A strange Englishman.

I got internet in my room today, finally! So lots of pictures for you guys. I can only fit a few pictures per post, however, so be prepared to click on some links. Now, on to the good stuff! Yesterday, my post-colonial literature class went on a surprise field trip to the Victoria and Albert museum, which was full of ornate metalwork, antique instruments, and exhibits where you could compare modern toys and clothing to their Victorian era counterparts. I got a lot of pictures of clothing and instruments, but most of them were too blurry, sadly. However, I did get pictures of:

A rather ornate spoon from Southeast Asia, (Katherine, eat your heart out!)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/catlard/Up%20to%20Sept%208th%20London/Pictures9.jpg

An organ which played different tones of tiger growls, shaped like a tiger devouring a man (The ancestor of the set of duck quacks that go on an electric keyboard, I'm sure.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/catlard/Up%20to%20Sept%208th%20London/tiger.jpg

A gigantic room full of stonework pulpits and fountains.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/catlard/Up%20to%20Sept%208th%20London/stoneworkroom.jpg

A gigantic tower hauled in from the center of a town in Turkey, I beleive. Keep in mind the tower in the foreground is taller than the one in the background, and the one in the background has the foundation of the pillar on the bottom. Look how huge and ornate this thing is! It sounds like it was kind of like the pillar of Hammerabe from the description, except in pictographs.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/catlard/Up%20to%20Sept%208th%20London/tower.jpg

A picture of the garden from the museum! Gorgeous! It had a huge 3 inch deep wading pool that you can see people cooling their feet in, and a little cafe in the corner that you can not. Keep in mind that being there was completely free, like all the museums here.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/catlard/Up%20to%20Sept%208th%20London/vandagarden.jpg

After that I found my way home on the bus, and got to King's cross station, where they have a little Harry Potter joke installed. I hope you guys enjoy the sacrifice to Sophie's and especially to my dignity that this took to perform. Look!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/catlard/Up%20to%20Sept%208th%20London/meatplatform9and3quarters.jpg

So, after this field trip, I went home and made a dinner for myself, Peter (a roommate) and Liz, a friend. I ended up making pineapple curry chicken rice (the order of those words in the name is variable), and Liz brought strawberry shortcake. So don't worry about me, I'm definitely eating well. My buddy Katherine asked me for the recipe for it, and it's rather good, so here it is:
1) Make a fire.
2) Make rice.
2) Put pineapple chunks in hot, dry rice, and cover.
3) Stir fry chicken with sweet and sour sauce or some spicy sauce or whatever.
4) Nuke if necessary.

Impress your friends! Amaze your relatives! My cooking is simple AND easy!

Today, I went to a park to read most of the day, before going back and getting the internet, and subsequently spending the entire day trying to arrange things with my homework and emails. I've got a lot of travel planning to do. Of course, any of you reading this are welcome to come and hang out with me in London, but you've got to tell me now, so I can make plans around all my classwork and all that.

I had to leave the park a little early, because (as the title implies) I met an Englishman who although I could hardly understand, I knew was a little weird. He looked to be about in his forties, and was eating lunch on the bench I was at, in this cute little park behind my dorm. There's a tennis court and everything there, it's really quite dahlink, if I do say so myself. So there's nothing wrong with this guy, and I'm happily nodding my head and agreeing to the half of what he says that I can understand. Then he starts talking about how he takes so much pain medication that he can't do anything but go to school, but how he really wants to work on automobiles one day. I think that's great that he's going to school and that he's dedicated, and I say so, but when I continue to talk to him he begins to go on about how England is depressing and how he'd really like to go to New York because he's seen so much of it in the movies, and he wants those "big American girls". I didn't really stick around to find out what that was, but needless to say, I left. I think he walked his 10 miles back home (as he claimed to do every day).

On the non-dodgy side, the weather's been really nice. Pictures of my room, roommates, and the Thames tomorrow!

Big news: Internet! V&A museum, reading homework, planning how to go to 2 shows a week for my Reporting the Arts class, talked to a strange Englishman. When I told someone I was an english major, they thought I was studying England. Hah! Wait, Is it just me?