Our London Adventure

Dear Folks,

We think of you often.  Now that we're electronically connected, we can send you updates on our London adventure.  So far, everything has gone swimmingly.  By arrangement of Mary H., the study abroad director, we were met, like dignitaries, by a man with a sign with Mike’s name on it.  It was our old friend Alan, who met us two years ago.  He has his own private car for hire, and even at 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning, he was dressed in a dark blue pinstripe suit.  On the way into town, he gave us his personal theories on the 7/7 terrorists.  You didn’t know that the London bombers were all CIA agents, did you?   Anyhow, he delivered us safely to our new address, which I noted, to my chagrin, was not 9 Southampton Row, which I had somehow gotten into my address book, but 179 Southampton Row.  Anyone intending to cheer us with letters–please note the change.  (Luckily, Mike addressed the package of warm clothes, which arrived yesterday.)

From the first day, we’ve been high on London.  It's sunny and warm.  The foreign students are pouring into our area, for classes at University of London and the School of African and Asian Studies.  We competed with them at the bank, to get someone to open a bank account for us, and we emerged victorious.  Then, desperate to get on-line (and having discovered after hours on the phone with the phone company people that this would require buying a new modem and printer), we braved the tube to get to the digital district on Tottenham Court Road.  We got on at Russell Square.  At the very first stop, Holborn, there was an announcement that there would be a delay while officials investigated a customer's alarm.  Everyone froze in their places.  Chicken Betsy was the one person who decided to get off the train.  Loyal Mike followed.  This enabled us to be within feet of the officials when they paraded by us on the platform holding at arm's length a colorful canvas bag and yelling into a cell phone that a customer had found an "unaccompanied parcel" in the third coach.  They disappeared through an official door-hole next to the tunnel, and we were left on the platform, trying to decide whether to get back on the train or let it go without us.  We stayed put and got on the next train, feeling inoculated to any further tube nerves.  We have since used up nearly a full booklet of tube passes.

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When travelling to London Why Not Fly Free?

Don't Leave Your Best Friend at Home.   Take Your Small Dog Everywhere!  Even to London.