Professors say the darndest things.

I realize I haven't talked very much about school here - save a few rants about lab - and since that's, you know, the reason I'm here, I thought I should address it.  The most significant part of any learning experience is, of course, the teacher.  This term has been a crash course in lecturing styles; with our two science courses being taught by a different professor each class, you never know what flavor of learning you're going to experience.  What they all have in common, however, is that they are not American.  This means I will often be caught off-guard by their mode of expression or humor - it's all good fun, of course, just different. 
The other day, for example, a professor was discussing central nervous system regeneration.  Despite speaking so quietly that if I closed my eyes I would be convinced he was in the other room, he did have a funny way of expressing himself.  He referred to spinal injury as "a jolly silly thing to do," which in context of his manner of speaking seemed perfectly normal, until I thought about it and realized, none of my professors at home would have referred to it in that way.  But with the accent, it's just not weird for some reason.  Everything sounds so reasonable with a good English accent.
My Science in the Mass Media professor showed a surprising turn of humor when a girl asked for a copy of the handout in the middle of class and he said, with a very posh accent, "What, did you eat yours over break?"  It was funny, but again, if said by an American, the humor would be lost.
Our vocal instructor for the opera was having us put our hands on our jaws to project better and said, solemn as anything, "A good jaw massage never goes amiss."  The accent, again, made it seem like a very practical thing to say, to which I might agree and answer, "Oh yes, quite."
Our architecture teacher, trying to explain Foucault to a class of students none of whom had previously read Foucault - which was comical in and of itself - tried to explain a concept with the sapient phrase, "A cave does not a statement make."  This would sound absurd with an American accent, but perfectly normal when he said it. "Ohhhhhh, so that's what Foucault meant," we all nodded, not understanding but believing that we had.
Finally, in a slightly different vein but equally as perplexing, I talked to a teacher after class who I had e-mailed previously.  She said, "Oh, you're Meredith.  I saw your name on the e-mail and I thought you'd be a boy."  Well, at least she didn't think I'd be the hindquarter of a camel (see previous post).  But I guess over here the original use of Meredith as a boy's name still prevails.  A definite difference I had not anticipated.
While I'm on the topic of school, I do feel the need to address my infamous Cellular Neurophysiology practicals because I had my last one Friday.  While I experimented on locust motor neurons, I also performed a second social experiment of my own which was: Since it was the last practical, instead of trying to fit in, I would treat it as I would a practical in the U.S. because this is how I work best and I have a hard time believing they're really having fun here when they act so solemn and formal all the time.  It didn't go over so well with the TA who has had it out for me since Day 1 - when he helped us, I said, "Awesome, thank you so much, that totally works now!" as genuinely as I could and put my hand up for a high five.  He just stared blankly back and in a flat tone asserted, "We don't self-congratulate here."  Jeese, is having fun while working illegal here?  But a winning moment came right at the end when we finally got an optional second part of the lab to work (seeing minis!) and the professor was saying how it was super important to get out right at 5 pm; he said that part of science was about being able to finish on time.  Instead of closing my mouth like a good UCL student, I decided I'd had enough with the not-interested-in-real-science attitude here (we were getting mini readings for goodness' sakes!!) and asked him how many times he left his lab on time.  He paused for a few seconds, smiled abashedly, and said, "Yes, ask my wife."  That's what I thought!  HA!  He let us stay for awhile afterward. 
It's very strange to me - and highly inconvenient, considering my personality type - that overt enthusiasm is supposed to be repressed here.  It is considered somehow impolite, I think; all I know is that people clearly do not find it to be a positive attribute, and I rather just feel judged, as if I've done something wrong by smiling too much.  There is definitely a lot more formality in every situation, often even between friends, which is stifling to me.  Their mode of expression is certainly beautiful here, and I, like every American, am enamored of it in all the British films I see.  But it drives me crazy in real life, when all I want to do in the world is chat with the lady ringing up my groceries just to get a smile out of her because she looks so serious.  But I can't, because that would somehow be rude. 
Huh?