New Girl In Town

By londonist_amanda Last edited 207 months ago
New Girl In Town
newgirl.jpg

In our new Sunday blog spot, Amanda Moyer, fresh from the States gives her perspective on life in a strange city. Our city. Go easy on her - she's new to our strange ways.

1. Spit on!

What is with all the spitting over here? I say 'over here' because I am from the states. I just spent a week North of London in Hitchin with my boyfriend. He and I ventured out to the city one day and to my surprise I discovered a lot of people spitting! We were merrily walking along the streets of London; don’t ask me what street. When my boyfriend leads I don’t pay attention to any of the details like if we're heading north, south bla, bla, bla. Why should I? Believe me, he is concentrating for both of us. I navigate on instinct of course. Anyway, merrily walking we were, when we heard a car screeching ahead of us at an intersection. Next we saw a biker (guy) get off of his bike, hands waving upward, yell, “WHAT, WHAT? You gonna hit me are ya?” And then my favorite part, he rumbles flem from the deep depths of his throat, leans back and then slowly forward for execution and “Toooowwaa” he spits on the windshield of the car! In my country we curse and use the middle finger or actually nowadays we shoot you. I thought this was much more creative.

Then a few hours later we find ourselves moseying (this is slower than merrily because now we are tired of walking) and a well dressed older man is walking towards me, I smile, which also seems to be a London no-no, and he tilts his head down and, “twaaa” a less aggressive but still disgusting loogie - do you guys say loogie? - right there in front of me. I noticed a few other spitting episodes throughout the rest of the week. But nothing topped the biker. So what is it with the spitting? I know the Italians use spitting as a sign of disgust or disgrace. I mostly use this gesture when my hair is stuck in my mouth or I just ate some British food. Which will bring me to my next blog. Your food. “Twaa”…..(Amanda spits ).

Till then.

Last Updated 10 December 2006