Walking to Russel Square tube station, wondering, could a pigeon be my pet? 

By Brittaney Mann

Before beginning serious thoughts and reflection in prose, here are those same concepts expressed in a poem:

I love a thing called sky rat

head bobbing, bouncy, buoyant-looking birds,

pigeons of Piccadilly Circus, I pick you

street scrap stealing, statute standers, you

lively little, likely unloved, you

silent tiptoe, road running, startled start-to-flight takers, you

plump gray plume preening, but of clouds doom seeming, you

rock dove, rock pigeon, you rock

of London brick roads, brick buildings, you

make a city, take a city, clean a city, decorate a city,

dirty a city, regardless, my body’s of joy from you

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London is a place for people with anxiety or people with anxiety like mine. 

The idea of crowds of people was nerve-wracking at first — I cannot handle being at Walmart during busy times — but something about these massive groups of people lacks the anxiety-inducing aura groups of people in America emit. 

At first, I thought that maybe because a lot of places here are outdoors, so perhaps that is why I feel better, but even at a busy outdoor mall in America, I still become on edge. And the indoor areas here that are extremely busy are also not overwhelming. 

There are two reasons I think that I do not feel anxiety, first, I am just so amazed by all the new sights that my brain no longer has room for my usual anxiety, or the structure and quick pace of Londoners are just what I needed in my life where I must have a lot of control to thrive. I lean toward the second one because these people do not like to wait around, and I love that so much. 

After riding the tube to Piccadilly Circus, our group used escalators to exit the tube station, and the etiquette here is to save the left side of the escalator for those who want to walk up rather than ride it — that is genius! In America, I just take my time riding up escalators, and never did it occur to me that I could walk up the moving stairs; I mean, I knew I could, and nothing is against the rules to do that, but I had never seen anyone do it before. That might be something I will continue to do in America because who wants to wait for a machine to take them somewhere when their legs move quicker. 

There was so much to see on the way to the Russell Square tube station and in Piccadilly Circus and Leister Square. The pigeons took most of my attention and words, so I will just use some of my favorite photos from the short excursion to exemplify other parts that caught my eye.

I will also include photos from when we split into small groups after the tube introduction; we had a lot of fun exploring China Town and then walking back to the hotel.