We Are Tourists in London for a Day

[Music: Beach House's new album, "Teen Dream"]

Because I should be doing homework, I am updating my blog.

#1: I have a cold. (I mostly say that so my family can feel sorry for me.) Which means I have consumed even more tea today than usual. Which is a lot. Also, I probably got the cold in London. So that's kind of romantic, right? I miss how Laura used to come in the room when I was sick and start coughing pitifully and say "Pa, I think I've got the black lung!" Yes, I miss how she used to mock me.

#2: Reading for this week, GET THIS: Alice in Wonderland (Carroll), The Man Who Was Thursday (G.K. Chesterton), and Measure for Measure (Shakespeare).

#3: A Summary of the London trip:

Simon (picture below) -- our witty, jovial, sarcastic, and hilarious tour guide/student life leader/counselor -- led us through the historical sites of London for the whole day, beginning at the Marble Arch bus stop and ending in Chinatown for supper at the Friendly Inn. I swear, that man knows everything there is to know about London's history. The main thing you need to know: "This whole town is lying on blood, really."

(Simon)

The rest of this is going to be bullet-point form. Read the ones that seem interesting:

• The U.S. Embassy is built on land owned by the Duke of Westminster. It's on a 999-year lease to us. It is also fantastically ugly.

• The taxis are made like old cars from, like, the 30's or something.

• The Monument to the Great fire of London (1666) is 202 feet high and has 311 steps spiralling up inside of it -- kind of like Dante's circles of hell, according to Emily. You have no idea how many steps that is until you've climbed about 155 up and you still have just as many more to go and your knees are wobbling. But it was so worth it.

• We saw all those things you read about and hear about: the places and monuments that figure into great novels and poems and history. Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben, the Tower of London. As we walked along the Thames in the evening and watched the inky water heave and ripple and cast back sparkling reflections of all the city lights, Kate and I were awed and silenced by two things: 1) How much great literature has been inspired by this very river. 2) WHY DID WE NOT HAVE BOYFRIENDS WITH US? It was epically romantic.

• Even surrounded by all those monuments, and the incredible art inside the National Gallery, I continue to be far more fascinated by the people I pass by. I love seeing the statues, but relationships between live people will keep my attention much longer.

(...what is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face, / Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you...)

(The certainty of others--the life, love, sight, hearing of others.)

(Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you are to me!)

("Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," Walt Whitman)

There was so much to see, and of course we all want to go back because we haven't begun to see the half of it. That's all I got for now, though, mostly because this post is already atrociously long and my brain is all fuzzy from the Sudafed I took an hour ago.

Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers; / Expand.