I Love England and Bill Bryson is Priceless

He is, really. I just finally finished his book, Notes from a Small Island, and it was fantastic (yes, Nick, it took me that long to read it. I was distracted by my numerous romance novels that seem to take precedence over everything else...)! It really had me laughing out loud and as I was always reading it in public (on the bus, before class, when I should've been studying...), I bet people around me were quite intrigued and curious to find out why I was seriously laughing out loud. Or, they might've been thinking, 'Freaky brown people, laughing to themselves.' Anyways, it was great!! And I must quote something from it; at the end of the book, at the end of his journey, he has an epiphany as to why he loves England:

Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain - which is to say, all of it. Every last bit of it, good and bad - Marmite, village fetes, country lanes, people saying 'mustn't grumble' and 'I'm terribly sorry but', people aplogizing tome when I conk them with a careless elbow, milk in bottles, beans on toast, haymaking in June, stinging nettles, seaside piers, hot-water bottles as a necessity, drizzly Sundays - every bit of it.

Gardeners' Question TimeWhat a wondrous place this was - crazy as fuck, of course, but adorable to the tiniest degree. What other country, after all, could possibly have come up with place names like Tooting Bec and Farleigh Wallop, or a game like cricket that goes on for three days and never seems to start? Who else would think it not the least odd to make their judges wear little mops on their heads, compel the Lord Chancellor to sit on something called the Woolsack, or take pride in a naval hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy? ('Please, Hardy, full on the lips, with just a bit of tongue.') What other nation in the world could have given us William Shakespeare, pork pies, Christopher Wren, Windsor Great Park, the Open University,, and the chocolate digestive biscuit? None, of course.

The fact is that this is still the best place in the world for most things - to post a letter, go for a walk, watch television, buy a book, venture out for a drink, go to a museum, use the bank, get lost, seek help, or stand on a hillside and take in a view.

It's all true. I love that country.