England vs. the United States

Hello!

Having been here a week, I am finding myself assimilating to London culture quite well. However, I still am not quite used to saying mobile instead of cell phone, and telling people to "touch wood," instead of "knock on wood," when they say something possibly jinxing. And I am getting much better at not imitating a British accent back at people when they say something to me, though I doubt that I am ever completely cured of that.

Since I don't start work until next week, I have had two fantastic days of sight seeing a relaxing. Yesterday, I went to see Avenue Q in the West End, which featured puppet nudity (yes, puppet nudity) and hilarious songs including "Everyone's a little bit racist," and "The Internet is for Porn." But what I did during the day yesterday far eclipsed my dirty Sesame Street experience.

I died and went to heaven. In this case, heaven was Harrods, the world renowned department store. It was all I could do to keep my chin off the floor while walking room to room and seeing the magnificent offerings of the store. Though all I bought was a sandwich and two cupcakes, I plan to return.

Today a few of us walked through Kensington Gardens, which has joined Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, and the Tower of London on my must see London list. It is so incredibly beautiful and I finally got to see the Peter Pan statue that I've always wanted to see. There was also a plethora of birds, and even a "Bird Lady," who held pigeons in her arms while birds swarmed her feet. Did we sing "Feed the Birds," from Mary Poppins? How could we not.

Our flat is in such a great location that we have been able to walk to most of these great locations. This has unfortunately given me a false confidence in my fitness, and I succumbed to pastries in the window 3 times today. I can only imagine what Paris will do to my waistline.

Tomorrow we head to Bath and Stonehenge, and so we are skipping the pub tonight since we have to be on our way at 7:45 am.

Cheers!
Allison