Two days ago I took off on a study abroad trip to London, England. This trip was the first time i've ever been away from my family in the entire 19 years of my existence. With the assortment of communication gadgets I had packed with me, in addition to setting my family up on facebook, and skype, i thought i wouldn't have any trouble being in contact with my folks if, on the off chance, I happened to get homesick.
After fifteen hours of air travel and five underground tubes to our dorms in London, the homesickness I thought I would be immune to suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. I found myself desperate for ways to communicate back home. I figured that with London being such a major city much like New York City, that there would be internet cafes with free wifi at every corner I could pop into to skype home. Not exactly. I soon discovered that free wifi is not exactly easy to find where we are staying. Even harder to find is a place to charge a laptop. Plugs in England are completely different than the ones in the USA. I had to go to a convenience store and buy a plug adapter for around £4 (roughly $7.50). I thought this was the answer to my power problems, until I tried to plug my laptop in to charge and found I could not get power from the socket. Apparently, in addition to a plug adapter, I also need a voltage converter since American appliances and electronics eat a lot more power than European ones.
As if that's not enough, the communication problems continued on like a Fawlty Towers episode. My iPhone, the one gadget in the world I had faith in and thought was completely without fault and could do anything anywhere in the world failed me when I crossed the pond. Luckily, London has plenty of places where you can find pay-as-you-go-phones for really cheap. The price to call home from a UK phone compared to an American phone are huge, and if there's something I love, it's a good deal.
So finally, I was able to call back home and talk to my parents. A welcome comfort. Unfortunately, there was so much to tell that I used up all my minutes within one day; however, there are places all around the city where the go-phones can be "topped-off" for as little or as much as one is willing to spend.
After getting more minutes, my mom has been able to call me from home with a London tour guide she picked up from Barnes and Noble and tell me the names and addresses of all sorts of sights to see and great restaurants to eat. And for the record she's picked some awesome places.
Even though I'm learning that using communication gadgets is much different in the UK than in the USA, I was mostly surprised at how difficult verbal communication is here. In a pub, the bartender just about rolled on the floor laughing when i said y'all; yet at another pub, when the owner heard my American accent, he got all snarky and downright rude. Even though people here speak English same as we do in the States, their attitudes towards American are very abrupt. Their terminology for certain things is completely different than what I'm accustomed to, yet they get extremely impatient when someone doesn't understand quickly enough. Plus with all the different dialects I hear on the street, the sounds of words get even more jumbled making communication even more complicated. But I've quickly learned some things in the short time I've been here. For instance, in the UK, Sprite is called lemonade, an elevator is called a lift, a person's last name is called his sir name, to-go food is called take away, and instead of saying 'thank you', the British like to say Cheers.
And for the record, there aren't signs for the loo, instead there are signs for the toilet. Now is it just me or is it not quite the same to say i'm popping into the toilet. Fail.
All of these communication blunders are a reminder that I'm "not in Kansas anymore." I'm in a new and unfamiliar place surrounded by people from different cultures and walks of life all around the world, and with that comes the challenge of learning to communicate in an international hub. I think I'm starting to get the hang of things though. ;)
-Cheers, y'all
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