Differences

So as day 2 here in London is coming to a close, I've been noticing a lot of the differences between here and the States. There are obviously many words which mean different things or are called differently here, some of them you may already know and others not. I'll make a list at some point, a sort of reference dictionary between the two (apparently they actually have books that do this for you... its not actually another language folks). Here are a couple of other differences I have come upon, and I guess they would be classified mainly as cultural?

• Today I got to SEE the Queen of England (There's pictures of this on Facebook). We walked to Windsor Park, which is basically the Queen's personal park. It's huge. I'm pretty sure its bigger than Central Park in New York. Ridiculous, I know. The Royal Ascot races began today, which is a 5-day event and is the biggest thing of the year for the town of Ascot, and people come from all over to see it. The queen always goes to watch the races, and has to get from Windsor Castle to the race track. To do this, she and the rest of her family that is in town ride in their Rolls Royce's to the middle of Windsor Park, and this is known as the Royal Procession. At a determined location in the park (I'm pretty sure its the same every year/day...she does it all 5 days of the race), they park the cars, and all of the royal family gets out of the cars and hops into the royal horse-drawn carriages, known as the Changeover. Its not really a big deal at all, but at the same times, its a really big deal. There were a few hundred people lined up along the street to watch this event, at which the royalty is really only present for about a minute. Long enough for all the cars with people in them (about 4 or 5), to pull up, let the people out, have the people get into the carriage, and once they're all settled, they take off on the carriages for the final stretch to the races. Either way, I found it very interesting that there was really almost no security. There were police and guards around, but nowhere near what you might expect at any sort of large gathering of people back home. Also, the only thing that kept people off the road (i.e. away from the royal family and out of their way) was a rope fence set up about a food off each side of the road. Hence, I, and the other people there to watch, were literally within 15 feet of the queen at most. I couldn't believe it. My 2nd day in England and I'm face to face with the QUEEN. ME! How on earth did that happen? Doesn't make sense to me either. We didn't have to go through any security checkpoints, have any tickets, or do anything. We could have simply been strolling through the park and happened upon this event. So, there are a few differenecs in this event. First, the fact that the royal family does this sort of event and people actually show up to watch, just to see the queen. I think its a very positive thing, and it reflects a genuine likeness by the public of the royal family. Second, there was hardly any security. I can't picture any event where people of this stature are without much heavier and more obvious security in the U.S, or where you can get so close so easily. Overall this was a really cool experience, and definitely only something you could ever expect to do while in London, and even then, you wouldn't hear about this on a tour. I'm fortunate enough to be staying with locals who know the ins and outs of how to see the cool stuff. This whole event brings me to my next difference:
• The size of this park was incredible. There are actually huge parks and open spaces all over the place. What I've learned so far while here is that this is very common, out here (technically outside of London) but also in the city and other parts of Britain as well. The reason is that people all live in small quarters, and really close to each other. But instead of having your own personal backyard with which to enjoy the outdoors for on occasion, there are these large parks that people go to to enjoy nature. It seems like a much more efficient use of space to me. How many days per year do you actually go outside and enjoy being in your backyard (assuming you have one, of any size)? I try to as much as I can at home, but lets be realistic... its not all that often. Thus, why have the extra space of nature in your backyard that doesn't get used? It's much more efficient for people to not have their own space and rather have more people live in that area. Then, when people want to enjoy being outdoors, they just have to go down the street (you're really never too far from some sort of outdoorsy space over here). Nobody really seems to complain about not having their own backyard either. Plus, then there's nothing to mow :P.

Well I'm sort of drawing a blank for right now on what the other big ones were. I'll try to write them down for the future and put them in, because apparently I'm getting Alzheimer's. Also, soon I'm going to post a bunch of photo's of physical things which are different, in order to best give you an idea of what to expect if you ever came to visit, or to help understand what in the world (literally) your friend or roommate (in my case) is referring to or why he or she is amazed by certain things in the states.

On a humorous note today, my lack of knowledge of royal goings on gave Kyle and his mom quite a laugh. We were discussing who was at the royal procession and changeover today, and some names were listed off to me. I was told that Fergie was there and her new husband was with her. She was supposedly the brother of some other royal guy who I'd been told about yesterday as we walked past the place that they were married. Anyways, we get a few minutes into this conversation about Fergie, and at the end of it, I'm still really confused. I didn't know that Fergie was married, nor that she was in any way related to anyone royal. I knew that she'd written some song about London bridges, and them fallin' down, but I didn't believe that that qualified her as royalty, nor that someone of royal stature should necessarily be writing a song on such a topic. Go me. Of course, Fergie is actually Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, a different Fergie than the one from Black Eyed Peas. Who knew? However, in all fairness, the only reason we had gotten thus far into the conversation with me being so confused is because Kyle's mom didn't know who Fergie (Black Eyed Peas Fergie) was, so she had no idea that I could be thinking about a different one. Yay cultural/generational differences!

Well that's what I've got for today. Visiting Hampton Court tomorrow. We'll learn a lot about Henry VIII, he's the one who had six wives, of which two were beheaded. Yeah, that guy. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my head about me tomorrow!

Bad joke, sorry.

Thorn - Don't really have one for today! The only thing would be not being able to see the queen better? Not really something to complain about considering I was even able to be there/see her at all.

Rose - Getting to walk to Windsor Park and enjoy small-town England from a close perspective

Bud - Hampton Court! I can't wait to get a better idea (refreshment? We studied him in AP Euro but I don't remember specifics) of what he did and who he was.

AT Out