You Talk Like A Local

Last night I met up with a friend from England who has been living in the United States for the last ten years. He and I have had some really interesting conversations about London, and I was really excited to see him in his old, and my new home.

After chatting for awhile, he looked at me absolutly astonished, and asked me to repeat the sentence I had just said. I did, and he said, “you’re talking like a local”. Now he didn’t mean that I’ve picked up the accent, but that I had started to pronounce local place names in the local accent, thinks like Grosvenor or Leicester.

Of course, he has been living in New York for the last few years, so who knows if his “ear” is really tuned for London pronunciation anymore :-)

Patience

I’m sitting in JFK waiting for a flight to Buffalo right now. I got in from London at 3pm and was hoping to get the 5pm flight to Buffalo instead of the 8pm flight I was actually scheduled on. I was on the standby list, but there weren’t enough seats, so now I’m waiting for the 8pm flight.

I noticed, however, that the wait isn’t really bothering me, and I think that it’s one of the side effects of living in London. I’ve noticed that I end up waiting around for things a lot in London. Waiting for trains, waiting for taxis, waiting for the bus or the tube. All this waiting has taught me to be more patient, and also taught me to find better ways to entertain myself.

It’s rare that I don’t have someting with me that I can use to pass the time. A newspaper, a book, an iPod, or at least a mobile phone with internet access. Even if I don’t have any of these things, I find that I can spend some quality time thinking and even enjoy the occasional stare into space.

I like that this is a side benefit of my new life in London, and I hope that I can keep it up when / if I move back to the states.