My Most British Day Yet ft. No Brits

I've been in the UK for about a month now, and even though you may think that just living in the United Kingdom makes it feel like every day feel like "the Great Britain experience", most of the time it feels like an American stumbling through the city.

Last Sunday, I had the most British day to date and I ironically spent it with no British people.

A couple of weeks ago on my trip to Trinity Market, I met some German exchange students who introduced me to some Dutch exchange students. On Sunday, eight of us gathered to make a proper English breakfast. We had toasted bagels, bread, scones with cream and jam, fried eggs, roasted vegetables, beans, hash browns, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, tea, and coffee. Okay... not everything we had was considered "english" and some of it was American, but the majority of what we ate was what you'd find in an English breakfast.

After a late breakfast I met my friend Sela so we could head into town to do some shopping. Sela is American, but has lived in the UK for a good portion of her life. Our first stop was the Doc Martens shop, something that people told me with a staple for dressing in the UK. I got a pair of 1460 Pascal's and I'm already in love with them.

After Doc Martens, we went to Primark. I have never been to Primark, but it is such an experience. I ended up getting some new socks to help break in the shoes, tights (something that's very popular in the UK and I've rarely seen people wear in the US), a flat iron with a UK socket, and some hair ties. I've heard that Primark tends to change what they're carrying pretty frequently, so I plan on going back soon.

Afterwards, we stopped at Greggs which has sweet and savory pastries. I had a sparkling cloudy lemonade, an eclair, and half of a sausage roll. All of it was really good and pretty cheap. Sela happened to have a voucher for a free McPlant - which is a vegan burger from McDonald's. McDonald's in the UK tastes different than the US, but I haven't tried a McDouble yet so I don't have a base to compare everything to. However, while I wouldn't order the McPlant for myself, I will eat it and enjoy it.

Throughout this whole trip we took the bus, yet another thing I don't really do in the States except for maybe that one time I used the UNCG bus to get from one part of campus to another. We went back to Sela's flat where I tried some dessert (I can't remember what it was called) that's like a molten lava cake, but it's salted caramel and instead of ice cream you use double cream. I've never had double cream before, but it was good!

When I got back to my flat, I tried some British candy - which is nothing like American candy - and headed to my British room in my British accommodations to use my tiny British shower (seriously, so small) and go to sleep in my British double bed (which is 4 feet wide). All in all, I had a great time and experienced plenty of new things and would recommend a day like this to anybody in the UK.