Though they are not connected . . .

And now Thursday, two weeks from the day we got here, though I can hardly believe they've gone by so fast.

Another walking tour today, though unfortunately I did not get to finish. The first place we stopped, all together, was the University of London, where Dr. Bell went, years ago, and where we saw a very strange sight. Remember the Jeremy Bentham pub? Well Jeremy Bentham was on the board for the college way back in the 17 or 1800s, and also made a lot of money as a writer. He loved his college so much that he never wanted to leave it-- so he wrote in his will that he would leave all his money to them, if they stuffed his body (he left directions on how) put him in a case, and let him come to all the board meetings! SO THEY DID! And he's still there, in the hallway of the college, sitting in his chair and looking at you. He has a wax head now, though, because the college students liked to steal his head from time to time, so they put it in a safe. The truth is stranger than fiction, eh?

Then we went over to the Charles Dickens museum, a little place in his London house. That was pretty cool. I never really knew much about his life, although I enjoy his books, so I learned a thing or two. But I spent too much time in there, because by the time I had finished and gotten lunch at Sainsbury's (the grocery store), it was already time to meet the rest of the group for a tour of the national portrait gallery. So I got on the tube, and proceeded to get over to Trafalgar square, but had to get off because the line I needed was closed. This line had been open, so I knew there was something wrong, but I didn't think much of it as I walked down Charing Cross to the gallery . . . then once we all got together, the story came out-- not an hour before, there were attempts to set off more bombs in the Tube and a bus. We couldn't believe it. The worst part was that one of the targeted stations was our own Warren Street, where we are 3 or 4 times a day. But since we were all out on field trips, none of us were near there. I still don't know exactly what happened, I guess I'd have to buy a paper or something for that, but it sounds like there wasn't much damaged and few injuries.

So we went ahead and toured the Portrait Gallery, where we maily focused on portraits of monarchs, but there were a lot of other cool people in there too. I may have to go back and look around some more. Afterwards, we went around the corner into Leicester Square and had high tea at a cafe there. It was delicious. The tea was perfect, and tasted so good with milk and sugar in it, and we had scones and strawberry jam, and It was wonderful. It was all served in little white dishes, and call me crazy, but I took a picture of it. It was a lovely cool day, too.

Then we made our way back up to our dorm, taking several detours because of traffic and road closures-- we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get back because our place is so close to the station, but we got back all right. Dr. Bell advised us to stay in that night, but since we had all just bought tickets to musicals for that night, and since everything seemed to be calming down, most of us didn't take his advice.

And so, last night, I went to see Les Miserables . . . ah, I have run out of words to describe it. I'm reading the book right now for class in Paris, which I would highly reccommend, but make sure you read the unabridged version. The musical was wonderful. We sat up at the very top, looking down on the stage, and walked home in the cold, humming the music . . .