London Tomorrow

Yesterday was a pretty normal (i.e. dull) day of classes. I had a lot of work to get done afterwards to get ready for classes on Thursday and since I won't be doing any work this weekend, so naturally last night I went to a movie. A bunch of us saw Avatar in 3d. I wasn't thrilled by the actual plot or acting but it was pretty incredible to see. Apparently it was one of the most expensive movies ever made and it's pretty obvious why; the special effects are amazing. We got back from that around midnight, then I did a little work and went to bed.

I slept late this morning so I only had about 3 hours before my riding lesson to get stuff done. I went to the public library and got a library card, then checked out 2 guidebooks for London which I will read on the plane and bus tomorrow (on my way to London...). Then I went to the campus library and printed out a bunch of travel documents and stuff. A quick run to the bank and store brought me to 3:00, so it was time for my riding lesson.

I rode a horse named Donald. He was really young, only about 7 or 8, and he acted his age. He threw his head a lot, wouldn't bend at all and bucked at the canter, but it was fun. The problem I'm running into is that here people ride in a more "dressage" seat, which is sitting straight up and really sitting deep in the saddle. This is the exact opposite of the "hunter" seat which is what I ride at home, and is pretty predominant in the US. There's just no way I'm ever going to be able to ride the way my trainer here wants me to, it's just so totally different and I'm only riding once a week. I really don't want to start riding like that anyway though, or I'll get laughed out of the ring when I go back to riding in the US...

After my lesson I did laundry, reading for classes tomorrow, and just got stuff ready for London. I'm leaving tomorrow after classes. The flight takes about an hour and half, there's an hour and 15 minute transfer from the airport to the city, then about a half hour tube ride to where I'm staying, so it'll be a long journey. I don't have any real plans yet except that we're going to Stonehenge on Friday and I'm doing the free tour of London on Saturday morning (the same company we did the free tour of Edinburgh with). Other than that I'll just be seeing the sites and walking around.