How to be a Londoner, Part I

The moment we've all been waiting for has finally come: I've done something interesting.

If you’ve heeded my advice (/fears of blogs) and looked at pictures of baby panda pictures instead of reading my posts, you may want to pause your ogling and read (some of) this post. I’m not saying this post will be more exciting than pandas, but it’s getting closer. You can also just skip to the bottom or look at the pictures; that's alright too.

First- I went to Borough Market, a large food market undr the London Bridge. According to Wikipedia, it was "first recorded in 1014", so it's been around a while. They have just about everything: teas, spices, breads, cookies, cereals, sauces, olives, fruits and veggies, freshly prepared food, and meats and seafood- even ostrich steaks and eggs. One of my roommates bought some pesto and some veggies to cook up, and I got some bread. Later, with a few extra ingredients, we (ok, mostly Dana) made a delicious dinner that fed 3 of us for 2 nights. Hooray for being adult-like and having an Italian roommate! After the market, we took a walk through London, saw the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe, and walked over the Millenium Bridge (I think), the one that collapses in Harry Potter. Hooray for culture! Since we happened to go with one of our professors, whose expertise is in medieval art and architecture, we had a guide to point out architectural highlights in London’s skyline and give us a quick run down on an old church we visited. Hooray for knowledge!

Second- Over the course of 3 days, I have officially gone to a London pub, eaten fish and chips, tasted British aleand taken photos in a phone booth. These were all of crucial importance on my to-do list. All I have left to do is take a double-decker bus tour, eat a British pie and watch the changing of the guards and I am an official, 100% London tourist. Yes.

Here’s some proof:

Third- I am starting to learn British slang. I found a website (http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml if you're interested) with a ton of British slang, and I’ve been going through it a bit at a time to try to learn. The other daymy roommates and I accidentally watched a show that highlighted the top ten moments in this comedy tv series called “The In-Betweeners”. A few of the slang words I had just read actually came up, which was cool because I was slightly less confused and I got to practice my new vocab a little. Most of the time, the worst language differences to deal with are (Am) bathroom= (GB) toilet, exit= way out, pants= trousers and underwear= pants. The whole pants thing is what I’m most worried about. I’m afraid I’ll accidentally mention, in casual conversation, that I never wear pants with a skirt, as it’s simply not my taste. However, I would appreciate knowing if I am being insulted by a Brit or if someone ia simply talking about what he or she would like for dinner. Some things are seriously weird and a little off-putting, like how they call meatballs “faggots”. Seriously, what? Others are less weird, or just a matter of commonly using a word to mean one thing when we normally use it to mean something else in the States, although both meanings could be understood. For example (last one for now): UK: Thanks for poppin’ in! US: Yo, this lip gloss be poppin’!

Fourth: I also went to the Spitalfields Market, aka hipster/etsy paradise. There were tons and tons of old “vintage” clothes, most of which seemed to be legit (I’m assuming) because they were labeled with dates from the 1940s-50s. Lots of places sold antiques, including some magazines from the 40s, 30s, and even earlier. They also sold buttons and watch faces and watches without faces and paper fans and scrabble-piece necklaces and beads and huge 3D charms in the shape of bird-in-birdcages, anchors, etc, etc, etc. And it was all expensive. So hip.

Fifth: Lastly (for now), I went to the annual Nottingham Carnival. It’s a big celebration of Caribbean culture on the Sunday and Monday of each Bank Holiday (similar to Labor Day in the US). I heard that it would be really crowded and crazy, but I didn’t think it was all that bad. I heard there were about 20,000 people there, but spread over 4-5 huge city blocks, it was nothing too terrible. Honestly, I thought the crowd to pet the black bear at Bucknell last spring was a bit tougher to deal with. The carnival itself was a lot of fun. They had tons of food vendors (I had some jerk chicken- it was delicious!) and a huge parade of people dancing (well, we got there towards the end so most were more like mopers) in giant, fantastic costumes, complete with tons of big, brightly colored feathers and sequins. There was also a giant peacock puppet thing, which was very cool. There was litter everywhere, and people just doing their thing, like dancing (3 random guys just danced on the street by this DJ for what seemed like 20 minutes), playing music, or handing out gospel/church postcards. There were tons and tons of police officers. Apparently they were taking some extra measures after this summer’s riots. Fortunately, we did not run into any problems- thank goodness. When we got off at the tube stop, I thought some incident must have just gone down because there were so many officers. Turns out they were only there as extra carnival security. We also concluded that our entire train got off at the same stop to go to the carnival. We were a little nervous seeing so many outside the station on the street, staggered in formation. But we soon found out they were actually a pretty chill bunch (a good amount of them, anyway) and took pictures with one constable who let us (and a whole line of people) wear his hat. Another constable up on a platform actually posed for someone below who wanted a picture, and even one at the parade fence smiled a bit at some of the performers’ antics (I think one tried to dance with him). The train ride home was very crowded, like I-really-really-hope-I-remembered-deodorant-this-morning crowded. But the London Underground is great, and it didn’t take long. Overall, it was really fun and a great experience. I’m glad the four of us decided to go. It was nice to see another side of London, its people and its varied culture. The performers (and vendors) were just a bunch of ordinary people doing what they love and celebrating their unique culture, even if that involves a sequin bikini and feather headdress or a whole lot of tasty chicken.

30 second summary: I did things. It was fun. See bold print. (And I did remember deodorant, in case you were wondering.)