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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

I'm so sorry!

I have been absolute rubbish at updating this thing for the past month and I'm sorry for it, since this is my main forum for writing down events that I want to remember. Today's a good start back, though. I've just dispatched my friend Eli back to the airport, but we had a fantastic visit. He's a total foodie and had a long list of different foods that he wanted to try, which was great, but I'm looking forward to eating normally again! Plus, I even dragged him (and myself, woot!) up to Brent to do some leafleting. It makes more sense when you find out that his great-grandmother grew up in London and we went in search of the places where she had lived...one of which was in the Brent East constituency. The other one was in Hampstead, so that necessitated a great wander around the Heath! We got major lost, though. They so need signs every once in awhile! Yesterday was great, with a big trip to Kew and Harrod's for the food halls. Kew was absolutely spectacular, since the orchids are all in bloom and they were getting ready for the big orchid events. I was blown away by how many different kinds of orchids there were and in some of the smaller rooms, their smell just filled the air. I finally got to see a venus fly-trap, too. They're tiny! In the pictures, they always look at least 5-6 inches (vs. 1/2 an inch) and I had visions of the Audrey II in my head!

Erm, a few weeks ago I saw The Wild Duck at the Donmar with a friend and that was great. It didn't just get a seal clap of approval, but the full-blown "someone might want to aim me in the direction of a bus stop, because otherwise I'm just going to keep wandering" awesomeness! That was also the first day that London had it's whale, so big thanks to my friend Juliana for forwarding the story to me from Chicago! Oh, the internets, you make so many things possible! We went to Battersea to see it, but it was just dusk and that's apparently when they lost sight of it for awhile. We didn't go the next day because it would have been too depressing, but it was cool that we had a whale, even for a little while. It was spotted from one of the railroad bridges in London about 8:30, almost the same time that Libby and I were making our way towards the Donmar, doing our daily run so that I could get in line for day seats. We've been very good about our runs, only missing one day in three weeks (if you ignore the fact that we don't run on days when we have classes, so Wednesday and Thursday are out). Our big goal is to run one of the UK Cancer Research 5Ks in the spring. After those hills in Hampstead, I'm sort of thinking the one through the City of London would be better. Plus, I've made us start doing lunges and those are hurty!

Finally, today is uber, uber, uber exciting because I "won" tickets to see Kofi Annan speak at Westminster Central Hall! Ok, so I applied online and joined the UK UN Society in order to have a better chance, but I'm still soooo excited! Libby's going with me and, although I don't think she's as properly excited as I am, she's still game for it. Plus, we have confirmed reports that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are in town...who knows? Condi, too, but I doubt she'd be there. Our tickets state that the dress code could include national dress and I, for one, wish that either a) Jules were here to loan me something or b) that Americans actually had a national dress. We're going with suits (and a realization that my second suit needs some serious tailoring before the Model UN conference...losing weight + short arms = unacceptable baggyness). So, expect the report! I'm not staying up until 4 to watch the State of the Union. Bush can just go suck it and there's no way I want to kill my Kofi buzz with him.

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