Before I left for London, many people warned me that Londoners would hate me for being American. Fellow students, old classmates, neighbors, even people I ran into at the grocery store urged me to try and hide the fact that I am American, and to prepare for people to randomly yell at me, or steer me the wrong way if I asked for directions.
Perhaps it's because of the recent change in political administration, but after three weeks here I have not found, and do not expect to find, any of this to be true. I find Londoners to be extremely polite and helpful. So Monday when I was waiting in line at the post office and a man started shouting about how much he hates Americans, I was shocked. For a minute I thought maybe everything people had said to me was true. As he yelled, "One American in Britain is more than enough!" and "Britain is a great country. We don't need stupid Americans!"; I tried to hide the address on the envelope I was sending.
But then I saw that everyone else in the building, all Brits, were disgusted with this man. He wasn't a summation of British hate for Americans, he was just a crazy guy. Every country has some, and this man is one of theirs. An employee asked him to leave and refused to help him. The man yelled the N word and began cursing as he was ushered out the door. I don't know what other Americans experienced while they were abroad, but I hope they didn't base their ideas that British people are rude off an incident like that. As far as I'm concerned, people here are just as warm, friendly, and polite as at home.
