Blog post #3

Before I begin my blog piece on today and following that with my recount of this past Saturday, I want to answer something that several readers that are coworkers with my sister (yes here’s a shout out to you!) want clarified. They expressed that I say I don’t like England, but don’t clearly state why. So here’s what I have to offer.

When I first got to the UK, I was in Western England, Bristol- while Ollie was finishing his summer internship. During that time I was alone all day until 7 or 8 PM so I’d often go out into the city by myself and just explore. Picture me walking down a crowded sidewalk (they call them footpaths or pavement here) all alone, the world my oyster. Despite the fact that people were all around me I still felt very alone. I’m very convinced that each person gives off vibes, almost a type of energy. There can be good vibes, bad vibes, or even vibes indescribable by words. I couldn’t feel any good vibes when in Bristol. People would walk briskly past me, eyes on the ground, keeping to themselves. I’m not sure if Americans know this, but British people pride themselves of the phrase “stiff upper lip” which means keeping themselves from showing emotion. The masses of people in England just feel cold to me. In the US, let’s say I see a cute baby. I wouldn’t hesitate to look at the baby, say awwh, and engage in conversation with the mother. Here, if I were to do that, chances are the mother would be outraged and probably run away with her kid in the stroller (they call them buggies here). My point is this: maybe it’s a bit stereotypical, yes, but a lot of people in the UK keep to themselves and self deprecate themselves. I much more enjoy the overall energy that Americans give off. Once again, I stress that this is strictly my opinion and that I know plenty of  English people who are outgoing, kind and I can call my friends. Now that I’ve explained myself, onto the blog!

Today we did laundry. We specifically did nothing today besides laundry. Oh and we finished The Usual Suspects (1995). I’d never seen it and nor had Ollie so we gave it a go. I love Kevin Spacey, so I’ll watch anything with him in it. The film was terrific. It’s noteworthy to mention that I’m a masters student in film, so watching films and TV shows is one of my favorite things in the entire world. Anyways, while finishing the film we got a knock on our door and a man was there with a giant package for me. It was really heavy, too.  I open it and it was my Christmas presents from my sisters and my brother in law. It was so sweet of them. They got me a Crock Pot (slow cooker) and a bathroom scale. I’ve never owned a slow cooker, but I’ve always wanted one. I do feel the need to also mention the gift wrapping from Amazon was very nice. So festive. Anyways, let’s move onto my story about Saturday, the focus of this blog post. The day we travelled from London to Wales:

Saturday was not fun at all. Ollie and I woke up early in the hotel and set off for the train station. We took the London Overground in Watford to London Euston station, took a Virgin train (Yes, like Virgin Mobile) to Birmingham (which took 2.5 hours due to construction) and then took an Arriva train from Birmingham, England to Aberystwyth, Wales. The last train from England to Wales took 3.5 hours. It’s safe to say by the time we got to the train station in our town we were pooped.

To save money, we walked from the train station to our apartment, which includes a slight incline. We live at the top of the main street in town, which in this country is known as the high street. On our way up, a woman approached me. She wanted me to take a photo of her and her boyfriend. Sure thing, I said! She handed me a disposable camera. I felt nostalgia radiate my entire body. Man, those were the days! You had to wind up the little wheel or else the camera button wouldn’t click. I felt like an idiot when I didn’t wind it all the way, and I tried to take the photo. “Oops, gotta wind it more!” I said, feeling like an idiot. I’ve done this hundreds of times, but I’m a bit out of practice. The rest of the walk home Ollie and I spoke about how our kids’ generation (hypothetical kids) would have no idea what a disposable camera is or how they worked. We got to our building and Ollie lugged our very big suitcase up the stairs and we open the door and were delighted (not at all) to see that we were out of power.

Nothing interesting happened in our travels, except for when we boarded the final train. The train stops at its second stop, we wait for people to get on and they flood the train. We’re at a table seat that sits four people, so the two seats across from the table were open. A man sits down and shortly after, a woman sits next to him. The woman has a father figure with her, and he’s stood next to her. The man originally sat in the seat across from us tells them that he’s getting off the train soon, and they could have his seat. They all begin talking and it’s clear that the woman had some sort of autism. She looked at me and commented on my iPhone case saying she loved butterflies. I thanked her for the compliment, and the man sat at the table continued conversing with the woman and her father figure. I’m not sure what their relationship is, but he seemed to be almost like a stepdad.

I’m trying to be very sensitive here, because I don’t want to offend anyone, nor do I want to. This woman on the train clearly had severe autism. Conversations beyond menial topics were not an option. I didn’t stare at the woman, I minded my own business because I figured that her and her friend probably get stares a lot because as humans we are very curious.

Finally, the single man gets off the train, leaving the seats for her and her father figure to occupy. She snaps out of it like she was acting and starts talking to the man she boarded the train with about her iPad and how she was just “so chuffed “ about the 100 pounds she saved on her new handbag. Her accent even changed. I mean, just moments before this she was talking with only one or two words per sentence. Suddenly the man next to her wasn’t actually a father figure, it was her much older partner. A man with white, balding hair and significant wrinkles, clearly this man was at least 55.

I was absolutely shocked. I pulled out my phone and texted Ollie, who was sat next to me, as well as my friend Jilly, about what the hell just happened. What did I just witness? Did that woman just pretend to be autistic for a seat on a train? Or for a laugh? For fun? Did this woman think mocking people like that was acceptable?

Throughout the train ride, the woman who was pretending kept swearing over and over, dropping f bombs despite being in public. Apparently she had wasted 18 hours playing some game on her iPad and she lost 20 trophies in one game. I’ve come to believe she was playing the iOS app “Clash of the Clans.” I’ve never played it, but she herself had said that she planned to play it for 6 hours straight when she returned to her home, sleep for 8 hours, and then play another 6. I guess if I invested that much time into a game I would have also been raging, but I don’t think I’d do it in public. I can’t deny my World of Warcraft years, I wasted hours and hours of my life on that game in high school. Luckily I stopped playing (for the most part) in college, but I came back to it a couple times, a mistress that was quite comforting at times.

Let me fast forward again. We open the door to our apartment and realize there is no power. My stomach drops. That means that our fridge and freezer were not on. Although nothing was in the fridge but condiments, the freezer was pretty packed with food. Strawberry ice cream, a frozen toffee apple pie, frozen chicken breasts, whitefish, and popsicles. We walk into our kitchen and it was like a strawberry swamp. We were exhausted from traveling, but we needed to clean the kitchen.

It wasn’t too bad. I felt really productive after we cleaned the kitchen of the melted strawberry ice cream and orange popsicles-we even cleaned the entire fridge! I had a shower, and while I was showering I thought of an idea. A blog! I loved to write and maybe people would be interested in my life now that it is more interesting than it was. I bit the bullet and here we are.

Thanks for tuning in,

Leah

PS- find me on twitter! @Hummingbird2194