Sheffield 101.

This is a building right around the corner from my house. The engraved sign at the bottom reads: Upperthorpe Public Baths. I found this both hilarious and exciting when I first noticed it, walking to town with my flatmate. He said, "What, you don't have swimming pools in the states?" Oh right. Because a public bath is totally the same thing as a pool.

Some funny things I've learned about Sheffield lately:

* It's the 4th largest city in England. 4th! Yet no one (outside Sheffield) seems to have ever heard of Sheffield. And you can't say it's because they don't have a major football team,
because they have TWO. Sheffield United, and Sheffield Wednesday. Yes. Sheffield Wednesday.

* Speaking of football, it seems the closest Sheffield ever came to being famous, or infamous rather, was in 1989, when 96 people were crushed to death and 766 injured at a football game, also known as the Hillsborough Disaster (Hillsborough is the suburb just a mile up the road from me).

* The dog of choice around here seems to be the pitbull, or the ever-so-darling bull terrier, which I'm fairly certain is now a banned breed in the US.

* The mail comes (through the slot in the front door) at 10 o'clock IN THE MORNING.

* The standard greeting is "You alright?" which has thrown me off repeatedly, since the only time we'd ever ask anyone "are you alright?!" in the US is if there were something clearly un-alright with them.

* Pedestrians have the right-of-way at crosswalks... 50% of the time. Also, you walk on the left side of the sidewalk here.... 50% of the time. I need to speak to someone about the official rules on this because clearly, there are none.

* Apparently, you also pay to ride the bus... 50% of the time. Or, you don't pay at all, and the ignorant American student pays the listed standard fare, to the great surprise of the bus driver. Definitely going to try and get away with not paying next time.

* This week is apparently Police & Ambulance Siren Testing week. I actually stopped what I was doing today when I noticed that for a whole 30 seconds, there was no siren going off. Amazing!

* You get called love (or luve, in the thick northern accent), by everyone, all the time, no exceptions. I swear you could rob a bank here and the cashier would say "there ya go, luve!" as she handed you the bag of money. It's particularly interesting to me when people know I'm an ignorant American, and STILL do it. Like last week at the post office, I took almost 5 minutes counting out the correct change, and the lady at the desk just watched me, then eventually said "I'll need 5 o' those and 2 o' those, sweetheart." SWEETHEART! I totally got an upgrade while being a slow and annoying customer!

I have never been to the south of England, but I've heard from plenty of people that Northerners are much nicer than Southerners, and I'd believe it. Simply because I don't think you could get much nicer. Apart from all the loves and sweethearts, people are quite happy to go completely out of their way to give you directions or help you find something, or just acknowledge your presence. For that, I'll happily put up with ambiguous crosswalk etiquette and a few pitbulls.