Leo and Bryce do BogMan 2005

Well, as announced here is my rendition of today. If you haven't already, scroll down and read Bryce's first because he typed it first and therefore it should come first but it doesn't the way this thing posts. I promised him I wouldn't read his until I posted(the little pansy). So if he made any bets or guesses as to what I would type...blast, there's not much I can do about that.
We slept in late as a result of our walking about 15+ miles yesterday, according to Bryce's shady pedometer. Who knew we would end up walking more today? Looks like our total will be WAY up there. We tubed it into town and failed to find Notting Hill(Hugh Grant would be ashamed). We did find our way to Hyde Park, their version of Central Park, and ended up walking the length of that(no easy task). We visited the British Museum and saw some awesomely ancient stuff (an archaeologists dream). He probably told you about the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon, so I'll mention the kick ass stone handaxes that early humans(australopithecus and homo erectus) used, which were by far the oldest objects in the museum. Some of them were 2 million years old!! The new ones were 200,000! We also saw the famous Bog Man, who was killed and dumped in a swamp, which beautifully preserved his remains for nearly 2000 years before he was found by a peat collector. The boring archaeologist in me will now cease talking and the cool pop culture guy will take over...
We saw Ross from Friends in a play! And it was really good and funny and I sat next to a really hot girl, who sat next to her mother unfortunately. The play was about this guy who was trying to reconcile with 4 of his exes that he wronged when they broke up. Kind of a High Fidelity vibe, which rocked for me. Bryce said he identified with the guy, who was basically a jackass. I also identified that the character was a jackass like Bryce.
Sidenote-The new Coldplay album has been my London soundtrack...so fitting. It was eerily poignant to listen to it on the tube looking out over the London suburbs and while I was people-watching at Trafalgar Square. So check out X&Y!
The whole point of us double posting came from the fact that we split up for the first time today because Bryce wanted to go see some boring WWII rooms whereas I wanted to see the reconstruction of the Globe theater that Shakepeare's plays were performed in. We'll take a poll now-which was the better and more sophisticated choice? Post with your thoughts. The Globe was really cool and was built to the exact specifications of the theater from the early 1600's. It looked just like it did in Shakespeare in Love, which was a real treat for me;)
A highlight of the day was on the tube ride back to Mike and Kate's who by the way, are totally awesome! I don't know if that came through in the last post, but they are so nice for taking us in and showing us around. We haven't thanked them appropriately but we will, even if Kate hates American wankers like Bryce and me by association. We love her...and Morgan ;) ...anyway back to the highlight. This Scottish woman, clearly tipsy, stumbles past us and tries to go through the door to the next car and can't get through. At this time, I'm making a bad joke about sticking my head through that door and saying Heeere's Johnny, in a weird threateningly Shining way. She turns around and says 'Another American? Blimey!' and then basically tells us off. So we try to get on her good side by naming all the things we know and like about Scotland. The extent of my list was Andy Murray(the tennis player we just saw), Trainspotting, and the supposed location of Hogwarts. She retched at all of these, especially the Potter reference(which broke my heart), and it was at this point that I pretended to be Canadian. We told her all about our trip and she seemed to warm up to us after that, telling us not to talk to Parisians because they're scoundrels and that she'd rather poke her eyes out than go to Orlando. I think we charmed our way into her heart with my alarmingly decent French accent(in her opinion) and Bryce's not talking too much, because at her stop she gave us both kisses goodbye and wished us the best of luck. Not bad when our conversation started with her calling us a name I still can't identify. It's these priceless interactions that I can't wait for more of! They are what will make this trip amazing.
On an end note...LONDON IS AWESOME! I can't pick which day has been my favorite because they have all been so good, and in quite different ways. The city is so international and yet so British. I'm definitely coming back!

Leo

p.s. thanks to everyone for the warm birthday wishes. It was definitely the most laid back and low key birthday ever for me. I don't think Mike and Kate even knew about it and I spent the whole day with them(Haha). And Mom, don't worry about the phone call. I'm not dead. Love ya!