I have to say, I think the most interesting thing about living here is how incredibly culturally mixed it is.

It's a real shock to the system to go from a predominantly white, middle class area to somewhere that is definitely quite the opposite.

There is quite a large Muslim population here, so it is not uncommon to see women in abayas or hijabs

As is seeing males in their traditional dress....the names of which I don't know, so don't ask me.

But at the same time, this is the old Jewish neighborhood, so lots of people wear yamakas too (there's even an old Jewish cemetary in the middle of my campus).

And they're all mixed in Hindus, Christians, and probably people of a billion other religions.

The weirdest thing to me is that no one stares. Everyone just seems to think it's a very normal thing.

That's the way it should be, I think.

If a woman wore an abaya in Kansas or Minnesota, or pretty much anywhere else in the USA, people would stare at her, judge her.

But that doesn't seem to be the case here...maybe it is, but I haven't seen that side of the neighborhood yet and honestly, I hope I don't.

Also, I rode the buses for the first time today (I sat on the top level of a double decker, which was strange). It was much easier than I thought it would be.

It's easy to ride the tube, but the buses seem so complicated....