First Free day in London (7-4)

Today was a free day. We still don't know what the situation is with the lodging issues. I haven't even seen the professor today. This morning I got up, got my hair wet with the sink in my room and then brushed and scrunched it, because I'm still kind of afraid of taking a shower here. Then I went down to breakfast. It was alright, pretty much the same options as the hotel in Dublin, only not quite as high quality. I tried to see if the reception desk was open because I'm still missing a key, but it wasn't, because it's Saturday. The computer room with supposed free internet access was inaccessible as well. That is, you could get into the room but it looked like all the computers required a password of some sort. Then I went around trying to figure out what everyone was doing today. I wasn't sure what I should do, but I thought I might go down to Picadilly Circus and do some shopping. However, I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to go with Alli and the guys to the park. So we went to Regent's Park, which is walking distance from the place we're staying. They stopped for food because I'd been the only one of the five of us to get up early enough for breakfast. I just got some candy and figured I'd get something real to eat on the way back. We kind of split up on the way there and Dan and I sat talking for a while waiting for Sean, Paul and Alli to get there. The weather was looking iffy. It had been bright and sunny when we headed out, but it was looking like rain with some misty sprinkles and the weather kept changing like that for a bit. I almost wanted to come back immediately and get a sweater because I hadn't brought one. Finally, however, when everybody was together and we had been walking through the park for a while it became sunny for the rest of the afternoon. Today is the 4th of July. Of course we shouldn't expect the British to celebrate. They were the losers. However, interesting events today... We were walking through the park when the guys got invited to play softball with a group of people. It turns out that the group was a mixture of British and American people having a 4th of July celebration. The guys had been so set on celebrating the 4th and not using any British slang, going and playing SOCCER NOT FOOTBALL etc. They probably couldn't have asked for anything better. Alli had gone and walked off into some gardens (which we all walked through together after the picnic) and I was sitting on a bench watching the game. When the game they'd been playing ended everyone came in to eat and I came over to talk to the guys. We were all invited to eat. I hadn't said a word to any of our new friends but I was handed a plate. Alli came back and joined us and we became part of the group. I declined the first time I was asked if I wanted to play softball but joined in the second, even though I'm really terrible. I forgot to put sunscreen on this morning as I usually do because it had been so dark and gloomy. I made it through Dublin a lot better than the rest of my classmates, who were all like crispy bacon by the time we'd left, but I'll probably live to regret running around in the park without sunscreen tomorrow. Anyway, the internet situation is still iffy, so I might not be able to post these until I get back, but I'll still be writing them daily and saving them under files labled with the date. It's definitely a bummer, but I'll deal.

After I wrote the first part of this some more exciting things happened. There was a happy reunion in the kitchen on our floor after a whole day without seeing Justine. She hadn't been feeling well but had been working hard on the accommodation situation. She had keys for anyone who wanted to move into a new room! Yay! Now instead of being in the P corridor, where the bathroom smells like a port-a-potty and is shared with the guys, I'm in the R corridor with a better bathroom I'm not afraid to use and away from some of the fumes from the renovations they're doing directly under P. Anyway, we all ended up going out to a fancy French restaurant for dinner. It was really late for dinner. but then the exciting reunion had come right as we had been making plans to go out. I had the traditional onion soup and "pommes allumettes." (It was really the only thing on the menu I thought I'd eat). The soup was good, but it had so much cheese and bread in it that I kept feeling like gagging. We started home so late (just after midnight) that we had to take the night bus instead of the tube. We got home and I moved my stuff into my new room. I had an okay night of sleep, all 6 hours or so as I had to get up early for our tour of the Globe. After the Globe tour we went to the Tower and had lunch there. Then a bunch of people headed off to go on the Eye. I decided that it was a once in a lifetime experience (I would suggest everyone do it once, and it is kind of expensive) but I've had my once, and I wanted to make sure everybody knows I didn't die on the flight from Dublin now that I have a chance to use the web... Then as I was writing this I was thinking about how cool that area around the Eye is and how I should have gone with them and wandered around on my own while they stood in line for an hour. Oh well, plenty of time for wandering on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (all free days). I may go out to eat or something. It's only 6, but lunch was so recent, and we do have a kitchen here. Maybe I'll just get a frozen pizza from the Tesco down the street. Meal times seem so weird when the sun doesn't set until 9:30.