Today was a good day although I am pretty tired. I had a lot of fun.

First, I walked over to through Borough Market and over the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's:



I met Sarah at the steps of the cathedral and we ate a picnic lunch from M&S while trying to avoid tourists and pigeons-both are extremely annoying and difficult to stay away from.

Pretty shot of the cathedral:



We stopped in at Caffe Nero for some AMAZING soy chai with cinnamon which on this partly sunny party windy and cloudy day was so yummy-although any day with Nero chai is a good day. It's amazing.

Then we walked north a bit and went to the Museum of London. It's definitely one of London's smaller and less well known museums but I really enjoyed it. It was basically London throughout history. It started with "London before London" with the Normans and into the Roman era. Then it moved on through the Middle Ages which is the time period that I find so interesting. They had scale models and some interactive stuff which made it fun. There was a big exhibit on War, the Black Plague, and Fire which showed all of the damage that was done in a short period of time and how many people died during the plague (about half of London's population!). Then it moved on to the Royal Family and the history of the development of Parliament and modernization. The section on Women's Suffrage and WWII was especially interesting.

I had never been there before but I'm glad I went. Some things seemed a bit skimmed over and they could have included more detail but I really liked most of the exhibits and they had some really neat stuff. There was a Victorian gown that was really ornate and a lot of touch screen simulation about life in London and changes in the city.

This is the front of the museum:


This is one of my favorite parts. It's at the end and we almost missed it. It's a carriage that's been around for over 250 years and it's still used every year during the Lord Mayor parade (I have no idea what that is but I thought it was cool that the carriage is still in use). It's so detailed and ornate, there are tons of gold animal heads and cloth detailing. I really really really really wanted to go inside of it but of course that wasn't aloud. If it wasn't for a group of French women sitting nearby and the fact that I'm sure there were CCTV cameras watching I definitely would have tried.



It was a fun day in the city as a tourist with Sarah. We always have a good time when we hang out and today was no exception. Tomorrow is a department party at Nicole's and should be really fun to see everyone and hang out.

I also need to get to work on reading and making an outline for my dissertation. It's going to come up really quickly and I need to make sure my adviser approves of what I am doing and have a good outline to keep me on track during the summer.

Walking around London and seeing so many touristy sights that are very familiar and home-like to me now I got really sad about leaving. It's so fun to walk around and explore this city especially since the weather has been nicer. I want to get outside and do the rest of the things on my to-do list as much as possible in the next 2 weeks. I can't believe my time here is almost over. I am going to miss this city very much but am excited about what is to come.

13 days!!!