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So, on Friday I took the early train down to London and went to India house to get my visa. I was prepared for a very long haul. Grace has had to get Visas for Paris twice now and each time she's been in lines for 6 hours out of the day. And that was after she booked an appointment a month in advance. There was no such opportunity with the Indian Embassy. I just had to show up between 8:30 and noon when they handed out numbers - up to 1500 in a day - and then wait my turn.

Ha ha, I showed up at 9:30 and I was done by 10:30! Life is a breeze for me. Also, when Grace applied she needed tons of documents, while I just needed a form. Also, when Grace applied they ignored her request for a six month visa and only issued her a two month one, which is why she had to go down twice. For me, I needed a two month one and they gave me a six month one. Ouch.

Anyway, I was going to stay in London all day because one of our friends, Erica, was coming in on the train from Paris that night and I figured I would meet her. She's currently slaving away in Paris directing the cultural education of a bunch of small town Iowa kids with little to no international experience. Quite a job. I had no idea there were so many things to see there - she's scheduled something for them to do every afternoon for a month (mostly museums I hear)! She doesn't have a computer in her Paris flat, so we caught her up on all the hot videos (mostly Eurovision - see below).

I spend the rest of the day in the British Library which is a massive library with every book ever published in the UK. You can't bring pens or scissors or highlighters into the books area (so they don't damage the books). They make you check everything and they give you a transparent plastic bag to carry your notebooks and pencils around in. After awhile I left the book area and hung out in the lobby which was much nicer. Big leather chairs and personal desks, plus I could use pens.

After the library closed Grace came down and we went to one of the conveyer belt sushi restaraunts for a quick bite before we met Erica at London Waterloo. Another reason we both decided to go to London that night was because one of our friends was having a birthday party there, so Grace bought her a dozen Krispe Kreme donuts (a rare delicacy in the UK - only available in some twenty locations across the country, including the London Waterloo station).

We stayed in town till late and took a train into Cambridge, arriving past midnight.

Over the weekend we showed Erica around Cambridge at a very relaxed pace, just one or two things per day. The weather was really nice and it was great to have a visitor. We went punting today and, for the first time, I managed the job without any trouble (fourth time's a charm!). It was very nice to be able to make the boat go where I wanted it. There weren't any drunk crazy kids this time either, which added to the relaxing charm of it all.

While we were near the Bridge of Sighs we saw a family trying to get through and the kid punting in the back fell off the boat. They lost the pole and the kid was splashing around in the water. They paddled back and he climbed in and someone else got the pole. The Dad from the family was not sympathetic. All he had to say was "Well, now we have to go under the bridge again."

Grace even gave it a shot and she did a-ok, especially considering my absolutely terrible advice about how to manage the boat. It's all sort of gone into muscle memory now, so I would say completely unhelpful things like, "You sort of have to push and pull the stick towards you."

And then I would demonstrate with my arms, which was not helpful. But she wants to give it another go, so that's good.

Our friend has to leave tomorrow morning at 5:30 am from London so she has an epic midnight journey ahead of her. I pity her.

Nothing but crazy amounts of studying for me from here on out. Grace finishes work in two days, just in time for the arrival of our American cousins. They've never left the country, so this is going to be a pretty big trip for them. After they leave we have about a week to tie up our loose ends in Cambridge. Busy times lie ahead!