An American tourist in London

After I discovered most of my classes did not start until the first week of February, I spent last week in London with my good friend Angelina. I took an 8-hour bus journey, which was much cheaper than Eurorail and discount airline flights. When I decided to study abroad in Europe, I really wanted to take advantage of the ability to travel around and this was the perfect opportunity.

I had a great time in London! I saw an unbelievable amount of artwork in the city’s free national museums, enjoyed long walks across London in the sunny albeit freezing weather, and saw the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of Twelfth Night. We scored tickets for five pounds each an hour before the show, and we still had great seats dead center and only a few rows back. I never read this play or seen it before, but I really enjoyed the performance and found it very funny.

I have to say, I was not expecting I would be able to do so much on a small budget. We went out for tea once or twice, and enjoyed a personal pot of tea and lemon cake for four pounds each (about 8 dollars)! But Londoners seemed resigned to the hugely expensive cost of living–cute trendy restaurants were packed, and so were the pubs with their 5 pound pints. Since going out is so expensive, London residents seem to really treasure their time out, chatting over lengthy meals and wearing their finest, shiniest clothes. But by cooking meals, Angelina and I got to spend some quality time in the kitchen and save money on eating out. We made curry and pasta, which Angelina’s flat mates found very amusing.

We did go out to eat fish and chips at a pub, and I thought it was a great meal. I even ordered a pint with my meal and I felt very British.

Unfortunately the journey there and back was not quite as enjoyable. On the way to London, I had a great scenic view of France, but only until we reached the Channel. While crossing over to the British side, everyone on the bus had to get out to be searched, interviewed, and x-rayed no more than five times. The British immigration people were also very grumpy: they found me extremely suspicious because I had somehow forgot to sign my passport. Realize that nobody else in all of my passport related activities had pointed this out (when I brought it to the French embassy, went through 500 immigration lines before).

Also, I didn’t have the address of the place I was staying (King’s College, in Angelina’s dorm)… So the British asked me just about every question they could think of: who I thought I was trying to vacation in London, how much money I was bringing, had I been to London before, what was I studying, blah blah. I was the last one being interviewed on the entire bus! Once I got back on the bus, I immediately signed my passport.

Security on the way back to Paris was unbelievably lax. We didn’t get off the bus once; French police came on and collected passports but didn’t even look at baggage or anything. Since I took an overnight bus though, this occurred at 1 a.m. Additionally, some French girl decided to sit next to me out of all the available seats on the bus and then I got to enjoy her not so excellent playlist of American hip hop.

The difference between the security checks seemed like a good indication of the country’s approaches to individual right to privacy. The French strongly believe in personal privacy: do whatever you want as long as you’re not hurting anybody. This also means they seem cold and standoffish to outsiders, because they respect personal privacy of strangers. But it seems to me like the British have a security state, with their extremely high rate of security cameras per capita and regimented security checks on the Tube. I’m not sure which country is actually the safer place to live.

P.S. It was Tokyo Day (free!) Saturday at the Queen Elizabeth convention center: