Observations on London

Well, here I am in London. And what do I think of my first day, traveling alone…? Well, it’s much more different than I had expected. While it’s fairly easy to get around and communicate, it is nothing like Boston or DC. Although part of that, of course, is that where I’ve been in London isn’t representative of the whole city…

But here are some general observations:

• Everyone’s in a rush: in their cars, on the Tube, or in the street. Wherever they are is *not* where they want to be.
• Advertisements. Tourism. Yeah, I know that’s somewhat specific to where I am, and I know that it’s like this in some sites of the US… but I hate that EVERYTHING has a sticker on it.
• British politeness doesn’t make the British polite.
• Everything is expensive. But yeah, that’s not just London
• It’s a very international city. It’s not not just Americans and it’s not just tourists that color the streets and the underground. There are all sorts of native languages being spoken - French, German, Russian, Italian, Mandarin… it’s wonderful; the only sad thing is that they all speak English with British accents…
• The British dress much more formally, or at least differently. Their jackets tend to exten longer, perhaps as a response to the damned rain, and women are more nicely dressed - not like sorority girls - but nice (I like that)…. By the way, it was a lot of fun to ride the tube when all the school girls in their schools colo(u)rs were on it…
• Everyone and their cousin have BLUE EYES. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing, but it’s noticeablely different that most red-heads, brunettes, blondes, people with dark-skins, etc… all have blue eyes. Okay, not everyone, but it’s still worth noting… and they’re not just blue, but ICY blue. And very nice at that.

I think I wrote more in my journal, but I don’t have it with me now as I finish this entry. So I’ll just say what I did yesterday… I saw the National Gallery, the National Portrait Galley, and Les Miserables. I highly recommend Les Mis… it was amazing. I’m gonna write for today and then go grab some dinner…