Catching up...

We have been a bit delinquent in our posts lately - sorry!
I had a friend from Maine come to visit and we had a whirlwind time of British Museum trips, plays, double-decker bus rides, a boat trip down the Thames - and LOTS of different kinds of great food!
She was probably glad to get home and get some rest!

We went to Greenwich on a ferry to see the Royal Observatory and the "prime meridian" - home of Greenwich Mean Time.  The photos below show a laser projected from the Observatory that goes along the meridian... straight down past the Olympic stadium.  We thought it was a neat thing to see.  We could step back and forth across the meridian between two different time zones!

Other highlights of the past 2 weeks include seeing "The Audience" with Helen Mirren.  It is a new play that allows us to "see" what the weekly private audience was like between the queen and each of the prime ministers over the last 60 years.  It was wonderful, and I learned so much about the monarchy, and the changing political issues that were discussed.  Ok, some of the jokes were lost on me, but the British people in the audience were laughing frequently.  While I was seeing this play, Clay was seeing "The Book of Mormon" so you will have to wait for his "cultural" event report.
We also saw "Medea" an opera based on the Greek tragedy at the English National Opera.  It was a new experience for me - an opera newbie- and I was very impressed with the set, staging, and especially the amazing voices.  Not exactly an uplifting story (if you are unfaithful to Medea, what are you thinking?  She lays waste to everyone to exact her revenge).

  Clay and I went this weekend to visit some friends in St. Andrews, Scotland.  It was freezing cold, but the city was beautiful.  We went to the History of Golf museum (Clay was a good sport on that one), and saw the old course at St. Andrews.

We went to a couple of museums and walked around the university.  The train ride up and back was beautiful and we even got a little studying in.  Our across the seat passengers could be seen to raise their eyebrows when we asked each other questions about worms, amoebas, parasites and other tropical illnesses.  You should not sit near us.

We have only two weeks left of classes, and I am worried that studying will be more difficult for me anyway as Steve and David arrive for spring break London fun - and David's 18th birthday!