"By seeing London, I have seen as much as the world can show."

I've been seeing London for five days now, and I haven't seen 1/100th of London. Here is what I've seen of London so far, and random thoughts to go with it.

Through Tower Bridge you can see Canary Wharf, the new financial district of the city that could have been taken right out of midtown Manhattan with the skyscrapers and lights. The two structures are maybe a mile apart, but centuries apart, and both are used every day by Londoners. I took this picture on the South Bank of the Thames during an Orientation bus tour, and those are in-use barges in the river. Right to my left but out of frame is the Belfast, a British navy ship docked there and used as a museum. The whole city is a museum!

Regent Street is London's Fifth Ave. The curvy buildings in the right picture run all along Regent, which is like a mile long. It goes right from a palace to Regent's Park, and was built by some important guy so he would have a pretty ride for when he went out hunting. The palace, the road, and the park were all solely for the use of the Royals and Lords. It's ridiculous. But it makes for an absolutely gorgeous shopping street for me today. If you duck into any of the sidestreets on the left of these photos you get to SoHo- narrow, windy little streets not unlike our SoHo. We had lunch in a cafe there today for 5 pounds each, which is better than any place I've seen in our SoHo.

We found Buckingham palace accidentally Saturday afternoon when we were looking for Westminster Abby. They're nowhere near each other, but we recognized the long tree-lined road leading up to it because of all those televised processions with the Queen riding in a horse and buggy. When you get there it seems ludicrous that that would actually happen, because there's just tourists and joggers and families wandering around that street and the park next to it. We weren't even sure it was actually Buckingham palace when we got to it because there was no big hoopla. You just kind of get there, and there are some people taking pictures, but no big signs or flags or guards or horses or roal music. The palace is WAY smaller than I expected. I took the picture on the left through the bars because I felt like a poor peasant not allowed into the palace. Or Juliet not allowed in to see Romeo (Harry). In the middle is Jordan (from Emory), Cassandra, Me, and Leanna (Emory) standing in front of the statue in front of Buckingham, and the last one was me standing in front of Buckingham getting the other side of the statue with the London Eye in the background.

London-y things: Big Ben at night. Not that Big, but old and gold and cool. "Look Right" painted on every street- incredibly helpful. During Orientation the one alcohol warning we got was to be extra careful coming out of pubs at night and crossing the street, as one American got hit and broke his leg because he forgot to look Right instead of Left. Curry's electronics stores- everywhere, helpful, and beautiful. Just like the Curry's. Telephone booths- still used today, especially by people like me who can't figure out Euro electricity.

And finally, the homefront: Queen Mary University Flat 23 Room D. Whether it will still be my home next week or not, I'm still not sure. We might be moving to Chelsea. But here is where we live and our first couple of nights out with British friends.

The QM sign that borders our safe-haven from scary Mile End Road. My room fully decorated--not joking. Jordan, me, and Cassandra-- we do everything together. Our kitchen in a rare moment of sunlight. When Cass saw this picture she said "That is NOT what our kitchen looks like." But, all that London rain does lead to some rainbows, like the one out my bedroom window here, which was absolutely huge and a full arc but I could only get half of it. Then on the bottom is our first night out the pub with our British friends. They're freshmen (cause only "freshers" live on campus) so they love to get drunk and make driends. Great! Our favorite is the boy on the left of the last photo- James, the most fabulously posh gay British guy one could imagine.

That is just a peek (though, a long one, sorry) into the past five days of London life. Now that I've finally taken the time to make this thing, I'll try and keep it up to date with photos, stories, and plans. As for now, time to go clubbin'!