Elizabeth Houde – An American Intern in London

The cars come from the wrong direction, but everyone really is quite friendly. I’m talking, of course, about London.

I arrived on 7 September, and it’s been wonderful so far. Well, wonderful after I slept and wasn’t wandering around the city in a sleep deprived haze. Although that first day everything was so new and exciting even that wasn’t so bad.

This is my first time in London. It’s also, more or less, my first time living in a city. I live in a pretty rural area – pretty both in the sense of beautiful and relatively – of Vermont, and even when I’m at my college, it’s more suburban than urban.

I rather like the city though. There’s always somewhere to go and something to see. This is one of the few places I’ve been where the public transportation is so good that nearly everyone uses it. I love the tube. Some of the ads are a highlight of my day. I take the bus to my internship here at Rooster PR and while it isn’t as fun as the underground, it gets me where I need to go and is easy to use and comes with free views!

The markets – I’ve been to three now I think – are lots of fun. They’re significantly bigger than the farmers’ markets we have back home and I’m also a fan of all the public parks.

I’m less of a fan of some of the spellings of things. Yesterday I tried to write ‘defense’, and Word tried to tell me I was wrong. Kerb is another one that I can’t get over. I don’t mind favourite until I spell it wrong and stare at it until I figure out I’m missing a ‘u’.

I heard someone use the phrase, “scare the pants off them” and took a moment to appreciate how that means something different to Americans who also use it…

The other thing I don’t like is how often I’ve almost gotten hit by cars and bicycles.

Other than that, it’s all been fun and great. I love London.

Elizabeth Houde