Submitted by Ella Vanderzyl on the 2017 winter session program in London, England sponsored by the Department of History…
As our small class is studying abroad in London, it seems almost all of my peers are also somewhere in Europe studying abroad. While scrolling through Facebook the other day, I stopped to read an article a friend wrote about her experience while traveling in London. I was surprised to read that she found the locals to be unfriendly. I hadn’t once thought the people of London were less friendly than people back home.
What I have found, is that there is much less fake chipper-ness and hospitality one would experience when entering a TGI Fridays in the United States. This is a welcome change to me, because it seems the forced friendliness is replaced with genuine interest or willingness to help or often just indifference which is so okay. I don’t need a barista to treat me like I’m her best friend.
This reminded me of a recent conversation I had with someone who moved to London from the United States. He told me he left 6 years ago because he felt like there was such a significant lack of human connection. “I would have a really good conversation with someone, and feel really good about it, and then realize it was the first interaction I’d had in about a week that made me feel connected to a real person. Things shouldn’t be that way.” I personally don’t find this to be as big of a problem, but I definitely understand where the guy was coming from. At home, it is rare to actually talk with the person I’m ordering my food from, whereas here, it seems to happen more often. Not too big of a problem. Just a small difference that I’ve found interesting.