Let’s get serious folks. (Dramatic pause)
Adjusting to all this tomfoolery(!) I’ve got myself into hasn’t been easy. Just getting here was, shall we say, challenging..
Then living in someone else’s place with someone’s else’s stuff is just weird. Especially for a whole month. It’s not my place, not my stuff and that kind throws you off. It’s not like being in a hotel.
So the refrigerator has stuff (food) in it. One of the cupboards has stuff in it. Are you supposed to use that? Who knows? I’m not using it because there’s nothing I want to use. Plus it feels weird to use it. (Lots of weirdness going on on my part)
We are living in a five condo building. We hear and see the other peoples lives. There is a little baby in one unit we hear crying. There are kids in a couple places. They play outside.
We have turned our lives upside down in every way you can. Left our home. Left our stuff. Left our neighborhood and city(and country). Left our family and friends.
We fit what would be a years worth of our lives into a carryon suitcase and a backpack. What did I pack? Mostly clothes of course. Short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, shorts, jeans, sweatpants, undies. It will be in the forties some places we go. I brought a Jean jacket. Figure I can layer. Three pairs of shoes. Meds, small amount of toiletries, tablet, phone, chargers. That’s about it.
Passports, vaccination cards, credit cards (2). In my research I found out that schwab checking/debit card (I’m sure there are others) is the best one for me. No foreign transaction fees of any kind.
Bought international health care insurance. None of my Medicare/VA/supplement works here. I will have to refill meds here. Haven’t had to figure that out yet. I did bring letter from doctor.
Getting back to the mental, emotional part. I thought this would be similar to U.S., English speaking, similar culture, etc. It’s not. People here are different. They are stoic, polite, neat, they don’t do much laughing and cavorting in public. Nobody is showy. People don’t wear bright colors.
We have found if you say hello to a stranger walking down the street, they won’t say hello back. However, it is easy to strike up a conversation with people.
Perhaps it is my naive observation but people here don’t seem to fear each other like the U.S. They definitely have a problem with stabbings here. It pales in comparison to the U.S. violence, shootings. There is no mass violence.
There are so many different cultures here. It feels like more people here speak another language than English. It’s weird to hear all these different languages. It’s fun though.
We’ve had to figure out an elaborate public transport system with underground, overground, trains, buses. We bought a monthly card. Really expensive. We’ve managed it pretty well because it’s pretty easy to understand.
Changing tube lines can be easy or elaborate. Sometimes the next tube you want is close. Sometimes in the bigger stations with more lines you are going up and down steep escalators, walking up and down several flights of stairs.
London is an enormous city with many neighborhoods. You couldn’t possibly visit them all. The biggest lesson so far is you really have to pace yourself. Sit down a lot, Take days off. Relax.
To think it will be a new place, culture, people every month is kind of overwhelming but so exciting!
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