They call it that Good Ol' Mountain Dew

As I blogged earlier, on Thursday night we had 4 folks over. One couple consisted of Louise (my student) and her boyfriend Tristan. The other couple was Matt and his fiancee Becky. Much like the last time we had company, we had a great time. However, there was no one present with Jon and Matt's musical ability.

Louise is the only female student in my classes (but she's used to it by now). She works with a children's ministry at a Anglican church in Solihull. Tristan works for a marketing company (not telemarketing), and gets a new company car every and free gas! That's the equivalent of a $20,000 a year raise! He was the major talker of the bunch. He grew up on the family farm in Ireland until he was 10, then moved to England with his family. About 5 years ago his grandparents were getting too old to keep the farm up so they had to sell it-- a travesty considering that it had been in the family for 300 years!!! Tristan was also the reason that we decided to order pizza (he's a very picky eater), but that made it easier on Mary.

Matt has one of the best dry wits I've ever known. He'll be quiet for quite a while, then pipe up with some comment that leaves me rolling. They all admitted that they liked America, and Tristan and Matt gave their reasons. Tristan loves the weather and the cars... plans to honeymoon in the U.S.... fly into NYC, rent a Mustang convertable and drive it to Florida. But Matt's appreciation for the U.S. hit home... Mountain Dew! He said that they had it here until 9 years ago when Pepsi apparently gave up on its potential in the UK. This was a tough blow to Matt and he has yet to recover. However, I assured him that I'd bring some MD back with me.
He said that he and Bex would like to tour the U.S. sometime, but it will probably be in a Winnebago. I'm doing my best to convince every friend I make over here that, if he/she ever comes to the U.S., he/she must visit us in Tennessee. I'm really hoping that they take us up on the offer.

A random thought: Every time I ride the train I see a sign that says "Mind the gap." This demonstrates a major difference in British and American English. They use the word "mind" in its classical-verb-form - "watch out for" or "be careful". That usage is no longer around in the U.S. (at least not the South). Our one holdover is "Mind your manners". The only other verbal usage is, I think, "obey"... "Mind your mother".