from providence to london (and beyond): Four Years

02 October 2011

Four Years

One of the moments I remember from about four years ago when I had only been living in London a few months was being in a pub during the Rugby World Cup finals. It was South Africa and England, and it was mayhem. I went because I wanted to experience the culture of this place. At the time, I was only going to be here for a year. My beloved was getting her masters and then we were going to move back. So I thought I had better take a look at this event. It seemed like a big deal at the time. In the four years since I have learned that the culture of London is its own thing. There were more South Africans in the pub that night than English. That's what London is like; it may be smack in the middle of England, but it belongs to the world. London is of course born of English culture but the flavour of London is something all its own. So much that has happened since then. One year became five; a masters became a PhD; an incomprehensible culture became almost familiar.

I also remember having a conversation with someone on Matheson Road around that same time. I only had a few conversations with a man who lived a few doors down, usually it was when he was washing his car or some other such chore in front of his flat. I can’t remember which one of said that London was a crowded yet lonely city. I asked him about the Famous 3 Kings, where I watched the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and he said he didn’t go to that pub. When I asked why he said that we went to another pub that his mates like.

London has also been heavily influenced by the Commonwealth and former colonies, territories, dominions, etc. I am not saying that all Americans see history in the way that I did, but I only saw the British Empire in terms of my nation’s freedom. The empire had only two dimensions: the American colonies and the London government. I had this vague notion of a larger empire, but the image in my head only had in it: the American Founding Fathers, the Minutemen, the British Monarchy/Parliament, and the Redcoats. But being here, it is impossible to discount the vastness and diversity of the former empire and its influence on its capital. As an American, the BBC news seems so unbiased in its coverage. As an expat living in London the BBC looks just as biased to British interests as CNN or NBC is to American ones. Conversely, the vastness of the former empire brings the rest of the world into regular view here in a way that never happens in the US. The Rugby World Cup is just one of many examples of something that would likely only have a national focus if it weren't for the former empire.