November 2009 Archives
We think we're advanced.. not really. we just are good with our fingers.
- .. the stronger than normal pull of the escalators going down to the Central line.
- .. how the wind rushes through the stairs and passages of the underground as trains roll along.
- .. the way people move slower in the rain on Oxford street.
- .. how the nights can be warmer than the days as the jet stream surges through.
- .. the speed at which the clouds barely 100 yards over the buildings zoom past at night, making the entire city seem in motion.
- .. how much the English babble when out for a pint.
- .. the path from Trafalgar square to Soho, until I stopped thinking about it and just walked, winding up where I wanted to be.
- .. to look above the crowds on the sidewalks to avoid walking into people.Making eye contact and adjusting doesn't work here.
- .. what the displays on said Oxford street look like at Christmas time, and what creativity goes into putting those all together.
- .. the cacophony of languages being spoken on the street and in the buses.
- .. that I love being in London amidst all the chaos.
Maybe I'm the only one that does that with mine any more.
With Merkel well received in DC, and the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the wall 6 days away, there's tons of introspection going on here, myself included. I was doing an exchange year in Freiburg with Kathryn & Leslie in '89, right in the middle of the turbulence caused by the balance of power shifting from one side of the continent to the other. And as I sell my labor here for some euros that translate into more dollars than usual, there's a certain balance of power across the Atlantic that's happening. It's certainly not all milk and honey here, to be sure as I sit here watching an hour-long nightline-like show about the state of civil rights for homosexuals. Things aren't quite resolved here either, despite the progress made in politics and social circles.
