All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know

One of the most (unintended) funny things about yesterday was the puzzlement and questioning of some of Chrissi's cousins about how things work in England, or seemingly basic questions. At first I was trying to be genuine in explaining the answers to the random questions proposed, but after a while the sheer silliness of these questions meant that the answers became increasingly sarcastic.

Some examples of random questions included:

• Do you have Independence Day? Do you have different holidays to us?
• What age can you drive / get a tattoo / drink / smoke?
• Do you have balls in England? (This one I have no idea about. I'm thinking we're talking about ballroom-style balls. I'm hoping we're talking about ballroom-style balls!)
• Do you have cities in England?
• Do you have movie theatres in England?
• So does it sound to you like we have accents? Does our accent sound strange?
• Does England have states?

Most of these were met with explanations or the statement of the obvious - although after a while, the answers became sarcastic, so 'do you have cities?' was greeted with the response 'no, we live in mud huts and light fires for warmth'. A similar answer was given as to whether we had movie theatres, with a sheet being suggested as the sole source for us seeing films.

I'm not quite sure what was expected or why it was so bizarre - or why any of this was expected as different. I can understand the curiousity about the different ages for doing things, but why a 14 year old would ask whether we live in cities in England or whether we have movie theatres shows a disturbing lack of awareness about ... well, anything!