. Let me elaborate. Generally, living in the UK is not wildly different from living in Austria, however there are some differences that turn it into a unique experience.

A rather big difference is the way people interact with each other and approach others. From my experience British people are more willing to talk to strangers and do it in a very friendly way. There have been numerous times where I just got into a chat with people I didn´t know. One stands out particularly, I met my host families neighbour on the street and we talked for 15 minutes about... well pretty much anything that came up. This open and informal approach towards other people is something I quite enjoyed. People here are just overall polite and friendly.

Now for some interesting, weird or entertaining things that I came across in my time here. These are things that are just different to what I´m used to and striked me as note worthy.

Let´s start with the sinks. Dear people from the UK, what is up with your sinks? There are 2 tabs one for hot and one for cold water. How am I supposed to wash my hands with this kind of sink? Do I wash one hand in boiling water and the other in freezing or should I choose one of them? I just don´t get it!

One thing that I found odd in the beginning but came around to pretty quickly is that everybody thanks the bus driver when they get of. This sort of underlines what I said earlier. People here are very friendly and polite, in fact so friendly and polite that they happily thank the bus driver. That’s just a small example, but there are tons of small things like this that make the overall live that bit more enjoyable and wholesome.