One one things

It’s incredibly hard to wake up in the morning in England bc of the cold and gloom, and the better part of the tube journey towards central London is in that zone between being awake and being asleep. Rush hour tube journeys are not fun, almost always a tight squeeze, much like Colombo buses, minus the dust. But, when the tube stops at my station the voice recording says “This is Holborn” and everyone steps off the tube and walks in unison down the corridors, earplugs in place, Metro’s under arms, I feel awake and alive. It’s as if we’re the blood flowing through the veins of London as she wakes up and begins another day. There’s this irresistable pulse of the city, everyone has a place to be, someone to meet and something to do. I’m quite a chill person but even when there’s nothing to do i’m automatically drawn into this rhythm and end up running up and down escalators and walking real fast. As night falls the same rhythm and buzz can be felt as London gets ready to let her hair down. Walking around Leicester square or Covent Garden you again feel part of a greater picture, a piece in a puzzle. There’s an incessant buzz of hundreds of ppl talking, music playing, laughter and ladies’ heals clicking.

I never thought i’d like the “rush” of a big city, in fact the first time I came to London was an utter nightmare. In my first year of undergrad I was due to meet a friend at Clapham junction station, and my coach got late by a couple of hours due to some motorway incident. Unfortunately I didn’t have a mobile phone at the time, and nor did my friend. So when I got to Victoria I was quite lost, it was around 9pm and I had no idea how to make my way to clapham junc. Completely disorientated and struggling to find my way through the mad rush of the crowd, I finally found a ticket counter. I got to Clapham almost 3 hours late and was certain my friend wouldn’t have waited. I planned to sleep in some shop in the station bc I had no idea where he or anyone else in London was staying. After walking around the station a bit, and gradually losing my grip on things, I saw someone sitting on the staircase, head in hands, looking almost as despondant as myself. Happily enough it was my friend, and to this day I’ve not been happier to see him. We celebrated with some String hoppers and kottu at some Sri Lankan joint in that area. Made it all better. This other time I had to get to London to do some graduate entrance exam somewhere in Oxford street. I didnt know where the exact by-road was so I kept asking ppl but nobody knew, which was very surprising bc I knew Colombo like the back of my hand (btw, that is a strange phrase, if the back of my hand was in a parade with other backs of hands I would have no chance of picking it) and expected ppl to know their own city too. Obviously underestimated the vastness of London at the time. I felt lost and intimidated by the size of London, and I far preferred the smaller cities and towns I had lived and studied in.

The early experiences made me weary of London and it took a good deal convincing to make me apply here for postgrad. Having lived here for 5 months now, my opinion has completely changed. I’ve learned to love the buzz and the big city feel. I love the fact that at almost every tube stop you can find a different experience. There’s an incredible array of food, theater, music, markets, galleries, museums and other forms of entertainment. Also there’s an amazing variety of ppl in this city. I mean, just on one tube carriage alone you can hear so many different languages spoken. To take an example, in my trade class out of the 12 ppl there’s just one Englishman; there are South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis, Brazilians, Spaniards, an American Lankan, Nigerian, Chinese, American Indian (not red indian) and more. Most of all I love the fact that the city seems to have a life of its own, it’s always on the go, always awake, always buzzing. Despite being a very temporary resident in this city I feel like i have become part of it, as the ads on the tube say, 7 Million Londoners, One London.