Megan’s abroad in London, England, until Dec. 13.

During one of the first days of my program’s orientation, one of the staff leaders brought out several bags of candy. Being students, we all immediately stopped making small talk and stared straight at the processed sugar. “Who wants a Milky Way?” the staff member called out. He threw several fun-sized Milky Ways into the audience, and told the lucky catchers that they must eat the bars at that moment.

“Wait a minute,” one participant called out. “This is definitely not a Milky Way. It’s a Three Musketeers!” Similar sentiments echoed around the room — the caramel was missing, yet the wrapper clearly stated it was a Milky Way. “Okay, now let’s try some Mars bars,” our instructor called out. It turns out that in the United Kingdom, Mars bars are what we know as Milky Ways, and Milky Ways are our Three Musketeers. “Take this as an example,” the staff member said, “that things here are not better, and they’re not worse. They’re just different.”

After the candy bar incident, I walked around assuming everything was going to be different. I found that most things in England are only slightly different – but food here is really different. At first I was simply amused by the food differences, but I’ve grown to strangely like British food — and I know I’ll miss it when I head back to the States in a few weeks.

The first thing that scared me was breakfast. A traditional English breakfast is about the heaviest thing one can possibly eat. It includes fried eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans. A smaller version of this could be baked beans on toast. Either way, your breakfast will probably contain baked beans and make you feel like you gained ten pounds before leaving the house. I’m typically used to grabbing a granola bar for breakfast before I run to class, so this was definitely a shock.

I have yet to have a formal high tea in England, and that’s because the fancy ones cost about 40 pounds (about 60 dollars) per person. But I do love typical teatime foods. The answer is yes, I have tried crumpets, and they are delicious. They’re essentially squishy pieces of bread with lots of nooks and crannies to absorb your butter. English muffins here are just called muffins, and they’re thicker and denser than our English muffins. Scones here are ridiculously cheap (I got a pack of ten for 38 pence, or about 56 cents), and just as delicious. I’ve also noticed pre-cooked waffles and pancakes in the “teatime” section of the grocery store. I’ve yet to unravel that mystery.

And then there’s dinner. I have come to adore fish and chips, and have learned that they always come with peas, whether regular or “mushy.” My favorite food in England, however, is the Cornish pasty, which is a flaky pastry filled with meat, vegetables and sauce. It’s kind of like a portable chicken pot pie, and they serve them at most train stations for cheap. Needless to say, every time I get on a train it’s with pasty in hand.

Although the things I’ve noted are delicious, there are some things that just continue to weird me out. Lemonade here is essentially Sprite. You have to ask for “clouded lemonade” to get real lemonade. The Brits are also big fans of spreads like Marmite or “pickle,” which are essentially bitter, brownish-black vegetable-based spreads you put on sandwiches. I have no idea who could find that appetizing.

Cultural differences are certainly obvious here, but England is a whole different world when it comes to traditional food. And my orientation leader was right — it’s not better or worse, it’s just different, and that’s what I’ve come to love about British life.

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