Catching Up

The fact that I'm studying abroad is maybe catching up to me, and I've been really busy. But here are some of the cool things I've done recently:

1. A country walk near Silchester. I saw the remains of a Roman amphitheater of the city of Calleva, miles of Roman walls, and a 12th century church whose back wall was a bit of one of these Roman walls. The town we began in, Mortimer, had streets with names like "The Street" and "The Avenue," and the weather was pretty wacky and we basically had to wade through some giant pits of mud. This was all a really welcome change from bustling London.

2. The Hunterian Museum, the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, which was probably one of the strangest and coolest museums I'll see while I'm here. Essentially a display of hundreds of preserved of preserved, uh, things in formaldehyde, I got to see (among other things) an armadillo fetus, Winston Churchill's dentures, syphilitic penises, a giant collection of nipples, and pretty much every other weird thing you could imagine. The staff was sort of surprised that we were there and kept whispering to each other, "They're just a group of friends!" as if the normal visitors are actually interested in studying animal fetuses and weird skeletons.

3. This amazing farmers market in Marylebone, right near my flat! I talked with the jolliest man about yogurt and then bought some.

4. A blues bar, Ain't Nothin' But the Blues which is located in a room that's smaller than my bedroom here. Lots of fun, good music (the lead singer kept twitching in a sort of British rocking out way), and once again, just the tiniest place. There was a woman with a tiny hat there as well.

Autumn's a coming. It's fast becoming coat weather. I'm terribly excited.

Tomorrow we're going as a class to the Tower of London, and the next day a bunch of fun friends are headed to Oxford. The future holds Bruges, Stratford, and maybe Cardiff.

Oh, and here's a picture of the Hunterian Museum, which might give you an idea of how bizarrely this place was set up. Cases and cases of preserved things!