The Shortlist

As time winds down here, I’m having a lot of those “Love London” moments that I want to pause to help me remember them as well as appreciate them while they are happening. At the same time, I am having many moments that make me immediately think- “only 2 ½ more months of this and I’m outta here” Recognizing this, I thought I would shortlist (I love lists, almost as much as I like long blog posts…) the top ten things about London I love, and to even it out, the top 10 things I hate. I will start out with the hate, b/c I am a glass half full type of gal who likes to end on a positive note:

HATE

The weather- which includes the almost non-existent daytime we get during the winter months -average temps right now are at about 40 degrees and we get about 7 hours of daylight, if you call daylight clouds and grey skies.

The utter loss of humanity people have when they enter public transportation. Are you pregnant? Walking with a cane? Have a stroller? I feel really really bad for you if you have to get on a crowded tube. People have no shame in their game and will elbow, push and crowd you out. Forget about gentleman rising out of their seats for the ladies- British chivalry does not exist in the Tube.

TV. We have no cable and we watch a lot of Friends and BBC news and The Dog Whisperer. Our other options are terrible UK soap operas and even worse reality shows.

The loss of good sushi and Mexican options here. It is painful and we have substituted with Indian and Thai in the short term- but sometimes a girl just needs a burrito.

The UK firm. I don’t know who reads this so I will leave it at that.

Not having a car. I like to think of myself as relatively green, but I miss having a car to run errands. Some days I just don’t want to walk the mile from the store to my house loaded with bags and in the rain just so I can pick up some needed supplies from the drug store.

The way people communicate here. In an effort to save people’s feelings, people just don’t say what they think, what they mean and tell you what they want. Instead they beat around the bush, dance around answers and don’t answer questions. It is and incredibly time consuming way to operate.

British customer service. It is about non existent.

Having to always walk downstairs to use the restroom in public. Often the stairs are steep, smelly and not temperature controlled. Also, once you get to said public toilet it is often clogged or not flushing and there are no paper towels which makes people not want to wash their hands which leads to germs which leads to me getting sick…. You can see the repercussions.

The ever public blowing the nose/hanky up the sleeve habit. First of all, these people are just gross overall- but public blowing of the nose (like, both sexes, all ages, restaurants, the pub, you name it- disgusting). While browsing at a bookstore yesterday, this woman who was all but standing on top of me pulls her hanky out of her shirt sleeve, blows her nose as hard as she can, and crumples up the hanky and sticks it back up her sleeve. A year later I am no more used to this and it makes me vomit a little in my mouth every time it happens.

LOVE
The pubs. They are cozy, mostly friendly and normally you can get a place to sit while you drink. There is one on every corner of this country- seriously!

Public transportation- yes yes, I hate the tube at rush hour, but overall the public transportation system is efficient, organized and gets you where you need to be without having to worry about traffic and parking. It is not cheap for those of you who think we are saving all this money without a car- but it works and you can go to pubs and not worry about driving after. Plus, I have read so much this year b/c you always need something to read on the tube.

The work life balance. People here come in at 9am and work until about 5:30/6pm and then they go home. They have lives. They don’t work many weekends. They aren’t married to their blackberries. They take sick days when they are sick. It is a nice change of pace from 50-60 hour work weeks, “I don’t take vacations or sick days” type of mentality that people reward in the US.

There is always something to do here! Art exhibitions, new bars and restaurants, markets, street fairs, you name it and something is happening in this city, and you don’t ever have to repeat outings if you don’t want to!

Travel- from here we are 2 hours away from any Central/Eastern/Western European country.

Happy hour. Along with work life balance- people here get together after work for the pint and it is a glorious way to end the day.

Aesthetically this city is gorgeous, and even though there is no daylight, it is nice to walk around at night with the buildings all lit up and historic sights on every corner.

Fashion. I can’t partake as much as I’d like because I would rather travel than shop- but I really like the stores and options here. Not that I don’t miss rocking the flip flops and jeans- but it is cool to see other options and various ways of dress.

Our friends. We have some incredible friends here who make life more interesting and keep us busy while we are missing our friends at home.

Increasing my awareness of the world outside the US. I have learned more about other cultures and countries than I ever dreamed- in both very direct and indirect ways. It is so interesting to understand our impact on the entire world and also I have become much more patriotic in my time here, I love the USA!