Would You Like Stiff Upper Chips With That Sir?
I have to admit I make a conscious effort to avoid other ex pats living in Naperville. After all, if I wanted to mix with the British, I would have stayed in England. Although there are a fair few of us here, I don't often stumble across them, which is fine by me.
But this lunchtime I came across a whole group of Englishmen, in somewhat surreal circumstances.
I met Grumpy for a quick lunch in Schmaltz's deli. Schmaltz's is the nearest thing we have to a New York deli here in Naperville. It's a lively place with assistants shouting out orders and customers telling them to hold the mustard, that kind of thing.
So you can imagine my surprise when I suddenly heard not one, but quite a few English accents. I looked round to see a group of teenagers ordering sandwiches. Now I know I haven't heard a good British accent for a while, but these boys put me to shame.
Those of you who know me might think I have quite a "posh" accent. But I sounded like Eliza Doolittle before she was discovered by 'Enry 'Iggins in comparison.
What was even more surprising, was that in the middle of the group was a familiar face, none other than Scott Harper, the local Democratic candidate for Congress.
This is where the story gets even more odd. I recognised Scott not because I know him from his campaign, but because last summer he stopped outside my house when he saw me rocking on my porch. Turns out he grew up in our house, and was very impressed with all our remodelling work.
Anyhow, I asked him how come he was surrounded by a group of unusually well behaved English youth.
"They're over here for a few days because they are studying the American political system," he explained. "They're all students at Eton."
For any American who doesn't know, Eton is Prince William's old school. That would certainly explain why they were so polite. Most English schoolboys would knock you to the ground in pursuit of a sandwich.
Not one to miss any opportunity, I flung out a handful of business cards to the boys in case they wanted to read my blog. Maybe we Brits should stick together after all...
But this lunchtime I came across a whole group of Englishmen, in somewhat surreal circumstances.
I met Grumpy for a quick lunch in Schmaltz's deli. Schmaltz's is the nearest thing we have to a New York deli here in Naperville. It's a lively place with assistants shouting out orders and customers telling them to hold the mustard, that kind of thing.
So you can imagine my surprise when I suddenly heard not one, but quite a few English accents. I looked round to see a group of teenagers ordering sandwiches. Now I know I haven't heard a good British accent for a while, but these boys put me to shame.
Those of you who know me might think I have quite a "posh" accent. But I sounded like Eliza Doolittle before she was discovered by 'Enry 'Iggins in comparison.
What was even more surprising, was that in the middle of the group was a familiar face, none other than Scott Harper, the local Democratic candidate for Congress.
This is where the story gets even more odd. I recognised Scott not because I know him from his campaign, but because last summer he stopped outside my house when he saw me rocking on my porch. Turns out he grew up in our house, and was very impressed with all our remodelling work.
Anyhow, I asked him how come he was surrounded by a group of unusually well behaved English youth.
"They're over here for a few days because they are studying the American political system," he explained. "They're all students at Eton."
For any American who doesn't know, Eton is Prince William's old school. That would certainly explain why they were so polite. Most English schoolboys would knock you to the ground in pursuit of a sandwich.
Not one to miss any opportunity, I flung out a handful of business cards to the boys in case they wanted to read my blog. Maybe we Brits should stick together after all...
posted by Hilary at
3:30 PM
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