The Universal "Woo"

The drums and cymbals clash over the hum of thousands of voices and hundreds of languages mixing in the square in front of Buckingham Palace. "God Save the Queen" swells from the Corps of Drums that walk through the gates of Buckingham Palace for the pomp and circumstance of Changing the Guard.

When each song finished from the band, I noticed one similar thing among the nations represented outside those gates: "Woo" translated cross-culturally as an expression of appreciation and enjoyment.

Amazingly, despite the fact that I couldn't understand a word anyone within five yards was saying (besides my own group), "woo" somehow meant the same thing. I thought of American concerts that I had been to, talent shows, and any gathering of people for an event and the subsequent calls of appreciation that we all made once that event was over.

This was, weirdly, the same.

As I sit in an International Hall dorm room in the middle of Lansdowne Terrace in London, England, I am reminded from my adventures yesterday that the cultures brought together in this city are not so different from my own.