Ugly people need accessories and London is slightly Overrated

As I sat in the Bluewater Mall in the U.K, apparently the biggest mall in the country, I looked in awe at all of the teenagers and pre-teens who were dressed so impecably! I turned and asked my mom, "WOW! These people dress so well! Better than NYC! Why?" My mom replied, "Because they're ugly. Ugly people always have to try harder. We don't need to try this hard in the U.S."

Aha. Whatever the case may be, its hard to deny that pre-teens in London are way more fashionable than a grown, Jimy Choo shoe wearing, middle-aged woman in New York City, and leagues ahead of anyone in California. As I browsed through the H&M in NYC, the difference between London and the states became even more apparent. Since I had only been back in the states for a few days, I still had an eye for London fashion. With such an eye, the clothes, at what I used to think was one of the more fashionable stores in the city, looked drab and plain. There is no doubt that the U.K. H&M has clothes that were way more stylized, fit much better, and made you feel like a rockstar when you put them on. In the NYC store, I mostly saw women trying on sweaters and sweatshirts. Not much style in that.. but such is life.

The U.K. fashion sense is one of very few things that I enjoyed about London, making it "slightly" overrated, rather than wholely overated. Truthfully I kept forgeting that I was even in another country when I was in London. I kept thinking I was in NYC, even with traffic going in the wrong (haha) direction.

But here is why I love the United States of America, above and beyond the U.K., there is a sense in the states that you can be whatever you want to be, whereas in the U.K. there is a stifling atmosphere around a person. Everyone seems so conformist in the U.K., despite their fashonista ways. I can't truly pinpoint the feeling but everything just seemed so blah. Men hardly glared at the one or two beautiful women in the entire city. I mean if everyone is so blah, I would think that the men would oggle the ones that were above and beyond.. but no. Men kept to themselves, and so did the women; making me wonder how they ever got together in the first place. Also, the druggies apparently only come out at night. In NYC it is common to see some cracked out individual claiming to talking to the President of the United States, or the King Rat of the NY sewers. But in all my time in London, I don't think I saw one outspoken crazy person.

One might ask oneself, why in the hell are outspoken crack heads a good thing? Well they're not, but I realize how distinctly American it is to truly feel that you can express yourself. Some of the crazy people talking on the streets of American cities aren't clinically crazy, or high on drugs. They just have something to say and they say it. When I first moved to California, I realized the lack of cat calling from the men, made sense for the suburbs, but there was not much of it in the cities as well. Again, why am I measuring anything good by cat calling? Well I think cat calling is a good pulse on the "realness" or expressiveness of a culture. Walk outside in a trashbag in NYC and someone will comment. You might get a whistle, or a, "girl its too cold to be wearing a trashbag." Whatever the hell it is, you'll get SOMETHING. People in NY are all too happy to just EXPRESS themselves. And for California.. its nice, but its rare to meet a "real" person who expresses their "real" ideas.

The other thing I hated about London was that I realized it was way more racist than America. In the U.S. not every racist wears it on their forehead, but if I see a person with a white sheet over his head and a hand gun, I at least know to stay away. But in London, there is just this subtle air of racism. People will hate you because you are not European but they won't say it, or act it, but you can tell. That's almost the worst kind of racism there is. Having a face of racism is much better. You can fight a face, you can fight something that people admit. But in the U.K. ha! If no one admits it, how are you to know who, or what to fight?

All in all I had a great time in the U.K.; ot because the U.K. is great but because I got to see family that I had never seen before and had only talked to over the phone. I was even there when my uncle's wife gave birth to their first child, a beautiful baby girl. Babies are soooo cuuuute! :)

But yeah, I'll go back to London to see family, and maybe for the shopping. It didn't feel so great everytime I spent my dollars, knowing that I was paying twice the price for something. Though, that does make me more sensible about my shopping. How much do I REALLY need this?

If I learned nothing else, I surely learned how much I appreciate being a citizen of the United States. Every country has their problems, but I'd much rather work through the problems here, than the ones over there.