Tea and Religion

Some nights when I come in from work I have a cup of tea with L. When I was a kid I used to have tea in the morning with my grandfather with milk in it and he would say, “This is how the English drink it” (he wasn’t English). I have since grown to like my tea straight; no sugar, no milk. But every time I have evening tea with L I think of my grandfather because as she hands me a cup that has milk in it. I think she may be trying to convert me.

I bought a book that lists great places to have afternoon tea in the UK. The preface lists the benefits of tea and one of them is that three to four cups a day contains 45% of your daily fluoride requirement. According to the same book, only 11% of the UK’s water supply has fluoride added. Since almost everyone here drinks tea with milk, at the end of the day, the sink at work is filled with dirty teaspoons. It’s a sight to see. The other difference about beverages at work is there are coasters in all the meeting rooms and people use them.

I had dinner with two of the guests the other night and we had quite a lively conversation about a lot of things. Somehow religion came up and I commented on the fact that not a single person since I have moved here three months ago has mentioned going to church or anything religious. Inevitably in passing, someone in the States will mention religion to you even if it is just something like “on my way home from church Sunday I stopped at Target”. They might take it a step further and witness to you, which was a term that caused puzzled looks around the table. One of the guests said, no people wouldn’t talk to you about religion here. That would be considered impolite and embarrassing. I thought that was a hilarious comment.