Surprise couch surfing

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Will and Levin met some American students studying in Italy for the fall who were traveling to London for the weekend. Looking for a place to stay, they invited them to stay at our flat. I'm glad it happened because they were awesome.
Danny, Will and Kiki assess some professional photographs at Piccadilly Circus.
AJ, Will and Danny enjoying the tube ride. Except Will, who is thoroughly displeased with me taking a picture.

Imperial War Museum and Looking Ahead

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A Churchill Mark VII Infantry Tank, the last true infantry tank to serve with the British Army. Over 5,500 were produced between 1941 and 1945. It was especially valued for its thick armor (better than previous marks), a redesigned heavy turret, heavier suspension, an improved gearbox and a 75mm gun rather than the earlier two and six-pounders.
An M4 Sherman V Tank. American-built but known by its British name of Sherman, it was one of the most important Allied tanks of WWII. Though inferior to German and Soviet tanks at the time, it was simple to operate and maintain, it was reliable, fast, durable and had an uncomplicated design. This was all very important for a tank that was being mass produced (over 40,000 were built between 1942 and 1946).

Today I traveled from Edgware to the Elephant and Castle station all on the Bakerloo line to get to the Imperial War Museum. I was most excited about all the various war vehicles and weaponry kept in the ground and first and second floors, and I was really excited about them having a Churchill Mark VII tank and a Sherman V tank on the ground floor. Maybe it's from playing too much Company of Heroes but World War II is of particular interest to me and seeing these two tanks there was amazing. Also displayed in the museum with other WWI and II aircraft was a German V1 rocket attached to an autopiloted pulse-jet engine. These were key to Germany's terror campaign in Britain. As the rocket approached it had a unique buzzing sound that got louder and louder until the engine suddenly cut out after reaching a set distance from the target. After a few moments of eerie silence the bomb would detonate. (Audio of V1 Rocket)

Anyway, I had to rush because I got at the museum at 2:30 and it closed at 6:00, so I didn't get to spend as much time as I'd have liked to, so I'll most likely be back sometime.

Other than that, I've been working on my fall break plans. I booked a flight to Dinard, France on the friday before break and will be heading up to Cherbourg to stay for the night. That's about all I've managed to do so far though. I wanted to plan everything, but now I'm starting to think I should just go to France and wing it. I did buy three Eyewitness Travel books, for France, Switzerland and Germany and they're all pretty helpful in figuring out what to do and how to go about doing it.

Two weekends before fall break I'm going with Andrew and Juliette to Grenoble, France, where we intend to go southward through the French, or Swiss, Alps down along the coast of Provence, or the Côte d'Azur, making a few stops along the way and ending at Marseille, where we'll fly back to London.

So, I'm cutting southern France out of my fall break plans for now. I'll most likely stay in Normandy for a couple of days, then to Paris for another two or so days. Then I'll head to Switzerland again and into Bavaria where I really want to visit Schloss Neuschwanstein. But I still need to really look into what I want to do in Switzerland and Germany.

Speaking of Germany, I booked a train through a German line today, and the site and all the interfaces I had to use to sign up were all in German, so hopefully I didn't mess anything up.
A red double-decker coach drives over Westminster Bridge in front of the Houses of Parliament.

I decided to walk a bit instead of taking the tube directly from the Imperial War Museum to the flat. I walked over Westminster Bridge, past Parliament and the Abbey, and took the tube back from St. James's Park to Paddington Station. I'm only writing this so these two pictures appear to have a purpose.
Paddington Station at dusk.

On a separate note, lien du jour.

Tubes, Stores and People

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Edgware Station and the Bakerloo Line.

Today I went down to Oxford Street to do a little exploring and shopping. I'm really excited that I basically have the tube system figured out. It isn’t nearly as complicated as the NYC station is to me. It's also a ton cleaner, and there aren't dodgy or homeless people on it. It makes busy days on tube when everyone is cramming onto the train before the doors close a lot easier when it’s evident that the people you are uncomfortably close to are clean, normal people.

I got off at the Marble Arch station and walked along Oxford Street for a bit. The buildings on either side of the road primarily sell clothing, and the entire area was very busy. Saturday is the big shopping day. I’d rather go during the evening on weeknights, but the vast majority of stores close at either 5 or 6 p.m. for some reason. It’s too bad, because I wake up kind of late, have classes until 5, and then everything is closed for the evening.

Primark is almost the Wal-Mart of the U.K., at least in terms of controversy. It sells clothing and some household items like bed sheets and curtains, and everything is suspiciously cheap. Of course, with my budget and the fact that the USD is horrible, it’s hard to resist. Primark sources its supply very cheaply and uses sub par materials for their products, I have read. It also ran into some trouble just earlier this summer when the BBC uncovered three garment manufacturing facilities in India subcontracted under Primark that were using child labor. Primark said it had no idea. It’s also gotten some publicity about poor workers’ rights.

Everything else on Oxford Street was too expensive for me. I also stopped into a bookstore and bought a few travel guides on the countries I’m thinking of visiting for fall break, France, Germany and Switzerland.

The people in the flat below us had a note delivered to our flat, complaining about noise. But rather than the type of noise you’d think of somewhere like a house on Ackerman Ave. emanating, they referred only to a specific incident where someone in the house dropped a pair of shoes on the ground, and how they can also sometimes hear us treading down our corridor. They ended their note by suggesting we purchase softer shoes like slippers so as to help us quiet down.

None of us were particular happy about this, mostly because they’re being ridiculous. We’re all trying very hard to keep the noise down, conscious already about Americans having a reputation of being loud and obnoxious. I don’t know what their problem is.