Here's a really nice house/property we walked by. It must cost so much money because it's quite a bit of land for being in the city. Very beautiful. And I'm wearing my new jacket I bought, there are lots of sales on these days (I think they must be over by now) to get rid of the winter clothes.

Marx's Grave

Robyn and I went to Marx's grave in a cool old cemetery that was like a forest in some places. It took a long time to get there because some of the subway was closed, but we made it eventually. His grave is the biggest in the graveyard, and says on the top "workers of all lands unite" and at the bottom "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point however is to change it". Pretty cool quote! Sometime I want to head to the British Library (it's very close) and Robyn says we can read his original manuscripts. I guess he and Lenin worked in that library, so cool!

Almost done week 3!

So I'm back in London and so far it's been great. I'm starting two new courses (Gender and European welfare states, and Social Policy: Organisation and Innovation). So far they are very interesting, with good lectures and seminars. I'm also continuing my Social Policy research course which is also very good. Ive been doing a lot of reading to try to get a question for my thesis, which is time-consuming, but so far Ive been staying on top of things.
The first weekend back I went to Kew Gardens (below), and the next weekend I went to a cool market, had really great coffee and bought some tasty (but expensive) cheese. I also bought some jeans, first time in a long time! Luckily I had my friends to help because shopping can be awful. I've integrated two friends, Winnie and Robyn, so we do lots of stuff together.
Last week I handed in a paper that is marked but it doesn't count. I did pretty well on it which is good because I put a lot of work into it. Also I went to a Pantomine - a British Christmas tradition of making a funny play based on a fairy-tale, that includes singing and dancing and audience participation, like booing at the bad-guys, helping them find who stole the money, and stuff like that. It's meant for kids but is fun for all ages! So that was quite enjoyable, although not hoity-toity like the art gallery I went to with class-mates last Friday. It had real famoun art (Van Gosh, Manet, etc) and we free! We'll be heading back sometime, it's 2 mins away from campus.
I'll try to take some pictures this weekend to post since I haven't been keeping up with it. I have pictures of the slides at Tate Modern that I went to before christmas but for some reason they will not load up in right way. Oh well.

Kew Gardens

Robyn and I went here one sunny Sunday afternoon. It was nice to get out of the city and into nature, although every few minutes a giant plane flew overhead and made a lot of noise, since we were so close to the airport. So that part made it not so fun. The first picture is of Kew Palace, which isn't open in the winter. There were also a lot of peacocks, and the ones here are on machinery in the compost heap, which is one of the biggest in the UK. Pretty good for a place that is dismal at recycling!

Kew gardens green house

This green house was pretty cool, mostly tropical-type trees and plants and not many flowers. I'm standing by one big leany tree, don't know what kind, but it's cool! We walked up some stairs to a balcony that went around the greenhouse for a view from the top. Robyn is posing by some plants and the other picture is the view from the balcony. It was nice to be in the tropics in January in London!