"michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble..."

"what do you call, in english, the word for having a song stuck in your head"
"the germans have a word for having a song stuck in your head?"
"yep, not in english?"
"the germans have a word for everything, don't they."

well, do you have a word for everything that happened today? think not.

day started with a cheerful good morning. sleep was good, but i seem to have a habit of waking early here (as do most people). went down for breakfast and made more friends, anu from delhi and jin mai from mumbai. both postgraduates, seem to be chucked on a postgraduate floor. so we have a confident crowd now.

walked to school, which was lovely, didn't really take pics though. on the way, weather was lovely (and changeable, we feared a slight drizzle but it ended up with lovely sun). it was rather unassuming when set next to the royal courts of justice, i didn't notice it was lse, but once you walk in down houghton street, the old-world atmosphere is just brilliant. the school's a bit small too. and waterstone's economics bookstore good too, but expensive. bought a calculus book from alpha (used books), which i will dig into later. nice book written by a professor in the school. british library of political & economic science was also very very labyrinth-like, and impressive. i was really impressed by the city of london, the way st paul's rose up majestically, the streets, the quaint shops on both sides. and passing the royal courts of justice, with all those spires, really makes you feel like you're waltzing down the corridors of power, and the monuments for dead people made you think (a lot of people must have died to make this city.) and weird stuff like a drgaon statue saying (temple bar was here). also visited the school of oriental and african studies, the other good social science institute in london.

insa changed the song in her head from "michelle" to "streets of london". oh my god, was just thinking of that song yesterday. she would proceed to change songs numerous times during the day, demonstrating her eclectic listening tastes. and i talked to anu about cricket and the fine points of panjabi mc. oh yes, and they did ask what the white lines on the street meant, and explaining the concept of a pedestrian crossing, they said, well in india, you just cross anywhere.

we went through leicester square, tottenham court road, looked at pigeons at trafalgar square and climbed the base of nelson's column, to roll tobacco to smoke, and to meet alex. it was wonderful just staring out into the blue sky, watching the people mill around the national gallery.

finding food in london is a chore, so maybe mr chirac was right. we finally found something good and cheap, thanks to alex, at old marsh road market, where we ran into a friendly indian shopowner and our 2 indian friends did the sweettalking. next to it was iceland (the grocery store), where insa and i did our breakfast shopping.

after that, headed back to bankside, still felt like exploring so i walked with alex to oxford street and soho, we saw red carpets being rolled out for people near leicester square. all the time i loved the bustle, when we walked into one of the train stations like (waterloo), the sound of boats on the thames, the skateboarders, and the performance artists. at chinatown, also saw mr hu's shop=), which i have a photo of.

upon return, joined up with the rest and walked for dinner. decided it was pointless to spend on lousy food, so at the sainsbury's local picked up some ready to cooks, and combined with genuine naan and chickpea curry from india, had a good dinner of lasagna, spring rolls and indian food. during cooking, kitchen very crowded, ran into many other students (mostly postgrad! it's very international, but lots of europeans, many chinese, who are fantastic at cooking, indians, couple of people from the states.) so we adjourned to a room, sat and ate on the floor, while the beatles, jimi hendrix, john lennon played in the background from insa's cd collection. what i've always dreamed of.

"when i'm 64", "jealous guy", "imagine", "hey jude" (where it's customary to break into the chorus), "a little help from my friends", "waterfall..."

i have just died and gone to heaven.

where plates have to be cleaned and students still have to study calculus. and tomorrow's only a night away=).