Yorkshire; Where the men are men, and the sheep are affraid

Here are some important things to know if you visit England. These are the things you never read about in travel books and you cannot ask the locals because it is not something they think about or sometimes even notice they are doing it.

For example if you are in America and you are walking down the sidewalk and another person is approaching you heading in the opposite direction, which way do you move to avoid them? In general both people would move to the right and would pass without incident. Of course that is not always the case and yes I understand there are always exceptions. I am only saying that in general people in American have a greater tendency to move to the right to pass oncoming foot traffic. When this happens it is seamless and unnoticeable. In my opinion this is due to what we are taught about cars and driving, in that you drive on the right side of the road.
Well guess what folks; they drive on the left side of the road here. Not too surprising, passing a person is much easier if you move to the left as they approach. I learned this after practicing my two step shuffle dance with a few strangers. Again there are exceptions but still a nice thing to know. On the same note, when crossing the street the look is right left right… not Left right left as you may be accustomed to.
Another little tidbit of info you may find helpful involves standard greetings. Word to the wise it is not a good idea to as a native speaker what the proper response is to a standard greeting. If they get to thinking about it they will just give you some improper response that seems ok at the time. These responses to standard greetings are like a reflex and often they do not even realize they are doing it. This is especially true if you are using the same language as is the case here in England.
Here is my technique for a new greeting. If I can I listen to two native speakers do the greeting dance spontaneously without them knowing I am listening. Then I am ready when they hit me up. The second method is to copy them at the greeting a few times. This way you initiate the greeting and therefore you are not responsible for the response, they are. Just make sure you remember what they say.



Using these two methods I have discovered two appropriate responses to “You all right then?” If you are fast enough to start very close to the time they begin speaking you can just repeat the phase to them so you would say “You all right then?” at the same time. The second optional response is a short one that involves a one word answer of “Good.” And there you have it two new things from me to you.



For today’s activities we went climbing a bit. I have some video footage of it but I will up load it later I think. I heard a rumor that we will be climbing again tomorrow with some friends around here. For now you will have to make do with the boring old picture types.


Kinda cool I guess I did see a few sheep just sorta hanging out there by the rocks. Ok this one is old but still good. It was told to me by Matt in 1994. The way to catch a sheep is to heard it to a cliff. The sheep will not turn around and put his back to the cliff. Instead the sheep will just back up into you.