Feb 20 2009
It Was 1993 and I Learned to Love London.
It was 1993, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend the entire fall of that year in London, England. I went as an exchange student, and chose London because I figured I wouldn’t have much trouble communicating because they speak English. I was completely wrong of course, but after I learned that a loo is a bathroom, I was pretty much good to go.
Crossing the road in London is a scary experience for an American because cars drive on the other side of the street. At first, I found myself frantically looking back and forth to cross, only to find myself relentlessly honked at by taxis that I hadn’t seen coming.
Second, I couldn’t understand why Londoners would say, “ek. Americans. Look at them”. I’d think, what do you mean? What’d we do? After a month in London, I learned what they meant. Americans were so easy to point out with their big mouths and loud colored clothing in the quiet, gray/black sea of Londoners. Ahh. I’d say. Americans.
My favorite place in all of Great Britain was Trafalgar Square and Big Ben. One day I took the Tube alone from my Flat (they’re apartments here) that we Let (rented) hoping to catch a glimpse of Big Ben. I looked it up in my handy dandy travel guide and hoped I could find it off of the Tube.
I walked out of (someone help me here) station and bam. In all its glory stands Big Ben, basically like the picture I have posted here. I’m glad I didn’t ask for directions while riding the Tube.
I learned a lot in London, that quality tv in England is not the same quality tv in the US, that Right, Right, can mean any number of things from yes, I hear you, to you’re an ass, and that in the grocery store you are expected to bag your own groceries and they will wait until you have a huge line of people sighing behind you shaking their heads until you are told to bag your own.
My last day in London, I rode the Tube one last time to visit Big Ben. I made sure that I was there at 12:00 noon. I listened to those chimes with tears streaming down my face. I can still hear it. I hope to attend the 2012 Summer Olympics. I want to show my daughter Big Ben and I can’t wait for her to be mesmerized by its charms.
