My Bestfriend is British?

When I moved back to America, I was eager to find someone else who had lived over seas. It wasn’t until my first day, at my new high school when I finally met someone who had a similar experience. I met a freshman that was new to the school and new in town, just like I was. Adrielle, who is now one of my best friends used to live in England. This fascinated me the most about her because living in Europe had the same affect living in Japan had for me. It adapted her into a new culture. I was very interested in learning how her life was when she lived there because I had always wanted to travel to Europe.

When we first met she told me about England and all the countries she has been to, but she hasn’t told me enough in detail so I decided to set up a time to talk.

Adrielle has lived and visited many parts of Europe. Of all the places she lived she loved England the most. She lived here for five years. During her five years here she went to a British school for two years and an American school for another two years. I was very amused with the fact that she went to a British school, so I asked her more about it. She said that it was a small school with very high standards. When Adrielle was only in kindergarten she already knew “big words” that most kindergarten students in American wouldn’t learn. She had to wear red and white checkered uniform because the school was extremely strict. She described her uniform to look like a tablecloth. They didn’t have a playground; all they had was a blacktop. Her and her friends played with stilts, which is the only thing that she could remember. I asked her if she would take a bus to school like some kids in America would and she said yes. Her house was only about a minute away and they would still pick her up.

Adrielle described her house as an average American home. It had two floors and three bedrooms. It was a brick home, which is very common here in America. There were a lot of plants around the outside of her house. This is the result from all the rain because in this country, would rain often.

The next topic that we discussed was the people and the culture. The area that she lived in was a farm area full of markets. The money that they use to buy these fresh vegetables or fruits was called “pounds”. In her opinion, England was expensive.

The people in England had British accents and to my surprise she said she had one too. When she was younger she would call her mom “mum”. If you met her today, you would never have thought that she had this accent. In this country people use different words. For example, “que” pronounced just like the letter Q, would mean “line”. Some people would say ”look at how long that que is”. When she moved to went to another country, it was hard for her to adapt. She had to keep reminding herself that there are some words or phrases that people would not understand.

Instead of having a president like America has, they had a queen. She was only a little girl when she lived here so it had no affect on her. She didn’t fully understand the difference or the impact it has on their country.

As a child the thing that amused Adrielle the most were the guards. She had a great time telling me about this. She said that they were not allowed to move and they had to stand still like a statue. They had to stand looking forward with no facial expressions. They would wear heavy clothing/uniform with a huge helmet, which was used as their headgear. They would even have to wear this during the hot summer weather. Since it rained a lot in England, they would have to stand in the rain. This would make their clothes even heavier. Adrielle always felt bad for them but she also appreciated what they did because she can’t imagine her doing that.

Adrielle’s experience in Europe was something that connected us both. This is what started our friendship because we had something in common. This has affected her life because she was given the opportunity to live and travel all over Europe. This is a story that she shares with everyone and everyone enjoys hearing it. I know I did.