Some random thoughts on London (day 2)

Walking down the street is a pain in London.  Sure it’s bad because you have to look the wrong way before crossing the street.  But there are signs at every intersection on the ground that say ‘Look right’ or ‘Look left’.  And anyway, I wait for other people to cross and just follow them across and I am motivated by fear of dieing to look the right way.  What I find painful is thinking about which side to swerve to on a crowded sidewalk or finding the up escalator at the Tube.  Those are the things that tire me out.

Londoners don’t talk to you if they don’t know who you are.  At the place where I work, all the developers sit on an open floor with no cubes.  There are at least one hundred people in the room.  There was no permanent place reserved for me to sit, so I got the manager’s desk (he’s away on holiday), well within reach of 8 people.  Not one person even said hello to me.  In the US, we are trained (or at least I was trained) to say hello to people, if only for security reasons.  Why are you here?  Who are you?  That training hasn’t carried over to the company where I am working, I’m afraid.  Very strange.  (Note: My sample size is 8 people - large enough for a test, I think.)

Tonight I learned how to read the Tube signs.  Yes - I know it’s pretty obvious, but I’m from a small town.  The way you read the Tube signs is to see if your stop is listed across the platform.  Not listed?  You are on the wrong platform.  Just that little bit of advice saved me some time tonight.  For those of you laughing, it was only my second Tube ride.