{"id":250,"date":"2018-08-16T12:30:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T12:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/?p=250"},"modified":"2021-10-15T16:25:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T21:25:48","slug":"5-things-ive-noticed-while-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/5-things-ive-noticed-while-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things I\u2019ve Noticed While in London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-250 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-full'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"474\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2018\/08\/wBkJUuggxOhy-EBFQwXHuCmVq_dJ0oWDZA.png.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"London Travel Study\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2018\/08\/wBkJUuggxOhy-EBFQwXHuCmVq_dJ0oWDZA.png.jpg 864w, https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2018\/08\/wBkJUuggxOhy-EBFQwXHuCmVq_dJ0oWDZA.png-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2018\/08\/wBkJUuggxOhy-EBFQwXHuCmVq_dJ0oWDZA.png-768x421.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Smoking is Still Trendy Here<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>First of all: cigarettes are verywhere. They litter the streets, collect in flower pots, and can be found between almost every Londoners\u2019 fingers. The smell of tobacco covers most other smells and secondhand smoke doesn\u2019t seem to be much of a nuisance for anybody here. In the U.S., vaping and other smoking alternatives have taken the place of cigarettes, in the hopes of quitting or at least subsiding the terrible side effects.<\/p>\n<p>In the U.K., they have different tactics: the cigarette boxes\u2014rather than decorated with stallions or camels or sexy ladies\u2014are labelled with warnings in big text such as \u201cCAN CAUSE HEART ATTACKS\u201d or \u201cSMOKING GIVES YOU LUNG CANCER.\u201d These warnings are accompanied by pictures of blackened lungs, patients in critical condition, and even severed body parts. The cashier might as well tell you you\u2019re going to die when handing them over.<\/p>\n<p>But the English just keep on smoking, and boy, do they make it look cool.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong>PDA is Like, Super OK<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I\u2019ve just never seen so much foreplay on the street before.<\/p>\n<p>Or on the tube.<\/p>\n<p>Or at the Globe.<\/p>\n<p>Or in a museum.<\/p>\n<p>You get the point.<\/p>\n<p>Whereas in most regards, Londoners are quite polite and courteous, they like to get down in public like nobody\u2019s business\u2014and it really isn\u2019t my business, ok?<\/p>\n<p>Look, I\u2019m a poor little Midwesterner and I still blush during sex scenes in the movie theatre. If I see one more butt squeeze or French kiss while out and about\u2026well I won\u2019t do anything\u2014I\u2019m Minnesota Nice afterall, that\u2019s why I\u2019m complaining about it here.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong>Money? More like Fun-ey<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There\u2019s nothing like the English pound to remind me how unfun American money is. Do you know how easy it is to pay for things in coins here? You just plop those suckers into the cashier\u2019s hand and it feels like you\u2019ve given over a token at the arcade.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. coins are inconvenient and often forgotten in couch cushions and street gutters. You\u2019re way more likely to find a 1 pound coin on the streets than a paper dollar.<\/p>\n<p>Fly across an ocean and you\u2019ll find that pound coins will transform you into a fancy merchant handing over silver, even though you\u2019re just buying some chips.<\/p>\n<p>Or crisps\u2026because chips are fries here\u2026and fries are, um\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Wait, what am I buying again?<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t matter. Take my fun coins!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><strong>A\/C? <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>DON\u2019T ASK BECAUSE LONDON DOESN\u2019T HAVE IT.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s a heatwave right now.<\/p>\n<p>And all the fans are sold out.<\/p>\n<p>Everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>You bet I\u2019ve noticed that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li><strong>These Boots Were Made for Gawking<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I feel like a little rat here in my worn down Vans. A goblin in rags. An ugly duckling that grew to be an even uglier duck.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know how Londoners do it\u2014look so good that is\u2014or how they afford it, or how they manage to look perfect despite the heat they so often tell us they aren\u2019t used to.<\/p>\n<p>Most noticably, Londoners have crazy shoes. Designer sneakers, tiny sandalswith absolutely no arch support (again, HOW do they do it?), and the classic Doc Marten boots. With all of the walking these people do on a daily basis, a good shoe selection doesn\u2019t seem out of the question. But I still have some questions\u2026like, what size do you wear, miss? Can I borrow those?<\/p>\n<p>I visited Harrods the other day\u2014which is basically a museum of all the designer clothes I will never be able to afford, along with other objects I will never be able to afford like Gucci candles and baby Balenciaga sneakers (sorry, future children)\u2014and they literally have a whole floor called \u201cShoe Heaven.\u201d (That\u2019s the level right above the \u201cShoe Lab,\u201d of course.)<\/p>\n<p>Personally , I felt I was in Shoe Purgatory, gazing at Versace heels that my peasant feet will never get into. Do those come in U.S. 7 wides?<\/p>\n<p>No?<\/p>\n<p>Cool. I can\u2019t afford them, anyway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">&#8211;\u00a0Sajda Omar &#8217;18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smoking is Still Trendy Here First of all: cigarettes are verywhere. They litter the streets, collect in flower pots, and can be found between almost every Londoners\u2019 fingers. The smell of tobacco covers most other smells and secondhand smoke doesn\u2019t seem to be much of a nuisance for anybody here. In the U.S., vaping and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,115,80,162],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-cola","category-english","category-travel","tag-london"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2018\/08\/wBkJUuggxOhy-EBFQwXHuCmVq_dJ0oWDZA.png.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb2ffS-42","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2799,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/2799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}