Since arriving in London, I’ve been extremely lucky with the weather. For the first month I was here, I could only recall maybe two rainy days. For the most part, it was sunny and rather warm. I was told time and again that this weather was unusual for Britain and that I should expect to see many cloudy, drizzly days ahead. I came prepared with my rain jacket and “Wellies” (a.k.a. rainboots), but I haven’t had much use for them… until this week. It seems fall has finally arrived in London, and we’re having a spell of perpetual clouds this week. Yesterday, it was quite rainy; today was more just cloudy with a light misty drizzle. If I had 50p for every time someone said to me, “Welcome to Britain,” this week, I’d have made quite a bit of money. This is the weather Londoners have been anticipating (and, it seems, dreading), but I have to say I don’t mind it right now. It is, as my voice teacher said, the “quintessential English weather,” and I really feel like I’m in London now. Needless to say, I’m getting my money’s worth out of my raincoat and my Wellies, which already took a beating last fall/winter during the seemingly endless wet and snowy winter we experienced in New Jersey.
Today I wore a pink sweater, and one of my classmates said to me, “I like your jumper!” I was incredibly confused for a good five seconds, until she said, “Do you call it a jumper or a sweater in the U.S.?” So I’m happy to say I’ve added another British word to my vocabulary today:
25.) sweater- jumper
Funny, because the first thing that came to my mind when I heard the term “jumper” was this scene from That 70’s Show:
… although technically, these are “jumpsuits,” not “jumpers.”
American in London 