Londonisms?

More and more people are living in large cities, and London is no exception, these are my observations from living in the Capital of England.

The city itself is huge, covering a total of 607 square miles and a population of about 8 million, the metro population is about 14 million!  The city consists of 32 different boroughs, operating much like the cities do within the Puget Sound Region.  It boasts the 2nd largest financial district behind New York and has the 5th largest GDP in the world.

Okay enough about the boring facts, now on to what makes London a city.

First, I'm convinced there are no traffic laws within the city.  You are allowed to pass on any street, there are no stop signs and pedestrians cross at their own risk.  Most of the time I just run hoping that I can make it across before the truck or bus hits me.  Motorcycles ride down the middle of the road on the dashed line, personally I think it is suicide.  I'm way to nervous to ride my bike if I had one, but lots of people do, I was astonished to find out only 12 cyclist had died this year from accidents with vehicles (the same as Seattle).  Also the streets are pretty small and I'm still nervous when 2 buses pass each other on a 2 way roadway and cars are parked on the street, yeah cars can basically park anywhere on the streets or sidewalks without threat of tickets.  Oh yeah, and people just randomly turn around in the middle of the street!

Public transport: well they have it here and in massive amounts.  First you have the Tube, or underground (not all underground), the Overground, the DLR, Trams, Trains (different than both Tube and Overground), as well as a massive amount of buses.  I avoid the buses if I can, nothing against them personally but traffic sucks (remember no traffic laws).  You have to ride the Tube if you can, granted during rush hour you are lucky if you get on the first train as people are spilling out at all times.  Much like other cities there is a warning and if you are caught in the door, well you are caught in the door.  I've seen many bags, backpacks and purses get stuck on a normal day.  If your personal items do get stuck, everyone stares because you are holding up the train.  The worst part about the Tube though is how hot is always is.  When I arrived in London it was in the 80's the entire first week, no ac on the trains and the humidity killed me, I felt like the fat American sweating in the corner!  But you can't avoid taking the Tube, it is fast and mostly on time.  I have never waited more that 5 minutes for a train and that was after midnight, so we all deal.  There are 8 different zones when riding the Tube, but most people stay within the 6.  They are just rings that represent the cost of taking any TRAIN system, buses don't have zones.  I live in zone 2, so pretty close to what is considered Central London.  My monthly pass costs about 77 Pounds for unlimited riding, I then need to "top up" if I want to ride outside my normal 2 zones.

Something else I have noticed about the Tube recently is that it is pretty dirty, just dust wise.  Whenever I have spent some time on the Tube I sneeze a bunch and I need to blow my nose, lots of black gunk comes out when I do.  I know you all wanted to know about that!

The city itself is split up in 5 main areas, North London, South London, West London, East London and Central London, your postcode represents where you live.  Mine is NW2, so I'm in Northwest London, though it isn't recognized as an area really.  Within the boroughs of London there exist different districts, I live in Cricklewood between Willesden Green and Kilburn.  My school is in Hendon the borough of Barnet, it is getting easier to remember where everything is actually. Each Borough is responsible for everything except for the Metropolitan Police and transit basically, so utilities (if publicly owned), waste management and streets.  This creates big differences within neighborhoods if they overlap boroughs.  I've noticed West Minster is very clean and there are workers always cleaning the streets, DUH, its the tourist center. 

I told my parents the first time I talked to them that I thought the city was pretty dirty, well here is why.  I had to ask a Londoner why they don't have any bins (garbage cans) to throw anything away on the streets.  Well its because of the IRA bombing campaign some years back, so when Tube stations do have bins, they are just metal rings, think basketball hoop, with a clear plastic bag. So when walking around you will see lots of beer cans, fast food bags and other items just sitting in the gutter or on the side of the walkway, unless you are in the tourist center where they keep it clean.

So that is all I have to say, I need to keep some to myself so I can write another "Londonism" post in the future, believe me I have lots more.  Really I'm just tired of writing and am thinking about catching the Champions League game on tv at the local pub.  Hope you all enjoyed my insider info on the great city of London.  I am enjoying myself here so no harm meant.

In School

So class has finally begun for me and I'm glad it did.  It is extremely time consuming and difficult, but I'm sure I made the right decision.  The amount of learning I have already done in 1 week is pretty surprising to me.  I made a small change once I went through the course work with the department head and my masters will now be in sustainable environmental management.

Aside from stating the obvious, the structure of the political system is dramatically different in the UK and Europe.  Then even further when you look at how environmental laws have evolved and are adopted is much different. Most environmental laws for the UK are from the EU.  England and Wales do some other policy, but most is directed by the EU.  A big deal in the news currently is the change in planning rules and the definition of sustainable development that local councils need to meet.  One of the major issues is the protection of heritage sites and the prevention of demolishing old homes to build new flat complexes.

Public input into policy changes is drastically different as well.  I don't know much about it at the moment, but we are starting to scratch the surface on how policy is passed.  In short, there is much less upfront citizen involvement and more once the legislation has been passed and goes into the rule making process.  I have asked a couple of my professors what a good introductory on UK politics might be just to grab some more background.  I don't feel too lost on the issue currently and it doesn't seem as if my lack of knowledge in that area will be a hindrance at all.

My current schedule is going to classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with the other days spent doing research.  Everything is leading into writing my dissertation that is due on Oct 12 of next year.  Of the topics that are lectured on I will need to chose one in which to write a research proposal and then a final dissertation on.  While researching this I will be writing at least one paper every 2 weeks on the material covered and critiquing policy or issue papers.  I am also required for each of my classes to lead a seminar on a particular topic covered in the lectures.  This will also most likely be the same subject as my research proposal and my dissertation.  It is a little overwhelming in week 1.

The school itself is a mixture of old buildings and new.  The local town hall resides on the campus and is partially used by the University.  I haven't had a chance to look at the corner stone yet, but it is a few hundred years old.  The campus is currently expanding with the closure of the Trent Park Campus, there are about 20,000 students attending classes on the Hendon Campus.  With the influx of new students the university has built 3 new building in the last 2 years or so, all green certified. The campus itself is situated about 2.5 miles from where I live and atop a small hill, so there are some good views of the city on a nice day.

I'll have more to say about school in the next couple of weeks.

Its all a myth

No seriously, most of what you heard about England is probably a myth.  Granted I haven't left London so things might be different in the small towns or other cities.

First the beer is cold. You can get it either cold or super cold.  I haven't tried super cold beer yet, but if I do I will make sure you all know that it is probably just a little colder than cold beer.  The biggest beers are Fosters and Guinness, every pub will sell both.  Budweiser is also huge over here, its the liking crappy lagers apparently.

Second, you can't just have one pub.  I went to this place called McGoverns down the street, its owned by an Irishman and I must have been the only non Irish person in the place.  I started talking to the owner, not sure how, and he tells me it is considered a privilege to serve you but he expects you to go to all the other local pubs.  I understand that just to go to one pub would be absurd, but the myth goes you only have one pub in your neighborhood.  He names off the other pubs I should start going to, of course this was over about 4 hours and as the night wore on it was more and more difficult for me to understand what he was saying. I thought an Irishman was hard to understand, but a drunk Irishman, now that is difficult.

Okay so just about everyone does drink a beer with lunch and they all stop at a pub on the way home, but most of them don't get drunk.  I'm learning that very few people drink at home.  They just have a couple at the pub then go home and have dinner, prefunking for a long night is also done at the pubs.  The only time they really drink at home is for social functions. 

You also need to pay in cash at most neighborhood pubs.  Some do take cards but most expect cash when you order and that is that.  Also not all pubs serve food.  In Washington you are required to serve some warm food if you are serving alcohol, nope, not here.

Hooligans. Yeah I haven't heard of any and seen any.  My first game was pretty tame with both supporters talking before and after the game.  It was just good fun.

So I have just been running around London trying to learn everything. I have started acting like a tourist and seeing all the sites, I will start posting on those shortly.  My fun with the Tube as well as going to the Tottenham Hotspurs Europa League game at WHL also to follow.

Hope all is well where you are!