Pre-London Thoughts
For the first 19 years of my life if someone were to ask me the simple question of “What do you think of when you think of Great Britain?”, my answer would have been very simple and easy, the Royal Family.
I have always had such a fascination with the idea of actual Kings, Queens, Princesses, etc., as most women and girls in the United States do. This interest really stems from two main things. First, and foremost, growing up in the Disney era I was almost always watching a Disney princess movie. After watching shows like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast the idea of a “real life” princess is super intriguing to me. Secondly, just the fact that we have nothing like it here in the states. Yes, we have celebrities but as we’ve seen with Meghan Markle being a celebrity and being a royal are two very different things. We also have the President and the First lady, but they are never nearly as popular as the Royal family is in Britain, and really are two totally different things. I have this idea in my mind that the country swoons over them and believes that they can, basically, never do anything wrong. Condensing this information, the main perception I have about Britain before arriving is that the Royal family plays a large role in everyday life and that I will, very easily, be able to see the influence of the Monarchy in the U.K. Another smaller perception that I have, mostly coming from movies and tv shows, are that almost everyone smokes. I don’t actually know if this has any truth behind it or not, but for some reason I have always had it in my mind that almost every Londoner I am going to see is going to be walking around with a cigarette in their mouth. Moving on to smaller perceptions I have about the British way of life I think of the school uniforms. In almost every British movie I have ever seen the school girls are wearing red plaid skirts and the school boys are wearing slacks with a bow tie and a red or black sweater. Lastly, when I turn the tables and think about what I think British people think about Americans I get the perception that they think we are all dumb. It seems like to me that because so many Americans come and visit places like London and Edinburg that they get very annoyed with us because we don’t know their exact way of life immediately.
Overall, as I reflect on what I truly think it means to be British I imagine the “typical Brit”. When I think about him I kind of picture a guy, totally decked out in London gear, waving the flag and yelling towards the Royal family as they ride down the rode on their horse drawn buggies. Now, I know this is a little far-fetched and that it is, indeed, probably not wat happens it’s hard to form a different opinion when that’s all you’ve really seen in your life.
