boyfriend in london, part I

Cameron came to visit me in London! He got in last night at midnight after eleven hours of traveling via bus, taxi and plane. Today we woke up and made some breakfast, and then walked down the street to the Natural History Museum - all national museums in the UK are free admission. It was great - the building was huge and impressive, and air conditioned (it was 85 degrees F here today and humid). The museum itself was interesting: there were tons of animals that had been stuffed and preserved (something you would not see in the US these days). The Sexual Nature exhibit was informative and uncomfortable and hilarious all at once. It's true what they say - Americans are obsessed with violence and the English are obsessed with sex. Our society is much more sexually repressed but we will show gory bloody movies, while the English don't dwell on violence very much at all but sex pops up everywhere - from museum exhibits to pornographic spreadsheets in red phonebooths.

Anyway! After the museum I showed Cam around Kensington and we stopped in a pub for a couple of pints and some fish and chips, which turned out to be the best I've had since I've been here. It is so nice to be able to show my best friend around, introduce him to new friends and explore the city with him. More blog posts to follow as our weekend continues!

Playing the tourist outside the Natural History Museum.

Oh the hilarity of British humour. This was illustrating the sun's
UV rays on the Earth...

Oh you know - just a tiger cleaning up after killing a deer.
That's the sort of thing British school children come to the
museum to see. 

An awesome exhibit about the Earth's forces and solar system.

Kid with toy dino vs. Lion

Elephants for Katy!

Yep. Apparently birth is relaxing.  

Giant fetus in circular dark room that feels like a womb.
The fetus looked like an old man. The English present their
information in interesting ways...

Darwin presiding over the great hall in the museum.

Monkeys in the archways

And monkeys on the archway!

Yes I made him take a picture in front of the Union Jack.

Cam's first pint in a pub at Gloucester Arms - with fish and
chips and "mushy peas" (literally mashed green peas -
not appetizing)

a late-summer's eve

The weather has thrown me for a loop. It was 27 degrees today - high 70s in Fahrenheit - and of course I failed to pack shorts and summer dresses when I was packing for an autumn in London. Of course it poured two days ago, but the rain doesn't make it chilly out, just muggy.
So to take advantage of the great weather (that probably won't last long) the girls and I decided to take our assigned reading to the park and read in the grass. I got about 10 pages read. Between the adorable bubble-chasing babies, the Disney music on Lauryn's laptop (not normal Disney music - she literally has the soundtrack they play on the rides at Disneyworld.... the Haunted Mansion soundtrack is some creepy stuff....) and the cute puppies it was more of a break from classes and assignments.

I'm finding it hard to be motivated to do my assignments. Who would have guessed living in a new, bustling, beautiful, history-packed, world city would be a distraction?

Christina and Kelly

Mary and Christina

Lauryn (with her musical laptop) and Elena (with her
characteristic newspaper)

These kids caught bubbles, danced, held hands,
hugged, toppled into the grass and were all
around adorable. When I got uncomfortable taking
so many pictures of them, Lauryn took over.

The bubble-catchers liked to give each other hugs (not surprisingly
 the little girl liked to follow the little boy around and give him BIG hugs --
so much so they fell down a couple of times)

After a while the kids took over the bubble maker.

The sun set, it got chilly, and we went home.

the london paperchase

The London Paperchase: a set route through central London to orient the new Londoner with the city and British culture. Also a cool way to win amazing prizes!!!

Our contest photos:

Kelsey and Lauryn on Tower Bridge overlooking the Thames and
Gabriel's Wharf. Behind us is the building that will become the
tallest building in Europe when completed - even taller
than the Eiffel Tower!

Peter Sweets - the 'traditional english sweets'
candy man - in Covent Gardens. We bought Jazzies
from him - candy coated chocolate amazingness.

The paperchase at night: the Spanish tapas bar La Tasca, with our
waiter Eduardo from Madrid (and while we didn't get his number,
he did ask for ours!) after a pitcher of sangria and half a dozen
tapas!
Emily, Lauryn, Eduardo, Mary, Christina, Kelsey

London by Day: Route 9: 1-5

1. The old boat near Gabriel's Wharf is the Golden Hinde, Sir Francis Drake's ship that circled the world from 1577-1580. The ship is preserved thanks to an order from Queen Elizabeth I.

2. .. and we trek into Covent Garden (where we ate some AMAZING paella) ...

3. At Jubilee Market: according to the bouncer, Roadhouse plays rock and pop contemporary music on Saturday nights - on the 24th the band "The Gods of Rock" played, and apparently they do rock covers.

By the Punch and Judy: decorative supports in the balcony?? We looked for them and were a bit confused as we were on the balcony enjoying the atmosphere... after the fact we thought maybe the supports were holding the balcony up? No bother - we enjoyed ourselves there.

Cool shoes on Neal Street? Well that would be at Doc Marten's of course! Or for those wary of so much leather, The Natural Shoe Store. A tasty sandwich? The Crown & Anchor pub!

4. At Neal's Yard: a 10 minute Walk In back rub is £11 and a 20 minute backrub is £21. Also to be found in Neal's Yard is "Rice - The Little Shop of Funkiness," "Hair by Fairy," and "The Taste Space."

The Seven Dials are currently under construction and a date was nowhere to be found - but we read a plaque explaining how to read the dials!

Belgo on Earlham has a bridge as entry - from the bridge one can see circle lights on the floor, german murals on the walls and industrial looking metal and piping decoration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And here are some extra photos to chronicle our trek around the city:

Our new friends Jonathan and Danish who work
on the Tower Bridge

Paella in Covent Garden (we conversed -
in Spanish!- with a Spanish couple from
Seville while sharing a table with
them at dinner)!

Doc Martens store on Neal Street. Punk.

A very real ship that circled the globe - and is still
seaworthy at that!

Jonathan and the Tower Bridge.

** You know you want to use our photos Michael Oliver!! (and you're welcome to them) **

bath and avebury, part II

After we left Bath, we made our way to Avebury - a tiny town (literally one street with half a dozen houses, a church, a pub, a mini mini-market and a tourist shop) situated in the center of an ancient henge - a circle of megalithic stones.

Associated with pagan rituals, Christians up until the time of Shakespeare feared the stones were evil, and dug big ditches next to the stones to topple them in, burying them underground. One man was actually crushed under a fallen stone and his skeleton was recovered when the stones were later unearthed. If they didn't believe the stones were evil before, they definitely did after that! In the 1930s the stones were excavated and situated as they were originally upright and in their circle.

The whole area is green, with rolling hills and valleys filled with white fluffy sheep and multi-colored cows. Our tour guide told us that Wilkshire county has the most thatched roofs in the country!

The English countryside, Wilkshire, from the inside of our mega bus. 

This chalk image was made over 200 years ago, and even then it is a
replication of even older pictures across the countryside.

One half of the Avebury henge - the village of Avebury is built in the center
of the ring of large megaliths. 

The other half of the stone circle. The date of the henge is
older than Stonehenge! And unlike Stonehenge you can walk
right up to the Avebury henge.

The local pub - quite a few characters in Avebury, with capes and such. I guess
the nature of the stones attract interesting people.

St. James Church, built in the late 1400s and still used
today!

Flower wreath over the entrance to St. James Church.

Inside St. James - I thought the home knit bible covers in the pews were adorable! 

I liked the colors of the tile on the roof

The Manor at Avebury - the last man who owned it had family fortune from a
marmelade business "Keller marmelade."

The Manor's gardens -- I thought I had stumbled
upon the Secret Garden!

(notice the ladybug)