Since I arrived here in London, I've also spent a good bit of my time binging on British television. The Brits do reality tv better than we Americans do, that's for sure. Some highlights from last night's programmes - Life on the Dole (a documentary about welfare recipients in Scotland), The Great British Sewing Bee (contestants battled to create a corset), and Britain's Biggest Primary School (sex education as taught in a British elementary school). Tonight will be the new season of House of Cards.
I made it to Sydenham back to where I volunteered for a month at St. Christopher's Hospice. It was fun checking out the neighborhood again, and I had lunch at the pub around the corner from where we lived. Seemed exactly the same as I remember with the red phone booth inside the front door. I tried to find the house where we stayed, but I wasn't exactly sure I was on the right street, and I wasn't about to knock on doors.
As for the hospice visit itself, I sort of had a half thought that when I showed up at the front desk, they would take one look at me, recognize me for the terrific student I was, and hire me immediately to work full time. Instead they said, we only do public tours on Fridays. So I'm returning today to see if I can join the group.
I did venture out to see the Old Operating Theatre in London Bridge, a theatre-in-the-round sort of museum showing an 1800's operating room. The staff gives talks about what surgery was like in those days: little anesthesia, hacking off of limbs in amputations, only primitive instruments. Not something anyone should see or hear on an empty stomach. I watched the first few episodes of The Knick, and it reminds me a lot of that.
Maybe I'll spend some time the next couple of days wandering around some of London's finest museums. I would like to go to the Victoria and Albert. The locals always told us that was their favorite, but I don't recall whether we ever went ourselves. The website calls it "The world's greatest museum of art and design" and shows some interesting modernesque-looking exhibits.
I finally met some people who are also staying at the hostel where I've been living. We went out to the pubs one night this week. They are leaving London soon to head to the beaches in Greece. They want me to come with them, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I feel aimless still, but I have some ideas for where I might want to go. I feel like traveling by myself is what I need right now, not partying with a bunch of strangers I'll never see again.
More later or tomorrow or whenever.
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