So as of today, I have been in London for two weeks. I have a temporary place to live, a full-time job til Christmas, and I've made a friend.
There's more to say than I have the energy to write, but a few things I wanted to touch on:
1. Retail is tough work and will be my exercise for the next two months. I like putting things on shelves and I'm not afraid to carry boxes around. Customer service is so ridiculously easy. The only challenge is having patience with myself while wrapping breakables, since I have the opinion that I should just zoom along. Also, one of my co-workers might hate me. I find it unsettling, but also interesting.
2. Having a retail job in this area of the city is a blessing and a curse. For me, it's a blessing since it's full-time work when I could have been without work right now. I was chosen out of 750 CV's to work there. The curse is that 744 CV's were not chosen, and I know full-well that many of those people really could use the money more than me.
3. This place is amazingly diverse and interesting. At first brush, I thought I was living in the ghetto. The streets are cracked, some of the houses are deplorable, but really everything just looks old. However, it is old, and should look that way. And I think it's actually fairly safe.
The diversity of people living here is something I'm still getting used to. I've realized that when I see people who look and dress and hold their facial expression a certain way, I assume that I know what they're about and that is extraordinarily prejudiced. I am consciously trying to just be with the people as they are, rather than being afraid of them (racist) or feeling out of place for being privileged-white-middle-class (white guilt, also racist). Somehow, I didn't think I'd be having to deal with my prejudices here. I didn't really think I had any.
4. Related to the above, I am noticing where I feel safe/unsafe. I came to the decision last week that, yes, going outside is always a risk. Walking at night is a risk. Strangers are risks. However, I am going to do whatever I want while I am here, and sometimes that will involve taking one of those risks. So now I feel perfectly comfortable outside at night. I am still aware and careful, but I am not afraid.
I also have been talking to strangers with mixed results. Risky.
5. "London is fucking awesome and there is so much going on here oh my goodness Neil Gaiman is here oh my goodness this place is magical!" That is roughly what went through my head last week. I saw my only friend in London, and was explaining the above while bemoaning that I wouldn't actually be able to see him. She suggested I write him a letter. I was intimidated by writing a writer, but did it anyway.
The following day, on my twitter feed, Mr. Gaiman re-tweeted someone who had a spare ticket for his talk that night. I replied first. I got the ticket. The boy who I met was also surprisingly lovely, and it was just an amazing evening. The whole experience was delightful: getting exactly what I wanted (the ticket and two books signed), choosing not to worry about meeting a stranger and then having to sit next to someone who could potentially be awful (he wasn't), and then trusting my gut that this boy was in fact quite nice and exploring London at night with him.
So with the list above in mind, I did see the boy again yesterday for more walking and a really great beer - Hobgoblin, I think. Very malty. Medium, like Sleemans maybe, but maltier. Delicious. It was a pleasant evening, and my takeaway was that he's very nice and I'd like to see him again. I could make it more complicated than that, and I feel like there is this miasma around me, pulling me to deconstruct and process everything, but the truth is that it's as simple as that. Tomorrow, I will see what he's doing for Bonfire Night, and regardless I will see him again soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment