Indian and Ilford

I leave for my first venture to the actual city of London tomorrow. For those that don't realize how large London actually is, I'll try to relate it to Atlanta. I currently reside in Ilford, which is northeast of the actual down town area. I'm in the Decatur, GA of London, if that makes sense.

Before I got here, I expected (of course that gets you in trouble when you expect things) this area to be much like the pictures you see on the Sartorialist or people who belong on the Vogue runway. Although there is a part of London that is fashion based (mainly Soho across from where I'll be attending school) it's very small. There's also the biggest part of London: the history.

For those who don't know, the United Kingdom ruled a major part of India and the Middle East for quite sometime. And when I say ruled, I mean (According to David, local Londoner) "We beat the crap out of them." Because of this massive kingdom, Middle Easterners, Sri Lankis - all of them migrated to London. Years later, after a few generations passed, all of London has been infiltrated with these people. (I hope infiltrated does not communicate negative connotation.) So that when you see a Muslim couple walking down the street, they speak perfect accented English that it's a bit surprising.

In Ilford, you'll find a huge majority of Indians, so much so that I can't walk around the corner, go into a restaurant, walk to a coffee shop, into a mall without being completely surrounded. There are about five different churches all along High Road that consist of many different religions, Muslim, Sri Lankin, Jewish, etc. Very different than the South!

Today we ventured to a nearby Indian cuisine inside a very ancient ex-pub. I was excited at the thought of eating at an exotic place. Garlic, sugar and other spices along with a faint, musty smell similar to moth balls. I like to be open minded and was very grateful for the free meal of Indian cuisine, but the food tasted just like the smell. I was quite taken back with a small feeling of nausea - and I am in love with Indian food back homw! Debating on whether I should eat the food or just order french fries, all I could tell myself - when in Rome. After consumption - I felt like I ate a spiced Indian man.

Another fact about Ilford is the high level of elderly people that exist. I'm just dying to be with someone younger, not even my age - heck I'd would a 10 year old just to be around someone younger! London's downtown is filled with a younger generation, but just outside I've found quite a bit of old people. In fact, the very house I'm staying at dates back to the 1930s. There are two window panes that done a type of cloudy glass used for the windows in London during World War I and II. When I told the couple that they could sell those panes and make alot of money, they answered, "Yea, but those windows are part of our house!" Oh to be a young person in a foreign land.

The other day I went to church with the couple I'm staying with. It was a Church of England, much like Episcopalian, created from Henry the VIII when he split from the Catholic church because the pope refused to remarry Henry to a more 'fertile' wife. The church was over a 100 years old. When I said how beautiful it was, the answer I got back was "Yea, but this is more of a modern church." Woah! It was rather modern inside, but I enjoyed the fresh baked bread and the opera and broadway music performance. Again, another treat from my host.

Needless to say, though I was expecting to be thrown into the hussle and bussle of the young, hip, fashionable and intellectual London my mind had created, I found a very different one here so far. Though the intellect still resides that, a slow-moving, very foreign Ilford that serves weak "Americano" coffee's proves that there's a bit of London I had not known.

Until the next time....