Weekend chess tournament

Last weekend I wound up going to a chess tournament, which was kind of fun. I lost every match I played in, but I learned some interesting differences compared to back in the day...

1) People here don't say "check." Now, I've never actually played in a tournament, so maybe that's normal internationally?
2) The Mexican version of "bug house" is called "taxi" and is different from what I used to play, which threw me off a lot. The general idea is the same (teams of two, and when you capture a piece you pass it to your partner), but there are (at least) three different local rules that changed the game:

• They play with a 3 minute clock (as per the Wikipedia description). But this meant that every game ended on the clock, which for me was not as fun...I started playing the clock instead of my opponent.
  
• No putting pieces where the king is in check, which meant a more subtle strategy.
• If you castle, you can remove a piece from your teammate's opponent.