the little things

I just got really excited to go home. I mean moving back home. If anyone was actually reading this and knew me, they’d say that was no surprise. But alas, I have new…uh, additional reasoning. I am sitting once again at work (yes a lot of these are written at work, but I am writing this report and need a break from it now and then), I hear my colleague on her mobile in the hall. And what is the distinct Scottish way to end the conversation? To raise your voice at the end and have increased intonation. I first noticed this in my Glaswegian friend, a man in his early 30s who despite this, raises his voice to a very high pitch at the end of every call. Matt and I always laugh and joke about it. It’s actually kind of endearing. And when I think of the loads of phone conversations I’ve heard while working in British offices (or perhaps it’s just Scottish?) it makes me smile. Just heard my English boss do it, it’s not just Scottish.

So why does this lead me to being excited to go home? Well, no one here, or I shall say it is unlikely that anyone British would be able to pick that small thing up about their culture. That’s what makes it so interesting for me. And likewise, at home, it’s hard to pick up things there too. Americans living in America, why look for the nuances? I guess one could argue that typical American things like this are hard to come by. It’s so big that these little things are likely regional or they are hard to notice because there are so many different kinds of people. But I am excited to go home and be a ‘foreigner’ in my own land. I hope it’s not too foreign to the point where I can’t handle, but I just want to notice the little, sweet things to do that are otherwise taken for granted. And with that, whenever it is that Matt and I make it back, I hope to continue with my impressions blog. Not of Britian or the wide world, but of America.

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