Random Observations: Cultural Stereotypes, Rules of Etiquette, Buskers, and Primark!

I met my department today at King's College London- a whopping 21 total fellow Classicists.  Everyone seems very friendly.  I caught lunch with a few of them at the campus bar before heading to the Library tour.  With so few students in our department, the classes should be small, cozy, and personal.

Our tutors were every bit the awkward, absentminded, tweed-wearing, British Classics professor stereotype. :)  They proceeded to give us a few bits and pieces of information about classes and expectations, liberally spaced with ums and foot-shuffling as if caught off guard to find us all there, seemed directionless without the head of the department (who was running late), told us what he would have/should have possibly said, then sent us on our way.

I adore my tutor.  He's an older man (late 40s, 50's) with a perfect blend of pithy, self-deprecating humor and genuine warmth and personal regard; fatherly and charmingly informal.  I signed up for classes with him on Friday.  When he left, he told me that if I had any questions or "sudden brilliant flashes of inspiration" that I should come see him, but otherwise he would see me "anon".  I'm taking Intermediate Ancient Greek on Mondays and Thursdays, Pompeii and Herculaneum on Tuesdays, a required seminar on research methods for dissertation on Wednesday and Propaganda and Ideology in Rome at University College London on Friday.  I'm also seeing about auditing (participating in the class, but not for a grade) The Ancient Novel.

I've heard some unexpectedly good and very eclectic music on the Tube.  So far, several singers/guitarists (one who was being filmed by a television station as I walked by), a reggae musician, a Scottish bagpiper in full kilt (No, Casey, I didn't ask him what he had on underneath), a man playing drums made of overturned empty plastic crates, and a drummer playing a long hollowed out tree limb kind of like a didgeridoo, but not.  It produced a very strange sound, but not bad.

I've picked up on several unspoken rules since I've moved here.  Never, ever, look directly at anyone on the Tube.  Ever.  The whole London Underground is crammed with people studiously looking at the floor, ceiling, advertisements, and their shoes rather than each other.  And under no circumstances whatsoever should you make eye contact!  This rule is meticulously followed.  Also, if someone steps on your shoe, blocks your path, runs into you, or commits some other social faux-pas, both parties must apologize profusely.  It's only polite.  Lastly, one should never verbally chastise someone who fails to practice courteous behavior.  If someone should cut in line, speak loudly and obnoxiously in public, or decline to offer a seat to an elderly or pregnant passenger, it is customary to look disappointed, clear your throat, or (at the very most) tut disapprovingly.  As a fellow non-confrontational introvert, I think I'll fit in rather well here.

Primark is my new favorite and least favorite store in London.  It sells clothes, shoes, bedding, accessories etc. at ridiculously low prices (yay!) and is a perpetually moving sea of humanity (boo!), bumping and jostling each other and battling for bits of mirror while trying on jeans/shirts/shoes/undergarmets over their clothes and dumping discarded items all over the floor, displays and each other.  The check-out line is often as long and winding as a line for a ride at Disney World.  The whole store is unmissable, and quite a spectacle!  It simultaneously makes me want to laugh and tear my hair out.  You would have to see it to believe it.  I also have lots of new winter-appropriate clothes, which won't all fit in my microscopic closet.

Cheesy chips (fries) with garlic mayo are a little piece of heaven in a plastic portable container.  And yes, Chris, I did have a Guinness for you at a pub across the street.  It was fantastic!