A Taste Of The UK (Discussion #1)

Location: London Heathrow, London
Date: September 5th, 2018

          Stepping foot out of London's Heathrow airport is more than just taking a step towards a new adventure; it is my first time stepping outside American soil. While there was no magical pillar to run through like in Harry Potter, I was hit with an equally overwhelming sensation of being out of place. People drove on the left side of the road, there were so many accents and dialects that my head started to spin, and I was acutely aware of how I didn't know what people's words meant. What was a chocolate cake? Was this the same as a brownie?
          The first thing that happened after I stepped out of my hotel room was very nearly get run over by a car on the left side of the road. After checking, double checking, and triple checking that the road was clear and I had to look to my right first, then my left, I crossed the street. While this act may seem like quite a trivial thing, the entire experience just exasperated how out of place I felt. While on the plane flying the tedious nine hour journey over to the United Kingdom, I had prepared myself and given myself plenty of pep talks about how it would be difficult, but the culture shock was still quite surprising.

          Although Londonites are used to plenty of American tourists, I was not used to London natives. Being very nearly flattened by a car helped me to realize how out of tune I was with the world. Whatever I had seen in London on the TV was not my reality. People traveling out of the country may try and read up on the sights of their destination but first hand experience cannot be read online, it cannot be watched on TV. Preparing for a culture shock is one thing but experiencing it is another. My experience with the cars made me realize that I knew that cars drove on the left hand side of the road and I knew that I had to be careful but when it came down to it, I wasn't ready because I had never been involved with a city that had roads opposite of what I was used to.
          But what about Chicago? Or New York? I had been to each of those places only once in my lifetime and when I was there, I was never run over by a hot dog cart or been blown away by the winds of the city. Besides being in a different country, why was London so different? When I was a traveler to these magnificent cities, I may have only been a first time visitor but I had experienced their reality to a degree. I had been nearly bowled over by food carts in Denver and almost been knocked down by massive crowds. My reality in Colorado was similar to their reality. It didn't matter that I traveled to parts of the same country; what really mattered was that I had been exposed to environments that were very alike.
          As I continue my experience in the UK, the memory of being nearly flattened by a small cab will always stay with me. It serves as a reminder that to not expect Aberdeen to be any similar to America and to be constantly watching for surprises. While some elements are similar, I'll have to understand that it may take a few more near-misses before I come to understand the culture.