Mia and me!

It's been a little while since I've posted because my friend Mia arrived Saturday night.  Mia is my oldest friend from home, and we have grown up together watching the BBC and dreaming about being in England together, so now we are living the dream! It has been fun so far, except for the fact that, seeing as my room barely fits one person, it's extra snug with two.
The night before Mia arrived, the neuro "majors" (or whatever they call them here) arranged a get-together, paid for by the department, so we got to meet the British students in our classes.  The most memorable part of the night was when I introduced myself to one of the guys and his response was, "Whenever I hear the name Meredith, I think of the hindquarter of a camel."  Well, that's one I haven't heard before; in fact, that was one of the few moments in history when I have been completely speechless.  Usually people make references to Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy or the ditzy blond fiancee in The Parent Trap.  This guy, whose name was Dom, explained that in elementary school, he played the hindquarter of a camel in their school play, Meredith the Christmas Camel.  This raised a whole slew of questions in my mind, ranging from why the primary schools were putting on plays about camels to why Meredith, of all the names you could give a camel, would really make you say, "That's the one." I didn't get any answers, unfortunately, as our conversation sharply turned to follow Dom's shock at the revelation that Meredith was originally a masculine name.  Apparently my name is a real ice-breaker, who knew?
So that was Friday night.  Saturday morning, with burning questions regarding Meredith the Christmas Camel still fresh, I made the mistake of trying a spin class.  Paying money for a gym membership makes you do crazy things, like try out classes you otherwise wouldn't, so you think you're getting your money's worth.  I should have listened to my instincts when they told me that spin could only be taught by a sadistic instructor who would torture you until you couldn't walk.  Because my instincts were right. 
Miraculously, however, I was still able to hobble over to Euston Station to pick up Mia later on Saturday.  She is armed with a serious sight-seeing plan, so soon I'll have something to post pictures of!  Today we purchased tickets to see Les Miserables in the West End (an area which looks so American, it wasn't even worth taking out the camera), and will go Thursday.  In the meantime, I'll be planning my own West End production, a revival of the old classic: http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/08503/details.html