The sun'll come out... Saturday!

Friday
Friday was our last day of class with Dr. Madsen... and it was a doozy! I'm happy to report that it was a very inspiring and worthwhile course (remember - I am here for school!) After class, a bunch of us walked over to Lamb's Conduit Street (isn't that a great name?!?) for a pub lunch in celebration of Nathan's birthday. The weather held out for lunch, but it soon turned windy, gray and rainy.

Kirsten and I braved the elements to go on a Jack the Ripper walking tour. After a roundabout journey to the tube station the guide leaves from, we arrived to find that we were the only people who showed up for the tour! Our guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining, and we learned lots of juicy details about the history of London (not just Jack the Ripper). After the tour guide dropped us off, we went to dinner at a Korean restaurant around the corner from our flat. The food was really tasty! I had a spicy seafood noodle soup, perfect after a night of walking around in the cold rain.

Saturday
No rain! Unfortunately, there's not much more to say for Saturday except that I took way too long to write my comprehensive exams. My flatmates left me alone in the evening and I finally finished after watching the British version of "Last Choir Standing."

Sunday
Today I walked around Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street, and Soho for several hours. The weather was great! I got the shopping bug, but the only thing I ended up buying was a mini-guide for Dublin. I discovered lots of interesting little side streets and even a cute square right behind the histle and bustle of Oxford Street. I noticed there were people lined up (I guess I should say "queued up") outside the Apple store - waiting for their new iPhones, I'm sure! I also went into all of the big department stores that I had been wondering about - they were pretty high-priced. Selfridge's especially was overwhelmingly large and upscale. All of these department stores have awesome grocery stores ("food halls") in their basements. Weird, huh?

Some amusing highlights of the day:
- I passed by the Nickelodeon offices, where a TV was on in the lobby even though the office was closed.
- Meticulously decorated cakes and confections at the food hall in Selfridge's. I wish I had taken pictures!
- There was a guy all-out singing to his iPod accompaniment in the foyer of Marks and Spencer (department store) to raise money for a cancer research organization. He was actually a pretty good singer, too!
- I saw a group of maybe 200 people blocking traffic to rollerblade down Oxford Street. I was only able to snap a picture of the last of the group.

Tomorrow morning it's off to Dublin for a few days...