London: French Canadians and squirrels.

There's no way I could've spent two and a half months in England without spending any time in London, and Arcade Fire was going to be playing a show there. I bought two tickets off craigslist, asked for a concert buddy and overnight host on couchsurfing, and jumped on the train.

One of the towns between Norwich and London.

After walking through the German Christmas market, I met Harvey at the London Eye, where we caught the Thames Clipper and headed down the river to the O2 Arena. That's why I like meeting locals - I would've just taken the tube and missed out on a much better way to get to the concert.

Arcade Fire at the O2 Arena. Incredible energy, incredible concert. One of the percussionists was banging on a drum so hard he lost one drumstick and shortly thereafter the other one. Later in the show, he grabbed a drum and just ran around the stage banging on it. You don't do that if you're blasé about the music you're making. I love music made by musicians who love it.

More reasons to see a city with its locals: after the boat ride back from the concert, we got a bus to Harvey's place, and the bus went through a lot of the typical places in London - Piccadilly Circus and so on. Again, I would've just taken the tube and missed everything. And he lives by Abbey Road, and the next morning he made sure I walked over the famous zebra stripes on the way to the tube station.

He got on the tube, and I had breakfast at a café on Baker Street [the home of Sherlock Holmes] before wandering around with no particular destination and happening upon some snow-covered gardens in Regents Park.

Emo.

The animals in the park were far from suspicious of humans. I stopped to take a picture of a bridge and was suddenly surrounded by a swarm of pigeons, with this squirrel in the middle of it, sometimes even putting its front paws up on my leg.

Chubster.

I like Narnia, and I like Christmas lights, but I really don't think advertisements for the latest Narnia movie should be embedded in Christmas lights.

After a lot more wandering, including an afternoon at the movies [The Kids Are All Right] and stumbling onto the Nickelodeon UK offices, and before catching a train back to Norwich that evening, I met Yuliya for dinner. She was a Russian exchange student to my high school in 2000-2001, and we hadn't seen each other since then. Say what you will about facebook, but it's responsible for a lot of happy reconnections! We went to a Thai restaurant, and of course the music they're playing when we walk in is...a Portuguese fado?!? Hey, Portugal! Yeah, you! The world keeps giving me signs that you are totally going to let me into your country - why are you the only one who isn't getting it?!?