A Californian lad in London...

"Hi there, this is an average lad from Santa Clara, California, reporting live at London, United Kingdom......" Just kidding. Have been in London for 2 weeks, still don't like this city, there's more to adapt than to enjoy. There is lots to say about London this time, since I have experienced the city much more than last visit.

My hotel is across street from British Museum, and a block away from Oxford St., a major shopping area. Here's the Museum at night, preparing for a Korean culture event. Every morning, I walk 5 min to take the "tube" (subway) to work. Office is across town near Tower of London and Tower Bridge, so I have to switch train, commute takes about an hour. The tube is extremely uncomfortable, noisy, dirty and crowded, matter of fact, that pretty much describe streets in the entire city. Everywhere is full of people busy getting to somewhere, all looking pretty serious. In many aspects London remarkably resembles Shanghai, both have highly-efficient public transport system, both are noisy, crowded, both have polluted air and narrow streets, the stores in shopping district look a lot alike, of course to me, my wife would protect those in Regents St are much higher-end.

Of course, this is Britain, so many conventions are at odds with the rest of the world. I'm just about to get used to staying on LEFT side at stair and pathways, after bumping into people walking towards me the first few days. The sweet voice of "Mind the gap" still ring in my ears. People all dress up, or nicely, men all in suits, black the dominant color. One day in the tube I even saw a guy with Punk hair-style and tattoo but in formal business attire. In office, half of guys wear shirts with French cuffs and of course cuff links(which I had no idea how expensive they are). Women all wear make-up, making them look prettier, or maybe they are pretty, since London has people of races from all over Europe, there are many pretty people here. At least everybody is slim, both men and women. seldom see overweighted body, perhaps because food is so expensive and people have to walk a lot everyday. There are so many slim people that their body shape resembles Asian better, no wonder the suits in European cut I tried in stores fits me much better than American cut.

Another thing is perfume, you can smell all sorts of it in tube cabins or in office, for a couple of times even on street. Now I know why Europeans love perfume, not because it's the scent of love, but because it's the only way to mask any body odor in a hot and packed tube cabin after rushing on street for a while.

For one thing, the British love tabloids, and London is the heaven of it, numerous papers are not only free but hire people to push them into your hands at tube stations and on streets, so tube cabins are littered with those dirty papers, which I considered pollution. And people DO read them, in the tube, all the time, making me questioning the intelligence of the general Londoners.

Life in office is a bit of challenging, I didn't realize how much different American and British English can be. I can't understand half of the chatters and jokes people say in office, so I have to constrain from participate in conversations. Sometime I really wonder if the 2 countries across the Atlantic actually speak the same language, because so many words are different. For example, one of the guys in office spent 2 mins explaining to me what "riding push-bike" is, while he could've said "cycling". Some of them have strong accent, Nick, the guy I work most closely with, happen to be one of them, so imagine the frustration on my side of keep asking "what", and on his side keep repeating what's just said, but I manage to get along fairly well with him, and everybody else in office. I probably have picked up a little British accent myself. People in London seem all like to go to bars, drink after work is the usual social event, kind of like lunch in California, because most people eat lunch at their desk. Although everybody seems quiet and serious in office, once getting into a bar, they all become live. I went to one of such event, it's a company sponsored celebration event, so it's quite mild and polite. There's another one, farewell to Nick, he's leaving the company, I didn't go, there were pictures of people getting drunk and lying everywhere.

Well after all, there are also many interesting parts about London. It's a city with amazing mixture of the past and present. Walking on streets, you can see modern glass-steel office buildings blended with centuries-old stone-brick architectures. There are "big ben" and London Tower, as well as "The Gherkin" and London eye.

The Gherkin is the egg-shaped or cigar-shaped building in old financial district, not far from Tower bridge and my office. In the new financial district Canary Wharf there are many new high-rise offices.

Food is great if you ignore the price tags. I'm amazed the number of restaurants you can find, seems there's something at every street corner. There are a variety of cuisines. We went to quite a few nice Korean restaurants, but the Korean restaurants here don't serve you side dishes for free, and tea is all tea-bags, no tea pot. I went to an Italian Pizza once, not bad. Food in company "canteen"(cafeteria) is not bad, has a good variety. BGI's cafeteria is on top floor of the building, has a splendid view of the city on both sides of the river. Lunchtime is my enjoyment of the day.

Streets are filled with the lovely red double deck bus, they are perfect place for commercials, many of which are quite creative, check out this one:


What else good, the weather is wonderful if you like photography, many cloudy days, and clouds display various forms and shapes, providing constantly changing lighting effects on everything in the city, buildings, vehicles, people, etc. This provides endless photographing opportunities. No wonder there're so many amateur photographer in Britain.

Another great advantage being in London is getting to visit some places in England I have been longing to go, such as Cambridge, where I went last week. I'll have a separate post on that.

Well, two weeks flied by, I have mixed feeling to London, I'm really not sure if I want to come back or not. In one sense it's not up to me, for instance there's a good chance my boss will send me back next month. On the other hand, the idea of living and working here for a year or longer is still so far-fetched it's hard for me to imagine, surviving the sick air in the tube and the overwhelming London streets. Right now, Bay Area has never been sweeter to me, I miss the sun, the air and my friends so much.

This post is still work in progress, for more London pictures, visit my flickr page