London 13

I won't say anything about the World Cup other than the US played a phenomenal and inspired second half which was ruined by a blind, unaccountable and unforgiving #%$! who won't be punished by FIFA and who will make the exact same atrocious calls again.

Yesterday, Paul, Tyler and I went to the British Museum in the morning. Basically, the absolutely massive museum houses all of the things that the British Empire has plundered from around the world. When I went to Egypt last year, I was told how many of the ruins were missing statues or statue-heads and that those were taken by British or European expeditions... and today I saw where they were all stored! It really is a giant monument to imperialism and colonial plunder.
Cynicism aside, though, the museum is really overwhelming in its scope and sheer collection size. We started at the Egyptian exhibition and they have hundreds of pieces, many are still nearly flawless. Then we ventured to the Greek section where each male statue appears to have been censored, Lorena Bobbit style, long ago. Also, just a few of the Greek statues still had their heads. Paul and I then went to see exhibits about money (don't say it) and the history of exchange. This featured presses and money from as far back as 2,000 BCE. We followed this exhibit with one about the history of clocks which was really fascinating. It featured the earliest clocks from the medieval times and then showed how clocks, pocket watches and now just plain watches have evolved over time.
After going to the British museum, we headed back to Baker Street to watch the USA game at our home pub, The Globe.

[Section Deleted due to a strange combination of Anger and Sadness]

Finally, in the evening, several of us got together for a tense game of fishbowl. This is a game which starts by playing taboo, then charades with the same words, and then finally one word extreme taboo with the same words.

Check back soon!

-Simon