I ate some nutty-corn-flake-esque cereal for breakfast. I brushed my teeth in our closet sized bathroom. I put my hair in pigtails, (though it's not quite long enough to do that). And I was on time to class! A good beginning, to be sure.
Then it was off to picadilly circus, to buy tickets to The 39 Steps. Only the man at the box office was rather ornery, and wouldn't give us tickets till an hour before the show. So, we meandered over to the National Gallery. Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Michael Angelo, Picasso... you name it, we saw it!
After that we walked out the front doors of the gallery into Trafalgar Square! We knew it was famous for something, but couldn't think what, so we had to look it up. At any rate, it was pretty. With gigantic fountains and statues and stairs... (If you wanted to know, it's a monument set up in the place where they defeated Napoleon... horray!)
There are these giant Lions on the big slab of rock in the middle, which everyone else seemed able to climb onto... unfortunately Rachel with her booted leg, and me with my vertical challenges... well... we weren't particularly successful. But we had fun trying!
After that adventure, we walked the streets surrounding Picadilly Circus. There were all sorts of shops, and eating venues, and side streets. We even found a sort of mall, where we looked at dresses. (Of course they were all entirely too short, and overpriced). But the salesman trying to get us to buy was really trying to give me a deal. At first he said he'd take it down ten percent, because I was pretty. (And the dress was already on sale)... Then, when I didn't go for it, he said he'd give me his commision and take it down TWENTY percent. "Come on! It's only 18 pound now!"... but I still wasn't going for it. He eventually got all the way down to 15 pound, on account of my good looks and his kindness, "for one day only".... unfortunately, the dress just wasn't that cute! And still too short. So I had to say no. Pity. I know. But an enjoyable experience, none the less!
This is one particularly exciting street I found in our walking endeavors, (it was literally a foot and a half wide), but they wouldn't let me explore it. Alas! Apparently side streets are not safe for young lasses. Bah!
And after a delicious dinner at Burger King... (yes, really)... I found an excellent coin purse to keep all these haphazard English coins in! It's made of old school leather and it's got the flag on the front and a burnt orange back, and it snaps shut! Seriously awesome. (They really are ridiculous here with their coinage... there's a 2 pound, 1 pound, 50 pence, 20 pence, 10 pence, 5 pence, and 2 pence coin, and they're all random sizes and shapes and colors).
Then it was off to the Criterion Theatre, (what sort of a name is that for a theatre anyway?), where we bought our tickets. We hopped around the corner for some gelato, where the man at the counter was awfully patient with us trying about every flavor they had and then choosing the ones we knew we'd end up choosing all along. What can I say? We're women. At any rate, it was delicious. And the show was excellent too!
After we laughed a lot and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly at this clever little hitchcock comedy, we caught the Picadilly Line back to South Kensington, switched to a Circle Line, took it two stops to High Street Kensington, and walked the rest of the way home.
And at the end of the day, I got to talk to my family for the first time since I've been here! They finally figured out skype! Hooray for technology.
A good ending, to a good day.
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