Everything I Need to Know About England I Learned in One Month

Not that it's a huge shock, but I've survived a month in England! Just 31 days ago, I was fresh off the train from Heathrow, getting my bearings, and struggling to stay awake. I was so young and foolish then! I've learned quite a lot in the interim, and I'll summarize the really important things below:

-England is not as clean as you might expect.
-London is almost mindblowingly huge.
-The national train service is excellent, but prone to interruption.
-Even cities considered ugly in Britain have more character in a block than most American cities do in ten.
-Words they actually use here: blimey, cheeky, "Alright?" (as opposed to "What's up?"), aluminium (though I keep pointing out that there's no extra 'i')
-Forget football and rugby: drinking is the national pastime of Britain; that said, they don't always handle their liquor as well as you'd think.
-Tea Time, while not the nationally observed afternoon break it once was, is still an important facet of life.
-The Berkeley (pronounced with an 'a' in place of the first 'e') is not a particularly good pub; the Hope & Anchor, however, is excellent.
-Napoleon Dynamite somehow didn't make it across the Atlantic.
-No one, anywhere, can understand the Welsh.
-On a similar note, everyone, everywhere, likes to make fun of Canadians (the "How do you spell Canada?" joke is particularly popular.
-You have to pay £120 just to license your TV here.
-There are street signs that enigmatically say "Changed Priorities Ahead."
-Not everyone thinks much of the Royal Family, but they all agree that in a pinch they're better than the Bushes.

I could probably come up with a lot more, but I'll save some in reserve for the two month mark in December. More generally, I'm enjoying myself here all in all, but I do tend towards the side of homesickness; I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody (those of you that are in Seattle, that is) over Christmas.
Not much to report from the last couple of days. I was officially assigned my web page project on pterosaurs, which all the former MScs say is the worst thing one does here (if you want an idea of what's in store for me, check out previous students' work here). Several of us spent last evening watching Revenge of the Sith, the high point of which was actually the pre-movie barrage of trash-talking e-mails. I had my first test since the GRE this morning, which turned out to be absurdly simple (less than ten easy multiple choice questions, though I haven't seen my grade yet, so I shouldn't get too cocky). The idea of a paper on the quality of the dinosaur fossil record is still in the works, but the odds that it will be shot down by Mike when he gets back this week are probably pretty good. Other than that, there's little to nothing new or interesting to report. I realize I've been lax about updating this as regularly as I said I would, and I'll do my best to get back on track. What with schoolwork and all, though, I'm not making any promises. At least the Internet seems to be working more or less flawlessly now..knock on wood...