The Challenges of Communicating Abroad
Wind and rain followed us to Liverpool today as we conquered a small portion of the Beatles’ hometown. Managed my first train ride down and back, which was as easy as it could get, and talked to a lady who was sitting across from me. Fortunately, this was a much better experience than yesterday and she started the conversation as well! Even if it was going downhill, she didn’t have anywhere to run so I used that to my advantage. 😉
Liverpool is much larger than Southport with a vast shopping district located right outside the exit of the North Wirral Lines train station. Musicians performed on the main street hoping for tips, and food venders from various countries filled the air with sweet and potent aromas. We finally got to enjoy England’s famous fish and chips here! Tyler had soft peas (or maybe they were called squished peas?) on his entrée, but guests could also order them with curry or gravy drizzled on top. Although I opted for neither, the cod was still scrumptious. The fries, I mean chips, weren’t anything special or anything different than what we get in the States though.
While ordering, we had an eventful yet somewhat embarrassing encounter with mistranslation and held up the line for a bit. I could tell the girl was getting irritated with me, but I was just as frazzled not understanding her! This is what went down… Asked for fish and chips, but it wasn’t as simple as that so I just ordered it plain. Then she asked if I wanted it “open or closed”. Say what?! Tyler and I were both super confused and kept asking for clarification because I thought it meant rolling all the ingredients in a wrap, which I didn’t want. As it turns out, open means to take your food and tray to sit down and eat in the restaurant while closed means to bag it up for later. Hmmm, making a mental note of that one!
Other than that, the day was pretty mild. Learned a few history facts from wandering around the Liverpool Museum like how they mine/export coal, grow strawberries, assisted the Confederate army during the Civil War because they supported cotton farming in the south, their city mascot is the Liverbird (which you can vaguely see on top of the distant building in the 2nd picture), and it was called the New York City of England back in the early 1900s with its tall buildings and similar architecture. Of course we also saw authentic Beatles memorabilia, including the blanket that John Lennon and Yoko Ono had custom made for their honeymoon that was embroidered with “all you need is love”. For a week, the newlyweds allowed media into their honeymoon suite to promote peace. And that’s where the inspiration for their famous song came from! Speaking of peace, hopefully there will be no hard feelings tomorrow seeing as it’s the 4th of July. Rose is throwing us a party even. She says we will learn what really went down in history….but I’m more worried about it being a ‘bash Americans’ extravaganza! Guess we shall see. Just keep an open mind, right?!