London - Weeks Six and Seven

Ok, so living in London isn't quite the frenzy of activity I was expecting. I thought my time would be occupied with museums, cathedrals, markets and architecture. My classmates would be singing beer-inspired ballads on Friday nights at the pub. I thought my mail would come by owl. But alas, once you get passed the initial tourism blitz, it's just another city. I commute into the center for school, I eat leftovers for lunch, and at night I come home and study. It's all rather anti-climactic.

The truth is I like it that way. There's something to be said for routine, for making your little nest and carrying on with your life. And when you do wander out around town, it's not so much an event of itself as one wrapped up in the rhythm of every day. For instance, sometimes I go to the British Museum over my lunch break. I look a mummy, I eat a sandwich.







Last weekend was Bonfire Night, a celebration of the night that Guy Fawkes was caught putting thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in the parliament building cellar, in an attempt to overthrow the king four centuries ago. If I only had a five-pence for every time these details have been recited to me, followed by the chanting of "remember, remember the fifth of November." I think it's a source of national pride for the English, to have a holiday that celebrates the execution of a traitor. Or is it celebrating an attempt to overthrow the government? Whatever the reason, I really loved the donuts and fireworks.