Mind the Americans

We've spent a week here in England and I've had the time of my life. I'm having so much fun and I'm actually slightly dreading returning to the states, even though I'll be happy to see my family. the UK doesn't seem all that different than the USA on the surface, but we've run into some very evident culture differences that are both funny and frustrating at times. A big difference that I've noticed: restaurants. We are eating at restaurants twice a day and I think I have yet to have a smooth paying -for- my -meal process. I have yet to eat at a restaurant that allows the checks to be split up. We get one big check for the entire table and the waiter allows several different credit/debit cards to be used on one check. It's really frustrating at the end of the meal to try to solve a math problem, but it's interesting to see the cultural difference. Another thing I've noticed about Americans: we're loud, obnoxious, and picky. On the subway back to our hotel last night, we somehow ended up talking in British accents, but no one was fooled. We were loud, and recieved many stares. When ordering meals, we ask for no tomatoes, ice with our water, and seperate checks, and receive odd stares, and it makes me feel like we're being rude. What's acceptable in the US isn't quite so over here in England, and its been very interesting figuring this out and learning the British culture. I can't wait to see what the next 5 days has in store for us!