Realization of the Day (A Two-Parter):

I've come to rely on my cellphone far too much.

I don't have a cellphone whilst I'm here. I decided that since I really don't know anyone here who isn't easily accessible by email that it was pretty much worthless to spend $60 on something I didn't need. Besides, I have a phone in my dorm-hovel that has voice-mail and an automated wakeup call.

I also forgot my watch, which has proven to be more problematic. I've started to use my cellphone as my watch, as I think most people have, so since I've gotten here I've had no idea what time it was unless I was near my laptop or my work computer.

I broke down yesterday and bought a watch on amazon.co.uk. It's one of the cheapest ones I found that still looked half-way decent and something that I'd choose to wear on a regular basis.

American English and British English are funny.

(Watch my brilliant segue into my next topic!) Amazon just emailed me telling me: "Your Amazon.co.uk order has dispatched." Dispatched? I usually only use the verb in its past perfect tense, and then usually in the sense that a person was dispatched, not an object.

Another grammatic oddity I've noticed came from the ATM machine that Dr. Virago and I were using. While we waited for our respective money the machine said: "Please wait while we deal with your request." In American English, 'dealing with' something definitely has pejorative connotations.

It's definitely hard to get my meaning across here. It's not that the words that the Brits use aren't in my lexicon, it's just that they're not the first words I would choose in most cases. I'm getting more fluent in British English, but it's definitely taking some getting used to!