First post

Manassee and I actually were on the same flight from O'Hare to Heathrow! What a coincidence. Her program is in London, however, so I won't see her much now.

The first day that I was in London, I nearly got run over by traffic because I kept on looking on the wrong side of the road before crossing (British drive on the left side). Now, I've also noticed that people often pass each other on the street by stepping on the left side of the sidewalk, and the escalators are often on situated so that you go up and down the left one. Today in lecture, I got a stack of papers stapled in the upper right-hand corner, which is wild. So I asked my British friend about his country's weirdness. For those of you interested:

Sibo: Hey Lewis, I always wondered, is there some reason why British drive on the left side of the road?
Lewis: Hm...I think there once was a famous person or royalty who was one of the first to drive a car. And he was left-handed. So then people just started following him.
Sibo: Oh! What about when you had horse carriages and whatnot?
Lewis: I don't think they had enough people on the road before cars to have to make rules about driving.
Sibo: Ak, I buy that. So what about people walking on the left side of the sidewalk or escalator?
Lewis: I suppose it's just a subconcious thing now--adults walk on the left side because they drive on the left side. And children walk with their parents, so they get used to the left side. Funny how that can work.
Sibo: Oh wow! Do you think this also applies to this staple?
Lewis: What do you mean?
Sibo: This staple is on the wrong side--I mean, it's stapled here [points] in the US.
Lewis: Oh, that's just because the printer is messed up in the Physical Chemistry building. Yeah we usually staple there, too.