Day 8: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT

(Or how I learned to stop worrying and love London)

I went to sleep angry.

Angry it was always overcast or raining in London. Angry about the dim prospects of the newspaper industry — and my future. Angry about how expensive London was. Angry about how un-enjoyable my insanely-busy spring (and final) semester in Syracuse would be.

So I couldn’t really sleep. And I read. That’s when it hit me. That moment where it finally clicks — that I’m in London. And I should tell the voice in my head to shut it.

The book, which you might’ve heard of — and possibly read*, was called “The Curious Incident of the Dark in the Nighttime.” I borrowed it from a dude named Randy (or Randizzle, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) before leaving for England. And little did I know….the book took place in England (Coincidence? Totally.) It’s about an autistic kid trying to solve the murder of his neighbor’s dog. And at one point, near the end, he makes his first ever journey to London.* That’s when I became giddy.*

Because when he arrived in London he saw signs like this:



I saw signs like that!

He went on the tube, and took the Bakerloo Line, where there was a sign like this:



I live on the Bakerloo Line. I know that sign!

Then there was a sign that looked like this in the book:

1 HARROW & WEALDSTONE 1 MIN
2 WILLESDEN JUNCTION 4 MIN

Yeah, I recognized that too.

And then it changed again and said:

1 HARROW & WEALDSTONE 1 MIN
**STAND BACK TRAIN APPROACHING**

And then he was almost hit by a train.

I was almost hit by a train!


Credit: Brad Winckelmann / Edgware Station at the Bakerloo Line.

I think you get the point. I am seeing things here that few of my friends back in the States have come across. When Randy or anyone else read this book, they had not recently experienced the bustling city of London streets hours earlier. It clicked.*

It’s a whole new world. I am privileged to be here—and to have this opportunity to see a completely new culture.

And that’s why I decided to shut up about complaining about the things I’d normally complain about it in America. Will I stop fretting about them altogether? No that's impossible! It's in my nature.

I guess I’ll just have to learn how to be less neurotic.* Because London is gonna be amazing.

---
*But who has the time?

*Like meeeee!

*In the book, immediately after the main character described himself as giddy he vomited all over the place. I didn't do this. I think I am using a different definition of giddy here.

*One of most annoying things—and one of the reasons that I took so long for it to “click”—is sometimes I still feel I’m in America (Is that the opposite of homesick?). Maybe it’s all the English. Oh and the five Starbucks we passed on the bus ride from the airport to the SU campus. There’s still a little regret for not going to Madrid. Pero...sobrevivare.

*Oh that reminds me. I'm going to Amsterdam in four weeks.