Dinosaurs and fetuses and burgers, oh my!

And here I am, once again, writing in the computer lab in the midst of the sophisticated chaos that is the Ithaca College London Centre because we have no internet within our flat. It's not a huge deal because it will be coming within the next few days (they promised by Monday), so now all there is to deal with is the cacaophony of clacking Dell keyboards. No offense to Dell, they just can't make as quiet sounding tappage as the MacBook Pro in my backpack that has no charger.

Things have broken since I have arrived here in London. My surge-protected power strip exploded in an outlet (hilarious) and the charger for my computer made funny noises and now will not charge my computer (not as hilarious). Life goes on, however, and how it DOES go on. Adventures are rather prevalent in London, both in the mind of long-term tourists and in the air surrounding every brick of every building built in glorious limestone that barely manages to shimmer in the morning light of another London day. This is why I am so glad to be here...that and the ability to experience...experiences like yesterday.

Luke and I both had the day completely off yesterday and decided to make a trip over to see one of the worthwhile museums in the city of London: the Natural History Museum. The slightly cold walk over was well worth it, especially when we turned the corner and saw multi-colored banner heralding our entrance into this fascinating edifice of wonder. It was enormous, ginormous to be exact. It looked like a cross between the Houses of Parliament and a cathedral with a modern glass-windowed extension being built onto the back. As soon as we got in, it was crazy awesome. Huge ceilings always make me happy, so this was no exception. But the first thing you see when you walk in the door is a giant dinosaur skeleton. And that's when I knew that it would be amazing.

So we wandered the dinosaur exhibit first, the child inside of us screaming and running around, wanting to walk back 65 million years or so to chill with an iguanadon or watch a velociraptor (which I want to be, by the way) hunt for prey in large packs. There were probably 6 simultaneous field trips going on, all of which had small British 3rd graders copying down dino facts sloppily into large notebooks while the boys were grossed out the girls, talking about a T-Rex tearing open a brontosaurus.

Yum. So after wandering through that for 45 minutes and marveling at the T-Rex's resemblance to a certain 1995 flick starring Richard Attenborough, we made our way across the hall to the Human Biology exhibit.

The Brits have an amazing sense of humor or naivity when it comes to the human body and explaining everything about it, I haven't decided yet. When entering the aforementioned exhibit, I was stuck by the fact that I was starting at a large diagram of chromosomes, DNA and where all of that comes from and how it gets there and so on and so forth. Wow. Diagrams are EVERYTHING. So we moved past the adults who were a little too absorbed and the snickering middle schoolers and headed on down the line...but were suddenly stopped by a room that we had not yet encountered, something defying normalcy, convention and sheer reason. It's like skydiving; you have to experience it for yourself...except there's not a ripcord here, there's an umbilical cord. Propped up against one wall in what was probably designed to be a mother's womb with seating for curious viewers and thrill seekers was an 8-foot tall fetus. It was like Frankenstein without the bolts through its neck: large, cumbersome, ready to come alive and just as scary, if not more so. It gives me chills thinking that I was once like this, a large blob of gook inside of someone, wrapped within their innards with a pounding heartbeat drowning out any hope of conversation with the placenta. My mom must have really loved me because if I saw that thing inside of me, two things would happen. First, I'd wonder how there was a peach colored alien inside of my tummy, since I'm a guy. Second, I'd be scared for my life and want it out as soon as possible. Pictures of this will be added later, don't you worry.

That was the highlight of the excursion, I'd have to say. Wandering through the rest of the castle-sized structure, we played memory games involving men in yellow sweaters attacking us with knives, saw volcanic eruptions that spread over Japanese cities and passed by extremely overpriced cookies in the cafe area. After declaring ourselves too tired to see the rest of the museum, we padded back across a couple of intersections and tried to forget the knowledge we had just gained with an XL Bacon Cheeseburger from Burger King. Food really is the great equalizer. It's also a wonderful way to make yourself forget that you just saw a sign teaching you how to tell boys and girls apart.


Outside of that, however, it's been a great first week here. The flat is looking great and we're having a great time together thus far.

This week has been fairly busy, but will only get busier as the weekend approaches. I have an interview with the ESPN people I'm working this tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. and there needs to be some sort of plan for the weekend after I get back on Saturday night, as I will be going to visit my grandmother's relatives this coming Saturday over in Blackheath. The name of every city and town and borough in London makes me want to fake an accent or become a chimney sweep. *sigh* Why am I so American?

At any rate, I'd better be wrapping this up. Hopefully the next time I put something up, there will be pictures with it and it will be done from our own flat!...not from the London Centre.