I spent half the day at my internship this morning. Working in a British corporation is a bit different from what I was used to back at home. On the stateside, I had my own little cubicle with the kind of partial privacy you get when you have those dividers between pee stalls. Over here, the dividers are down, so everybody can peek at your junk.
[Cubicles - above, Open Floor Plan - below]
One perk of working there is the free caffeine. Not only is it free, it's sustainable coffee and tea. That's right, they pay those tea pickers more money to have children so those kids can pick enough tea for another generation. How's that for a perpetually sustainable workforce? Oh yea, and when you're done with your tea/coffee, you just leave the mug on the counter. They've got people to wash them and put them in the cupboard for you to use the next morning.
Riding home on the bus is always a different experience for me. While the novelty of most things in London have worn off, watching how the plebians interact on the double decker buses is still amusing. First off, the ethnic minorities are the dominant tenants of the lovely London bus service. Easter Europeans, Middle Easterners, Asians, and Africans all forced together on a cramped 10m by 4m bus. One would hope that such a congregation of ethnic diversity would resemble something harmonious like a model UN; however, it actually resembled something more like China and Tibet.
I saw a middle-aged African male yelling at a hearing impaired middle eastern guy to give him that seat because he saw it first.
I've seen a homeless guy on the top level, standing in the front blind spot of the security camera, drinking beer and pissing in the corner seat.
Another time, I saw two cockney boys pull the emergency door release to get out in the middle of a busy road. However, despite it all, I leave you with a nice bus experience I had the pleasure of recording last winter.
Such is the rich tapestry of London.
