A Ghost Story

October 31 — Halloween is upon us, comrades, and you know I would never miss a chance to lean into the holiday spirit (pun intended). I’ve been quietly stewing over what spooky tale to tell you all for weeks, but with no luck. Nothing I've experienced thus far in London could meet my high Halloween standards (though navigating QMUL’s many websites comes pretty damn close), I so I’ve had to compromise. I may not be able to scare you, but I can still tell you my personal ghost story.

Since I arrived in London, a day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t hopped on a train for some reason or other. I’ve taken full advantage of our monthly Oyster cards: between appointments, errands, and procrastinatory expeditions, I’ve spent tens of hours navigating from station to station, finding ways around rush-hour traffic, and boarding the Circle Line in the wrong direction.

Each train has its own quirks and temperament, each station its own character. If you squint, the entire city of London becomes a benevolent behemoth, the Underground serving as her inner workings. Flights of stairs and fleets of escalators take me into the great warm belly of the city, away from the crisp October air and down, down, we go– still further down at Angel Station where the longest escalator on the Underground (60m!) seems to carry one towards the center of the earth. I careen down London’s veins and capillaries in clean, white subway carriages trimmed in their lines’ respective hues; It seems fitting to me that the Central line, London’s main artery, is colored crimson.

The Underground thrums with life.
The Underground is full of ghosts.

It’s easy to forget that London carries on while I explore beneath it, since without natural light, things get sort of weird temporally. Time isn’t real underground. Nothing feels more uncanny than entering a Tube station during daylight and exiting one as night falls; I imagine emerging from the Underground only to find a hundred years have passed in a “Rip Van Winkle”-esque fiasco. The other day, I was thinking about the weird, liminal space that is the Underground, and Ezra Pound’s famous poem about the Paris metro came to mind:

“In a Station of the Metro”

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.

—Ezra Pound (1913)

In my growing familiarity with the London Underground, I have become part of its ecosystem. I am one of Pound’s many petals; in navigating between stations, I pass by thousands of faces I will never see again. The reliability of the Tube turns humans insubstantial– the Eastbound District train will arrive at Mile End every three minutes forever, but a person will pass me once and then cease to exist. How many of these faces in the crowd have I passed in two months? And how many have in turn seen my apparition?

I need a breather.

So is the Underground really full of ghosts? Well, kind of. Take away all the weird, metaphorical ghostly people and the Tube has some genuine ghost stories– they just aren’t the type that make for entertaining Halloween tales. I don’t dwell on the ghosts of the London Underground; we have enough to fret about these days. I try instead to appreciate the moments in which I emerge from the Underground into open air and become more than my apparition.

—Hannah Unkrich

Details, Details, Details

October 29 — Walking across the Millennium Bridge, one sees Christopher Wren’s famous St. Paul’s Cathedral on one side and Tate Modern on the other. If one looks down on the bridge they would see tiny pieces of art embedded between the grooves. They are gum that have been spit out and turned into art. Upon further research, I learned that an artist called Ben Wilson painted these. He was inspired by his many interactions with strangers on the bridge and would often paint pieces for them. He turned something as simple as gum into something beautiful that reflects London and the people there. The art encourages people to pay attention to the intricacies of the city. It can be easy to miss them!

London is beautiful like this. Its details are embedded within the city and the stories are shared. The history of London is constantly evolving and new stories are being created. I had the opportunity to walk the city with our professor, David Campion, while he told me and another student how much the city was filled with details and history. We walked from St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tower of London and heard stories about people who used to live here-what they left behind and what has been erased.

London has learned to deal with destruction and rebuilding. Ben Wilson had a gum painting of St. Paul’s Cathedral, but it has since been accidentally destroyed by people walking across the bridge. A reminder that permanency is a rarity in London. New opportunities are given to modern stories, while still respecting what was lost. London is a changing world whose history is always evolving. After the traumatic event of the Great Fire of London, Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt most of the City of London. He often built on top of ancient churches, respecting what he could and creating a new design along with it that reflected his time. These churches would be a combination of medieval and contemporary. An amalgam of history and modern life fills the city.

Even though I am only here for a semester, I am starting to feel that I am a part of the history of London. A very, very small part, mind you. I am trying to engage in this city as much as possible. It is very easy to move fast through London, but I try to slow down and learn as much as I can. Upon visiting the National Portrait Gallery I learned about my love, Elizabeth I. She is known as the Virgin Queen because she never married or had kids. I was instructed by our tour guide to look closely at the painting and it was pointed out that she is draped in pearls. The pearls symbolize her virginity and her connection to the moon. This is a powerful statement because she is making her own rules and owning it. This is not something I would have noticed at first glance.

It already feels like I have no time left here. I want to soak in all the stories and learn about all the details. I want to pay attention to what came here before me and what has allowed me to experience this place. I am very grateful for the professionals who have shared their expertise with me and who encourage me to keep exploring. I thank the artist, Ben Wilson who has created something beautiful and has encouraged me to slow down and take in all the different aspects of the city.

—Sarit Cahana

This Melancholy London

October 26 — When I hauled the suitcases containing every single one of my possessions out of the hot tube stairwell and into the weak London sunlight outside Aldgate East, I felt as though the city had chewed me up and spit me back onto the pavement, aching, sweaty, and starving. I experienced our subsequent journey to the hostel and hunt for food as one in a daze--it was only when I woke up at midnight, the yellow streetlight streaming onto my pillow and British accents echoing off the cobblestones, that I comprehended it. I was in London.

Here, the everyday clashes bizarrely with the incredible. When walking, for instance, to the Pret a Manger for a cheap lunch, one might look up to notice St. Paul’s cathedral dominating the skyline, and carry on, having given but a moment’s thought to the 800 years of history that occurred on that site. In this city, I have gotten drunk in the same low-ceilinged pub once frequented by a (probably equally drunk) Charles Dickens, and I have stood over the physical remains of that very man in a famous Abbey whose Gothic, arched ceilings reach to the heavens. In this city, I have run my hand over the original Roman wall, so old that I feel it should be protected behind glass and security guards--but it runs through someone’s back garden, and when I stepped out from the park containing it I noticed a few bits of litter scattered over its’ crumbling bricks. In this city, I have stared into the painted, immortalized eyes of Elizabeth I, my feet aching and my stomach grumbling.

Here, the familiar intersects jarringly with the new and the uncomfortable. In some ways, London could not be further from Portland. The endless stretches of concrete outside my window are a world away from the soft, greenish light that shone through the trees into my apartment in Portland. Here, the hustle and bustle feels faster and more impersonal, as if the city does not know or care that you are here. It can be cold and impersonal, so different from the warm, individualistic eccentricity that I associate with Portland. But somehow that same characteristic that confined me largely to my room in the first week of living here makes it feel so much more special when you stumble upon a marketplace full of delicious smells, or a vintage shop with the perfect dress for you. It feels as if the city has taken pity on you for a minute to present you with a small gift. And in both Portland and London, the sky looks the same.

—Lexie Boren

Life so Far

October 24 — Upon visiting London for the first time in 2015, and once more in 2016, I left each journey with an extremely positive, albeit novice (and perhaps even naive) view of the city. Exploring centralized tourist destinations and venturing only as far as Kew Gardens, I admired the architecture, landmarks, and seemingly endless number of parks scattered throughout the city, never necessarily questioning what it might be like to live within the city itself. The short time I spent within the city felt rushed and far too short. Therefore, when the opportunity to study abroad in London was offered at Lewis & Clark, I sprung at the chance to study internationally, especially within a city I had visited previously.

Visiting an internationally renowned city on vacation and actually living within that city for an extended portion of time, however, are two vastly different states of being. Subtle nuances of everyday life, daily routines, and actual commitments are all swept away while one engages in a sort of “vacation mode” during such a limited time in some new place. It is not until one finds oneself lunging onto the Tube with fourteen fellow classmates and fifty haphazardly packed suitcases, backpacks, and roller bags that the vacation mode terminates and a more sensible reality begins. It is perhaps only when I loaded into a black cab with three other classmates, our own suitcases stacked around us in towers, wheeled my bags across the cobblestoned campus, and traveled up five stories into my new home, that the true reality of living in London set in.

There are many noticeable differences between university life at Lewis & Clark and Queen Mary, especially within academics. Here, classes occur only once per week, homework is nonexistent, and grades are determined solely upon one or two essays. The similarities, however, are far more subtle and often difficult to find. Balancing that which is indeed similar with new ideologies and ways of teaching and thinking has curated an entirely new academic space for me, one that seems both unique and difficult to access at times. However, the excitement of each class and the unique subject matter of each have kept me both interested and intrigued thus far.

Furthermore, I’ve spent the last few weeks in London simply getting acquainted within Mile End, but also exploring surrounding areas as frequently as possible. The transition from Portland to London was not necessarily the most difficult, as many similar aspects are featured within each. However, the sheer size of London, despite its easily accessible nature, is rather overwhelming at times. One can spend an entire day exploring and only cover one or two small neighborhoods, perhaps even less. Often, discovering a previously overlooked neighborhood, park, or even restaurant will thrust me back into a similar state of confusion I thought I had finally escaped. However, such confusion, I believe, is simply a part of moving to a city like London. With each day promising something new, it is exciting to wake up in such a vibrant, cosmopolitan city such as London. The possibilities here are truly endless, and I’m extremely grateful to be studying here.

—Zack Johnson

The Big City

October 22 — I have always considered myself a city girl.  Even when I had never been to a big city in my entire life, at nine years old I told my friends and family that when I grew up I was going to move to The Big City.  The Big City is capitalized because the city in my mind was nameless, faceless, and looked vaguely like a bunch of high rise office buildings, with a man walking in front of a taxi yelling “I’m walkin’ here!”. The Big City I had imagined was an amalgamation of images I soaked up from various TV shows and movies I watched over the years telling me that The Big City is where I needed to be. I may not have known that London is where I would find what I was looking for, but I have always known that I wanted to be where the action is taking place.  This is it; the action is happening here in London all the time, influencing and affecting how the rest of the world proceeds. All that’s missing is a New York accent.

Well, now I’m here and it’s true: I am indeed a city girl.  I love the variety of it all: the people, the food, the landscape, the sheer amount of different activities that one could do at any minute of any day here is astonishing. In fact, there is so much to do that I get overwhelmed: overwhelmed at the thought of only having three months to do everything that I have been dreaming of since I was nine; overwhelmed that when I do finally make a choice about what to do on any given night, that by choosing one thing I am probably missing out some other event that’s better or more one of a kind. The fear of missing out (or FOMO, as the kids say) is a tortuous feeling that has afflicted me since the day we got here. This torturous feeling has afflicted me since the day we got here. After I wrestled with the amount of time in a day I can possibly shove activities into, the unfortunate human need for sleep, and my bank account; I have learned to live with this feeling like a chronic itch. Yes, it's there, but sometimes the best way to get rid of it is to ignore it completely. I have come to accept and understand that while it is impossible for me to do everything I would like to, that’s just part of life in The Big City.

And yet, what I have done would definitely make nine-year-old Caroline proud. I have seen and eaten the most amazing variety of foods: from calzones in Victoria Park Market, chicken vindaloo on Brick Lane, arepas in Camden Market, and steak pie at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street.  I love food more than I love most people and this variety of food has been one of the best parts of London for me. Walking through these market stalls, watching people make the food of their culture that they love and want to share with the world made me realize that that is what I love most about London: the constant sharing and appreciation of cultures.  This sharing can not only be seen in food, but in the museums (like the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition on Frida Kahlo), and just by walking down the street or sitting and listening in the tube you can hear at least five different languages being spoken. London is everything and more nine-year-old Caroline dreamed about: it has the high rises, the energy, and the taxis, but what I was sorely mistaken on being the most important part was the people.

—Caroline Wilkes

"The Flower of Cities All": Green Spaces in London

October 19 — Like many of my peers, I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy the transition from life in Portland to life in London has been. The key features of cities remain: public transportation, crowded sidewalks, prominent bike lanes. While the pedestrians seem more diverse here in terms of language spoken or country of origin, every single storefront, menu, street sign, and map is written in English; London is not difficult for an American to navigate.

Our location at the Mile End campus of Queen Mary has also helped with the ease of transition. Walk a few blocks in either direction and you will find a tube station and multiple bus stops. The streets are lined with restaurants, coffee shops, and grocery stores. We are right on the edge of Regent’s Canal, a 8.6 mile canal linking the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal to the River Thames in East London. The skyline is equally as interesting; the City of London itself can be seen to the west, and the massive structures which housed the 2012 Olympic Games are visible to the northeast.

One of the first things I did upon arrival to campus, after the excitement of picking up keys and moving into dorm rooms, was explore the neighborhood. I wanted to find a grocery store as soon as possible (which was not very difficult at all) and I wanted to explore running routes in the neighborhood. When I learned that Mile End Park was a mere three blocks from my residence at Queen Mary, I was thrilled. And when I noticed signs pointing to Victoria Park less than a mile up the Regent’s Canal, I was equally as excited. I have always preferred running in parks and green spaces to running on sidewalks through a city. I went for my first run on September 18, and very quickly discovered a difference between London and Portland that I had not expected.

We are spoiled at Lewis & Clark with the proximity and size of Tryon State Natural Area. Once you enter Tryon you very quickly lose sight of roads and cars. Even in winter the park is almost shockingly green. In contrast to Tryon, where nature is given free reign within the boundaries of roads, Mile End Park has allowed streets and paths inside its borders to the point where it has been turned into a patchwork of triangular patches of dry grass and memorial benches. Victoria Park is much the same, bisected by a road for cars and filled with paved paths, manicured lawns, and man-made ponds. Nearly every park in London is gated and locked at sundown so people cannot spend the night in them.

The more I explore London, the more I am learning that these “style” of parks are the norm. I have yet to find a park within which I cannot see and hear London’s heavy traffic and busy streets. Every park has a name, sign, paved path, and a variety of other infrastructure: benches, fountains, rubbish bins, memorials, and more. All are mowed and manicured somewhat regularly. Nature is controlled in a way I have not seen in Portland, or anywhere else in the States for that matter.

According to the 2014 ParkScore Index, Portland, ranks third in the US for park land, with 17.4% of city land as park space. In contrast, parks make up only 5.77% of the Greater London, according to Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC, 2015. This is only taking into account defined parks; other green and natural spaces exist in both Portland and London, certainly. But the contrast in the availability in public green spaces set aside for recreation is pretty striking.

I appreciate the London parks for what they are, and am grateful to have such spaces to explore so close to campus here, even if they are not as “natural” as I would like. London has a long, rich history and a massive population; that there are so many parks (around 3,000 according to the Mayor of London) packed within the limits of the city despite all that must “fit” within it is a testament to the regard in which London holds public green spaces. That regard is something on which I believe both London and Portland can agree.

—Emma Celebrezze

Getting into London

October 17 — Before coming to London our class visited Scotland, and after touring Edinburgh I wondered If London would hold up to the architectural beauty of its castles and steeples. The gothic architecture of Edinburgh was stunning and rather eerie, and it seemed unlikely to me that London would have an atmosphere as interesting or distinctive as Edinburgh’s. This feeling was also proved wrong upon walking through the city. Unlike Edinburgh, London’s architecture is most interesting for its range of styles and materials used. The effect of the transitions between white-stone, brick, and metal is usually beautiful, and most buildings downtown are in harmony with one another. Especially within the city center, this balance is achieved, and I found that the triangle formed between Bank station, the Globe Theatre, and Saint Paul's Cathedral was a particularly gorgeous section of the city. Coming out of the tube at night into these busy areas is thrilling.

Living in dorm housing has not always been easy, and the sounds, smells, and sights of the city are not always at their best on the campus of Queen Mary. Living in freshman housing, or as they call it freshers housing, there seems to always be something going on, as large crews of rather drunken lads wander and talk loudly most week and weekend nights. This, however, is not always a bad thing as it can encourage one to get out, to meet new people, and to get off campus. Queen Mary is situated alongside a canal that runs North and South through Mile End Park, a pleasant park that can be walked along to reach Victoria Park, an even finer area that winds around a large pond full of swans and ducks. Basketball, Football, and tennis are played in these parks, and there is a pavilion and cafe near the pond that is worth visiting for its freshly baked bread and English style breakfasts.

Money goes quickly here, and after breaking my budget during my first week in London I seem to have decided to make a habit of it. The buck, however, will have to stop somewhere, so it is likely my lifestyle will decline sharply in November and December. The food varieties are never ending, and it hardly needs to be repeated that one can find produce, meat, seafood, and groceries from anywhere on earth. Street markets range from cheap to expensive, but I seem to always find myself in the expensive end.  So it goes. The pace of life here is fast, and the city offers up endless opportunities to eat, buy, watch and wander about. It may sound quaint or precious to say that the city has a rhythm, or that it moves me along, but that has been my impression throughout my time here.

—Lucas Heilbroner

Hong Kong vs. London

October 15 — The first time I visited London was in February 2017, I wasn’t too impressed by London due to its cold and rainy weather in winter. Now I am living in London and I actually like it a lot. Having grown up in Hong Kong, I think London isn’t too overwhelming in general. In fact, I have found some similarities between the two cities. Notably, Hong Kong and London both have an extensive and well-connected public transport system. Compared to the MTR in Hong Kong, the Tube is just OK because it is old, expensive and is often delayed. In addition to that, the Tube is notorious for its strikes. Two weeks ago, there was a strike and several lines were closed. I was meant to take the Central line, but I couldn’t, so I needed to take the bus and change to another line that was in good service. It never hurts to reserve more time to deal with the traffic when there are Tube strikes.

Hong Kong and London both are very international, but I found London is more diverse. I can constantly hear conversations in different languages on the street and this really fascinates me. As a French Studies major, I am particularly glad to be able to hear French easily in London because there are many French living and working here. From the internet I found that there are some language cafes which allow people to do language exchange in pubs. Last month I went to one called The Wellington near Waterloo station and I talked to some people from London, Italy and France. It was a good place to meet new friends and practice the language I want to improve. However, I have been quite busy on the weekends with my trips and wine course. Otherwise, I’d love to go to this kind of activity more regularly.

There are many amazing restaurants in both Hong Kong and London, but it is a lot more expensive to dine out in London. I have had meals in Chinatown (for authentic Chinese food), Borough Market and Brick Lane Market. I love going to those markets because they have various cuisines, fresh vegetables, fruit stalls and cheeses for visitors to taste and buy. As a student on budget, I try to cook more often to save money. One of my flatmates jokes with me that “Jocelyn is always cooking intensively.” It is because I don’t like microwave and pre-packaged food, so I would spend time to cook “real” and healthy food. Besides, cooking is an important life skill and I am proud that I am able to cook some delicious meals. I have successfully made pasta, curry, Vietnamese rice paper rolls, seafood soup, fried rice, chicken wings stew etc. Undoubtedly, cooking is fun, but is quite tiring as well. Normally, I do my grocery in supermarkets near campus, such as COOP, Sainsbury's, Asda, and Lidl. Last Saturday I discovered a new place, Billingsgate Market to get fresh and affordable seafood. The downside it that this fish market opens super early from 4am to 8am. Therefore, I got up at 6am so that I could make it before it closed. When I got there at 7am, it was already very crowded and busy. I was amazed to see so many seafood choices available, such as scallops, salmon, snappers, oysters, razor clams, prawns, lobsters, crabs, squids, eels etc. This seafood was sold in large quantities, so it would be normal for buyers to receive a gigantic black trash bag to put their purchase in. I was delighted to buy some fresh prawns, squids and fish from there. By the time I left, I saw the sunrise and the sky was gorgeous!

I love exploring different parts of London, and The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in particular has left an vivid impression on me. I was amazed by its size and the diversity of plants. It took me four hours walking in the park and I still couldn’t finish seeing all of it. The size of Kew Gardens certainly lives up to the accolades of being “world's largest, most diverse collection of plants” and “the biggest UNESCO site in London.” It was relaxing and peaceful at the park, and I took some nice photos of interesting flowers and plants. My afternoon was well-spent there.

In the next few months, I will continue to explore new places in London and cherish the beautiful moments I have here.

—Jocelyn Mah

Past and New Experiences

October 12 — We are now finishing up our third week as associate students at Queen Mary, and have been in the UK for just over one month. I think it is safe to say that everyone had their own expectations coming into this trip, each likely to be different from the next.

I grew up in a suburban city in Northern Virginia, just fifteen minutes outside of Washington, DC. I knew little of life outside Virginia, and while I had been lucky enough to have traveled while growing up, I was in a bubble. I did not come to realize this, however, until my parents and I had the opportunity to move to Geneva, Switzerland, when I was fifteen. I can distinctly remember my naive teenage self being presented with the option to move to Europe, a place I had never been to, and having no reservations whatsoever. This was not because I thought it would be an easy and fun thing to do for a few years, but because I truly had no knowledge of what I was getting myself into.

Fast forward a few months and I am uprooted from the one place I had ever lived in and am now a junior in high school in Geneva. Switzerland has four national languages, with French predominantly spoken in Geneva. Again, my naive teenage self did not think this would provide me with any trouble, as someone with zero knowledge of the language, in the weeks leading up to my move. Though I definitely had Duolingo downloaded on my phone in an attempt to learn the basics of the language so I wouldn’t completely embarrass myself.

This experience led me to my first impression of what life is like in Europe for young people. None of my friends had curfews and all spoke at least three languages. They had all lived in multiple countries around the world, and were fascinated with how American I seemed to them. Fast forward a few years and I am at Lewis & Clark. The chance to study abroad in London had presented itself, and the decision seemed obvious, as I could be closer to my parents and friends from high school for a few months, and had the experience of being a young person in Europe already.

While I thought I would seamlessly adapt to life in London, my expectations were quickly challenged. In our first month or so here, I have seen buildings and structures older than I can fathom that are home to historically imperative events. I have the opportunity to learn new material from a professor with a perspective I am not used to, in an environment that is very different from that of our home institution. I am finding comfort in my discomfort within the community of Queen Mary as well as the larger community of London. And what has truly delighted me about London is the vibrancy of the city, specifically at night. When taking the tube to Leicester square on a Saturday night, there is nothing that will match the boisterous energy as you emerge from the tube station and see thousands of young people sharing their experiences of a night out. Try going to a McDonalds at 2 in the morning without leaving with a handful of stories of weird, hilarious or shocking interactions with strangers. Geneva did not prepare me for this. These first three weeks have done nothing but teach me of the complexity, youthful nature, and diversity the city contains. I look forward to continuing to experience and learn from this new city in the weeks to come.

—Claire Greene

Two Metropolises, Two Worlds

October 10 — My first month in London has been treating me extremely well. I have adjusted to my new life here and have made new friends, learned new things and been exposed to new cultures. London, and in particular the East End are incredibly diverse spaces. However, it is clear that there are strict societal splits just as there are back in America. What is striking to me is the similarities London has with my home city of New York.

The neighborhood we are in, Mile End, reminds of the neighborhood I briefly lived in when I was home from college over my breaks. The neighborhood, Jackson Heights, is one of the most diverse places in America. You can walk down the street and hear English, Thai, Hindi, Arabic and Spanish among other languages. The same is true over here. This neighborhood brings people of all different languages and culture together. Two different countries yet two very similar, multicultural neighborhoods!

Needless to say, the food is amazing! One of my favorite things to do is go to markets of different nationalities and ethnicities and buy up their ingredients and make some food of my own! I even bought an Indian cookbook on this note. It’s a super cheap way to eat your way through London. I love to cook and this is such a great outlet for that. One night, my friend Cindy from Beijing taught me how to cook a variety of Chinese dishes and she fed our whole flat! The next day, I went to a Chinese market and bought the same spices she had. I’ve been cooking Chinese food the same way she has for almost two weeks now. My Norwegian flatmate gave us all a taste of Norwegian cheese her dad brought with him when he visited her. I’ve been reciprocating as well, cooking my whole flat homemade pizza and showing them what Bagels are. I even travel half an hour often twice a week just to buy good bagels at a Jewish deli near here. All for a taste of home! Food tells stories and breaks down barriers, it’s great to see how this is working in my life here.

Not all neighborhoods of London are like the East End, however. Over the weekends, my friends and I have been exploring all different neighborhoods of London. We spent some time at the National Gallery and walked around. The neighborhood was very posh with small touristy shopping stretches. The same is true with the neighborhoods by Hyde Park and by the Tate Modern. This reminded me of the neighborhoods around the Met and Central Park back home. The diversity is still there, but much less so and the area is quite a bit “nicer.” For example, here in the East End there are still signs of grittiness with graffiti everywhere, homelessness, and drug dealers openly dealing in the park. The neighborhoods I saw near those other sights do not have these issues. The same is true for London and New York. It is clear that tradeoffs remain regarding neighborhoods and that there are still societal divisions that are hard set here in London.

 —Dan Koster

Dickens Didn't Prepare Me for This: Why is it so Sunny?

October 8 — London has a reputation of a grim landscape with one key characteristic. Charles Dickens writes in the first chapter of Bleak House (1852):

“Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green sits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside of a great (and dirty) city... Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.”

T.S. Eliot personifies this characteristic as a cat in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1911):

 “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.”

Unsurprisingly, there is even an entire book which examines these distinctive “pea-soupers”: London Fog: A Biography (2015) by Christine Corton, not to mention an illustrious coat company and even a cocktail named after this not-so-natural phenomenon.

We, however, have been lucky enough to meet London in a sunny, late September hue. A woman sits outside a cafe, flicking through stapled papers, a mug of something dark in front of her, and smoke dissipating up to the sky from her cigarette. A small boy in a blue coat chases after geese in Victoria Park (only 1.3 miles/2 kilometers away from Queen Mary’s campus). The canal fades from an opaque green (where ducks and swans dive among litter and leaves) to a murky slate blue-grey. Someone ties their canal barge to a stake in the ground, waving to a woman sipping tea atop her own boat. Someone else unties their barge from the stake and moves down Regent’s Canal via the locks. Most pedestrians are in sweaters or light jackets at most. It almost feels as if London is trying to make a good impression on us, politely taking off its heathered hat to bid us “hello, nice to meet you.”

This city sits stuck in an empty snow globe, pausing not even to take a breath but to hover in the closest thing that gets to stillness for the living concrete organism. The tube still runs despite the sun (though make note of planned closures to the Central, District, and Hammersmith & City Lines if coming from the Mile End station). Pedestrians still jaywalk despite it. Markets still open and close in Camden and Brick Lane despite it. The clouds move lethargically in the sky unlike the people on the streets. I had expected the commotion of bodies to be accompanied by a precipitative commotion: the sound of rain on umbrellas, double-decker buses through oily puddles, a constant running down gutters and windows. Not only this, but I had expected any kind of dormancy to rely upon a thick grey fog: a blanket, a cat, a rolling grey actor upon the city.

As October settles in, so does a mist (of sorts), clouding the sunrises and sunsets, dipping the urban jungle in milky grey ink. The mist, like smoke off cigarettes, dissipates partway through the day after saying “Good Morning” and rolls away for the sun. No fog—not yet. Though I’m sure all we have to do is wait.

—India Roper-Moyes

London: a City of History, Size, and Chicken

October 5 — The first thing that struck me about London was just how big and old it is. While the Tube make most parts of London accessible, I always get a shock when my google maps shows me that a place I want to get to can be hours away by foot. Having subways is also a nice change from my time living in Portland and California. It was easy for me to map out the city of Portland in my head when I first arrived to Lewis and Clark. In contrast, I can’t make heads or tails of the layout of London. There are no hills, mountains, or rivers that distinguish downtown areas from the periphery. You can easily walk across the Thames and still find yourself in a densely urban area.

Out of all the things I have seen in London, what strikes me the most is the old architecture. Structures like Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Parliament building are so massive and beautiful to me. With histories longer than the entirety of the United States, buildings such as Westminster can have pieces ranging from a thousand years. For example, the grave of Stephen Hawking was added in 2018, while the tomb of Edward the Confessor has been in the abbey since 1066.

Aside from the physical differences I’ve experienced in London, there many cultural differences that I am trying to grow accustomed to. For instance, Londoners love chicken. I don’t understand why, but the sheer amount of different chicken restaurants I see on a daily basis convinces me of it. British people also have different tastes than I am used to. In the states, I am used to only seeing a few people put potato chips (or crisps) in their sandwiches. Here, things like potato chip, turkey and cranberry sauce, and pickle and cheese sandwiches are widely accepted as delicious while PB&J’s are less commonly enjoyed. Additionally, after Halloween is a holiday called Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes Day), where people celebrate the failed attack of Guy Fawkes on Parliament in 1605. During this holiday, a straw man (representing Fawkes) is burned and there are fireworks displays. This seems to be the closest patriotic holiday that the United Kingdom has comparable to our 4th of July (but we sadly don’t burn a straw man). Aside from the two cultural differences I have discussed, there are the more obvious ones such as having different and names or pronunciations for certain things, different brands, and single dorm rooms.

I’m eager to spend more time in London and experience as much of the city as I can. Due to its size, there will be lots of parts that I won’t get to see, but I’m excited to enjoy my time here for all it’s worth. I’m excited to join the celebration of Bonfire Night, try the different chicken restaurants, and learn more about its extensive history through David’s class with my Lewis & Clark classmates.

—Noémie Cloutier

Click your Dr. Martens together three times and say “there’s no place like home”

October 3 — I have lived in a big city for my whole life. When I moved up north for college, one of my biggest issues was how slow it was. However, when I got to know Portland, I began to realize it was a lot more like home than I had expected.

The same thing is happening with me in London. Leading up to my departure I kept on being told how big of a city London was, and how it would be very different from living in the States. I didn’t completely buy this, as I was moving from one English speaking country to another, instead of going somewhere with a different language, customs, etc. Nevertheless, I began to believe that it would truly be different than my life at home.

Once again, I am beginning to believe this not to be completely true. With each day that passes I am becoming more aware of how similar my life in London is to my life growing up at home. When I have my window open I recognize the sounds of car horns, yelling, and construction. I do not have trouble navigating crowded streets filled with fast-moving people. The coffee tastes exactly the same.

However, I have noticed some differences in culture here. People don’t make eye contact with and smile at strangers quite like they do at home. A lot of times it is hard to walk past someone, as (I assume) neither of us know which side to pass on, creating an awkward dance-like interaction before you can carry on walking. I haven’t managed to find a good burrito, but have had surprisingly good Thai food. And when you eat it seems to be a much more leisurely activity than it does at home. I will see dozens of people sitting and enjoying their meals outside, especially since it has been pretty warm. Very rarely do I see people eating while walking, which is common in the States. I can’t think of anything even remotely close to pub culture for people under 21 in the States. Even though they do speak English here, you still have to learn a whole new set of common slang.

These could be seen as small things. I think when you are in a place so similar to where you grew up the differences between the two cities are magnified. I know that London is a lot bigger than home, both in area and population. Though I recognize my home in the city, the people I do daily dances with on the street or see drinking coffee and people watching are completely new. That is what I find the most exciting. I have only been here for a few weeks, but in the next months I look forward to getting to know the people who see London as their home. There are around seven million more people here than at home, and I can only begin to imagine the experiences that’ll come from them that I wouldn’t get anywhere else.

—Claire Tauber

Citizen of Now(here)

October 1 — Cities deeply fascinate me. I enjoy what they usually have to offer to the bright-eyed newcomer: architecture, museums, landmarks, food, glitzy shopping areas (which honestly, I only limit to window shopping), and so on. However, I sometimes find these types of experiences as superfluous. I deeply believe that limiting our interaction with a city to mere tourism does not do justice either to the city nor its communities; a place such as London cannot be understood through those experiences alone. So, I usually find myself at co-ops, community gardens, or the subway, either actively crowd-watching or finding my bearings. Whether this mindset comes out of a sense of respect for the places I visit, or a vain desire of feeling that I am more than a tourist, it allows me to observe the deeper dynamics and peculiar features of cities such as London.

However, this discovery process has been more complex than I thought it would be. The fact is that my presence, and that of the rest of our study abroad group, is so common and —I would dare say— integral to the city’s cosmopolitan nature. Not only are we here as international students learning about London’s unique culture and history, but we are actively a part of it. I point this out because, though virtually all overseas programs are done with that very purpose in mind, this process of immersion in London has been as seamless as can be. This doesn’t mean it’s been easy to adapt to academics or to figure out our place in a larger university, but it does mean that there are many others who share the same struggle. Moreover, as a Mexican student abroad, I greatly identify with the large group of other international students at Queen Mary (I’d lie if I didn’t say I feel like a fish in the water). This might mean I am less of an outsider (which usually makes it easier to observe from afar and gain insights), but it also means that this time around I will discover a place in quite a different way, and come up with very different questions and answers.

I have yet much to learn, but an insight I have gained about London is that from its very conception, it has possessed the “cosmopolitan” nature for which we know it today. From its Roman foundation in 50 AD, the city has gone through very different periods; its population has not only drastically changed in number, but also in terms of ethnicity and origin. From the Anglo-Saxons to the Windrush generation, and currently, immigration from the EU and beyond, I am looking forward to the lessons that such a deeply multicultural place has to offer. These teachings, I believe, are needed now more than ever in a time where “citizens of the world” are deemed to be “citizens of nowhere”… (Hello, Theresa May!)

—Emma Franco Ceceña