A London New Year

I got to go down to London for a few days last week with my brother. It was great to be somewhere where I could speak Spanish again. I even met a few people while I was there who spoke English. London is the most multi-cultural city in Europe.

There are 300 hundred languages spoken in London and at least 37 distinct immigrant groups who are considered to represent a significant part of the city’s population. Some people don’t like that, but I love it! You don’t even have to walk more than a couple of city blocks to encounter all kinds of different cultures. You meet so many different people with different backgrounds, and of course there is no end to the variety of foods available throughout the city.My brother and I had a good time visiting museums, walking along the Thames and through the city, eating all kinds of exotic meals (including Pizza Hut three times!) and just enjoying being together. We spent the nights at Islington, a lovely London community that is best known for drugs, violence and crime. We stayed there, however, not for what the local culture had to offer but because my brother’s friend, Travis, lives there. I think Travis is a drug lord or something, but I’m not sure. He works with some organization called Youth With A Mission.

Then after my brother left on Tuesday, I stayed for a couple more nights and shifted to a “hotel” near Paddington station so I could have a couple days all by myself to just rest before coming back to work here in the Glasgow area. My “hotel” room was very interesting. It was about the size of a traditional prison cell with a plain concrete floor and one wee window covered with bars that looked out on a little enclosed “garden” which was about the size of the room and had a bush or something like it in the middle of it. I got one of the special rooms that they offered with its own bathroom, so I at least didn’t have to share facilities with the other inmates…um, I mean guests. All I had to do to get into my bathroom was close the bathroom door at the foot of the bed, squeeze between the bed and the door, duck down underneath the television which extended from the wall in the corner, open the door halfway (which is as far as it would go before hitting the bed) and then squeeze into the little room to do whatever I needed to do there.

It’s a good thing I didn’t have any emergencies that required me to rush to the bathroom in the middle of the night as rushing through that process would likely end in serious injuries. However, the place served its purpose as I mostly just needed somewhere to lay my head at night while I spent the days wandering about town. I had a good rest and am now back in my flat here in Kirkintilloch, Scotland. I started classes at the college again on Friday and preached twice on Sunday at the church, so I have now officially returned to work and am looking forward to a busy but exciting year.