Today I woke up leisurely (love Sundays without looming homework) and took the underground for an hour to get to Hatton Cross station where I met my dad's good friend from college, Vladimir. He and his family moved to London about five years ago and before that they'd lived in Cyprus for a little while after leaving Minsk, Belarus. Vladimir met me at the station and then drove me around Southwest London and the countryside which was really, really gorgeous on a perfect, cool, sunny Sunday. We drove by the Windsor Castle (which I definitely want to visit in detail next Sunday with some friends from the program here) and the town of Windsor. We then drove to Royal Holloway College to visit his daughter, Anastasia, who is studying Psychology there. When we got to there house in Shepparton, I talked with Nastya and her brother Mischa who is finishing his final projects and taking his degree in Math and Computer Science from the Imperial College in the London city Center. Though under an enormous amount of stress, Mischa still took the time to meet me and we all had a great time getting to know one another.
We had delicious hamburgers and sausages (apparently they knew the American was visiting), watched some football, played some foosball (really epic Russian games) and talked about everything from US-England education systems to US-England football matches to other European cities to our families. Vladimir and his family were really amazing hosts. Pretty soon after dinner, they drove me out to Hampton Court to see the monarchy's old country palace (which was replaced by the Windsor Estate later). We toured the grounds there and then, finally, they drove me back to the tube station so that I could begin my hour long journey back to Baker Street and Regent's.
When I got back, I finally opened the reading I'd been holding off of for a few days and started doing my homework (Sundays, bloody Sundays).
Cheers!
-Simon
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