"Well, we have salsa music. That's almost like country. It comes from a country. The country of Spain."

Wow. It's been awhile since I posted here, and I can tell you why. I've been feeling guilty about posting when I should be working on my poli sci paper, but have I accomplished anything on that paper? No. Nor has my blog been updated. So tonight I'm writing on my blog first.
Today's quote happened last night in Leicester Square (pronounce "Lester"). Dave, David, Kaite and I were having an adventure, and we were running through all of the big squares and circuses (Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Oxford Circus, Covent Garden Square . . . okay, not square, but I wanted to balance things) and in Leicester Square this girl whose name we later learned was Lizzy came up to us to try to sell us discount tickets to a club. Dave Heywood played along, but he told her he wanted a club that played country music. And that was her response.
Okay. Let's see what I've missed since I last posted.
I didn't really do anything last Thursday except listen to a lecture by a local politician (who was awesome - Julian Bell of the Labour party) so let's go on to Friday.
Friday morning we went on a tour of the Houses of Parliament, which was fascinating. We had a pretty good tour guide, and she took us to all of the good places. My favorite was when we talked about how the MPs cast their votes by walking through the No door or the Aye door. Beautiful.

The cross-beam roof at Parliament - the only room where we could take pictures.

Standing on the steps with Erin, Mallory, Cami, and Annie

After our tour I walked up Whitehall with Cami, Mallory, Erin and Annie, took them to Chockers and ate at an American Italian restaurant (yeah, I don't know) and then went home to do homework. (I think I took a nap instead though. Hmm.)
After dinner that night I went to the Royal Albert Hall, because we happen to be here during the BBC Proms, a two month music festival of amazingness. We went to see Beethoven's 4th piano concerto and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic. The music was great, but the Albert Hall was FABULOUS.

With Jacki at the Royal Albert Hall

Stephen in front of the organ

Saturday morning we went to Greenwich to see the MERIDIAN OF TIME. Greenwich was a cool little place and very near London. We kicked through the Greenwich Market for a bit (where I had the most amazing cheesecake brownie). From there we walked up to the Royal Observatory and stood in both hemispheres at once. There's not a lot to the place, but it was cool, and after a bit we started seeing the air show over the Thames, so we sat on the hill at the observatory and watched some barrel rolls.

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When we got home, I was going to hit a play, but it didn't work out, so instead I attached myself to a group going to Hard Rock Cafe. I've never been to any Hard Rock, but the London one is especially cool because it was the original, compliments of Eric Clapton. I was in music nerd heaven. We were sitting under a few shirts that belonged to various Beatles, Bob Dylan's guitar, Roger Waters's guitar, a shirt and guitar from someone in Queen, and within view of Eric Clapton's, Pete Townsend's, and Jimi Hendrix's guitar. I had Bruschetta and a milkshake because I really couldn't bring myself to pay $18 for a hamburger, but it was delightful.
We decided to walk home through Hyde Park, and we found the most amazing tree, which we climbed.







Sunday I taught a lesson about how we're thankful for trees, plants, and flowers.
On Monday, Mallory and I went to the British Library and made a misguided attempt to go to Primark. After dinner, Erin and Mallory and I went to the Globe again, this time to see Timon of Athens.
It was awesome. It was a production directed by the director who did Titus Andronicus last time I was here. When we walked in, there was a net that went over the top, and there were people scattered around the stage, groaning occasionally. About five minutes before the beginning of the play, several people in harnesses came out dressed as vultures, and they bounced around hissing at us until the play was too actually start, at which point a few dropped down on the crowd. They continued with stunts like this throughout, as well as several runs and pushes through the crowd that were delightful.
Tuesday was also relatively uneventful, with the exception of the lovely run through the city that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
Today was our trip to Canterbury and Dover, but since I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, I'll wait to post about them.