Flowers or shoes?

Caitlin, Kevin and I went to the National Gallery today. We had fun wandering around Trafalgar Square, taking pictures of pigeons on top of statues heads, rasta children playing instruments, and people doing sidewalk chalk. We then met up with Paul and went into the Gallery. I got a little sick of the section we started in, since three quarters of the paintings were the Virgin and Child, but I got a good laugh when we went into another room and there was one where she was launching milk into his mouth. I don't think that's quite how it works, but whatever makes the painter happy, I suppose.

I found a "fish of the painting" in one of the really big ones by someone representing the four elements, and my favorite painting was in a sort've little room- it was a French family having hot chocolate in a really pretty garden. I also liked Casanova's lover that decided to marry a really rich, much older guy instead.

I was sort've done looking at paintings after an hour and a half, and the other three hit a wall about a half hour later, so we literally walked into the last five rooms we wanted to do, glanced at the walls, and left again.

When we left, we noticed tons of police around Trafalgar Square, and some barricades and whatnot, so we went up to one of the armored trucks blocking traffic and asked the head of a riot squad what was happening. There was going to be a march and a protest about Gaza in a little bit. We ducked into an "American style diner" and got some pizza and milkshakes, finished pretty quickly and sort've wanted to get going, since our abroad advisors all warn us not to get caught up in protests. I finally had to go ask for the bill so we could pay and get moving, but we still had to walk through the edge of the crowd that was starting to gather.

Best sentence I heard on our way by?? "Now look at what happened to Bush; President Obama has to ask himself, 'Do I want flowers thrown at me for bringing justice to the Palestinians, or shoes?'"

Now I'm about to go make some cheese puffs I got at Budgens and just watch a movie on my own and go to bed early, since I am very overtired.