I've noticed a lot of things about the way the Londoners live. I love noticing the little nuances that make a people... people. This post will be about Londoners, because I can't assume others in Britain live this way too.
As Americans, we consume a lot. Going to the supermarket made that painfully clear. The food there is small. Small boxes of cereal, tiny cans of soup and they had an abundance of freshly made convenience food. We purchased the Shepherd's Pie. It looked like baby diarrhea. It was good though. A lot of the take away food was freshly made (sandwiches, salads...) and was gone by the end of the day. My lunch the day I arrived to London was a Peppered Beef Sandwich on a Fresh Baguette. It was delicious.
Londoners smoke. I know this shouldn't come as a shock to me, but I see EVERYONE lighting up.
This is in strict contradiction to the fact that: Londoners are super healthy. There are some really great self-sustainable food places in town as well as free-trade coffee shops. This doesn't make one healthy, but the fact I see people jogging and walking all over the place are. Walking is an activity done in abundance here. Lizzie and I have become one of the walking masses. It's a shame I don't have a pedometer. I have a feeling the walk from the flat to the Tube station is a good 3/4 of a mile. That accounts for a mile and a half of walking at the minimum. We don't do the crazy power walk that the Londoners do, but we are pretty apt at keeping up. It doesn't help when I trip on any anomaly in the sidewalk. It's embarrassing!
Television is awesome here. Regular, broadcast television shows a lot more than in the states. One morning, I awoke and watched a show aimed towards a 14-18 year old age range... about sex. I'm not talking about a sanitized PBS show, this was a full on show talking about positions, what happens in sex and how important it was to be safe. It was shown in a way that was easy for teens to understand. Admittedly, it made me blush watching it, but the time slot and the audience made sense. If you give teens a frank, humourous, and non-condescending programme that shows them what sex is, they will be more informed and it won't be such a taboo mystery that they will try just to see what it is. To get on my soap box, I think it would bring down the teen pregnancy rate. That's just my opinion though. I also watched a reality show called "When Women Rule the World". They bring chauvinistic men to a village where women dominate. I'm sure you can figure out what the show is about.
**added** I forgot to mention that Apple makes a killing in London. A majority of people I see have iPods. The headphones are in and they are people on a mission to get wherever they are going.
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