I Can Tell I'm Not In America By The Elevators

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In the United States, when you stick your hand in between closing elevator doors, the sensors on the elevator doors automatically make the doors open again so you don't get smooshed. I learned that this was different in London my first week here when I tried to hold the elevator doors open and had to literally push them apart. I thought it was weird but believed it to just be an LSE thing. However, I learned the hard way that that must be a standard here in the UK when I tried to get on to the tube on Saturday. I had one friend in front of me and one friend behind me. The one in front hopped on the tube and when I tried to follow, the doors closed without warning and I got stuck waving my arms like an idiot. Everyone on the tube had this crazy look on their face. I eventually fought through, and had just pulled my backpack through the door when the tube started moving, leaving my other friend on the platform waiting to catch the next one.

But there are other ways to tell I'm not in America anymore. At work yesterday, when a coworker asked me where I was from, he proceeded to ask me if this was my first time seeing concrete because aren't California beaches lined with sand? I asked him to please let me know which city in Northern California had sandy roads running through the city, or at least let me know where in California I could live without ever seeing concrete.

Thinking the stupid questions were done, I walked to Sainsburys (a local grocery chain). My credit card says "see ID" so when he asked to see it and found out I was from California, he told me that he couldn't believe I would live in a place that is sinking so fast it will be under water in ten years. He claims to have read that in the newspaper. Someone better alert the president and get him evacuating California then!! Going to school in Boston, I've heard the "how can you even set foot in California when they have earthquakes that kill people all the time" more then I can count, but I don't think I've ever had someone tell me California is going to be under water in ten years. Maybe floating off near Hawaii, but never under water.

On a different note, my new resolution is to utilize my time better after work. There's so much going on in the evenings that it seems like such a waste to just leave work and then go eat dinner, so I'm now determined to go somewhere new after work every day for the next three weeks until my internship ends. Yesterday I wandered over to the Tate Modern museum. The cool thing about London is that almost all of their museums are free. Because of this, they charge you for the most ridiculous things once you are inside. They don't have maps anywhere, and instead charge you one pound for a map. One pound buys me dinner every night, so determined not to waste a pound, I decided I didn't need a map. Wrong. The Tate Modern is at least six flights of stairs, and there are exhibits everywhere. However, there are only about three or four free exhibits, which were the ones I was trying to find. I ended up getting really lost but enjoying the afternoon doing way more people watching than looking at the artwork itself. In my defense, there were no cards anywhere that told you how you were supposed to be interpretting it.

I finished with the Tate Modern earlier than I had expected so I decided to walk around London. There are pianos set up all around the city that say "play me" on them--meaning randos can walk up and just start playing. They have one set up right outside the Tate Modern and there were a number of tourists who just started playing that were really good. It was nice just to spend the rest of the afternoon listening to random people play the piano. There are endless things to do all around London that no matter how much I try and cram into two months here, it will never be enough!

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Photos

Tate Modern Piece
This is a piece in the Tate Modern. It's supposed to represent a person--the floating thing is as tall as the artist's head and the circle on the ground is his wingspan...how was I supposed to know that?

Play Me
One of the many pianos open for the public to use all around London.

The Sunset
It never gets old.