Week 3: London Vs. Paris

Last weekend I went on an excursion to London to meet up with some friends who are also currently abroad. I was really interested about how different the city was compared to the states, but more intrigued by how different it was in comparison to Paris. America seems a lot like London, which makes more sense obviously because we were originally colonized by the British. It's funny to ride in a taxi driving on the 'wrong' side of the road though. The pubs and restaurants and streets seemed a lot more modern and had a lot more open space about them, where Paris seems to make due with the limited amount of space it has available. Although they speak English, it was almost more difficult to understand them then the people even Paris, which is ironic because I don't really speak any french. The waitresses had no idea what I was saying either, they didn't even know what soda or pop was-they just called it coke. The taxi drivers were extremely friendly and were pretty fun to talk to. We started a conversation with one about his favorite football team and how although he loves Chelsea and the English world team, Spain seems to always win- most recently the 2010 World Cup and European Premier League Championship. The food was a little greasier than the cuisine in Paris, but it's more likely that we weren't getting the best quality fish n chips at 1 in the morning. Drinking is more socially accepted in Europe and even more so in London. When we went to a pub for lunch at around 11 am, most of the people there were about 2 pints in. They also serve most of their popular beers warm. It was a really fun weekend and nice break from Paris, but I was ready to come back here after hearing their jagged accents for three days. The french language is a lot easier on the ears.