Saturday, April 19, 2008

English night out

Today was the first time that I was out with a group of people where I was the only foreigner, this might seem strange considering I’ve been living in England for more than a year and a half, yet it is true. I had a close experience when I visited my friend Richard in Liverpool, although in that visit I went with Carlos who is Mexican, still we all went out with Richard’s mates, the biggest difference is this time I was alone, and there where more girls than boys.
English tend to be very polity people and although they appear friendly it is very hard to get in their circles, or at least I think so (the fact that I don't drink alcohol might have an influence on this). That been said, I do have some English friends and thus I get these experiences of a real English night out.
It is quite fascinating the English society and its social behavior, I’ve observed it for quite some time, but today I was in the first row and with access to all the information. To be fair it is not as straightforward as I initially thought, again societies tend to be more complex than they originally appear.
Honestly I am not passing the conclusions on to here, but I will say I was surprised.
On a more personal note it was just what the doctor order and it also confronted me with the sort of situation handling that I need to take into all aspects that have been troubling me for a while. Shadow of the day (Linkin Park) comes to mind but I am not putting it in here, honestly it might be interpret in the wrong way, so never mind this bit...
Anyways this is it for today, a socially positive day, which is always a good note.

1 comment:

i said...

hey, I have the same opinion as well back then, about English people. I found them very polite - if not very sweet. I really like the way the always called me nicknames like love, darling, etc in shops, on the bus, in the library. wherever. (I hate it here in singapore coz the bus drivers aren't as sweet as the english & people don't seem to say thank you whenever they get off the bus while I have that habit even before I went to england *sigh*).
errr... where was I?
oh yeah those English attitude. Although sometimes those attitude didn't apply on the road when they are driving their cars. My other european friends used to complaint and said that English drivers are rude to pedestrians :p but well... I came from Jakarta where I can just cross a wide road with 100 cars running towards me without any intention to give way to pedestrians unless I made them to. you know what I usually do? I put (1)one step into the road, (2) find the right moment (since I can drive) I can predict whether the driver would have enough time to step on the break until the minute it stops, and then(3) make an eye contact with the driver of the nearest car that can possibly hit me and then just glide gracefully across the road. LOL. you see...it's all about the right moment! (and of course practice) ;)
ehehe. anyways, my point is.. I agree with you that they are polite and it is indeed very hard to get into their circles. Most of them are simply exclusive. You can't really get into their circle. But once they get to know you better, they will be very very sweet. oh, I miss england
(and I can hear you say in my head as you always used to say ..."then come here") lol.

ps. so what do you mean by the doctor's order?