London

Up at 7:30 am to the sound of my roommates rustling about. Freshened up a bit before heading down to breakfast with one of the roommates who was a farmer from the south coast near Brighton. His farm produces fruit and he employs workers coming from Poland and the Czech Republic. The formation of the European Union has made it possible for workers from other countries to come to Britain legally to do work that the local population will not do. With 17% unemployment, the Polish government is actively encouraging its populace to come to Britain and other wealthy countries in the Union to find work. The farmer pays his workers £5.00/hour which is less than British citizens can get from unemployment. The farmer was in town for a self-improvement workshop over the weekend. We had an interesting discussion about the state of the world and where it seems to be headed.
Made my way down to the Tate Modern, which is housed in an old power generating facility. They had some very interesting video about how the plant was converted from its former use to the gallery space it is today. There was a sound installation by Bruce Nauman in the main space. Several of the smaller galleries were occupied by a great number of sculptures of everyday objects. Headed up into Convent Garden in search of some luncheon. Came across the Food for Thought Restaurant. Not as much on the menu that I could eat as I had hoped. Got a bit of lentil soup to go and found a nearby park to eat in. Tried to call Chantal’s friend Noemi, but got an answering service. Found the Forbidden Planet Bookshop where I picked up a copy of Edge magazine that had a four-page article about Josh’s Frequency game. Also found a bunch of Vernor Vinge novels. Hiked down to Embankment to get some groceries from the Health Food shop by the Underground station.
Took the Tube back across the Thames to look in on the Design Museum. Got there too late to get in. Came across a giant outdoor exhibit of the photographs of Yann Hartus Bertrand (Earth from the Air.) Ate a bit of dinner and spent quite a while looking at the photographs and reading the informative captions. Headed back to the Youth Hostel and crashed just before 10 pm.