Mind the Gap

So I had my second lesson today and it went well, but I was a little surprised by the language barrier. I know this is kind of stupid, but when she throws out words like quaver and semi-quaver first thing in the morning, I'm really slow to process the American equivalent. Whatever. Also, she kept telling me that I needed more pressure to get a note to speak clearly without the subtone. I was really confused because, you know, pressure is not usually a word one hears in lessons. Finally, after her telling me to use more pressure 3 times in a row, I realized she meant air support- she was right, it did help.

Apparently, I don't look like a tourist to other tourists here. I was walking out of the Royal College of Music, and some Spanish tourists stopped me to ask for directions. They didn't speak much English at all, and I speak no Spanish whatsoever. However, they were just looking for the science museum- one of the few tourist destinations that I can easily navigate myself to- so I was able to give them directions use a map and some hand signals.

You can also tell the tourists by how they cross streets here. The walk/don't walk lights here run a bit funny because they will tell you that you can't cross the street if you want to walk parallel with the cars that are moving through the intersection. In most cases you can, because the cars running perpendicular to you are at a red light so you only have to watch out for cars turning. Tourists will wait for the light to turn green no matter what. Locals will not. I have seen (presumably) locals wander out into the street and stand on the white line in the middle of an insanely busy 4 lane road at rush hour like it is no big deal. I haven't gotten quite that brave, but I don't necessarily wait for the light. This morning, when I got off the bus, after I had gone through a couple of intersections, I noticed that I had a small group of tourists following me through the intersection.

Tour of Parliament this afternoon!

Cheers!