I have just experience my first weekend in London and all I can say is that this city gets more exciting and fabulous each day! On Saturday everyone woke up late in the day because we went to the Zoo club for the first time which was a blast. I also took my first ride in the traditional black cabs. In order to qualify to become a cabbie here, one must graduate from a three year program that teaches each street and route around the city. You even see trainees on scooters with maps attempting to study and learn the city. After waking up Cait and I decided to go exploring and happened upon a quaint shopping center with an outdoor market in the center. The food here is not that appetizing, especially the english breakfasts, which are also quite expensive. Baked beans on eggs is a combination that I am content never trying again. We then browsed the shops in the area including one called New Look, which is more expensive version of forever 21. The fact that things cost more is a bit depressing, but we did hear about a burberry factory where all of their clothing and trench coats are half price. Even the boys were fairly excited about that. After browsing the stores we decided to sit and enjoy the weather. I have been here now 5 days and I haven't seen rain. The weather is a beautiful 80 degrees which is perfect for reading in the parks. After we got back from our walk everyone decided to sit in the courtyard here at Janet Poole and have crackers, wine, and cheese. It was so nice to sit outside under the stars and chat, especially because we are attempting to plan our weekend trips rather rapidly. Around 11:30 everyone headed to a nearby pub to celebrate Frank's birthday. It was a lot of fun, especically because there were british pool tables that differ quite alot from American pool.

Today we woke up and headed to the British museum. They house the Rosetta Stone there along with many artifacts dating back to 27oo BC. It was a really neat museum for Egyptian artifacts, specifically the mummies and preserved remains on display. I have determined that I definitely have a time limit for how long I can sanely stay in a museum. It is about 1.5 hours because much longer and everything starts losing its appeal to me. After the museum Dan, Marty, Kamel, Cait, and I walked around our neighborhood a bit and enjoyed the weather. Tonight everyone is going to a restaurant called Wagamama, which is apparently a great chinese restaurant that serves community style to your table. Everyone orders a dish and then you get 4 rice bowls and share everything with the table. Everyone is looking forward to this as our last hurrah with dining out. We have all had mild heart-attacks when we realized the amount of money spent since arriving in London. Although it is unavoidable to do so, everyone has spent a nice chunk of money because its our first week here and we want to experience everything we can. Tomorrow Caitie arrives to stay with me for a few days and I absolutely cannot wait to see her! We are going to book a ride on the London Eye at night to get a neat view of city, River Thames, and St. Paul's Cathedral. It should be really great! The last piece of news is that I have just about adjusted to the time change and fully recovered from jet lag! Now all that is left is allowing time for my legs to adjust to all of the walking. I walked about 1o miles on Friday, 5 on Saturday, and a few today. It is exhausing but so nice to learn my way around!