"I have four left wheels"

My first experience with London rain on Friday. I started my afternoon off by taking the tube to Harrod's -- it's interesting to go there and explore by yourself. What I found most fascinating was the food area -- they have an oyster bar, they serve crab and lobster, and they also must have a slaughterhouse or something somewhere because I have never seen so much different types of meat conveniently found in a grocer's freezer. After that, I started wandering the city, and I somehow ended up in Hyde Park, which is huge. I walked along the Serpentine, which is a long, windy river running through Hyde and Kensington Gardens, and saw a few types of birds that I have never seen before. I have pictures -- they will be up soon. It was fun walking through Hyde Park while it was raining because nobody else was around, which is strange since it's such a tourist attraction. But because of the rain, very few people were out and about, and I felt like I had the whole park to myself.

When I entered Kensington Gardens, I got lost. The place is vast, and I couldn't find my way out. And I wanted to get out, considering that it started pouring rain and I had no shelter aside from my umbrella. But, I couldn't find the street, and the street is where to find tube stations: no tube stations = lost Stefanie. However, I ended up finding the Peter Pan statue, which is really awesome. I stared at it for awhile, and then decided that I really did need to get out because everything else would be anticlimactic. The Peter Pan statue reminded me of Disney, which reminded me of home. And Disneyland. Which is a pseudo-home for me anyway.

Since I was in Kensington Gardens for longer than I expected, I ended up staying in that area to wait for Elizabeth to get off work. We came home to eat a meal we've been anticipating -- a can of ravioli and frozen vegetables, yum! But, much to my horror, when I took a bite of a ravioli, I realized it was beef raviolis! Yuck! We quickly passed off our ravioli dinner to Ben the Frenchmen, and settled for cereal and tuna fish once again. We were so excited for our ravioli.

Through Elizabeth's work, we get to see about 10 theatre plays for free. We have the tickets and everything! I'm so excited. Stefanie loves theatre. These three months will entail a theatre extravaganza of epic proportions. Love it! On Thursday we're seeing a "A Moon for the Misbegotten," written by Eugene O'Neal and starring Kevin Spacey! So awesome.

Yesterday Elizabeth and I did nothing. We got up, did some laundry, ate some food, and then slept for the entire afternoon. I don't think we knew how tired we were -- it has been non-stop action from the time we first got to London, and I don't think our bodies could take it anymore. We got up in the evening to go to a hipster night club called the Old Skool Klub, but it was too hipster, even for me. It was basically a bunch of 19 year olds wearing tight jeans and long tunic tops. Black and red. And short, spiky hair. After about a half hour, we had enough. It took about an hour to get home since the tube was closed and the N15 - our night bus - took years to pick us up.

I start work on Monday -- I'm pretty excited to start something new in a new place. But I better enjoy today because tomorrow I'll be a working woman -- working from 9 to 5, as Dolly Parton sang. I think I'm going to be needing some good old fashioned pub quiz tonight to get my competitive juices flowing. That's what you need for the working world, right? Flowing juices of competition? Even in data entry work? Oh, I don't know what I'm saying. I'll stop now.