A Conversation with a Jamaican Man

By Lucas Soetaert

I had been in London for about two hours, and almost all of my London experience had been contained in the magnificent London-Heathrow baggage claim. A portion of the entire London Review, the group flight fliers, stood near the side of the terminal, as some searched the conveyor belt for their highly anticipated checked bags.

A few of us, including myself, had no baggage to claim so we were standing to the side out of the way of the constant flow of people who had successfully found their luggage. After a long while of standing around in boredom, I was thrust into an interaction that I would never forget.

An airport worker came walking by, and we made eye-contact for a split second. He walks up to me and he starts a dialogue that takes me completely aback. He starts talking to me, in his Jamaican accent, about a brochure’s worth of semi-religious life advice. I was caught off guard by this unanticipated conversation with a stranger, but I tried to be civil and receptive to whatever he had to say to me. The first point that he began with was the importance of family. He told me a story about his father disowning him for becoming a Rastaman, and now years later his father became one as well. He told me about how he immigrated to England around 30 years ago and now he has a daughter who is leaving home to go to college in America.

He then started talking about our ancestors, and he told me that I should worship my family above everything else. Specifically, he said my family should be my “god”. I was just nodding my head and letting him talk, but at one point in the conversation I politely said that I appreciate what he was saying, but I am a Christian.

He then went on to explain away the existence of Jesus, because 2,000 years ago the “J” letter did not exist. I didn’t care to start an argument about the evolution of language with this guy who I barely knew, so I just nodded my head and said I understood what he’s saying.

He then tells me my favorite topic he’s discussed yet; his idea of “understanding” vs. “overstanding”. He told me that it is not enough to understand, I must overstand what he was saying. I thought he might be messing with me, but he seemed serious about overstanding. I tried to keep a straight face throughout our conversation, but he almost broke me on this one.

Clearly, he left me with a lot to think about. This interaction had an impact on me, not because of what he was saying, but rather why. Why did he think I required this advice? It was my birthday that day, so maybe he felt my newly 19-year-old self required guidance for my week in London? I’ll never know. This interaction did stick with me throughout the course of the trip.

Biking in London

By Lucas Soetaert

On Thursday, March 16th, Aarthi and I got up to experience riding bikes in Hyde Park, the largest park in central London. Biking in London is a little bit different to biking in our part of the United States.

First off, it is amazing how large Hyde Park is able to be, considering it is in the middle of a massive city. The various governments must have fought to keep green space in the city over the centuries, which is an impressive example of city planning that American towns can learn from.

Parks in American towns are typically small, dusty flat squares with playground equipment. Hyde Park embraced natural beauty by having an abundance of open air, whether that be within

As we rode along, I noticed that Hyde Park also focused on order to a degree I don’t see often in the United States. There were designated paths for pedestrians and bikers, with additional medians down the middle of bike lanes along with painted arrows to remind people to keep to the left.

Speaking of order, I was also surprised by how often dog walkers would take their dogs off leash. This was a big park with no fences, so I expected dogs to escape their owners, but it seems that even British dogs are more disciplined than American dogs.

Was our bike ride all that exciting? Not really, but it did give me a chance to partake in something a local Londoner might do in their spare time. I did not expect an industrial center like London to retain elements of the natural world, but it did, and it delivered a welcomed variation in city life.