Day 8 - Thinking ahead

I wonder if the British are not very good at thinking ahead. Take the road layout for example. It obviously wasn't designed to accomodate much future population expansion, not to mention the invention of cars. London doesn't even have any freeways, except the M25 which circles the outskirts - compare that to L.A. or San Jose, which have freeways and expressways everywhere. Though it's handy for a student like me (I don't mind that it's faster to get places by bike than by car), it must be very frustrating for people who live here -- unless they just don't know how easy we have it in the U.S.

And then there's the lack of air conditioning. At first it might seem like a good way to save money, considering that it's usually not needed. But what about when it is needed? Last night was a little too warm to sleep, so I kept the window wide open. Now my room is starting to collect bugs, and there's not much I can do about it. Maybe I could try a fan, but that doesn't actually change the temperature. I've heard that the standard UK heaters aren't very good, but I guess I'll find out in a couple months. In fact, I'm starting to look forward to the cold weather, which shouldn't be too far away.

Speaking of weather, I learned something today that surprised me a lot: the average annual rainfall in London is only 23 inches! Somehow I thought it was at least 40. London is known as a gloomy, rainy place. But places with only 23 inches (Woodward, for example) are considered "dry" for Oklahoma. It's not new to me -- the Cambrian Park area of San Jose (where I grew up) also gets about 23 inches/year. East Norman gets about 36, which might actually be somewhat equivilent to London's 23 because of the lower temperatures (and thus, less evaporation) in London. Okay, enough weather statistics.

Although it doesn't rain a lot here, it does rain OFTEN. It's similar to Seattle in that way. But in a Seattle, you almost ever need an umbrella downtown because the sidewalks are generally covered by large overhangs. Very few sidewalks in London (and Reading) are covered, so you risk getting soaked if you don't bring an umbrella.

posted by Matt @ 11:40 PM