Random thoughts and observations

So, this is just a collection of my initial random thoughts and observations after my first full week in London, and after having started work...

Running through the city
Running is a great way to explore a city! I've done a number of runs on my own throughout town over the past week, and it's been a great way to get somewhat lost, find my way around, and also see a few of the sights. I ran down along the Thames to Canary Wharf, through Shad Thames, through Hyde Park, and back and forth across all kinds of bridges. It felt great!

Serpies!
Along those lines, I also did my first run with the Serpentine running club here on Sunday. After four people from Hoboken all recommended that I join this group, I figured it was time to give it a try. We went out in Richmond Park and did two laps around the perimeter, for a rather brisk-paced long run for the week. I've now broken down, signed up for the club, and plan to get out with them once or twice in the next week. It's as much a way to meet new people outside of work as it is a way to get in mileage while training for a race later this fall.

Liveable
London is a remarkably livable city. I still don't believe there are 7.5M people in greater London... it is much more walkable, open, approachable, and less overwhelming than New York City. I think a good portion of this has to do with the lack of the "urban canyon" feeling that you can get in Manhattan at times. I keep hearing that the weather here can be miserable, but so far, I'm liking what I'm experiencing!

The Underground
Despite the city being so livable, there is a very different approach to operation of the Underground. First of all, I have to say, it's been remarkably useful. I've been able to get anywhere I've wanted to, in a mostly reasonable time. However, there are numerous service outages. Last Wednesday, when I was going all over the city searching for a flat, I heard announcements at three different times stating that portions of three different lines were closed due to signal problems. That doesn't seem to be a particularly rare occurrence. Also, it seems that there are major closures each weekend. Once again, I'm not trying to complain, as the system is redundant enough that there always seems to be another line or a bus route that goes toward my destination. It's just a different mindset, where it's not safe to assume everything is open. Everyone takes it in stride here, and it works, but there would be riots in the streets of NYC if the MTA had outages like this.

Drivers
I've mostly gotten used to just looking both ways multiple times before crossing a street. It seems to be safer than trying to remember which way traffic is supposed to approach, and then also determining whether or not it's a one-way road. The only time the left-side driving came as a bit of a shock to me was after the run on Sunday, when one of the other runners offered to drive two of us back to the tube station. He unlocked the car and walked around to the trunk ("boot," if you will) to drop a bag in there. Without particularly thinking about it, I went around to the right side of the car, opened the door, and stood there while talking to him. He looked at me with a weird look, I was confused, and then realized "um, oops, there's a steering wheel on this side."