London

I finally made it to London, which turns out to be a pretty awesome city. I took the bus from Hatfield, and met up w/ a bunch of other foreign exchange kids in Trafalgar Square. Taylor had his heart set on going to Waxy O'Connor's, so we decided to head there for lunch. It was pretty cool- they had Guinness on tap and something like nine floors to drink it in.

We split up after lunch. Nobody else seemed interested in following my hand-drawn map around the city to look for Banksy graffiti. I only found one, but there were certainly plenty of other things to see and do!

I saw Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, which are really impressive. I went from there St. Peter's (nice work, Sir Chris) and then across the Millennium Bridge to the Globe Theater. I really hope to have a chance to go watch a play there... I also went to the Imperial War Museum, which was really cool.

Navigating my way around London was the most obvious sign I've had so far that I'm not in Kansas anymore. Even the oldest American cities are basically laid out in a grid. London, on the other hand, has been around in one form or another since before the Romans came to Britain, and it shows in the city's street plan. This resembles the root ball of a tree more than the carefully planned LEGO blocks of Boston or Manhattan. Also, the architecture makes it very obvious that this is the city was the center of a vast and powerful empire, which is not something I've ever noticed back home.