Hi y’all! It’s Manny again, now officially reporting from all the way in the United Kingdom! Just thought I’d leave you guys with a short story of what has been happening over here so far in the past three weeks. Man, what a roller coaster!
To begin with, the 8 hour flight over was unfortunately a bit of a disaster. All our luggage got lost for a few days and we couldn’t go to sleep immediately since doing so would have given us an even stronger kind of jet lag. However, in the grand scheme of things, that really was just a slight annoyance because once we touched down we knew we were in for a treat!
The city of London is a marvel of the modern and the historical. It blends and fuses together influences from ages of past with newer, trendier influences to create a cultural blend from all corners of the world. People call the United States a melting pot, but it would be safe to say that London is much more than just that: it’s an edible, delectable, and tangible broth of cultures from all over the globe. Just as easily you can find an Indian restaurant on one street and find a Latin American or Asian one on the other. There are districts where a predominant population occupies the area, such as China Town in Soho. However, when you’re just walking around and taking it all in, it never really feels like there’s a divide or some sort of sectionalism. It just kind of happens.
All flowers and petunias aside, London is a huge city and it was something that took me a very long time to get adjusted to. While back home at Rollins you could just walk to one corner to the other in about 10 minutes, getting from one place in London to another takes at least an hour. For example, my daily commute consists of taking the Tube (it’s what Londonites call the underground train here) from my flat all the way to Piccadilly Circus, which is in the center of the city. This alone takes me about an hour to accomplish. Not to mention getting ready in the morning, taking a shower, eating breakfast etc. So now you’re looking at waking up at 7 in the morning to get to work at 10. The days of missing my alarm and waking up 20 minutes before class are long gone here!
Well, I have to get going to work. Important meeting today! However, fret not my friends. I will be back soon enough with another update of my wonderful adventures here in London. To end, I will leave you with a quote from Samuel Johnson: “You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
Love the quote! Thanks for sharing with us 🙂