London - the Early Days

So I finally hopped over the pond. Indeed, a continent and a pond, to arrive in London from Los Angeles. Reality finally sets in that I've moved my life away from the place I spent all my adult years. But it's more complicated than that...in a sense, it feels like an out-of-body experience, as though I've left my life behind, considering that my friends, most of whom remain in the US, are collectively, one of the most important facets of my life.

It's been 10 days now since I moved, and so far, the changes are very distinct. People dress differently; people are less inclined to smile and nod a 'hello'; I'm still in a phase where I'm never quite sure from which direction oncoming traffic approaches; a female friend of Dela's pointedly refused to dance at the club because her boyfriend (who was with our party) was present (that one REALLY threw me for a loop). The thing that probably bothers me the most so far is people's reluctance to spend (sometimes even a little extra) money.... Don't get me wrong, saving, done incrementally, is a very good habit. But when it goes into overdrive, to the point where one sacrifices practical conveniences to save a pittance at every single opportunity, we enter the realm of the absurd.

All this change is both bad and good. Bad, because beneath the calm exterior I portray rests a warm, sensitive individual, and that sensitive individual is nostalgic for the past. But the cold, objective part of me knows that change is good for me. Eric Lange was spot-on when he said "there's no growth without pain." After all, a good part of why I opted to attend business school in London was to expose myself to more diverse ways of thinking and living than I'd become accustomed to, living in the U.S. over the last eight years.

The iconoclast in me loves it when people look at me quizzically and inquire, "Why would you move from the U.S. to the U.K.?" It's happened twice already. It tells that I'm going against the grain, taking risks, moving in a different direction from most people. It's not necessarily a more right or wrong direction. Just different. And it's in being different, avoiding the herd mentality on certain things that, I find, I most enjoy my essence.