Saturday 8 September 2007

*Stars are for places that I would like to put a picture once I have access to wi-fi.

Alana and I had a nice and slow morning. Eventually we met up with her friend Jenny to see *Westminster Abbey (we also saw the college; we snuck in the back way through the neighborhood where we randomly found Laurence of Arabia's house), Buckingham Palace, the ICA (where we rested our sore feet for a while), Trafalgar Square, and Covent Garden. We bought some food at Trafalgar Square*, scarfed it down, and felt very appreciative to be sitting down after the long walk. When Jenny left, we found the rail travel agency only to wait in line and find out that my procrastination made prices go up to . . . $500! Whewy. We left there, looked in a few stores for a skirt (Alana needed one for church), found none, and headed to an outdoor presentation of The Jungle Book. Unfortunately, it was packed and closed because of it, so we laid on the grass by the Thames and the *Tower Bridge (my absolute favorite). Eventually we had enough gumption to walk across the bridge and find Wagamama. Alana had a two-for-one coupon. I cannot even explain to you the wonder of my food. I ordered the ginger chicken udon. Holy HANNAH! The ginger was pickled; it glowed a deep orange that tasted like heaven. I ate the entire plate of udon before Alana had finished half of hers, and they were big servings! I turned over my paper placemat and we played tic-tac-toe. Then I taught her the dot game. She had a fun time trying to use her chopsticks in one hand and the pen in the other. (P.S. Alana's roommate was impressed with my chopstick skills at dinner last night.) Finally, I brought out the killer: Charla's contour drawings. We each did two of the other, and they were hilarious. After deciding to save them, we titled, dated, and autographed them. We were in such a silly mood after that, we were soon clip-clopping down Tower Hill towards the tube when Alana came out with this gem: "I'm already unstable on my feet, let alone doing a horsey backwards thing. You're pushing me to the limits of stability!" Ha ha!

*Did I already tell you that Alana's housemates call her "Banana"? Each of her housemates is hilarious in a different way, I love it. Suki is trying to convince me to stay, I think mostly so I can do her dishes and cook her food. :)