funny sayings

i've been at my job for a little over a month now. hopefully it will stay that way, unless i get "sacked" aka fired for taking too many "holidays" aka vacation days. hey, i told them from the get go that i will need time off here and there.

i am also enjoying my 15 minutes of fame at work. apparently my american accent is very strong. so, just like in america everyone asked me where i was from after i had said about 3 words, here people ask which part of america i come from and are proud of themselves like sherlock holmes for figuring out i am not a local. then i go through the story of blah blah latvia blah blah america, blah blah british husband blah blah australia. this is followed by a lot of "aaaahhhhs" and "oooohs".

there is one guy who keeps saying "how are you doing?" in the "friends" kind of way. did i tell you i've been working there for a month? it was funny the first week. he doesn't listen when i say he needs to learn something new.

they also make fun of me, my section manager thinks that saying "have a nice day" is really corny. here they say "cheers" instead of it. it still baffles me as what to answer to a "cheers". really, i should say "it's a toast, dude. don't tell me 'cheers' when you are walking away". sometimes customer's reaction to "have a nice day" is very noticable. since it's not something they hear every day as often as a "hello" they usually pause and with a big smile say "thank you so much, you too". they also think that "mam" sounds funny, instead they say "madam", which i have to admit sounds pretty sophisitcated.

the one thing i love about brits is how they call each other "love". i really giggled the other day when a big burly guy at the farmers market said "here you go, love" when he handed me a bag full of fresh mushrooms and carrots. everyone is "love" to them. i think it sounds very endearing and i smile every time someone calls me that.