Do You Know the Muffin Man?

"Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?. Do you know the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane???"

This used to be one of my favorite nursery rhymes when I was little :) It was really fun to be able to see the actual street :) 

This morning started out with a walking tour about Charles Dickens. We got off near the river and proceeded to walk around the city while our guide, an employee of FIE who knows much about the Dickensian & Victorian Eras, pointed out locations that were relevant to Dickens' himself as well as his novels.  

We dodged down narrow alleyways, through Covent Gardens, and into the squares of law (lawyers all over the U.K. must belong to one of the four courts of law, located only in London, to be a practicing lawyer. Dickens worked as a court reporter during his younger years in one of these court buildings and was known to have despised the job.

After class, a few of us headed to Primark...again...to return a dress of mine which was first too small, and then too large. I finally waited in line for 20 minutes to find the one that was just right...starting to sound like the three bears? :) Rachel and I then headed to TopShop where this amazing dress made out of clothespins and string!!! flows down the escalator embankment! Definitely picture worthy! After that, we came back, had supper, and then proceeded to go to our Theatre class. We learned about a lot of the different types of stages and the different types of financial aspects of the theatres in London. Many on the West End are owned and operated by government subsidized money, which is why they're able to hold such large productions. Others, much smaller in production scale, are purely run by their own profits, which is starting to run them down. The United Kingdom is caught in an economic recession similar to the one in the U.S. To fund the theatres, many people are looking towards the idea of philanthropy for funds. Even though this is a world capital for performing and fine arts, it is still feeling the brunt of economic cuts, just like it is in the U.S. It's really sad, many smaller theatres are having to close simply because they cannot afford to operate any longer. When we got home from class, we went to The Imperial College Student Union Pub, which was very upbeat and "clubbish" from the previous pubs we had been to around London. The crowd was obviously much younger and more vibrant which made it a lot of fun. It was fun mingling with student my own age. Friday we're heading out on a train to Cambridge to explore the churches and campus, which I'm super excited for :) Weather is getting cold, and apparently, according to the weather man, a cold front is coming in from Scandinavia :( Hopefully it'll get nicer in the weeks to come! Love you all and miss you :)