Reverse Culture Shock

I didn’t think that too much time had elapsed since I left London. When I visit, I feel like I never left. But then sometimes, I see something that reminds me that eight long months have passed since I moved back to the US.

I remember Jude Law’s hairline being much more robust than it is now.

And when I was walking through the West End, on my way to pick up theatre tickets, I realized that I just don’t live there anymore. I was looking for Drury Lane, but ended up on St. Martin’s Lane. I had to walk into the wrong theatre to ask for directions to the right one.

The very helpful box office staff at the Noël Coward Theatre, current home to Calendar Girls, offered me a map, which I turned down. I thought: “I lived in London for eight years! I need no map.”

And yet, I managed to get completely lost on my way to the New London Theatre. It was an entertaining walk through Covent Garden, yet frustrating, because I could remember a time, which doesn’t seem too long ago — back when Jude Law’s hairline stretched down to his forehead — that I knew my way there without a map.