We ain’t in Kansas anymore

 So it’s day 3 after we got here and even though we’re still exhausted, we can’t hold back any longer. We have to go into central London! 

We decide to get the”just kill me now” ridiculously expensive monthly travel card. That HURT but it makes travel easy. The line we live on goes across London and stops throughout central London. 

So we are official tube riders. Down the corridor, scan the card, upstairs to the platform and voila(!), we’re on the train..

Turns out this is one of the busiest lines so it’s often crowded. When the train door opens, there’s a scramble for empty seats. It’s a dog eat dog, snooze you lose, situation. 

On the train are ordinary people of all shapes and sizes dressed in their understated black, beige, brown English clothes. Little color. It’s in the upper 60’s but there are no shorts. Some people have on winter coats. OK…

Nobody is yelling. Nobody is talking to themselves. Nobody looks too threatening. Just minding their own business. This isn’t what I’m used to in Mpls. where if someone isn’t a complete wack job every time you get on, there is something wrong. 

So off we go to dazzling downtown. We come up from the oxford circus station and are blown away. Magnificent beautiful old buildings surround us. 

It immediately strikes me that we are in a city that is thousands of years old and it’s right in front of me. 

To quote a clique, we ain’t in Kansas anymore.

Fox in the henhouse, except there are no hens

So it’s our first night at the airbnb. I am in a blissful deep sleep when I am startled awake by some snarling sounds. There is some kind of wild animal outside! It goes on for about a minute. 

Naturally I yell to my son: What’s that?!! He thinks it’s some drunk guy outside! I tell him no human makes that that sound. It’s some kind of animal. So it stops and we are so tired we go back to sleep. We are so tired that as long as it went away, who cares? After all, it ain’t comin’ in here.

Earlier that evening we had had an interesting experience. There was a fox in the front yard. What???!!! A fox wandering around in a city neighborhood? 

Well it turns out London has a population of 10,000 foxes! So not an uncommon sight. We heard it a couple nights after that (though not sounding nearly as mad as first night- har), but haven’t heard it sense. I kind of miss it.