London: Center of the World

In my experience, Londoners often ask me why I chose to come here. "Simple," I tell them, "because London is the center of the world." They always laugh and think I'm a bit off for thinking such things, but each day I become more convinced.

Take something as basic as airfare. To fly from Denver to Istanbul, Turkey would be horribly expensive. In fact, I doubt there are any direct flights. From London, 30 pounds return. Not bad, ay? And it's the same for other places around Europe, Africa, the middle East, Asia, and even America. Australia is in a price category of its own, but that's always been the case.

But that's just the beginning. I love walking down the street and hearing language upon language. They say there are over 200 languages spoken in London, and just in my experience, I have heard: English (British), English (American), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Hindi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Polish, Italian, German, Dutch, some Scandinavian language, and several other unidentifiable languages. It really seems more diverse than even San Francisco, which just seemed such the height of diversity this summer.

Then there are the infinite opportunities. I've been here just a little over one week now, and so far, I've gone out three times to very different bars and pubs, have seen two wonderful movies, Volver (Almodovar's latest, which is getting great reviews from the critics, but I found predictable, and not as over the top as I would expect of his films), and This Film Has Not Been Rated (a movie about the MPAA's film rating system. The mother of the friend I'm staying with now works for the British equivalent, the BBFC, and so we've had quite interesting discussions about rating films and how it changes with time.), have gone to two museums (the Victoria and Albert for their recent Islamic Art Exhibition, and the Tate Modern for its Kandinsky Exhibition), and the Thames festival (which had live swing dancing lessons right across the Thames from St. Paul's, as well as a puppet show and free flying trapeze lessons). I've even managed to get a haircut from a Turkish Cypriot, and all that on top of finding a place to live--it's been a good week.

I keep looking at all the ads in the tube for different theatre performances, and I've already started making a list. Now I just need my student ID so i can get significantly reduced prices. Then it's off to Avenue Q, Wicked, Spamalot, Mary Poppins, and many more.

I hope my studies don't interfere with all this exploring!