An Observation As An Up-And-Coming Londoner

Yesterday, my sister linked me to a recent post from one of my favorite blog/sites, Apartment Therapy. The article was a humorous, and completely accurate, explanation of surviving London, and as I was reading it I became inspired to write what I've noticed about Londoners and their way of surviving this over-populated city. 

So to start, let's talk about the tube (London Underground)... 

Anyone who has caught the tube would know, it's not a place to be social. I'm not saying its a dead, silent, anti-social experience, it's just very black and white; you step on, wait till your stop, and you step off- all whilst taking a vowel of patient (and sometimes quite calming) silence. It's almost as if there's law against interacting with anyone around you, ask any Londoner, do not under any circumstance try to be friendly; people will think your strange. Not once have I see two strangers getting to know each other, the only exchange of words you do hear is  'excuse me' 'you can sit here' 'take my seat' 'would you like to sit?' 'is this the train to _____?'(always going to be a tourist) and on the off chance, a tube-newbie might ask you which line to catch. Sad really, more than half the city of London use the tube everyday, yet its practically frowned upon to be the slightest bit friendly. 

Now this is how it has always been, and on a day-to-day basis I wouldn't expect anything more, but the the other day I had a different experience. I can't remember where I was going, but as the train sat in silence waiting for the doors to close, a man a few seats away from me all of a sudden jumped up and scurried off the train. It was hilarious, he had obviously realized it was his stop and ran off before it was too late.  The entire section of the tube laughed together, sympathising with him, as its something we would all dred happening to us personally. Tube humiliation at its finest haha.   

Although this isn't much of an amazing a story, some of you might not even find it remotely amusing, but it made my day so I thought it was worth a babbling on about.