London details

Here I am with the boys. I stayed in their house. From left to right it's Jake, me, Pete and Sam.

Here I am with Jake. We are in Leicester Square on my last day of my visit, the same place where a little over 5 years ago (June 2004) we met for the first time. It was a fitting end because when we met it was also my last day in London before heading back to Tucson.

This is where I slept while in Jake's house (the living room).

Here I am in front of Buckingham Palace.

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So, as I've said before, the differences between the English language in England and the US are interesting. There are some things I brought up in my list from a couple of days ago that are a continuation on this theme.

-"slag tag" is the equivalent of the US's "tramp stamp" (the tattoo in the middle of the lower back that women sometimes get). "Slag" is the term for whore, slut, tramp, etc. "Tramp" for the English is the equivalent of "hobo" for us
-"top up" means to fill up. So adding value to my Oyster public transit card is referred to as "top up"
-you don't get "in line" when, for example, you buy something. You get in a "queue"

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Last week on Friday night I went clubbing with the boys and a group of their friends. One of their friends was celebrating her birthday. Though I only had enough money just to get into a club, being American I managed to get a few drinks paid for. At one point I had a very good looking Australian hitting on me. The problem was I got creepy vibes from him, which meant that I kept him somewhat in check. He picked up on this and actually declared to me "I'm gay." Let's just say he was a bit too touchy feely for me to actually believe that.

When leaving the club the bouncer almost immediately told our group to move. One of the things I have noticed about Brits is that sometimes they can be mouthy. A couple of people from our group started mouthing off the bouncer, and quite frankly I saw no reason to get so touchy about it. Then again, most of our group was drunk.

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Some aspects of the culture really caught my attention, as well. They don't really "doggy bag" food from restaurants. I asked the boys about this and they told me that while it's not an unusual thing for people to request, it is not common. Some waiters might look at one weird if this request was made, but others might not, they said.

The concept of patriotist is also different compared to Americans. The boys told me that to be patriotic in England is frowned upon. Wearing anything pro-England (regional sports on game days excluded) wasn't really something many English do, especially not to the extent of Americans and American patriotism.

There is also quite a bit of cursing done by laypeople in England. I fit in pretty well.

I will continue the rest of my list later.

-AALA

Last day in London

I don't have much time to talk about more about my stay right now but let me put it in list form before I forget so I can comment on it later

-slag tag
-top up
-Leicester Square
-Avenue Q
-tea a thousand times a day
-tramp
-doggy bag
-queue
-McDonald's
-party/club
-Australian
-British museum, National Gallery, British library
-Oyster card
-service at Westminster
-Arsenal Emirates stadium
-patriotism in England
-trouble with 10p, 20p and 50p
-abolishing of schilling and such
-resetting to Arizona time
-London Chinatown
-high school -> college -> university
-list of places to visit next
-Tarfalgar Square and "magicians"
-cursing

London Day 3

Celebrations for my birthday were quite chill. It was to be expected as both Pete and Jake work early the next day. I had an incredibly delicious Argentine meat platter from the South American restaurant we went to last night. I was very happy to have had steak again after so long.... it will never beat the steak my parents make, though.

Today was pretty chill, too. My friend Jack came over (he's Jake's friend, and it was actually through him that I first met Jake) and spent the night last night. He, Sam and I walked over to Jake's work for lunch. We went to this sandwich place that is dirt cheap. There are pre-made sandwiches that are sold already wrapped up and they cost less than $2. After Jake returned to work Sam, Jack and I went walking to Covent Garden. It's this big square with shops, entertainers, and booths that sell wares like cheese and fudge and such. I would have probably enjoyed it more if I had more money, but it was still a nice walk. After walking around for a bit we decided to take the bus back to our neighborhood, so I got to ride on the second floor of a double decker, which made probably a little happier than it should have.

After napping for a bit and getting dinner a group of us went to see Inglourious Basterds. I actually liked it. There were a lot of very violent anad graphic scenes (as to be expected), but I think the amount of humor injected very much helped the film. I also will point out that it's in no way historically accurate, which caught me a bit off-guard, but I think it was good Tarantino stayed away from that.

I learned more interesting British facts; the only sport they have somewhat resembling baseball/softball is a sport called rounders, but basically it's only played in school and is by no means a national sport that competes.

I'm apparently going to a birthday party tomorrow for a friend of the boys. I'm a bit nervous because it's a new culture and I don't really know anyone. I just hope I have fun. I was also invited to play badminton tomorrow, but it got called off due to the fact that they couldn't reserve a court, so I guess that is postponed indefinitely.

I really crave apple strudel right now... damn you, Quentin Tarantino.

-AALA

Day 1

I have never before felt so self conscious about the way I talk until I got on the plane in Chicago for London. All of the attendants and the pilots were British, and the majority of the passengers were British. I felt like I had the ugliest accent ever, and should not speak so as not to ruin the auditory aesthetics.

On the flight I learned that "lemonade" in Britain is kind of like a lemon/lime soda... essentially, it's carbonated, not like what we think as lemonade in the US.

So I arrived in Heathrow airport yesterday. Going through Customs was relatively painless, so I'm glad to report that. I waited in the airport for about an hour, realizing as I waited that my friend Jake and I never actually planned how we were going to meet. I also realized that while I was en route to London he probably had e-mailed me. So I ate the ₤4 to get internet access at the airport. Sure enough Jake had said he had to work so he couldn't meet me, and gave me instructions on what Undergound (aka "Tube") line I needed to take and what stop I needed to get off at. He said his room mate Sam would meet me. I was a bit miffed, but no harm done. I asked one of the airport convenience store employees on how I was going to pay for the Tube, and he told me about the Oyster Card (kind of like the equivalent of the Chicago Card for CTA in that you scan it and it's cheaper than paying with a normal card... at least, for Chicago that was true until recently). Thankfully the line I needed to take to Jake's house was the line that left from the airport, so I only had to stay put until my stop. Now, Heathrow is on the southwestern end of London, and Jake's house is on the Northeastern end, so I had quite the trek. I defintely passed out a few times from exhaustion.

Sure enough Sam was there waiting for me and we hung out the entire day while Jake and his other room mate, Pete, worked. I had an absolute blast with Sam. We chatted a lot (talked a lot about British vs. American words), drank quite a bit of tea, went for a walk around the neighborhood including a park, and bought groceries. We found a ₤10 note right at the register, and that paid for most of our groceries (we really went for cheap)!

We made a pasta dinner with vegetables and it was quite tasty (and it was actually my first meal of the day; I hadn't eaten since 6am that morning on the plane!). Sam likes to cook (which is good for me as I'm really lazy). Pete and Jake then came in. Had more tea, ate dinner, and then for dessert we had ice cream with some American candy that I had brought (like these little Reese's peanut butter cups and Butterfingers), and they liked it, so I'm glad for that.

I am quite proud of myself. In about 35 hours I had only slept maybe some 2 hours and I managed to stay awake for the entire day. By 10:30pm, though, I was exhausted and completely gone (although it is almost 6am now and I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep). The boys have set me up in their living room for sleeping and I like it.

The house is quite cozy and lovely. Jake's parents lived in it and Jake was raised here. Apparently his parents are now out living somewhere else for a time and they've allowed Jake and his friends to stay here, which is quite the steal in terms of rent and such. Also, I am happy to report that despite the fact that there are 3 men living here they are all quite clean! I am very fortunate.

It is officially my birthday right now and the boys have been gracious enough to tell me they're taking me out. There's a South American restaurant nearby that we'll go to for dinner, and then afterwards we're going to some bar/club to see a friend of theirs perform, followed by (or actually, this is probably going to be an all night activity) drinking. It will be quite fun! I just hope I don't run up a bill...

-AALA

Interesting article

In travel related news I found out this interesting tidbit from an MSN article about debunking some travel myths. One of them had to do with tourism. You know how Americans have this reputation for being loud and obnoxious tourists? Well, apparently that doesn't necessarily translate to "bad tourist." In the article it says that Expedia had about 1500 hotel managers from around the world take a survey about tourists. The verdict? Among 27 nationalities the US ranked 9th best. The Japanese were ranked first. As for the worst group, well, let's just say it cracked me up: the French.

The rest of the article can be found here: http://guides.travel.msn.com/Guides/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1083446

Another article on MSN is about travel taboos. Some of them are just the typical, already-said-a-thousand-times nuggets (like in Cambodia where it's not a good idea to finish your entire plate because that signals to the host that they didn't give you enough to eat), but some are rather interesting (didn't know Cheshire, England had a thing against people kissing good-bye next to the train when one is about to board the train).

Just for learning something interesting the article can be found here: http://guides.travel.msn.com//Guides/MSNTravelSlideShow.aspx?cp-documentid=980450&imageindex=1

-AALA

Getting Ready/First Entry

I recently deleted my xanga account because I felt it was time to start something new and different. I didn't give it a farewell, and I didn't tell my sporadic followers where I was going. I want to start fresh, and this blog isn't going to be maintained like the last one. I've had my xanga account since senior year of high school, and pretty much no one I know that is my age updates their xanga as often as I did, or even about the same things I blogged about. I just graduated college in June, and now it's time to move on.

My passion in life is traveling. I plan on making a career out of it one day. But before I do I am going to be doing a bit of traveling beforehand. This blog is meant to chronicle those journeys; the observations, the frustrations, the laughter, the anger, the awkward, the comical, but most importantly (and the purpose of this blog) the interesting and the informational.

In less than one week I am going to be heading to London. The following few days are going to be hectic as I tie up loose ends and little by little move my things out of my Chicago apartment. The experience I am about to have in England is definitely going to be memorable. The stories are practically writing themselves (for starters, I have no return ticket to the United States as of yet). The next entry will probably be once I get to England when I can comment on my first English experience since high school (when I was last in England). So keep checking back for photos and commentary.

-AALA (An American Latina Abroad)