Honey, I'm Home!

Since I could remember, I have always wanted to go to London. Somethings about the history and the accents drew me in and being a part of the culture here has always been on my mind. Having the opportunity to live and study here for four months is genuinely a dream come true. London is an amazing city bustling with opportunities and new experiences and I am pushing myself to get as much out of my time here as possible.

After arriving a little over a week ago, I am beginning to notice differences in the culture here than what I am used to seeing in the states. Although many consider America to be a melting pot, I have never experienced so many different cultures and backgrounds than while walking the streets of London. Although there are many similarities to America and I am not experiencing great levels of culture shock, there are difference in the overall feeling and lifestyle of London that stand out.

I spoke to Monica Logronio who is studying abroad with Fie with Temple. Monica is from Miramar, Florida and has wanted to come to london because she has, “been obsessed with London ever since One Direction and doing initial research on the city.” She also would love to work here at BBC in the future and is excited to get used to the city. She has traveled a lot in the past but has never been to London.

While living here for about two weeks Monica has noticed that “Londoners are more relaxed and laid back than Americans but still seem to get the same amount of work down.” She believes that Americans seem to be stressed out more than the people inhabiting London. While walking around London, Monica has also noticed that people seem to be more conscious about what they are wearing. According to her,” It is not as common to see people wear jeans and a tee Monica arrived in London think that most of the food would consist of meat and potatoes. However, she has been pleasantly surprised by the “diversity in food and cultures.” There are many more options from different cultures to try and experience.

Monica has also found that the only rude people that she has encountered so far have been Americans and from her experience, “British people have a great sense of humor and are really cool and chill as a whole.”

Before traveling Monica assumed that a lot of British people would have pretty bad teeth because of the stereotype she was used to hearing. She had found that it is kind of true and the about “65% of British people have good teeth but there is a lot that do not.”

Monica has not really experience too much difficulty communicating with British people but,“Every once in awhile I won’t understand people because of their accent but that hasn’t happened too often.”

For my interview with a local I interviewed Alex Clark who is a student at the Royal College of Music. He is from Manchester and has never visited the United States. Most of his opinions on what Americans are like came from what he has seen in television shows and movies.

His impressions of Americans are that they are louder and more outgoing than your average Londoner. Although he has heard of the stereotype of Americans carrying guns he has found that not to be true in the Americans he has met so far. The only challenges he has found in communicating with Americans is not always understanding everything they are saying and also getting used to their more loud way of behaving.

As far as American stereotypes go he has heard that Americans are more lazy that people in the UK. They also are dressed really well or without much care and there is really no in between. American food,in his opinion, consists of burgers, chips, pizza, and poptarts and the people are friendly and kind of extra.

It was interesting to see how people in the UK think of Americans just to gain a different perspective.

I am exciting to continue updating this blog as I get more and more comfortable and used to living in the new city. I can not wait to see where these nexxt more months will take me and what new adventures I have in store!