Sunday morning it was cold but only a little cloudy, so I sent out walking north along Everholt road towards Camden Town. I had been warned by my trusty Lonely Planet London guide that this market was likely to be very touristy, but I figured it would fine since I was in fact a tourist. The market is actually three markets that merge into one as each is off Camden High Street. Mostly, the market consists of trendy t-shirts and shoes that are way too expensive for Americans dealing with an awful exchange rate. I did see some nice handmade jewelry, but doubling the prices in my head effectively kept me from being tempted to purchase anything. The market also has a number of antique stalls, but these folks know their business and there were no bargains to be had. My favorite part of the market was the handmade linens and batik prints. If I lived here, I would definitely buy some of the lovely pillows and such. Not exactly something you can shove into a suitcase.

I was exhausted after my trip to the market - I think I'm still adjust to the time and get tired very easily. I went back to the centre and ended up taking a very delicious nap, which was only made better by the sound of rain on my windows. It ended up raining off and on for the rest of Sunday, so I spent the day relaxing and working redesigning my website (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/lhager/). Kind of a boring day, but probably necessary nonetheless. It was nice not to have to go anywhere and figure anything out. That's the thing about being in a foreign country - everything requires much more energy that ought to because you have to think about even the most simple things just because it's not what you're used to.

As I was getting my stuff together for the BL the next day, I couldn't find the papers I had with me there on Saturday. I search everything in room and realized that I must have left them at the BL. I remembered having them checked by the security guard on my way out of the reading room (they check to make sure you're not stealing anything a la Possession). So, what I must have done was set them down in the locker I was using while I was putting other things in my bag and just left them there. Much panic going on. What if they had been thrown away or stolen? How could I recreate all that work? Let's just say I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

Consequently, I went to the BL first thing and asked the information desk people about my papers. They called down to Lost Property who said that nothing of that sort had been found. Okay, so now I really start to panic. And, as many of you know, my first reaction with any intense emotion is to cry. I wanted to cry, right there in the lobby of the BL. I took a deep breath, walked to the bathroom, and thought about locking myself in a stall to get the crying out. But I decided that I could control myself and walked back out to the lobby and sat down. I tried to think about redoing the work, but then I realized that the journal I had been using to record my impressions and write this travelogue was among the papers. That I could not recreate - the journal had been made especially for me by a good friend. So, I took deep breath and went back to the information desk. Trying to keep my voice from wavering as much as possible, I asked if someone could look again. The woman said she would call someone to take me down to Lost Property. When the security guard came for me, I walked with her and asked her about the papers. Miracle and upon miracle she had found some papers in a locker on Saturday. She went into the office to look, but came back saying that they had not been taken there yet. So, she went to the security office and returned, much to my everlasting relief, with my papers. Let's hear it for the BL security people! And, finally up I went to the Rare Books Reading Room.