Midwest-like Cold

Who would have thought that coming to London, a supposedly mild climate, would not mean escaping a Midwest-like cold with the unfortunate addition of dampness which means that the cold is that much harder to shake off once you are inside. Sadly, that is what it is like outside. The usual promise of precipitation still occurs, but we are witnessing the below freezing equivalent of drizzle: snow flurries. I actually like it better than drizzle because it doesn't require an umbrella, but I would really prefer that it not be cold anymore. Ok, I'll stop complaining about it now. But apparently the weather is the only appropriate subject one can talk about on the tube without getting strange looks, so consider this practice.

We went on a lovely bus tour today with a different guide, Britt, who was wonderful. She is a professional tour guide to the extent that she is being trained for giving tours to the Olympic athletes when they come in 2012. She knows everything about London and absolutely loves everything about it, too. She is going to be around the entire time we are here, and I'm very excited to ask her all about her recommendations. So, on the 3 and a half hour bus tour we saw every big London monument you can think of plus a bunch of cool places that we will have to go back to, as we all said, "when it's warmer." London is so big that it is actually divided in 32 bouroughs, with each bourough having it's own mayor plus one mayor for London as a whole. As Samuel Johnson, writer of the first official English dictionary said, "If you're bored of London, you're bored of life." There is so much to do here, it will be impossible to see everything, but at least there will always be something to do.

After the bus tour, we had Indian food at a nearby restaurant and we all realized that this was the first real, sit down meal we've had. We have been eatting kind of randomly from random shops or from the grocery's we've gotten, but it was nice to have a real meal. It was very good food. We also finally got cell phones which will be useful. You don't realize how much you depend on them until you don't have one.

Hopefully we will meet up with our friend, Erin, tomorrow and maybe go to the museum. With this cold weather, it is best to stay indoors!