London

İ wish İ had a picture of myself riding the subway in Korea. İ used to look from the right to the left and see people with more or less similar skin, hair and eye color to me. İt is quite different in the London subway. İ look to each side and can`t help but admire the vast diversity of passengers in my carriage; there is a vast collection of colors and shapes of people. They say that the white faces that most people envision as a "typical Brit" are the minority these days in London. İt seems to be quite a melting pot / stew of people from all over the world, even moreso than the "melting pot" of America. Or, maybe the stew is better mixed than ours.

Jayne, another good friend of mine (and ski instructor) from Vail, picked me up from the Gatwick airport on Monday morning. By Tuesday morning, we had booked a package trip to Turkey, and organized our remaining four days in England accordingly: 2 days in London and 2 days in the country.

In London, I enjoyed walking around the city and over Tower Bridge. İ was surprised to see the blend of modern, futuristic buildings mixed with historical, traditional castles and churches.




We also witnessed hundreds of youth from the iPod generation partying in the middle of Liverpool Station, which is the major transport hub and crossroads for the people of London, at the tail end of a busy workday. İt was so cool to see everyone rocking out to the beat in their own heart / personal music device, and unite on a common dancefloor.

We saw the famous changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. İ felt as if İ were in a movie, standing behind the palace gates in a crowd, watching the men in Buzbys stomp and march back and forth in a perfectly practiced routine (yay shuffle step!).

Jayne and I also visited the Tower of London, taking a photo with the well respected Beefeater, sizing up the giants armour, oogling over the crown jewels, and visiting the Bloody tower!



At 2:30, we were happy to find ourselves in Leicester Square, just in time to catch a matinee on West End. The acting, singing, and storyline of Blood Brothers (set in Liverpool) left us energized and standing on our feet at the closing curtain. We are still humming tunes from the musical...("We were dancing..." and "like Marilyn Monroe").

İn contrast to our busy two days in London, Jayne and her family and İ had two peaceful days in the countryside. Jayne`s parents, who live in Essex, were super friendly and kind. Her dad, who worked as a typographer at a London ad agency, and İ bonded when taking interesting pictures of the walk from Hadleigh Castle to Leigh on Sea. Jayne`s mom and I had iPod lessons in the evenings.

We had a taste of fresh seafood at Leigh on Sea, where İ learned all about the Cockle shell and tasted it too. We also had a country pub lunch, which was fun to see a traditional low-ceilinged English pub.



The Taylor`s also introduced me to my new favorite breakfast, Dippy eggs with soldiers! Jayne laughed at the humor of teaching an adult how to eat a meal she ate as a child. İt is an art to proportion and crack the top of the shell perfectly, to cut the buttered toast the correct width for dipping, and to ration the soft boiled egg inside to last up `til the last bite!