Dispatches from London, Part 2

Ah, insomnia, you are not my friend.

I always have a hard time sleeping when I'm away from home, but my first night here I was so wiped out that with a little help from some melatonin, I was down for the count all night. I slept until almost 10:00 local time, which *would* be a record for me, until you consider that it was really only almost 5:00 in my normal, home time...

Now, it's about 4:30 local time and I have been up for a while. And since the rest of the house is asleep (although I think my brother-in-law will be up shortly as he has to travel for work today), it seems a good chance to reflect on my trip thus far.

More random observations include the fact that Cadbury chocolate from the UK is FAR superior to Cadbury chocolate from the US. That said, I still am a devoted fan of all things Cadbury, particularly Cadbury Mini-Eggs around Easter. Also, I've noticed that every family with small children here places a clear plastic tent over babies' strollers, forming little bubbles that protect said babies from rain, wind and the rest of the environment. I've never seen such a thing in Charleston, but then, it doesn't rain quite this much in Charleston, and when it does, most people stay home. There doesn't appear to be a choice here, though, about the weather. You go out, even in the cold, damp drizzle, which is what we did yesterday.

OK, enough random observations. More about what we *did* instead.

We hopped on the underground again (good thing I bought a week-long, all-encompassing Underground pass, innit?) to head to South Bank, which is where you can find things like Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey. (Yes, I had my all-American, Chevy Chase moment, and did say, at least twice, "Big Ben...Parliament...Big Ben...Parliament...") The Abbey is actually closed on Sundays to tourists, so we walked around the Cloisters, which were amazing. It's incredible to stand on stones that were laid hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and to look at the intricate brickwork and try to fathom how it was all built. Crazy to contemplate.

We walked down the banks of the River Thames, and although the weather left a LOT to be desired (chasing us into a Starbucks at one point for sandwiches and hot drinks just to thaw out a little), it was still really beautiful at times. At other times...all I can say is TOURISTS!! I was surrounded by tourist-traps, but we mostly just skirted those areas.

There's a cute little used-book place where I looked for old British printings of Kurt Vonneguts, but found none. Rats. I would have loved to have found something cool for Charles there. I did, however, find an old British printing of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and I grabbed that for my own collection.

We toured the rebuilt Globe Theater(re), which was pretty lovely. They have some nice exhibits, and it was cool to be in the theater itself and pretend to be from Elizabethan London. Of course, that suspension of disbelief would be easier if the floors weren't concrete, but what can you do, right?

We took a quick walk through the Tate Modern, where we saw an exhibit of millions of tiny, porcelain sunflower seeds, which was kind of bizarre and kind of cool. I could have spent a million dollars in that gift shop on books and cool t-shirts for Zoe, but I restrained myself; most of the books could be gotten cheaper online, I'm sure, and what kid wants a cool t-shirt in exchange for losing their mother for five days? No, she's going to get cool toys when we go to the toy museum later today.

By the end of an exhibit or two at the Tate, we were all exhausted, so we headed back to the flat, made some dinner, watched a documentary about Madagascar, and I've been tossing and turning ever since. So tonight, I'll pull out the big guns...Benadryl, here I come!!

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Charles and Zoe are still having a great time. The weather has still been wonderful for them, and I'm happy about that.

But when we skyped this morning, the first thing Zoe said to me was, "I was crying this morning because I wanted you." Nothing like an accidental two-year-old guilt trip. Then, this afternoon, the internet connection here was spotty, and I could see and hear Zoe, Charles and my mom, but while they could see me, they couldn't hear me, which freaked Zoe out. So that was a less-than-satisfying conversation.

So I'm definitely getting homesick and am missing my cozy little family a ton. I'm glad they are getting on so well without me, but I'm starting to daydream about getting back to them.