Ah, London

A newspaper rustles. Hip-hop music leaks from my neighbour's headphones. The tube rushes on so fast it clogs my ears.
Ah, London.
An Italian couple sit next to me (and I actually understand them!) Two Spanish girls sit opposite me, and there is an Indian family a couple seats down. A girl even stands in front of me with her laptop in her hands, still working after a long day.
Ah, London.
It is impossible to be a foreigner here. Impossible not to blend in to the crowd, not to fit right in amongst the mass of individuality. An oxymoron, I know.
Ah, London.
I feel at home in London, I always have. Though I never actually lived there I have always felt a sense of welcoming acceptance and familiarity from the moment I step off the plane. It feels like home to me.
Ah, London.
After traveling to so many new places, experiencing so many new things and meeting so many new people it's nice to go somewhere I know. The familiarity of London, the memories and feelings that it evokes, the melody of the British accent and the english language and the promise of familiar faces is just as exciting to me as discovering a completely new country. I long to see people I know and miss, to walk through a city I recognize, to make new memories where I already have some. For as much as I love to experience new things nothing and no one can replaces the ones I already know and love.
So I spent twenty minutes on my first day wandering around the same block and a half looking for a bus stop. So I had to stop and ask for directions at least six times. So I was completely on my own. I did it all with a smile on my face. There's something about being lost in a place that still looks familiar, something about the comfort of knowing that I can speak the language so I can always get help if I really need it, and something about being completely independent about it all that is exhilarating. I woke up to the company of my kind host, a friend I have had for only three months (though it feels like I must have known her for longer). I met up with my best friends from the past (who are still some of my best friends today) who I haven't seen in over three years. And I saw my godmother who I have known since I was about three years old.
I love London.