From America to England

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It took me a year in America to save up for my student visa to move to London and attend Uni here. I was motivated by a desire to hear different accents and languages, experience a new culture, and wow, did I get it! Having travelled and lived for short periods in many different continents, I was ready for anything. I had heard of the politeness of the English, but was not prepared for how frustrating and slow it could make even the most mundane tasks.

During the weekend, the Northern line (one of the major stations on the underground subway system) was shut down, and more people than normal were taking the bus. The bus driver let more people on than he should have, and as a result, I found myself and several others standing on the second floor of the bus waiting to move south. Instead of moving, as I assumed it would, I heard the voice prompting on the intercom stating that no one could stand upstairs, a second and third time the voice prompt came on, but we didn’t move, because where would we go? There wasn’t a space to be had downstairs. Then: ‘This bus terminates here. Please take all your belongings.’ Sounded like, ‘Get the heck out now!’ as it repeated itself over and over.

I couldn’t believe that the bus would stop, there were too many people needing to go, why should it stop? I looked around the bus where every seat was taken, and some people were looking around quizzically and others stoically. I was motivated to do something, and wanted to learn more information, so I went downstairs. The back door was open, and there had been a few people who exited the bus, but mostly it was the same people sitting in their seats, not budging despite the on-going overhead prompt letting everyone know that the bus was terminated. There was a man yelling at the bus driver and I noticed that the bus driver sat looking bored, his head resting on his fist, his elbow resting on the wheel, listening to the man shouting at him. He said something that took a moment to register, but once it did, I took action. The bus driver said, ‘I cannot move the bus when so many people are standing up upstairs and on the stairwell.’ (The man yelling at him blamed the bus driver for letting so many people on the bus to begin with).

Motivated to move, I marched upstairs like an army general and proclaimed, ‘Everyone standing, needs to go downstairs, NOW, or else we cannot move. Even you, on the staircase, you must go downstairs.’ I moved everyone along quickly and noticed there was now more space downstairs since a few people wandered off the bus. I shouted, ‘everyone in the bus needs to move to the back so we can all fit together.’ Within a few seconds, the upstairs and stairwell were clear of standing patrons, and I walked to the bus driver and asked, ‘Is there anything else you need to start the bus?’

‘No, thank you,’ he said, and turned the key to start the bus and we were moving! I went back to the centre of the bus where I noticed everyone still sitting passively and politely (how does anything get done in this country?) and two American tourists openly thanked me for taking charge.

‘I guess now I know why people think Americans are loud.’

The man that invested his energy shouting at the bus driver apologized for yelling at him as he departed the bus. You see? Even the obnoxious have an amazing capacity to be polite!

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