The great thing about saving London for my last trip this semester is that they speak English. By now I am so ready to be able to talk to and understand people again that I might have gone crazy if I went somewhere and had to use hand motions to communicate. Additionally, London was already decorated for Christmas upon our arrival so it was that much more of an indication that I'll be home soon enough.

We arrived in pouring rain on Friday night and headed to Leicester Square for some beer and authentic Fish and Chips- which, by the way, is how James convinced me to go to London in the first place. I know England has a terrible reputation for food, but I think if you just stick to the Fish and Chips you could get along fine there.

The weather reports gave us the go-ahead to do outdoor sightseeing on Saturday, so we went all over the city and took pictures of all things famous. We visited the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge (the most normal-looking bridge I've ever seen), Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Tate Modern, The London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral (which I really regret not paying the £9 to go into, it looked beautiful and I now hear the view from the top is incredible). We walked through the National Gallery and checked out some famous paintings by Botticelli, Monet, Manet and Van Gogh- unfortunately by this time in the semester both of us are too over-museum'd to spend much time appreciating famous art anymore, so it was a shorter visit than it should have been.

Saturday night we decided to capitalize on the relative home-like environment of Britain and had dinner at T.G.I. Friday's (English menu! Large portions! Free refills! Sam Adams!) before we went to see Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre. I am really glad James talked me into going to see that because it was an excellent production and I enjoyed it a lot. The set was perfect, the acting was great, the music was entertaining and it was all-around a fun thing to do in London.

Sunday it rained again... all day. We started off the day with the intention of seeing the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham palace, but evidently their guard duties are weather permitting and their changing ceremonies are every other day this time of year, so they were neither there nor changing ceremoniously. We saw two grey-clad guards in little booths, but that was the extent of our experience at Buckingham Palace.

From there we went up to the British Library via King's Cross Station (and naturally visited Platform 9 3/4). We were there too early and so we sat across the street drinking tea for about an hour while I dried out my socks and shoes. The British Library Gallery actually had some really cool things in it- a section of original hand-written Beatles lyrics, some of Leonardo da Vinci's original notebooks, some original Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll's original draft of Alice in Wonderland, the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible- all kinds of stuff. After the library, we finished off London by going through the British Museum, walking along the seasonally decorated shopping streets and checking out Kensington Gardens.

All in all, London is pretty nice. I was grateful for how it temporarily felt a little bit like America. I'm kind of glad I'm done traveling for now. I've done a lot, but I think I need some time at home to be able to appreciate other places anymore. 2 weeks to go!