Who knew that the best nachos can be found in London?!

Cinco de Mayo Celebration!

Dont these nachos look scrumptious?

Sarah and Mary

Margaritas by the pitcherful!(Me and Tam)

End of the night on our stoop.

Feet haters beware.

This is what I look like when my feet hurt. Yesterday I wore the wrong shoes. Damn you, cute payless shoes! I have bloody blisters on my heels, little toes, and bottoms of my feet.

"Goooooood morning, fish lovers"

The London Aquarium:






I paid £11 for this statistic.

This is display of random items that were found in the Thames river, including: black and white TV, TV remote control, cow bone, used syringe, credit cards, and an 1875 tobacco pipe.



this is the birthday girl, Allison (with her wonderful hubby).


And this is the view from the front of the aquarium.

This is footage from the stingray petting pool! Th highlight of our trip to the aquarium.

I want to get a tattoo in London

Before I left for London I knew I wanted to get a tattoo while I was here. Those of you who will give me positive advise about such matters, please do.

One of the first days in class my professor, Kate McPherson, read a poem to us by John Donne. I've never studied any of the old British Lit, I've always been too afraid. But when Kate read "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" I couldn't help but cry. It was the most beautiful poems I'd ever heard. So I thought it would make an appropriate London tattoo. The stanza I want reads:

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

So what do you think? It will have to be pretty big and I cant make up my mind on where to put it. The following line is equally good:

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

but I think I like the first one more.

Someone, please give me your advise.

Tower of London

I'm so inappropriate! Henry thought he particularly had something worth protecting.

Oh my God, a Castle

Well, I dont technically know if a palace counts as a castle, but Henry the VIII did live here. This was my face while approaching Hampton Court Palace today. It was spectacular. In the first picture Allison, me, and Mary pose at the top of the entrance. Allison is probably the most beautiful person I've ever met, as you'll notice.

Then we went for a stroll through the Palace Gardens. You know how royal, or rich gardens are depicted in Hollywood films and cartoon fairy tales, all perfect and dreamy and stuff? Well it's true.

-Note the new, leather, bomber jacket. Yes, Mom, it fits, it just doesn't look like it in this picture-




This morning was one of the best mornings of my life. I cried because the scenery offered me pure, beautiful joy. Upon entering these gardens, it was as if my previously crushed childhood fantasies of fairytale life were revived and my dream had come true. Never mind the poor of the country, now I understand the Monarchy's motivation in maintaining such extravagant grounds. Selfish pleasure!



Oh, and this is my forehead in the gardens.

The tour of the castle was good, but actually paled in comparison to the experience we had in the gardens. The following is a picture taken in the guard's room. This design is made out of swords and really old pistols. Artillery designs of this nature are very common in the royal scenes around here. It's about 10-12 feet tall. And the whole room is decorated this way.

Here are some more.



I leave you with a video so you may too experience the serenity of the gardens.



I'll post more tomorrow on last night's drunken karaoke adventure, and what it's like to be lost, drunk, and having the best time of your life in London.

More stuff from yesterday

This is me and me new friends outside Westminster Abby.


Trying to take a picture of myself with Big Ben in the background.


these protesters were outside the houses of parliament protesting the iraq war. i ran across the road and had a nice conversation with them. i talked to them about my efforts back home, it was great. they told me i looked like an american and i said 'thats because i am an american' then they said 'no like the one's with feathers in there hair and hunt animals with spears.' then i said 'ooooh.' they asked who my descendent's were and i said the scots. they were surprised, then i said the word 'native american' and they went on a tangent about how their not 'natives' their THE americans. i love radicals and free speech!

lastly, when it's not raining, this is what the sky looks like during sunset in london. i took this picture right outside our flat in south kensington.