You have exactly 15 seconds to raise your umbrella.

They aren't kidding when they say it rains every day in London. It literally has for the 4 days I have been here.

I compare the weather here to Ohio's - completely unpredictable (warm and sunny, then windy, rainy and cold) - except in Ohio the variations occur over the course of a couple of days, not minutes. When it rains in London, it pours - but you typically have a warning drizzle for approximately 15 seconds before the clouds really let loose.


The Greenwich campus is beautiful. We've explored it a couple of days now between our literature lectures. Hannah and I had a very poetic lunch today, thinking about life as we overlooked the Thames from our perch on old moss-covered steps that lead down to the river from the college.


Two group excursions into London so far. On Monday, we did a DUKW (amphibious vehicle) tour to see the major sites of the city. Today, we explored artwork at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The square was beautiful - perfect for pictures. We all climbed up to get photos with the large lion statues - and I literally mean climbed. I was okay until I tried to come down, which resulted in a little bit of a panic as I envisioned not landing properly and suffering a debilitating injury when I jumped. (It is a little ironic - I am a little uncomfortable with free falling 2 1/2 feet but want to go sky diving.)





I had three favorites at the National Gallery: Turner's Rain, Steam, and Speed - the Great Western Railway (Click HERE to see it on the National Gallery's website). I am not huge on the abstract, but it was interesting the way he subtly created the impressions of the train and a hare crossing in front of it through the strokes of rain. (Look out for the bridge and boat in the left corner).

My other two are actually a pair by two different artists (Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen Sheba - Click HERE and Turner's Dido Building Carthage - Click HERE). Turner's is a "romanticized" version of Claude's - with turmoil and tension and uncontrolled nature.

The night ended with a little karaoke (Sonny and Cher - of course). Our resident advisers here at Greenwich took us out to the North/South Pole pub for karaoke night.

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