So I didn't end up at the Tower today.  Evanie texted me to meet up at three, but when I got there, we realized it was closing soon.  Evanie's friend Katrina had thought it closed at 6:30, but then I looked at the board and it said 16:30 -- as in, 4:30.  Like my decision with Westminster Abbey yesterday, we decided we didn't want to shell out thirteen pounds for only an hour.

Instead, we went to the Tower Bridge.  I forgot my camera again, but Evanie got some pictures she said she'd send to me.  We climbed up the north tower, and it was a lot of stairs, but it was still better than the Horrible Greenwich Hill.  There were lots of Tower Bridge trivia placards along the upper walkway, along with things that the people there called "Victorian Games", like dominoes, and noughts and crosses (aka tic tac toe), and hopscotch, and something like horseshoes whose real name I can't remember.

At about 4:30 the bridge was scheduled to be raised so a boat could pass under it, so we went outside and watched that.  Heh.  We were standing there watching, and from behind us we hear some people exclaiming "Oh, the bridge is raised!  No wonder everyone's staring!"  As if the Tower Bridge weren't a tourist attraction and historical landmark and something people generally stare at every day.

We wandered around the south side of the river a bit.  London has the coolest City Hall building.  Seriously.  It's all glass and spiral-y.  But eventually we got cold and hungry, so we went to Soho and met up with some other people from the program and had Indian for dinner.  Mine was pretty good, but I still loved the naan best.  Mmmm, naan.

Soho is pretty cool at night.  Lots of people, lots of interesting things to see and do, lots of theatres.  I probably could have people-watched for awhile, but we were getting cold again and everyone else wanted ice cream, so we ended up at a McDonalds on Tottenham Court Road.  Wow, was that the trendiest McDonalds I've ever seen.  They had the coolest chairs, a downstairs sort of lounge/eating area, and played nice music.  Totally not what I was expecting from a McDonalds.  I still don't want to eat its food, but it was pretty cool.

Over dinner and then lingering at the McDonalds, Evanie and some of the others were talking about the late night they'd had last night, drinking and dancing; I'd gathered they'd gotten home at something like three am.  I...found myself minorly repulsed; I have little interest in having a similar evening myself.  A couple drinks at a pub sounds nice, but I don't really want to stay out too late.  Some of the group was talking about the desire to experience clubbing in London, but I don't really see the attraction.  I'm not sure how to feel about this.  On the one hand, I do want to be social, and though I enjoyed wandering around by myself yesterday, I want to be doing things with people.  On the other hand, I don't want to do something that doesn't sound fun to me -- and it helps that I will save money by avoiding it, money which I can then use on things that do interest me.  I just...don't want to be doing those things alone all the time. *sigh*

People seem to have already fallen into groups.  I seem to be something of an anomaly in deciding to study abroad without a close friend in the same program, or at least the same city, and a lot of people are still spending most of their time with the people they already know.  I went with Evanie and her friend today because she'd been telling me after class on Thursday that they'd been intending to do the Tower today, and I was just like "Can I tag along?"  I enjoyed it, and I think they enjoyed having me there, but they were much closer friends and at times I did feel like a third wheel.

I'm...really not much good at joining established groups.  Well, I'll keep trying.  It's still early days.