"There is in London all that Life Can Afford."

It's been a busy several days here in London.

Last Friday I went to watch Les Miserables with my friend Stacy, who interns with me at Hornsey. It was my first time seeing Les Mis, and it was as intense and beautiful as I'd hoped it would be. That show is a three-hour emotional freight train; it is exhausting to watch because it is so passionate. Jean Valjean is one of the greatest characters I have ever encountered. The show also reinforced my previous belief that Victor Hugo is the French Charles Dickens, and the novel is now on my summer reading list (which is already dangerously ambitious as it includes Ulysses). After the show we walked around Trafalgar Sq and Westminster and talked about how wonderful it was to be in London.

Last Saturday Dad and Sue were scheduled to arrive. My original plans were to go to Westminster Abbey and Shakespeare's Globe during the day and meet them for dinner. But when I woke up I had an e-mail from Dad explaining that he had been bumped from his flight because of over-booking; Sue would arrive on schedule. In his e-mail he sounded quite concerned about Sue landing in London alone and asked me to meet her at the airport at noon. Having landed in Heathrow alone myself, I knew it was an unpleasant experience and was more than happy to go out to Heathrow to meet her.

I think I caught her off guard, because of course originally the plan had not been for me to be at the airport. But she was grateful that I was there and I led her to their hotel in Piccadilly. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Piccadilly Circus was jammed with people; it was almost impossible to move along the sidewalk. Even I was a bit overwhelmed (I rarely go to Piccadilly anyway and when I do it's never at peak crowd time), and I it was quite jarring for Sue for her first proper sight of London to be a solid mob of tourists. Nonetheless we made it to the (very nice) hotel just fine, and after checking in we set off for a walk.

The ensuing walking tour made me quite proud. I had no idea that I knew London as well as I did. From Piccadilly we went through St. James' Park, where we stopped for a bit to enjoy the sunlight before walking to Buckingham Palace. We then set off towards Sloane Sq (to be entirely fair, I did not at first realize we were going towards Sloane Sq as we left the palace, but it only took me two or three blocks to figure it out). At Sloane Sq we caught the Tube for Westminster, where I led Sue out of the Houses of Parliament exit (my favorite Tube station by far, and probably my favorite place in London). Like everywhere else it was just loaded with tourists--I had not seen London this full of tourists yet, but I suppose the weather is warming up and the off season is slowly melting. We walked over Westminster Bridge to take in the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, then doubled back to pass Westminster Abbey. There was a dinner break in a pub near Westminster (quite a nice pub, too), and then we circled back around to walk up Whitehall St to Trafalgar Sq. I led her past the National Gallery into Leicester Sq, where we stopped for ice cream before winding our way back to Piccadilly via Chinatown. We made plans to meet at Heathrow tomorrow to see Dad off the plane.

After I dropped Sue off at her hotel, it was only about 8:00 and I didn't want to just go home (it was a Saturday night, after all). So I called Stacy, who said she was getting ready to go out and that I could come along, if I was interested. I took the Tube out to Kilburn Park, where she lives. I felt a bit out of place because she and her flatmates were all quite dressed up (ie, dresses) whereas I had not gone home to change and was therefore in jeans. But all I wanted was a pint, really, so I didn't care much. When we finally left, Stacy (and indeed most of the group) didn't actually know where we were going, but it turned out the club her flatmates were headed for was in Piccadilly. Now, I haven't been out a whole lot in London, but I do know that the ONLY people in Piccadilly on a Saturday night are tourists. I could not for the life of me figure out why they wanted to go there. Sure enough, the first club we went to (which was also one of a chain of clubs across London, another thing that irritated/amused me) was so full of people they had suspended the typical free cover. So we went into the next club we came across, which was literally so full of people you couldn't even walk to the bar. We left and went back up to Kilburn to go to the local place they always go to, and I couldn't figure out why we hadn't started there. It was close to their flat, busy but not completely packed, not a bloody tourist destination, and had some independent character. Nonetheless I had an entertaining evening; Stacy's flatmates are a good time.

The next day, Sunday, I went back to Heathrow to meet Dad. It was really great to see him; I missed having people around who know me. I gave Dad a much reduced walking tour than I had given Sue, because I figured during the week he and Sue would revisit together many of the landmarks. But I did take him to the Westminster Tube station and up Whitehall St. We then got some lunch stuff at an M&S Simply Food (Dad was inordinately excited about the grocery store) and took the Tube out to Regent's Park to eat our lunch stuffs and enjoy the sunshine. (The weather has been excellent for quite a while here; it's somewhat eerie, truth be told.) I really enjoyed my afternoon/evening with Dad and Sue and at the end of the day we made plans for dinner and the London Eye Wednesday night.

On Wednesday they met me after my class ended at Gloucester Rd, where I showed them the (admittedly unimpressive) CAPA centre. From there we went over to Westminster to ride the Eye. It was dark by the time we were actually on the Eye, and the city was gorgeous. I probably would not have gone on the Eye had Dad not come, but it was quite an amazing view. A bit creepy, though, considering I am vaguely scared of heights. Afterwards we went to Earl's Court Rd for dinner, where we found an excellent Indian restaurant.

Thursday Dad and Sue came out to Ealing. We had dinner at an Italian place on Haven Green near the Tube station, then made the 20 minute walk over to where I live so they could meet my host family. I was really glad they made the trip out to Ealing to see where I live, and I think that meeting the Martins went well. It was less awkward than it might have been, but then Mrs. Martin is such a talker that I don't imagine there's anyone she's awkward around. Dad and Sue approved of my neighborhood (which is a far cry from the crowded, sort of touristy and busy central London they had mostly been seeing) and of my host family. It's probably a good thing that there wasn't really time or the opportunity for them to see where I work, though--I don't imagine it would have been as assuring as Ealing. I bid them goodbye Thursday night, as their flight back to the US was Friday morning. They said they enjoyed their vacation in London, and I hope that they truly did. I really loved seeing them.

Friday night I stayed in and crashed by 10:00; it was my first night in in probably over a month. Saturday morning I went to St. Paul's Cathedral and was unpleasantly surprised by the pricey admission fee (8 and a half pounds with my ISIC card). I think it was definitely worth the eight pounds--it's tough to put a price on that kind of beauty. St. Paul's is one of the largest non-Gothic churches I've been in, so it was quite a different atmosphere than the rambling, ancient Gothic cathedrals I've grown to love. It was built mostly of marble so was full of light, and the ceilings were elaborately painted and lavishly decorated. It was also huge, on par with Sacre Coeur in Paris. Although you'd think that what with charging an average of ten pounds for admission they'd have raised enough money to put in a lift--the stairs up to the galleries were brutal. Well worth the climb, though. William Blake and Sir Phillip Sidney both have memorials in the crypts, and it was exciting for me to see them. Robert Hooke is also there. I was much more excited about those (relatively) small memorials than I was for the elaborate chambers dedicated to Wellington and Nelson, the great British heroes who rest in St. Paul's.

I left St. Paul's and went over to Shakespeare's Globe (which is just across the Millennium Bridge) to buy a ticket for Romeo and Juliet. On April 24th, my last night in London, I will be watching Romeo and Juliet inside Shakespeare's Globe!!! I then went sort of out of my way to Bank station so I had an excuse to take the most useless of the London Underground lines--the Waterloo & City, which only has 2 stops: Bank and Waterloo. At Waterloo I met up with Alan & Rachel, who had to attend a football match in Brentford for class and had gotten a hold of a spare ticket for me. It was a thirty minute train ride to the match. I had a good time; the match ended up being tied at 1-1 and it was fun to watch. Cold, though, and it was off-and-on raining and sleeting. We went over to Rachel's flat after the match and made lots of excellent stromboli for dinner, which we followed with adult ice cream sundaes (ie, ice cream mixed with Bailey's--it's as addictive as crack but much tastier). I had a really great evening eating their food and hanging out with them, but when I got home around midnight I really crashed.

Today the three of us met up to go to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. It is a uniquely London phenomenon, Speakers' Corner. Basically, the city has given all of its crazy its own designated place and time. On Sunday, in that corner of Hyde Park, anyone can get on a step ladder and talk about whatever they feel like. It is the best free entertainment. Honestly, I expected there to be more people speaking today because of the whole G20 ruckus, but there were only a few crazy guys on step ladders. All of them were some flavor of religious nut, except for one particularly crazy guy who spent a lot of time giving dating advice on how to chat up German women. I couldn't tell from a couple of the religious nuts whether they were Christian or Jewish (probably they were not truly either); there was one guy wearing trousers that said "Jesus is Lord" but he was holding the Israeli flag and wearing a Star of David. There was also a man wearing the Union Jack like a cape and a baseball cap with plastic horns; a squirrel shared his step ladder with him and he seriously informed his audience, "If you see a squirrel here, don't worry. I'm just visiting." Watching the various speakers get heckled by probably equally crazy spectators was more than half the fun. I don't know whether I've ever felt more sane--but then, I was getting a kick out of listening to crazies, so perhaps I don't actually win there.

We had planned on going to the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race on the Thames afterwards, but we got coffee and severely lost track of time. We went to where the race was being held anyway, hoping we might catch some action, but all we saw were large crowds of people in various states of drunkenness along the river. I did get to see a new part of London, though, so it was a productive trip.

And now I am gearing up for another week of work, and looking forward to next weekend, when I will be in Paris.