Look! There's an Emergency Exit!

  It's day five and things are starting to feel relatively normal here.  It's odd how you can just jump into another culture and just adjust.  It is possible that some of the reason I feel this way is because I've already had friends visit as well as the fact that I lived here for almost half a year back in my undergraduate days (and blogged most of it).  Either way, I love London and pretty much always have.  I wish that I took more pix on my iPhone to share with you all because today I walked through Covent Garden, to the Strand and right past my old office at Brettenham House on the way to the Waterloo Bridge.  What a rush of memories.  I commented to a classmate of mine that I am grateful that though filled with nostalgia, I'm not at all filled with regret or wishing for the past.  It was a rich time, and though filled with a fantastic mix of joy, success, and adventure, it was also a time of deep personal pain and confusion.  I even managed to get a marriage proposal in there as well. Haha! (Another story for another time...maybe.)

  So, back to the day's events.  I skipped over the fact that I went to class and it was good.  I learned more crazy stuff and have decided that taking notes is futile because all the information is mainly on the ppt anyway.  I learn more if I'm focused on the professor.  The morning walk to class was glorious and sunny (the sun was literally shining directly in my eyes the entire way) and I loved it.  I popped in my ear buds, grabbed at S'bux and made it to class early.  I even remembered to bring my clementines for break.  Yessss.  The class then headed off together to go on the London Eye.  That was the walk that took me by my old office building.  The Eye just reminds me of the Staton's engagement (NYC friends of ours), so of course I think I told their engagement story about 5 times this afternoon.  Everyone thought it was super romantic and cute.  (Props, Josh!)  The group of us all got to get our own pod in the Eye, so that was cool and basically all we did was ooohhh and ahhhhh for the full 27 minutes or whatever it took to get around.  I was just glad I didn't have to pay the 20 pounds to go on it.  It wasn't that exciting on such a grey, cloudy day.   A few people in the class are pretty scared of heights so having to quickly "jump aboard" freaked some of them out.  One guy was like "oh, good! There's an emergency exit!"  Yikes, what would that look like from the top of the world's largest ferris wheel??  Eeek!  Afterward, we walked accross the Millennium Bridge (built by Arup), crossed the Strand at Leicester Square and passed the National Gallery, which reminded me of Liz Zelie because we went there when she came to visit me in London 7 years ago.  I got some postcard stamps once we got back to the Bloomsbury area (where I'm staying) and then spent the rest of the evening doing homework and making dinner, etc.
 
  That's about it.  I did want to mention that I also had a FAB phone call from Kristi last night which was so nice.  Skype calls aren't too pricey to the UK cell we have.  Also, if you're on wifi and you're calling me on skype (username: meredithann), it's FREE!  Hope all is well with everyone.  Here are some pix of our flat.  Sorry for the poor resolution, but they were specifically requested by Heather. =)

xx

This is the main living area.  I didn't take a shot from the other side, so this is half the room.

This is the cute kitchenette.  The microwave is also a convection oven.

The loo (taken from the windowed side by the toilet).