10 Days in May (in London) -- Day 1 (sort of)

Ah, yes, great reader, we are back, Bob & Dorothy, Bing, and...well, the analogy breaks down right off...but we are all in London.

I am working.  Do not dare laugh!  I am.  I really am!  By definition, if you are getting paid, you are working.  I am supposedly getting paid.  So there!

I am here with 8 Lock Haven students.  We are doing "experiential learning" (you cannot explain this to someone who isn't an academic) to support reading the students have done this spring semester, or semesters before.  Or, as I found out at lunch, not at all.  ):

First, the student part (then the food porn): the short version -- it's our first day and only 1 of the 8 has ever been here before, and not with time to spend touristing, so we are started at Parliament Square.  A look at Westminster Bridge (reminding them of the terrorist drivers there the past few years), then at Big Ben's tower (one of them kept saying "you're not supposed to call it Big Ben"), then Westminster Abbey (there were lots of shots).  Then we went east, first by bus (a mess, though with some sites involved) then from St. Paul's by Tube, to Liverpool St., where I walked outside and got lost.  Well, went the wrong way (is it the same thing?).  We ended up in the right place, Brick Lane.

We then ate at an Indian restaurant -- none of them had eaten curry before!  We had maybe 6 different sauces, from korma to vindaloo, with various meats and non-meats.  Chicken, prawns, and lamb.  It was pretty good Indian food.

Then I gave them time to explore, and six of them wanted to go to the National Gallery, so I took them back and left them there.  Here's today's favorite pic from there -- a Gainsborough. I don't know if it's the hair, the hat, or the style, or the the woman's features, but I have always found this striking (I guess first because Gainsborough isn't famous for his portraits).

M&B arrived this morning -- tired, as you'd expect from the overnight flight.  They napped.  K & EH went to Kew Gardens (it was sunny and 72 here -- typical May weather here), which I was told was in full bloom.

Now for the food porn (one of the famous features of this blog).

Everyone except me was hungry for dinner, so we found a Peruvian tapas place (what the f is Peruvian tapas?)  in downtown Marylebone.  We asked the waiter to just pick for us and she brought us 12 items.  This my highlight -- pork belly.  Everything is better with upper grade bacon on it. :)

This is the most unusual...octopus on a bed of comfit potatoes and baby greens.  Octopus.  [insert arm jokes here]

And that's day one.  Tomorrow the students go to Hampton Court Palace and to the Globe for a play -- As You Like It.  Big day.  Knock on wood, it's supposed to be nice, too.

Until then...