Anyways, I asked her to write a nice little article about the new place she moved to (Yeah, she is in a far-away land, called Surrey. Oh how I wish to be there too already. I think I have never wanted anything as much as this in my whole life.)
But, ladies and gentlemen, let's let Emőke tell her story.
Great Britain. United Kingdom. Just frickin' choose a name already. :)
The title may not say much to people who don't know me personally, let me start off with saying that the reason I now think of myself as an "expert" on all things British is because half a year ago I moved to London.
But, let me get started with a few things you should know about this great country.
Everything is green. And I mean EVERYTHING.
There are so many trees and parks and just green zones in regular that I was flabbergasted at first.
The interesting thing about this, that it may not look like you would imagine. Forget about what you think of parks. There are no trees randomly growing out of nowhere. There is a huge field, picture about 5-6 football fields at least, and at the edge of these you can find a couple of hundred year old trees.
And oh my God, those trees.
There is nothing more beautiful.
But, beware. Not everything is all colorful.
And when it comes to houses they follow the same pattern. From what I can tell you, most of the houses on one given street have the same design.
Tünde, remember Harry Potter's uncle's house? That's the idea.
Most of the walls are plain white, inside, which I think might be a direct consequence of everyone renting.
OK, since we're on the Harry Potter bandwagon, let me just get this off my chest.
I don't think I am the only one in the world, who thought that J.K. Rowling came up with the idea of dividing the children into houses. I mean, come on! For me, that was one of the most interesting things in the books. (And yes, I am a Gryffindor alum, who wishes she was a Slytherin.)
But no, she didn't come up with it. She just copied the English school system.
Very original, dare I say!
OK, the food.
Having grown up in a place where everything you eat comes from your garden, it's weird for me that people have to buy their own parsley leaves.
What might surprise you, Tünde, is that broccoli is really popular here. And I'm not joking.
But for every gram of good food they consume, there is triple the amount of crap. Whoever put crisps (that meaning chips) on the good food list, seriously needs to get checked. Mentally, I mean.
Now, on to your dear Marmite. It's a waste of a perfect slice of toast. The least I can say is that it's disgusting.
If you want what we call pudding, you have to ask for custard.
Prawns are seriously popular as well as anything Italian, Indian and Chinese.
And I won't even mention sweets. But let me tell you one thing. If you're planning on opening a business of your own here, sweets are the way to go.
I heard a joke the other day about British people. (As a background I might have to tell you that everyone here is seriously into Michael Jackson music.)
Can you imagine if, God forbid, James Blunt were to die? :))
I'll leave you with that thought.
Tunde, thanks for asking me to write for you.
:)
Emoke
My pleasure, Emő, My pleasure!
And thanks for the info about the place (I especially look forward to the look-alike houses and miniature gardens, I don't even know why. AND ITS FREAKING SURREY.)
Now, about the HP stuff you mentioned: I am also a Gryffindor, but I always, always wanted to be a Slytherin myself. I think Rowling seriously needs to take a good look at that Sorting Hat, because this is NOT the first time it puts someone in the wrong place.
I really don't know where it got the idea that I would do good in there from. I don't like gold, and I'm not that much of a fan on red either. I don't consider myself brave, determined or chivalrous. To tell you the truth, I was almost expecting it to place me into damned Hufflepuff (I prayed to God it didn't, Hufflepuffs are the art-school people from RL. You know... The guys from Glee.)
Okay, on to other stuff... For me it's not that weird to buy your food. Sure we got some spices and veggies from different gardens (It is really true that they are way, way better than the stuff you buy from shops), but sadly we don't have a garden, so we can't do that.
I also hate it how people say that chips is healthy food - it is absolutely not healthy, but then there aren't too many things healthy anymore. Even the veggies you buy from the market are probably chemically altered, so... yeah. At least I hope that they don't fry the potatoes in overused oil. (We prefer making them in the oven, without a drop of it).
I still want to taste Marmite. I AM clear on the fact that the people around there aren't exactly good chefs (NOT surprised that they love take-away) - in fact, I may go that far to say that they probably have the WORST cuisine, ever. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to try everything at least once.
I was actually aware of the fact that what they call pudding is not the pudding we have here. Probably because of all the translations I had to do on Hungarian cuisine, with the black pudding and stuff.
Ah well, I guess that is all for today. I'll be back tomorrow with another guest post, so stay tuned!
