13 Jan

Woke up around 8 today, got ready, and headed down to breakfast around 8:50. Katie and I had talked last night of getting cheap theater tickets from Leicester Square then heading over to the British Museum for a while. I find it hard to decline an invitation from that place so I made that part of my plan for the day. I got a text message from Katie after getting food that she and her friend Liz were really tired and would meet up later in the day. Since I was already ready, I decided to make the most of my morning and caught a bus with Liane (who was going to do some studying at the library) for the Strand Campus. The ride started out uneventfully enough until the bus stopped at a scheduled stop and just didn’t move again for a while. People started getting restless and getting off the bus. After a minute or two, a girl on the bus reported that the bus driver was gone and there was no replacement. It’s normal for drivers to change at bus stops. Liane and I waited on the bus a while longer, waiting for the replacement, and when I finally had enough we just got off. After a few minutes, another bus came our way, but before we boarded we heard a Transport for London (TFL) official tell someone else that there was a traffic accident a ways up ahead that was causing serious traffic delays where we were. He told the guy that he could walk for five minutes to the next open stop or wait on the bus for twenty minutes. We walked. The walk wasn’t too bad and thankfully the weather wasn’t too cold this morning. If anything, it was kind of nice to walk along streets I’ve only ridden by. We didn’t have to wait long at the next stop and after a good 20 minute delay, we were back on our way. I pity those who were heading to work and such; we were both thankful that we had nothing pressing that morning. But hey, delays happen and professors understand. We split ways at the Strand campus as I went to the War Studies department to get a course changed and Liane headed to the library. It took longer to find someone to help me at the War Studies building than actually fill out the form. The process seemed simple enough and now I just hope it works. I have a valid excuse: I cannot possibly attend two classes at the same time (if only Time-Turners were real and I had one…). After handing in the form I wandered about the Strand campus for a bit and searched for my classrooms. They were thankfully easy to find and I hope I won’t find the building as confusing as many have said it is. It was getting near noon so I went to a dining spot in the union and grabbed some lunch. It was nice eating in a room that overlooks the Thames. I only wish the clouds weren’t so heavy so I could get some good shots. My lunch was over quickly and I caught a bus for Piccadilly Square. I was determined to make it to the real Charing Cross street today and buy at least one book for leisure. I walked around Piccadilly for a bit and stopped at a Waterstones (think of it as a mini Barnes & Noble) for a little while before deciding it was just too pricey. £7.99 doesn’t sound too bad until you do the conversion; I don’t have the budget to pay $15 for a book I’m buying just for leisure. I walked from Piccadilly to Leicester Square and took some shots there of the big pretty theaters. I spotted St. Martin’s theater on a side street where Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” has been playing continuously for 54 years! I need to check ticket prices first but I’d like to see it at some point. I heard from Armitage, my British professor, that if you don’t tip a cabby who takes you to the theater they’ll tell you the ending before you leave the cab. Now wouldn’t that be a shame? A short while later I found myself at Charing Cross road and walked down it to find bookstore after bookstore all along one side. It wasn’t as covered with books as I imagined, but I only went along it for a short bit. I stopped at several little stores that reminded me of a used bookseller that’s near some Weston shopping center I think. There was hardly any room to move around and the shelves were just completely crowded with books of all sorts; art to history to politics and all kinds of fiction. I tried to find some Terry Pratchett but was unfortunately unsuccessful. Instead I bought a £4 copy of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a book that won the Pulitzer Prize a few years back. Mike gave me another book by him and I found that I really liked his style, so I decided to give this other book a shot. After meeting no luck with Pratchett in the small stores, I wound up at a Border’s. It was just like the kind we have at home and luckily I found some real steals. I bought a copy of the collected plays of Oscar Wilde for £1.50. Even after converting that’s a really good deal. After Border’s I headed for the nearest Tube station where I added another week to my Oyster card. This week’s expires Saturday and this way I don’t have to pay bus or train fare to get to the nearest Tube station or stand that sells Oyster cards to refresh it. I had sent Liane a text message before heading for Leicester to have her call me when she was done with the library (she was looking for books too) but she never called or texted back. I’m positive I gave her the right number and I hope I got the right number from her. I was feeling pretty tired and decided just to Tube-hop and then catch a bus home. There’s a party planned tonight at KCH and I might go to that instead of the theater. I’m going to stop blogging for a bit and start working on one of my new books. How exciting! Later…17:52

Well, I never quite made it to the party or to the fuBar. Gregg and Micah stopped by close to 6 and I went to dinner with them. The vegetarian item on the menu was “spicy bean burgers” and it was actually pretty good. Liane joined us shortly into dinner and we had a pretty nice time talking about all kinds of stuff from Dr. Seuss to our favorite British sayings. After dinner I just chilled in my room for a while reading. My nose started to get runny and I started sneezing, both telltale signs of sickness. Yet another reason not to party. Lainey’s friend Kelsey came over to stay the night because they both had an early flight to Scotland in the morning. They and Gregg went to the party for a while and they didn’t get back until just after midnight. I kind of hung out and surfed the internet when it finally came back online (ever since I came back in the afternoon, I had been getting this weird message saying the security system on the wireless was not able to let me connect for various reasons, none of which I could fix or found to be true. Gregg couldn’t figure it out either and after multiple restarts and failed attempts, I just gave up on it. Around 10 I decided to give it one last shot and bam! Mr. Hammond, I think we’re back in business). I read some more and finally turned in around 1.