My Stiff Upper Lip

A Californian Keeps Calm and Carries On During the London Riots

When I moved to London to attend university, my parents were afraid I’d get caught in an explosion. In my first weeks in London, I saw a polished blonde foam at the mouth, overdosing in an alleyway in Notting Hill; a homeless man have a seizure in front of a gathering crowd on the Strand, and blood splatter at my local bus stop. Not long after, my friends and I were chased by a pack of younger kids in West Drayton, calling us would-be literary academics “Marilyn Manson-loving hippies.” This …