The United Kingdom is made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain includes:
England, Scotland, and Wales. For this reason, this area is divided into 4 different parts.
England
For my world places thingy I said I would do Great Briton and I am still going with that,
but I live in England and so England is what most of this is based around. England is at the
bottom of the UK, and places like Scotland, for example, are at the top of the UK. Things in
England can be very different to things up in Scotland, like the weather, traditions and even
clothing!
In England, like everywhere else in the UK, we have four seasons, winter, spring, summer,
and autumn. In America, you have winter, spring, summer, and fall, do you not? In winter it
is cold. This is through Christmas, when we're lucky if we get snow. (I haven't had a white
Christmas for yonks)! In spring, it's when all the plants are starting to grow again and it's
beginning to get warm, ready for summer. In summer it is hottest. In summer, the heat can be
around 40 degrees C (about). In autumn it's great. All the leaves are falling off the trees
and the weather is cool, ready for winter.
ROI (the Republic of Ireland) is that blobby thing next to the mainland. They are still
on the mainland and included in the UK. I know absolutely nothing about the ROI because I
have never been there and don't know anyone who lives there. I think their holidays are
different though.
In England, our school holidays are different to those in America. We have three terms
at school in a school year. (I think that's a semester?) At the end of each term we have a
two week holiday, one at Easter (April) one at Christmas (December) and then at the end of
all three terms we have the Summer Holiday (August), where we get eight weeks off and then
go back to start all over again. A term is about 14 weeks and we have a "half term break"
for a week in between the term. Also we get INSET days which are staff training days. These
are just odd days we get off.
You start your education at playschool age 2 or 3, and then you go onto nursery
(Kindergarten). At 4 or 5 years old you go up to big school and start in Reception class
(now called foundation at some schools). You start year one when you are 5 or 6 and so on
until year six. In year seven you start a new school after the summer break (senior school
or secondary school). This goes to year eleven and then year twelve is called "Sixth Form"
year thirteen in "Upper sixth" and year 14 is just, year 14.
In the Sixth and upper sixth it is optional if you stay on or not. You can leave and
take a year out to get a job or something. You don't have a uniform (you usually do in the
rest of the school) and you have free periods. You start getting free periods in year eleven.
These are just lessons where you don't have a lesson. You can go to the library or take a
trip down to McDonalds, or hang out in the Sixth Form block where they have drinks and sofas
and study resources.
After School you go to College or University, but I don't know too much about that, so
I won't write anything about it!
I said about McDonalds, I think you have them in America? Course you do. What you don't
have (and I know this from chatting to so many American people) is a Tesco's or an Asda.
Tesco and Asda are the two best known shopping supermarkets in England probably. Along with
Sainsburys, Safeways and Marks and Spencers (but Marks and Spencers sells loads more). These
are just like Wal-Mart.
The market goes around different places selling things cheap. Some people like shopping
on the market because it saves them money. I don't like shopping on the market a lot because
the quality can slip. I did, however, buy a really nice blue fluffy beanbag from the market,
and they have lovely clothes, but anyway . . All over the UK people have different Market
Days. Mine is Saturday, and that is when everyone goes to town and spends their allowance.
I have three Guinea-pigs as pets. Other popular animals over here are dogs, cats, horses,
flesh eating ants, (jokin) hamsters, gerbils, mice, rats, lizards, leopard geckos (my mate
has one of them), and there's loads more stuff, but I don't know anyone who has a llama or
anything like a sloth or something. I know someone who has a tarantula though!
We listen to the same music as you Americans, like Avril is a huge hit at the moment
but she's only got one song out over here. We got Emenem's new songs after you, and all
that stuff. We listen to the same music as you, but we just get it later. There are also
bangs like Travis and Toploader, Indie bands and Blur that you may not have heard of. We
get a lot of Brittany as well! We have pop bands like Blue and Liberty X, and we have had
a series of Popstars, and at the moment I am on the edge of my seat to see who gets in on
Fame Academy and Popstars The Rivals. Also we have had Pop Idol, which discovered talent
such as Ric Waller and Gareth Gates and Will Young. You have probably heard of some of
these things, but not them all.
Almost all English people are addicted to TV. You know about that. I would just like
to say that loads of our TV over here, is American. The Simpsons, all our films, Futurama,
ER, Friends, Will and Grace, and loads more, honestly. But I love the good old English Soap
Operas, like Eastenders and Emmerdale! I don't like Corrie though lol.
Well, I like the Internet, and HTML programming, but really, when I am older I would
like to be a writer. I don't care what the pay is I just get joy from writing! Especially
stories! I don't know what that has to do with England though. I suppose there's a lot of
people in England who like writing.
I am really not sure what else I can write! How about: Well, England sure is a swell
place! Then I could end it couldn't I? Well, England sure is a swell Place!
Hello from England! My name is Jack. I live in a small village called Bilsthorpe.
I live about a mile away from Sherwood Forest where the legendary Robin Hood was
supposed to have lived. It's great knowing that a place that people have traveled
thousands of miles to see is visible from my house!
Most people here are crazy about football (including some girls) because of the
World Cup. You can't walk 3 feet without bumping into an English flag! A lot of people
recall the 1966 World Cup final, in which we won against Germany, in case you didn't
know. A lot of people, myself included, believe we could do it again if we tried.
I'm in year 7, which means I've just started secondary school (or middle school,
as it's known in America). The sad part about school is that whilst a lot of you probably
get the whole summer off, we get 6 weeks. We're grateful for it too, but there's always
the odd holiday in between e.g. Christmas and Easter.
We celebrate a fair few holidays here: along with the standard ones like Christmas,
Easter and Halloween, we also celebrate Bonfire Night on the 5th of November, which
celebrates the day when Guy Fawkes was stopped when he tried to blow up the Houses of
Parliament. We set off loads of fireworks. The sky is illuminated with greens, blues
and reds. We don't celebrate the 4th of July or Thanksgiving for obvious reasons.
An interesting fact is the view supplied by American media, which shows us
acting posh and drinking tea, is too mixed up. Very rarely does anyone act posh at all.
To be honest, we're quite a scruffy nation. Most of us prefer coffee anyway. ;-)
We get a lot of American and Australian programs on TV like Zoey 101, The Simpsons,
Neighbours, Crocodile Hunter, Back-yard Science and American Dragon. However, the few
programs that are actually English are great. My favorite though has to be Doctor Who.
Now you probably think, "Doctor Who? Isn't that the low-budget 70's program my dad
watches sometimes?" and you're right... sort of. You see, here in the UK we have
completely revamped the series. Most of the effects are now CGI. The script is much
better written. The graphics have been vastly improved and the living "dust-bins"
a.k.a the Daleks are much, much better. To learn more visit:
BBC - Dr. Who.
We listen to an array of different music here. Favorites include 50 Cent, Arctic
Monkeys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Christina Aguilera to name a few. Our government
at the moment is controlled by the Labour Party, which is led by Tony Blair (our Prime
Minister). However, Tony is preparing to leave and the Labour Party is slowly crumbling,
so by the next election the Conservative Party will probably be in power. But I can't
forget our queen! She recently held a birthday party called "Party in the Palace,"
where loads of children are invited to come to a ... well... party in the palace.
Interestingly enough, the queen's birthday is in the spring.
To find out more about England, why not go to your local library?
Scotland
Hi I'm Imogen (13) and I live in Scotland, the top of the UK. Scotland is basically the same as
England as the way of life goes. We have the same shops and are just as rich. blah blah blah... We
don't get as hot summers, but we get more rain though! I live in Edinburgh, the capital city. In
Edinburgh there are lots of old things like castles, because Scotland is an old country unlike America.
So basically Scotland is the same as England.
We have different schooling though. We start school in primary 1 (p1). Primary school goes up to P6,
then we go to high school. You start high school when you are about 12 in S1, (I think that stands for
secondary 1). Then you can either leave high school when you are 16, or stay on 'til S6 and go to college,
university, ect. I know that sounds confusing, but I can't explain it better.
Technically the bottom of Ireland, (Republic of Ireland), isn't part of the UK anymore, but Northern
Ireland is. All I know is that they say "t" instead of "th", (they say tirty tree instead of thirty three),
and it is hot there in summer!
Wales
Hello my name is Alun (say Alin) and I come from Wales! Wales is a beautiful country
situated in Great Britain 150 miles from the capital of England (London). It has lovely
mountains and old castles such as castle Coch near where I live, Cardiff castle in Cardiff
(capital city) and Caerphilly castle in Caerphilly. Unfortunately big countries such as
America and Canada don't know we exist. Even though we are a small country, we are proud
and visitors and tourists are always welcome. On a personal note, we listen to loads of
music such as Green day and Eminem!
Northern Ireland
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