After the harrowing day I had at the BL with almost losing my research papers, I decided to take myself out for dinner to a pub. Great plan, but one problem - the World Cup. While the games would normally be a big deal but definitely cope-able, tonight's game was between England and Croatia. So, every pub was packed with wacky English football fans. I decided to nix the pub idea and just get some fish and chips from the take away place nearby. When I ordered my scampi, I had to repeat the word "scampi" three times because my accent on the word evidently makes is incomprehensible to most English people.

I took my meal over to Tavistock Square (just north of Russell and Bloomsbury Squares) and sat on bench to eat. I think this one my favorite squares in the area because it's very secluded from the traffic and yet right on Great Russell Street. The square has at its center a statue of Gandhi sitting cross-legged on a hollow pedestal that people put flowers in. It's very peaceful, and isn't as crowded as its more famous neighboring squares. Tavistock is particularly interesting to me because, as I learned reading a biographical note the other day, one of my authors lived much of her life overlooking the square. It's pretty cool to be reading about the places you're walking through on a daily basis. As I'm writing this, I can hear the shouts of the football fans in the area watching the game. I think England's doing well, although I have to admit I'm pulling for Croatia:-)

Random Observations:

• Water fountains at the BL have taps for filling cups in addition to the regular fountain- smart thinkin'
• I can't find black beans at the grocery store, but they do have at least 2 million cans of baked beans on the bean aisle
• You have flip the fuse on most electrical sockets when you use them - I think it saves electricity or something
• Englishmen use more hair gel than the entire male population of the US and they all use it to make their short hair into a sort of a mini-mohawk
• People are shocked when you smile at them
• Five people working at the Rare Books room now recognize and nod to me
• English bathroom stalls go almost all the way to floor rather the annoying foot between floor and stalls in the US
• The only place you get minced garlic is in the Indian shops - it's called rajah (sp?)
• English breakfast is bizarre notion on a regular basis
• The reason why most Londoners seem to be not wearing enough clothes for the weather is because they walk so fast that they get warmed up rather quickly
• Someone thought I was from Canada today
• I can lose things even in room the size of my bathroom in Gainesville
• English paper is slightly bigger than 8.5x11 and they call it A4
• The BL makes serious money on copies - maybe that's how they funded their lovely building (for delicate books, they make the copies for you and charge 1 pound ($2) a page)
• The very large two pound coin is in fact the most annoyingly heavy and big coin ever
• It gets light here at 4am and doesn't get dark until 9
• The copy guy in the Rare Books Reading Room told me that the designers of the new BL building didn't consider that people would want to make copies (duh!) - that's why all the copy rooms are odd rooms with no windows
• The English use military time numbers but still say PM for the evening