Over the Hump

We're officially over the hump. Dad emailed me last week to tell me on that fateful Irish day that we had reached the official halfway point, but it basically went unnoticed (mostly because I was in Ireland and had no time to spare on thoughts of ever leaving). But today I've decided it should be noticed. So we're over the hump! Bizarre. As Katie Rose and I were saying this weekend, being here is incredible. We both love it and are so grateful for the experience. But that won't make our return home any less sweet.

Now, back to Shannon...

I woke up in plenty of time on Monday, and had already asked the front desk to call a cab for me at 9:30am, thus leaving a good cushion of time such that, even if the cab was to be late, I would still be plenty early at the airport. Silly me. I was early, the cab was early, there was no traffic, and I was left at the Shannon airport with 2 and a half hours to kill til my flight at 12:15. Thank goodness for free Wi-Fi, because I don't know what I'd have done with myself (finished the book the night before, so I probably would've spent an arm and a leg at the book shop in the airport buying another). So I spent the majority of those 2.5 hours on espn.com looking at the box scores from the Phillies and Eagles games from the weekend, and doing further research on places to watch American baseball in London.

Flight was completely uneventful. Had a lovely chicken and stuffing sandwich on the plane (nice airline food, Aer Lingus. Really tasty), and landed in London. The tube was PACKED, so I stood for most of the hour-long journey to Holborn station (and was glad I had eaten on the plane), and then was back safely. Went to College Arms for a bit, and then Nick and I went on to Bodean's BBQ restaurant in Soho to watch the taped Phillies victory. It was awesome to watch the game, but the prices were not awesome. And while we would have just gotten drinks and hung out, that was apparently not an option; our waiter said we had to order food of some sort, so we split nachos and guacamole and fries. Again, for too much money. But no matter, we were drinking Blue Moons, watching the Phillies. Maybe the money was worth it after all.

Yesterday was a joint class for Susie and Barnaby. We went to Whitechapel Art Gallery in the East End of the city, and checked out the pop art there. Susie talked about how the East End has always been Immigration Central in London, and Barnaby talked about how the gallery there has embraced
art for art's sake" even when that was a very unaccepted view. The entire afternoon was spent reading Hamlet in preparation for today's class with Jean. Boo.

No class this morning, Jean this afternoon. Eating 1 pound pizza right now for dinner. It's a bit early, but I'm ok with it. And for my next trick, I'm going to upload some of those pictures from Ireland. In another post. Here goes!