I’m back from London. It’s kind of nice to be home but i am also jealous of the other 2 who continued the vacation without me. We did have fun!!!
So there are a few odd/interesting things about London plus a whole lot more great things.
- First.... all the pubs close early. We found this out on Thursday night when we were out at the bar where the swing dancing happens. We decided to have a few drinks downstairs at the bar (we had to uphold the image that Chicago dancers drink!!!). Then at 10:45pm the bar announces last call. At first we thought our watches were wrong but no... the pubs close at 11pm on weeknights. In some ways this would be good for me if I lived there since my biggest complaint about the Chicago swing scene is that people don't show up until 11pm and I need to leave by that time at the latest.
- London’s underground tube system is great!!! We were able to get most places that we needed to on the tube and then sometimes on a bus. I think the longest that we waited for a bus or tube was 3 minutes. The best part is that they have a sign up in the tubes that tell you when the next train is due into the station. So you know exactly how long you will have to wait. If they did that in Chicago there would be a riot since it would always show the trains as being late.
- The biggest problem with the exchange was that it was very follow heavy. Imagine being back in high school or junior high and having to wait on the sideline like a wallflower for a song to finish so you can then ask someone to dance. Of course you are taking a chance that it is a fast song because you have to ask the leads before the song even starts. This became somewhat frustrating. The best nights were Sunday and Monday when a lot of the people from the exchange had gone home. I got a lot more dancing in those 2 nights.
- One of the funniest times of the weekend was on Friday night. We had to bring all of our stuff with us to the dance. Our next host was going to drive us back to his place after the dance. Turns out that he has a car the size of a Kia. So…we fit one suitcase in the trunk with one of the backpacks…then in the backseat you have myself, MK, a big suitcase that MK has her legs up on, a slightly smaller suitcase where my legs are located, plus 2 bags and a guitar…Sarah is in the front seat with another backpack….let’s just say that we had a lot of fun telling Sarah how she was going to pay for our pain in the backseat. MK wrote about this in her blogs too.
Some of the other things that we did was take a walking tour of London. We started at the Monument, walked along the Thames to the Tower of London, then over the Tower Bridge, to walk along the other side of the Thames to the Globe Theater (a replica of the theater where Shakespeare’s plays were performed), and on to the Tate Museum. At the Tate, there is this room that you walk into that basically makes everything seem black, white, and gray. It was really strange…I had a red hat that looked gray. Plus there were mirrors way up on the ceiling….a lot of people lay down on the ground to make shapes that they can see in the mirror….of course being lindyhoppers….we had to spell out LINDY on the floor.
I found out how out of shape that I am. Londoner’s tend to swing dance to the faster music. I’m not used to that so I was really sore by the end of my time there.
Now I am back at work….yeah….it’s strange to think that MK and Sarah are still in Europe and that I have been back in Chicago for 2 days already. Hopefully they are having a good time.
So there are a few odd/interesting things about London plus a whole lot more great things.
- First.... all the pubs close early. We found this out on Thursday night when we were out at the bar where the swing dancing happens. We decided to have a few drinks downstairs at the bar (we had to uphold the image that Chicago dancers drink!!!). Then at 10:45pm the bar announces last call. At first we thought our watches were wrong but no... the pubs close at 11pm on weeknights. In some ways this would be good for me if I lived there since my biggest complaint about the Chicago swing scene is that people don't show up until 11pm and I need to leave by that time at the latest.
- London’s underground tube system is great!!! We were able to get most places that we needed to on the tube and then sometimes on a bus. I think the longest that we waited for a bus or tube was 3 minutes. The best part is that they have a sign up in the tubes that tell you when the next train is due into the station. So you know exactly how long you will have to wait. If they did that in Chicago there would be a riot since it would always show the trains as being late.
- The biggest problem with the exchange was that it was very follow heavy. Imagine being back in high school or junior high and having to wait on the sideline like a wallflower for a song to finish so you can then ask someone to dance. Of course you are taking a chance that it is a fast song because you have to ask the leads before the song even starts. This became somewhat frustrating. The best nights were Sunday and Monday when a lot of the people from the exchange had gone home. I got a lot more dancing in those 2 nights.
- One of the funniest times of the weekend was on Friday night. We had to bring all of our stuff with us to the dance. Our next host was going to drive us back to his place after the dance. Turns out that he has a car the size of a Kia. So…we fit one suitcase in the trunk with one of the backpacks…then in the backseat you have myself, MK, a big suitcase that MK has her legs up on, a slightly smaller suitcase where my legs are located, plus 2 bags and a guitar…Sarah is in the front seat with another backpack….let’s just say that we had a lot of fun telling Sarah how she was going to pay for our pain in the backseat. MK wrote about this in her blogs too.
Some of the other things that we did was take a walking tour of London. We started at the Monument, walked along the Thames to the Tower of London, then over the Tower Bridge, to walk along the other side of the Thames to the Globe Theater (a replica of the theater where Shakespeare’s plays were performed), and on to the Tate Museum. At the Tate, there is this room that you walk into that basically makes everything seem black, white, and gray. It was really strange…I had a red hat that looked gray. Plus there were mirrors way up on the ceiling….a lot of people lay down on the ground to make shapes that they can see in the mirror….of course being lindyhoppers….we had to spell out LINDY on the floor.
I found out how out of shape that I am. Londoner’s tend to swing dance to the faster music. I’m not used to that so I was really sore by the end of my time there.
Now I am back at work….yeah….it’s strange to think that MK and Sarah are still in Europe and that I have been back in Chicago for 2 days already. Hopefully they are having a good time.
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