Zab in London | Day N° 7 | Studying on Aldwych

Piccadilly at evening-time

I've now been in London for one full week! How exciting. I feel like an expert already and have great disdain for any tourists and Americans I run into. No, not really, but I do feel like I've learned so much about this city already in one week.

Like I said in my last post, I had to dedicate much of my day to studying, and I'll do the same tomorrow. However, I tried to make my day scenic anyway! When I woke up (pretty late, I'll admit, since I had been out the night before), I had lunch at Prince of Wales pub on Drury Lane: vegetable pot pie with mashed potatoes, and hard pear cider. Absolutely delicious, though I'll admit drinking a pint of cider before going to study isn't the best idea.

I spent my afternoon on the rooftop garden of the LSE's New Academic Building, which has gorgeous views of the city. The weather was perfect, almost a little chilly, but I can't believe that every day is so perfect here. In Virginia, and even in Chicago, it gets muggy and hot, and there are always tons of bugs... Here, it's breezy, lightly warm, and I haven't seen a single insect since I arrived.

Studying on the rooftop of the New Academic Building

It was tempting to just rest my head and take a nap up above the city, but I spent a few hours studying my notes from class, trying to put together something of a study guide for myself. There're more than a dozen formulas that we need to memorise by Wednesday, of which I know about two, and more than twenty problems that could be used as models for the ones on the midterm. Math, math, and more math!

When it got a little later I went to have tea at the Delaunay Counter, which is my favourite London cafe so far. Though it's modelled after a Viennese tea room (I think), it's just the perfect London cafe. They also serve big glass French-press pots of Earl Grey tea, enough for at least three big cups... which is close to the amount of tea I can consume in one sitting, but not quite! Anyway, I'll take it.

The Delaunay Counter 

Aldwych and the Kingsway (where LSE's campus is located) is my favourite part of London so far. It's close to river and there's a smattering of gardens, but it seems less touristy and more upscale and beautiful than some of the other places I've visited. The Strand and Knightsbridge and Oxford Street are interesting, and the historical areas are obviously amazing to visit, but they're all just stuffed with people. Aldwych and the Kingsway is more professional, classy, and much less touristy than these other areas, and it's so relaxing to sit outside, listen to the city, and watch the (well-dressed) Londoners pass by.

Anyway, after studying further at the Dalaunay Counter for a couple of hours, I traipsed down to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly to visit the large Waterstones bookshop (the one on the LSE campus is a smaller version). It's absolutely beautiful and very well kept, located down the street from the National Gallery on Piccadilly and across from the gorgeous Le Meridien hotel. There are at least five floors, one of which is dedicated to a cafe, and it puts American bookstore chains to shame. As an avid reader, I could spend the rest of my life in that building. Unique collections of books are arranged on circular tables that fill the rooms; the shelves are well-organised and filled with innumerable books that I'd never heard of before; sections are dedicated to collector's editions of children's classics, or teatime in London (with recipe books from all the most prestigious tea rooms), or classics for boys becoming men. So cool!

I spend most of my time in the science-fiction/fantasty and children's floors looking for gifts for my family (hint hint!) and found unique printings of some of my most beloved books, especially the 50th anniversary printing of the Lord of the Rings trilogy which was unfortunately too expensive to buy. I love finding UK editions of book that I'm familiar with: right now I'm reading the Game of Thrones series, and the printings of these books are different here. They're in-between the sizes of the US paperback and mass market editions, and most of the books are divided into two-parts, which in the US you don't usually see.  There was also a number of cool editions of the Chronicles of Narnia series, from a collector's paperback series with colour illustrations to careful reproductions of the first editions from the 1940s and 50s (one of which I got as a gift for my little sisters, who are reading the series now). I spent only an hour in the bookstore and it was nowhere near long enough! I'll have to see if I can make time to return.

Tomorrow I plan on making an early-morning trip to St. Paul's Cathedral, and then I hope to take a ride on the London Eye when it opens at 10:00 before settling down to study. Though I have a lot of schoolwork to do, I'm trying to chip slowly away at my list of places to visit!