Oxford Oddities

Since I have come to Oxford there have been quite a few differences between life at home and life here. I now present you with a running list of some of those differences that will be updated as I discover them.

• Toilet paper comes in individual sheets
• Paper towels are blue 
• Bandaids are called Plasters
• Q-Tips are called Cotton Tips 
• Some faucets are reversed with Hot and Cold on the opposite sides
• Shops close before 7 pm
• Military time is very common
• People drive on the opposite side of the road
• Term is only 8 weeks long
• There are 3 terms per year
• People carry their books in cloth bags
• There are sheep in most fields
• The playgrounds are much more dangerous
• There are many more public parks
• Elementary School is called Primary School
• Most pre-college age students wear uniforms
• People bike everywhere 
• Packets of soup are called sachets
• Different pronunciations (and my bad attempts to explain how they sound)
• Renaissance = Re-NAY-sance
• Controversy = Con-trov-esy 
• Baroque = Barock
• Pants are NOT trousers
• Cheers is a universal phrase