Right... then Left?

For a "Adventure Blog," we sure don't have that many adventures to write about!... and we live halfway around the world from everyone we know! Well, if you count 6,000 miles "halfway around the world."  When I say it like that, it doesn't sound very far huh? Almost makes it sound like you could drive here if you wanted... ROAD TRIP!!!

Speaking of road trip, we've been talking about taking one! What's the point of living  in country full of historical and lucious landscape, if you're never gonna' see it? The dilemma is however, neither of us want to drive in the UK!  Usually when we have taken road trips on the East Coast, I'm happy to do all the driving and Michael would navigate a.k.a sleep.  But I'm not so sure I want to drive on the left-hand side of the road... would you? Doesn't sound like a big deal and would probably be fun, but honestly, after a year of living here, I can barely walk across the street without being hit by a car or a bike.  You don't think about it back at home - it's second nature to you, really.  All your life, you were taught to "look both ways" before crossing the street and without realizing it, you've always looked left, then right.  But here, you've got to look right then left! Think about it... WTH! For a long time, I was scared to jay-walk.  I couldn't even step my foot off the curb without repeating 5 times, "right then left, right then left..." And just when I was getting the hang of it, I went back to Portland for Christmas, tried to cross a street and got really discombobulated.  Was it right then left, or left then right?! You should have seen me driving - I was all out of whack.  Everytime I wanted to turn, I wasn't sure which direction I was suppose to look first and ended up turning my head about 9 times to make sure I was looking the right way. Each time I made a left turn onto a busy intersection, my neck got a work out. 

So I hope you can now understand my hesitation with driving in the UK.  I mean, when you are making a right turrn in the states, you automatically stay to the right-hand side of the road. But when you turn right here, you stay on the left.  When you make a left turn, you stay on the left. When you bust a U-turn, you stay on the right.  Then there are those crazy round-abouts that occur at every third of a mile. How do those work??? When you merge, do you merge on the left???  How about freeways? Do the slow people drive on the left and is the passing lane on the right? Probably not because get this... when you're walking down a sidewalk in the UK, you should stay on your left (in the US, you stay on your right - it's pedestrian common courtesy)!  But when you are on the escalator in the UK, you stay on your right if you want to stand still, and let the left-hand side of you pass. It makes NO sense! If that rule applies on the escalator, then why doesn't it apply on the sidewalk? And if it applies on the escalator and not on the sidewalk, does it apply on the freeway?