The Observer, November 10, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 10
An American Abroad: Scare in London elightens student
I dart across the road, petrified at what is happening. Strange men are running everywhere. My neighborhood is transformed as sirens screech, fireworks explode, and a mob chants. A policewoman chases a man across the street. The crowd cheers at his escape. I don't know what to do, and I am terrified.
I also do not know what is going on. Young Middle-Eastern and African men have engulfed Edgware Road here in Westminster, London. Their faces show a combination of excitement and anger. I no longer feel that I belong here. Carmen Zillas, a fellow student, felt the same way. "It was very clear to me that I was an outsider," she said.
I am indeed an outsider. The event that I am describing was a celebration of the end of Ramadan. Eid, I later learned, is usually a peaceful celebration, but this time it had gotten out of hand. It was around 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, and I had just come back from seeing Sir. Derek Jacobi in A Voyage Around my Father.
In order to get to my flat, my classmates and I had to go right through the mob. Some of the men tried to "pick up," or touch some of the girls that I go to school with. I looked for the closest male that I knew, and tried to grab his arm, so that I might be left alone.
We turned onto Brendan Street. Our flat was right in front of us, along with the flashing lights of a police van. I got into my apartment building as quickly as possible, slightly relieved that I had some protection.
I turned on the news in the hopes of finding out more information. No mention was made of the mini-riot outside. I was clueless as to how to deal with this. This never happened to me in America. You see things like this on the news, but you never think that it could happen to you. You ask yourself, "Is everything going to be all right?" The next morning, we all acted as though nothing had happened. My roommates had come back later, and were unharmed. We all still had no idea why it happened, or what to think about it.
Two weeks later, I interviewed Zillas. She is a fellow British-American Drama Academy student, who was hit by a two-by-four that was flying through the air during the incident. As we are both Americans, we had similar reactions to what had happened, "I just never experienced a large group of people involved in such violence – I didn't have any understanding of what it was all about," Zillas said.
I thought of all of the students at Case who might be thinking of going abroad. I asked her if she thought our experience should be a warning. "It shouldn't necessarily deter people from studying abroad. I'm definitely not advocating that you go and put yourself in violent situations, but it was a valuable cultural observation," Zillas said.
It was a valuable experience, but I am still afraid even though the worst thing that happened to me was a good scare. Now I avoid going out by myself at night. I have learned that chaos can break out at anytime, anywhere.
McCarthy is a Junior Theater/History major who is currently studying at the British-American Drama Academy in London, England.
