Silly Brits, "keen" is for bobby-soxers

It occurs to me that the rather dry series of tips for grad school (here, here, and here) should be supplemented by something a bit more light-hearted. So here begins Differences Between the UK and the US. I'll try to avoid the obvious (Hey! They drive on the other side of the road!) for the smaller details.

1) They talk funny. Okay, so that's obvious and expected. But here's two quick examples of how they talk funny that I didn't expect:
- They use "keen." A lot. I don't think I've ever heard Americans use "keen" except when parodying the '50s or in the expression "peachy keen," which nobody says seriously anyways.
- "Fancy dress." Before I came, I had no clue what this meant. Formal wear? Nope. You wear fancy dress for Halloween. And Emma Sprints.

2) Grocery store inventory. They don't have graham crackers here. I had plans to make a cheesecake last weekend and panicked for a bit when I couldn't find anything that even looked like it had the same texture as graham crackers. What would I use for the crust?! As it turns out, digestive biscuits work just fine. The lesson here is that, even if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, you can probably find something suitable.

No chocolate chips, though? Unacceptable.

More to come...