lewisham way.

I live a twenty minute walk away from Greenwich, the center of time, the center of past royalty, the center of the British naval operations back in the day. There is a shop there that proudly touts itself as 'The First Shop in the World!' as it lies at 0.4degrees latitude. That is the view out of my window. Nothing special, it's a bit close to the street. But it's right across the street from a Launderette, filled with people all day long, and across the street from a dressmaker, who's mannequins glow all night long from behind the transluscent roll-down gate. There are tacky fast food shops that line the street, advertising fried chicken barbecued the 'american way!' They're open all night long and are a fixture for students who need chips for a pound at 2am. Today I walked around the neighborhood, the part where you get suburbia - lines of houses. And as I walked, I thought, everything here is so interesting, every building has a character that I would not look for in homes at home. Is this me being enamored with the life of foreigners or is it true? And why is it that there are so many more hidden staircases that lead to areas where I want to peek my head through fences and watch backyard windows for extended periods of time?

I went to the Russian Winter Festival in Trafalgar Square, where I heard more Russian spoken in one place than I'd ever heard before - who knew there were so many Russian Londoners! There were thousands upon thousands of people - surely every inch of Trafalgar Square was covered - and if you know how big Trafalgar Square is, you know how many people there were. It was a fun event, though, with the Kremlin guard performing, the Mayor of London and Mayor of Moscow speaking, and even "snow" imported straight from Russia! How kind. Nevertheless, the Mayor of London really phoned it in, kept talking about how important and honored the city was to have this great relationship with the country that helped so much during the war and how while the West (aka USA) turned against Russia, London never would..blah blah blah. Oh, the front of politics.

I have another day of non-class tomorrow. I am about to fall asleep so I should get plenty of rest before exploring. Thames Walk, perhaps? National Portrait Gallery? My 4-day weekends are unbelievable. Just let me know if any of you European kids have a good 4-day weekend in which I should come visit you, because I can be there.