Class Assignmen: Technology - UK and USA

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As most of us know, believe it or not, my first and foremost purpose of being in London is to study and take classes worth college credit back home at Westminster College. I'm enrolled in a PR and Advertising class, a Math Perspectives class, and a "cluster course" (where two seemingly unrelated subjects are taught in accordance to one another) - in this case - Computer Science and Internet Psychology. In fact, I keep my blog not only for my personal memories and for you, my faithful readers lol. I keep my blog also as a class requirement. Now with requirements come specific assignments. Class, today you will learn about some technological differences between the US and UK (mainly because that is my assignment).

Obviously there are multitudes of cultural differences when it comes to comparing British and American society. One huge contributor toward such differences is technology. No, when I say "technology", I don't mean that they drive flying cars and spaceships as travel, sorry. By technology I mean more how the differences lie in the use of technology in everyday life.

Take transportation for example. In America, we all wake up and most likely drive ourselves to work each day (often grabbing a cup of coffee at Sheetz or McDonalds) in our own car. This typical morning scenario is very different in British life. For one, the majority of London's population don't drive cars. In fact, I don't think the a good number of British even own cars (imagine 7 million cars driving through streets that were made to accomadate horse drawn carts in medieval times). Although there is constant traffic in the streets of London, only a fraction of the population are actually driving. There is one significant reason to the lack of car travel.

Public Transportation.

London has one the most impressive public transportation system I have ever seen. It's cheaper, faster (most of the time), and surprisingly consistant. The main form of getting around is riding on the Underground or "the Tube" as some call it. This is simply done by checking in and out of the station of your choice with the Oyster Card (this card a necessity to get around London), and then hopping on the train operating on the line towards your destination. With well over 200 stations, the people can essentially get from Heathrow Airport (west of London) to Cockfosters (east of London) on the Piccadilly Line. Or how about Covent Garden to Portabella Road? The Victoria Station is only a 10 minute walk from Buckingham Palace.
Once off the tube, you can catch one of the several buses going through one of the many bus stops along the streets. I can not think of a single place I've been that hasn't been more than a 15 minute walk to a bus stop. The convenient thing is the bus system runs 24/7 so you never need to fear for a lack of transportation.

There are many other technological differences such as the light switch - this one's for you Dr. Lenox! :) - or the plug outlets in my room. Now if anyone were to ask me what the biggest difference between the US and UK, I would have to say the use of public transportation.

I do have a lot more to blog about (Jack the Ripper tour, pub life etc) but I will hold off until I return from Wales this weekend.
Until next time!