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I had to go to the American embassy in London yesterday to get my visa renewed. I decided to pass the hour or so I was in the queue by trying to guess who in the queue was British based on their physical appearance, how they dress, their hair, the facial expressions and gestures they make, etc. The majority of people in the queue were in their early to mid 20s, presumably looking to study in the US.
The white people were surprisingly hard to distinguish from each other – turns out middle-class Europeans outside the Mediterranean all look and dress pretty similarly. There was one guy who I was 100% convinced was English based on his haircut and facial expressions, but on closer look at the passport he was clutching in his hand was actually Polish. TBF, it’s possible that his family moved to the UK in 2004 and he has no memory of Poland at all.
There were also two non-white people that kind of looked Middle Eastern, except, on closer look at their passports, one of them turned out to be from Portugal and the other from Kosovo. At that point they magically transformed into white people (well, at least the Portuguese guy did, the Kosovan guy was kind of in a racial grey area since Kosovo’s a poor country whose immigrants are stereotyped negatively.). Strange how that happens.
The British Indians were really easy to distinguish from the people straight from India. The people from India, who had a much higher chance of their visas getting rejected than the Europeans did, all dressed like used car salesmen and looked visibly nervous. The British Indians all dressed like they’d just got out of bed, and looked bored. Accidentally make eye contact with a person from India, and they give you a little smile. Accidentally make eye contact with a British Indian, and they turn their eyes away immediately.
Daily sky adventure continues. [Yesterday](https://i.imgur.com/3FkP4gA.jpg) was very rainy, but [today](https://i.imgur.com/NN2J9RM.jpg) the clouds are dissipating. It is very windy, though, and while trying to capture the changing clouds I think I overworked the last one a bit. Oh well.
Today I decided to read German news a bit. First article was about how Bavaria is trying to ban faxes because it is a “high tech state” and it should “digitalize all the administration”. I mean, it’s almost 2024, so maybe? But poor fax! It’s not like faxes aren’t digital 🥲 Second news article was actually about a London pub. Apparently the bartender made a mistake and served sodium hydroxide with tequila shots instead of salt. Although I have never seen sodium hydroxide in a form that vaguely resembles salt (it’s usually in the form of small spheres), I guess if it’s dark and you aren’t paying attention (and you haven’t labelled your shit properly) it is possible. That does sound like a nightmare. Luckily it didn’t get in contact with anyone’s eyes.
I hate this neighbor that thinks it’s a good idea to have and use speakers just to play music in the apartment.