Natural History Museum and General Thoughts on London

I'm still sick. My ears creak and squeak, my throat feels like I unsuccessfully tried to swallow a golf ball, and I'm intermittently feverish. However, I feel amazingly better than I have all this week, so I figured it was time to go out and explore the neighborhood.

I was too sick to go to Kensington Gardens with everyone else (and I knew I would have to make up the trip), so I started walking up there. It's only about 1/2 mile away, so it's no big deal. The weather had been cloudy all morning, but little to no rain. Of course, the moment I stepped outside, it started sprinkling. No biggie. I bring my umbrella everywhere just for that reason. As I'm walking, it gets worse, but nothing I can't handle. Finally, when I get within about a block of the park, it starts raining in earnest, the wind gusts, and my umbrella turns inside-out. I took it as a sign and turned back. However, I didn't want my walk to be in vain (and I really didn't want to stare at the same 4 walls of the flat for the rest of the afternoon), so I decided to pop by one of the museums on the way home.

Now a couple of observations about London in general:

1) Londoners are ALWAYS in a rush. No one strolls, even the mother talking her child on a walk in the sunshine. I walk slowly even when I'm feeling great, so I immediately feel out of place on the sidewalks. I figured they might slow down in the museum, but largely, no. People seemed to charge from exhibit and exhibit as if they were late for an appointment.

2) London smells funny. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's a rancid buttery, smoky smell. It's even less pleasant than it sounds. It's very odd to me because it comes up randomly, and I can't quite figure out the source. However, I'm certain that when I got home, I'll find that it smells odd there as well. Unfortunately, though, to me, the whole museum smelled vaguely gross. Maybe that's why I have no appetite here.

3) London weather hates me. I think it stopped raining just as soon as I went into the museum.

4) London drivers are very scary, but I haven't had too many more close calls. However, given the choice of taking a longer walk on the same side of the street, versus having to cross the street more, but having a shorter walk, I'll definitely take the longer walk. And I'm lazy! It does make me yearn for home, though. Who knew that I would look forward to the sanity of traffic in Los Angeles?

Anyhow, the museum wasn't very good. The building was spectacular, but the exhibits were dusty and depressing. On the upside, I saw my first dodo pelt. Uh whee?

One other thing I found out is that this area of the city is absolutely crawling with tourists. I mostly heard French and German, but there were definitely a smattering of American accents tossed in there as well. It's funny how easily one can pick out the Americans. I make a game of it on the street. See, Londoners are generally slim, and look like they want to be any place but where they are. They wear dark leather shoes and practical over garments. I haven't seen a Londoner over 25 (save construction workers) wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I can always spot the American 20-something females. They are a bit curvier, have on jeans, a form-fitting t-shirt (or a couple layered shirts), a sweatshirt, and flip-flops. They invariably travel in packs and are often carrying maps and looking lost. Generally speaking, if someone is wearing tennis shoes, they are a tourist. Exceptions may be given for small, ballet-slipper-like fashionable tennies.

Well, I'm going to get back to my reading, but that's my thoughts for having been here a week. Well, actually, one more thing. The car bombs.

I haven't been out of the flat much because I've been so sick. I've wanted to go down to the pub and strike up a conversation with a local and see their take on things. What I've found by way of the TV news, though, is that this isn't a huge deal. I mean, yeah, it is important, but if this happened in Los Angeles, we would have breaking news on this every 10 minutes. I've gotten more details from CNN than from BBC. I can't tell you why, but I'm assuming it's because no one was hurt, and these folks had pretty rudimentary devices. On the boards that I'm on, someone commented that they must be running the terrorist special olympics, and that just kind of summed up what I think people are feeling about this. I mean, they lived through the IRA -- they have "army" in their name for god's sake -- so why would a couple of amateurs like these knuckleheads ruffle anyone's feathers?