Things I Miss About America- Part VIII: Not Living in a Constant State of Paranoia

I think I have mentioned in this blog before that, even though I love it here, living in London has taught me that I am actually not a city person. Another illustration of this is how completely paranoid I become whenever something even remotely threatening happens due to the fact that I live in a large city.

Example 1: A month or so ago, I was on the tube platform at Oxford Circus (the huge, touristy, shopping area in London) waiting for the central line train when a voice came on over the intercom and said “due to an emergency, everyone must now evacuate the station.” In my head, this meant “a terrorist bombing of the station is imminent, run for your life.” I sprinted out of the station while the rest of the passengers exited at a leisurely stroll. I was shocked to see that people were standing still going up the escalators as I ran for my life. When I got to the station exit, I saw that all of the tube employees were lolling about, so I figured it must have been a drill, but if the same thing happened to me again tomorrow I’m sure I would react the same way. If I were living in Yorktown Virginia, I would never consider the possibility of looming death due to terrorist action when something slightly odd happened, but in London, anytime someone leaves a bag on the tube I’m convinced that it contains a bomb.

Example 2: Today, a lady sneezed on me on the tube and now I am convinced I have Swine Flu. Once again, if I were living in Yorktown Virginia, my fear of Swine Flu would be calmed due to the remoteness of my location. But I don’t live in Yorktown Virginia, I live in London, and, according to yesterday’s paper: “Swine Flu Has Arrived in London.” In a month or so, when this whole Swine Flu thing has blown over, I’m sure I’ll laugh at myself for going to the pharmacy to price surgical masks, but right now it seems like the prudent thing to do.

Maybe my paranoia will lessen with time. Maybe if I cut down the number of newspapers I read a day (currently at 4), this would help lessen my fears of death due to global pandemic. But, for how, I just have to endure it and be thankful that the positive aspects of living in London outweigh my fear of terrorist bombings.

Coming home!

Bobby and I leave Friday for two wonderful weeks in Virginia! Originally, we thought we had to go home to get our new visas, but it turns out that we can get them here so this trip is kind of unnecessary. However, we will be doing important things like seeing friends/family, gorging ourselves on Mexican food, going to the DMV, and going to the dentist.

Our tentative schedule is:
April 11-17: Yorktown
April 18-26: DC

Let us know if you would like to get together!

Things I Love About London, Part IV: Crazy Flavoured Crisps

If you’re not up to speed on the immense language differences between the UK and USA, then let me begin this post by explaining that by “Crisp,” I mean “Potato Chip.” If you order “Chips” here, you get “French Fries.” If you order “Fries” you get, um, ok, they don’t have anything called “Fries” here. Unless you’re in McDonalds where “Fries” still mean “French Fries.” Yes, it’s all very confusing.

If you’re an American, and I asked you what the craziest potato chip flavour you’ve ever eaten was, what would you say? “I think I had Thai Chilli Once.” “Salt and Vinegar is pretty out there.”

As a British resident, I can answer this question with the following answers:
*Cajun Squirrel
*Fish n Chips
*Onion Bahji

*Crispy Duck
*Builder’s Breakfast
*Chilli and Chocolate
*Prawn Cocktail
*Chicken

Granted, the first 5 I listed were part of a contest to choose a new Walkers crisp flavour (The Cajun Squirrel and Onion Bahji were surprisingly tasty, the Fish n Chips flavour was horrid), but even putting those aside, you can find flavours like Prawn Cocktail, Chicken, and Beef on a regular basis. Flavours I’m used to like Salt and Vinegar, BBQ, and Sour Cream and Onion (or Soured Cream and Chives as they would call it here) are harder to find- although they are becoming more prominent.

At first, I hated the British crisps flavours, but now I find the majority of them delicious and entertaining. I am finally starting to fit in with the people of this country who love their crisps and put a huge amount of pride in their crazy flavours.