Communicating British style

Almost a year into our stay here and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. I understate more at work than I ever did. I give indirect and confusing answers to straight forward questions. I use terms like "brilliant" "straight away" "rock up" "queries" "queues" "if I'm honest" and "proper" in my daily vernacular.

In my old life, I did well at my job for a variety of reasons. One of the skills I used to pride myself on was the way in which I communicated. I was clear, direct and concise mostly and it saved a lot of useless time and energy in my day to day worklife. To illustrate- I would get a request from someone at work via email. It would be straight forward- say, " Hi Angie, are you the person responsible for ______?" My answer would be fairly direct- I would respond "Hello ___. No, I am not responsible for that. I suggest you ask _____." See how easy?

Here, it is a whole different story. There are no answers like "Yes" and "No". In the UK, you are considered rude for responding directly with a clear answer. It has tripped me up countless times as I sit in front of my laptop and ponder the right way to respond to various requests. Here is where I am at. "Angela (they call me that here- another quirk of this culture is they don't like nicknames and if my email address says Angela, they call me Angela even after repeated requests to call me Angie) "Can you do _____ and _______ ?" I read the email and immediately my answer is - actually no, I can't because either I am not the right person or don't have the authority. However, I can't respond accordingly. It would be rude. Here is how I might respond.
"Hello ____. It seems that you are asking me to complete ____ while doing_____. I understand this is important but may not be the right person for this. My suggestion is that you might want to try to ask _____ if they are aware of the right person/way to do this. It seems they may know better. Thank you, Angie.

This will invite much more chasing through the organization to find the right person and even the right person will not say they can do _____ and ______ as requested. This leads to frustration, gossip and inefficiency. This also leads to us never getting decisions made or questions answered.

This probably seems like such a minor point, but for someone who values efficiency and gets frustrated easily by extra work - I sit at my desk daily and remind myself to take deep breaths and count to 10 before answering requests. Otherwise, I'll be branded the brash and direct American- heaven forbid that!

It is the same everywhere- not just at work. You can be on the platform at the train station and ask someone in the orange jacket making announcements on trains when the train you are waiting for is supposed to arrive. The answer you get is (and I promise promise, this is true): "oh, it may come in about five minutes." OR, "umm, yeah, I'm not sure where that train is (while he is holding a walkie talkie and a schedule) or "it probably will be here within the next 15 minutes". Basically, if you hear that, your train isn't coming, but the guy doesn't want to tell you. We have since learned how to intrepret such answers.

On a separate note, we are heading into September and nearing our one year anniversary of moving out here. It is overwhelming to think that we have a little more than six months left. There is still so much to do and see! We are looking forward to the next few months with a steady stream of visitors and trips to Germany, Cotswolds, Paris and Italy.

Finally, I start my new job tomorrow (technically). I joined the new team about a month ago but have been working on a project that has taken up my entire time so I haven't really transitioned to the new role yet. That starts tomorrow and I can't wait for some more normal hours and to learn more about my new job. Until next time!

Olympic fevour

Well, not really. Why? BBC coverage stinks. We don't have fancy cable packages or crazy network coverage. And, in this day and age, you would think we have the internet to rely on for videos and replays... not so much. After much searching to see a replay of Michael Phelps win one of his many medals, we came up short.

Why is she complaining about Olympic coverage? Well, that is the extent to what I have to bitch about. August has been quiet and rainy and we are enjoying a bit of routine and a little less booze than normal. It is a welcome change. I sidelined myself with an ankle sprain a couple weeks back which has rendered me antsy and a little moody (poor JP). I don't do well being unhealthy and hate not being able to do much. I'm back in action though, with the help of some physio (as they call it here) and regular RICE-ing...

This weekend we stayed in on Friday night after enjoying a few after work cocktails at the pub. I forgot to mention that now JP and I are in same office, so now I can bug him constantly like in the old days! Last night our friend Chris organized a night out for those of us straggling GEPers who are in town and not travelling the continent. We started our night at a tapas restaurant in Mayfair (whom, our spanish friends say is muy autentico) and then hit up a couple pubs in the area. After they closed down we ended the night with "fifteen pounds per drink but great view bar" on the top of the Hilton in Mayfair. It was a fun night out, which ended with a very engaging discussion with a cab driver who encouraged us four times in the ride home to practice our right to vote this November. Don't worry we will.... Today we went to see the Dark Knight and really enjoyed that.

So, quite boring right?! That is why I've ceased posting so much. Next weekend we are heading out to Wales and staying in a Fisherman's cottage in Mumbles (home of Catherine Zeta-Jones). The cottage has a kitchen so we can buy from local markets to cook in and relax by the water. A perfect break from the city before we start a 6 week stretch of back to back visitors and trips.

Until then...

Praha

Last weekend we jaunted over to the Czech Republic to see their capital city- Praha, or Prague. It was a quick trip, we took off Friday after work and then returned on Monday morning (well, that is a loooooong story).

So, anyhoo, the purpose of the trip was really to celebrate Jamie's birthday. We joined Jamie, her husband Matt and our travel friend Aimee and her friend Megan. We stayed in the center of town and enjoyed all the sights. Our itinerary included all that Rick Steves told us to do- so we hit up the old town, the new town, Jewish Quarter, the Castle, the St. Charles bridge... The city is beautiful as well as easy to get around. We enjoyed the low key trip. We arrived late Friday night, so we just had a couple drinks. On Saturday we went walking around the whole city. On Saturday night we enjoyed a nice night out to dinner at a restaurant called Ambiente http://www.ambi.cz/index_eng.php and enjoyed some yummy pasta. (Don't worry, we enjoyed the traditional fare like goulash and schnitzel for lunch...) After dinner, JP and I retired to our hotel casino for some blackjack while the others went out to the biker bar in town for people watching.

All in all, it was an incredible trip, very low key and loads of sight seeing. There wasn't a lot of craziness or partying which aided our trip- we actually enjoyed a city without being hungover or tired!

We'll post pictures shortly. For the next few weeks we'll stay local in London and then enjoy the bank holiday weekend (the weekend before Labor Day) in Wales.