Saturday

First, before I tell you where I am, I have to tell you that I had planned to be somewhere else. Yes, I'm in London again, but I had initially planned on going to Cambridge. The weather, however, was somewhat rainy and I didn't want to wander through Cambridge in the wet. Plus, a few people I know were going into London today.

The morning started out with my adventures trying to change some money. Then, I walked around the Stevenage Town Centre. I bought a sticky bun (I'm sure there's a British name for it). Then, I stumbled across a market - an inside market with stalls selling everything from books and picture frames to hair extensions and washing machines. I also ran into a few of my students who seemed shocked to see me outside of school. Evidently, they thought I lived at school...who knows....

Then, I met two teachers from school and some friends of theirs and we headed into London. The two teachers from my school are both overseas teachers as well - one is Canadian, the other is Australian. Of the two friends, one is an Australian teacher working in Bristol, the other is her brother, visiting from Australia.

We headed towards Covent Garden where we got Cornish pasties and went to the Canada Store. The Canada Store also happens to house the Australia Store, the New Zealand Store, and the South Africa Store. It's a store that sells foods available in those countries that you can't easily get here...like strawberry twizzlers, Kraft dinner, Kool-Aid, things like that. I bought something called a 'Perky Nana' from the New Zealand part. That product alone is enough to make me want to visit Australia and New Zealand.

We did some strolling about - we saw Buckingham Palace and the Tower Bridge. At the Tower Bridge, the rest left to return to Stevenage and I stayed in London to do some more wandering.

I eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. For only £5.00, I had a nice dim sum plate (including spring rolls, wontons, vegetable dumplings, toasted sesame prawn toast, and some interesting salty, crunchy green stuff) and a pot of tea (complete with bits of tea leaves floating about). It was very nice. I followed it up with (and I admit this rather sheepishly) some strawberry Baskin Robbins ice cream.

That's it so far. Perhaps I'll see some more things tonight.