After being asked directions several times by people in London, and I myself having no idea where I was, it is obvious that there are a lot of visitors and tourists in London. This, in conjunction with the crazy statistics we learned about the number of visitors in London on any given day and season. There is obviously a huge diversity that is unique to London. I live in D.C. and we have a lot of visitors -- still not as much and not as much diversity, and if there is, it is separated. Aside from visitors in London, its citizens are also very diverse. I've run into so many different people here form different corners of the Earth. The national diversity here is colossal and I think that such diversity is awesome.

However, what surprises me the most is the lack of tension given so many differences. Everyone does their own thing. I have not felt any cultural or racial tension. It seems as though there is an acceptance there that is absent in the states.

When discussing racial tension, inequality, etc., in the states, or specifically Bucknell, many make the argument that the minority is looking for this tension and that it is a figment of their imagination. Well, I can honestly say that if it was something I was looking for I haven't found it here. Before I went to Bucknell, I had been brought up in predominately African and then African-American communities. I never really cared about the color of my skin because at that stage it didn't matter to me. I had been set apart by people in my community because I was Nigerian but not because of my skin color.

Bucknell changed all that. I have never experienced or felt what I felt when I went to Bucknell. I, all of sudden, noticed my skin color and it became a topic, issue, etc. As time passed at Bucknell, I am of course a lot more comfortable having made lots of friends and getting to know people on campus. That, however, did not rid the familiarly occasional awkward conversations and situation regarding my skin color and comments made toward or about me out of ignorance.

The point of all this is that I've found that in London I'm back to that original stage where my skin color means nothing. I have had the opportunity to get to know a lot of people in London and it's been weird I don't feel any different other than my being American. This may also be the result of location and the people I've been blessed to come in contact with, but it is a welcome change.

Britain, a nation that boasted of an empire on which the sun never set, creates an atmosphere where even what is known to be British in nature isn't British. There are so many cultures infused into Britain as a result of the imperial conquests of the past and it is cool to get a piece of every part of the world here through people, material, food, and culture.