England: Sahana Prasad (“We’re not in Madison anymore” moment)

Thinking back to my second day in London. At this point, my room consisted of my clothes in a suitcase, and my only meal at that point had been chicken nuggets I bought at a restaurant the day before. I had one fork and spoon with four packets of instant noodles. I couldn’t charge my phone unless it was through my computer because I didn’t have a UK charging head, and pots, pans, hand soap, or paper towels only existed in my imagination.

I knew I needed to get basic home appliances. I’m sitting on my bed trying to search up, for example, the UK equivalents of BestBuy, and nothing comes up.

When I was trying to find direction to Primark or TK Maxx, which is similar to a TJ Maxx,  I see “20 Minute Tube”. The Tube is London’s Subway/Metro System, and I hadn’t yet used it since arriving to London. In Madison, everything was at most a 15-minute walk away. If anything, I could BCycle and make it five minutes or take the bus.

That’s what I was used to. Coming to London where a 20-minute tube ride, which is approximately a 30-40 minute walk, is considered good was overwhelming to me. I was no longer surrounded by Targets or Walgreens at every corner. I had no idea what stores to go to get what I needed. Nothing I managed to look up was a walk away, and it almost brought me to tears.

I ended up texting a friend asking if she wanted to come with me; after all, two is better than one. She invited me to join her and her roommates, and we ended up going to Oxford Street, a huge shopping area in London. We spent hours there buying everything from hangers to shampoo.

Working through five seconds of discomfort to text my friend led to a memory forming on a street I get to see every week. Being surrounded by friends meant I wasn’t alone my second day in the city when taking the Tube still felt scary and uncertain. Putting myself out there had paid off. The rest of the week, I took the Tube with friends, so that when the first day came when I took it by myself, I didn’t get lost and was completely ok. I even felt accomplished.

Now, 20-40 minute Tube rides are normal. I speed through the traffic of people with AirPods in, music on, and follow the unspoken golden rule of standing on the right side of the escalator and walking on the left. I find the commute to be peaceful, especially if I take the bus. To think that only a few weeks ago, traveling on the Tube or taking 20-40 minutes to get places felt like the scariest and craziest  thing in the world. All it took was a couple trips for it to be a normal part of my life in London.