Ex.haust.ed

I feel so old. It seems that I can travel and tour other cities with no problem after staying out all day long. However, when I'm dragging a seven year old along, the story changes a bit. I am absolutely exhausted and we are not even halfway done. What shall I do?

So far we've seen the family's house when they lived here. I snapped a photo of Zac on the front steps. We've seen Wall-E and it was good. I slept through a bit of it, but it was cute. I sat in front of a girl, who was obviously on a first date with a guy, and kept laughing at every little thing and commenting on every other thing. Giggle giggle. It was funny at parts, but not THAT funny. I would prefer Kung Fu Panda for sure, but there was one line in Wall-E that really got me thinking, "I don't want to survive, I want to LIVE." I've been trying to answer that question of "What is to Live?" for a few days.

Last night we went to see the theater production of High School Musical. People, I was stinkin' impressed. I really enjoyed myself, despite the jughead in front of me. Nice man though. They had cheerleaders on stage and I had to laugh because I thought, "Hmmm was I really perceived that way?" but again it brought back a significant amount of nostalgia. I love musicals. This one was good. Nothing will ever beat Wicked though. Les Mis was also good, but again, Wicked takes the cake.

Food. The first day was enough to make me swear that I wouldn't ever eat again. Knowing that isn't possible, I just taught Zac the difference between healthy food and non-healthy food. He loved it. At dinner the other night with our host-family, he interrupted me and pointed to his sparkling apple drink and said, "Connie, this is not healthy." Our first day included croissants for breakfast, Subway for lunch (he had a loaded meatball sub with cookies for dessert), another chocolate croissant for gouter, then KFC for dinner. It was horrible. With all of the great stores here, we are able to run in and grab ready-to-eat things. I've eaten about a whole pineapple a day. The fruit is fantastic. So that's what we do. Fruit and sandwiches, unless we have a dinner somewhere. Which reminds me...

Yesterday afternoon we were so tired. We took the Tube to Covent Garden to visit the London Transport Museum, but we planned to find a Starbucks for gouter (remember, sounds like "gooh-teh"). We found our Starbucks and read inside for a while. Then Zac protested that he wanted to read more. My brilliant suggestion was to find a bookstore and get some more books then find a park. We found a travel bookstore where I purchased a Dublin book. Then we saw the Waterstones. They didn't have any French books, which was great because ole Zac needs to read in English. We got him the Kung Fu Panda novel and another one that's called My Mom is Going to Explode. I got a couple too. On our way out I spotted a Mexican restaurant. Laaaaaaaaa! I told Zac that we would have to eat there for dinner. He was hesitant. I urged. So we found this park that the cashier told us about which was so idyllic. After we read for a while, we made our way to the restaurant. The waiter tried to speak a little Spanish to Zac and of course Zac gave him a quizzical look. I told the man that Zac was French. I said that I spoke some Spanish though. For the rest of our meal we had a combination of three languages thrown at us and sometimes they were combined in one sentence. It was bizarre. I'd call it Spenglais. Yes. The food wasn't great. Or maybe I'm finally getting over my addiction to Mexican food. Could it be?

Today, once I get myself up and going, we are heading over to the Museum of Natural History. Zac has never been to anything like it. The father of the family that we are staying with is a volunteer there. He will be giving us a tour. Lucky us, right? He is a business consultant and has one day that he is able to volunteer. Pretty sure this is his passion. Then we are going to relax in Hyde Park this afternoon before going to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Easy day, easy day.

Sorry I haven't been able to post any photos. I must say that I've got some really great ones that I am excited about posting. Once I return from London, I work for one day, then my vacation starts! I don't have anything much planned for the first week and a half, so I'll definitely get caught up on the blogging, I promise. It'll be a beast, but I'll do it.

Until then...ciao.