What I’ve learned from living in London for a week

I have now been in London for a little over a week and throughout my time here, I’ve noticed a few things which differ from life at UConn. Apart from the drinking age being 18 and the fact that I went from having my own room to being on the top bunk in a triple. I am definitely having a blast in London, but I do miss the bustling cow town that is Storrs, CT. So here are all the things I noticed about London that have taken a bit of getting used to.

Walking on sidewalks

In the states, we have a very strict unspoken rule that you walk on the right-side of the sidewalk or hallway, or anywhere else really. Seeing as the British drive on the left side of the road I assumed that they would also walk on the left. However, there is absolutely no structure in the way they walk down the streets. Getting anywhere in London consists of weaving through, and sometimes knocking into, literally everyone. They seriously need to pick a side.

Package stores

I have yet to see a single store that’s primary purpose is to sell alcohol. Instead of Husky Spirit Shop, Villa, or that weird place you can go right by The Oaks, you have to go into a grocery store where everyone is just trying to buy their food. Or you could go to a pub and pay the equivalent of $8 for a single pint of beer.

Getting to class

Since we don’t live in dorms, we are also not extremely close to our classroom buildings. If you thought trekking to class from Husky Village, Charter Oak, or Busby was hard you should try having to take the tube to class or end up walking for an hour. This means you have to wake up so much earlier for 9am classes than you should ever have to.

Crosswalks

If you have ever driven on the UConn campus then you know how frustrating it is having to stop every two seconds and for minutes at a time because of the horde of students who just walk onto the road without even considering the idea there might be a car coming. Well, you WILL get hit if you do that in London. Probably by a double decker bus. That’s because pedestrians don’t have the right of way ever in England other than the one or two crosswalks called “zebra crossings.”

Clubs

Basically, they’re the worst version of a frat party because you actually have to pay for things. Some places here even have nights that are frat themed. First of all you have to pay 15 pounds ($21) just to get into the club. Then there’s 2 pounds if you don’t want to hold your coat all night. And if you think you can get away with not wearing a coat you are very, very wrong because you also have to take a tube to get to the club but they don’t run past 12am so you have to either walk all the way home or fork out 20 more pounds for a cab. All of that isn’t even including drinks. I spent roughly 35 pounds ($49) in just one night at a club.

The underground

The system in London is at least ten times easier to figure out than the subway system in New York as well as the bus system at UConn. Instead of waiting 20 minutes for the bus to come back again, because you always miss the one that comes right before your class ends, the tubes in London come every minute. They also have signs at every station that tell you what line to take to get to a specific stop. For someone who is extremely bad with directions, and has taken purple line all the way around, I cherish this simplicity.