Thursday, January 4, 2007

Location: London


I arrived in London yesterday evening after a long and uneventful flight. Believe it or not, it’s not even that cold here –and that is coming from a person who wears winter coats and scarves in Los Angeles. I hate the cold.

Anyway, I’ve spent the last day and a half wandering around the city and recovering from jetlag. London is an awesome place. Pubs and kebab vendors on every corner, pedestrians everywhere, everyone in a rush to get somewhere. I spent the whole day just wandering around, my motive being to find a cheap watch. Well, I never did find a watch, but I did rediscover something that I have always loved about solo travel. Back home, one rarely takes the time to just sit and watch the world around them, but when you are on the road, with no real schedule, it’s so much easier to take it all in. The people and events of the world are much more entertaining than reality TV and computer games.

Example: For Lunch today I had a lamb kebab, which I ate in the “Leicester Square Fun Fair”, a mini-carnival set up in the middle of Leicester Square. There was a merry-go-round, a spinning teacups-type ride, and a couple of carnival games – no cotton candy in sight (those poor Brits don’t know what they’re missing!)

As I ate the kebab (delicious), I sat and just watched the world pass by. Couples walked hand in hand and business men rushed through the crowd with overcoats and briefcases. A little girl started to cry when her parents wouldn’t let her ride the merry-go-round. They tried to pull the old “we’re walking away, so you better stop crying and follow us” move. But she didn’t follow. She stood there and held her little hand out to the strangers that walked by, as if to say “stop! Help me!” Her parents hovered at a safe distanced, waiting for her to give up and come running, but she was persistent. An old silver-haired Brit was so disturbed by the tearful little girl, that he stopped in front of her, side-stepped her, and kept walking. Here’s to human compassion.

Eventually she ran back to her mom. The whole scene was sad and cute and charming – better than anything I’ve seen on TV in a while.

Anyway, the Contiki crew arrives tomorrow, and I’m still a little bit nervous about teaching this class. I’m sure it will go fine, but I want to be sure I’m well prepared, so I gotta run.

Oh, and check out my friend Sheila’s blog – she just started a big “around-the-world” trip, and she is awesome, so read her blog. Strangely enough, our flights left LAX about 15 minutes apart, so we got to hang out in the terminal for an hour or so before we both left.

That’s all for now.

2 Comments:

Blogger Vagina Warrior said...

Sounds like you are getting the time you need to breathe crazy how fast life seems to fly by when we are not paying any attention. How much we do see when we slow down to watch. I haven't talked with you in a while, Happy New Year!!! So are you a teacher? Traveling for work, fun or both? Well I hope your travels are safe and exciting.
May light guide you,
Gyn

January 5, 2007 at 6:30 AM  
Blogger Micah Coy said...

Justin, you need to remove Shiela's blog from yours. I read it, I remain totally unimpressed. In fact Im so unimpressed, I read it in a very befitting valley girl accent. Which, sadly enough - directly lines up with her various 'likes, omg and ews.'
Otherwise, England sounds awesome. Lamb kebab has made me hungry, and now Im off to the local mediterrainian joint.

January 13, 2007 at 10:54 AM  

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