Loving London

Well, third time really is the charm. Today was a fantastic day despite the little rest and sleepwalking. As a group, we started with a historical tour of Bloomsbury. My favorite part was the Bloomsbury group's homes and the area surrounding it. We saw Virgina Woolf's flat, Christina Rossiti's flat and where T.S. Eliot worked for Faber and Faber.

While the morning started out pretty calm the afternoon was really busy! I walked to the London Eye to meet my Spanish friend, Pedro, and his family. Pedro was my “intercambio” (exchange) partner while I was Spain and we still speak once a week. An “intercambio” is someone with whom you practice the language you're learning with someone who is a native and viceversa. So we speak part of the time in English and part of the time in Spanish. It was really great to see his wife and kids again. Mimi, his wife, is so very nice and sweet and his kids are awesome. Both his sons can already speak English; the eldest is pretty much bilingual. Sometimes when I'm speaking to Pedro, Pedro jr (the son, even though they don't usually use suffixes like that) comes in and we talk as well. It's like I've adopted a family. I won't be putting pictures up, however, because the boys are both still very young and I don't feel right about putting pictures of them up.

We stopped at Harrods, which is like a art museum where the art is clothes and shoes, but ultimately ended at the London and Tower Bridges. I loved the Tower Bridge, which is the famous one close to where Sir Walter Scott was executed. Last time I was in London, the bridge was under construction and we were there at dusk so the view wasn't nearly as wonderful. It was a really lovely afternoon.

It's hard to end an night in London without a pint and during this search I've noticed a few things that are important to note if you want food and/or a pint in the evening. The big thing is start early, both eating and drinking. Tonight Kaitlin, Elana, Alesha and I tried to get food around 7:30 at a pub and the kitchen was already closed. Last night we wanted to find a pub later in the evening and we discovered that everything was closed by 11 pm. It's very different from the US where drinking early is generally frowned upon so it will be a bit an adjustment. Regardless, walking around and looking for pubs and restaurants in the evening is a great way to learn about a city at a different time day. London doesn't look the same at night as it does during the day. Even the phone boxes seem to take on a new personality.