tuesday london

We had breakfast at the hotel again.
I went to Sure Start Kilburn Priory for an academic visit with a small group of DIS students (there were 5 groups of about 10 each). It's a preschool as well as a community resource. The area is pretty impoverished. There was a great deal of light and color and care taken with the space. There were African American heroes posters up on the wall to promote diversity (but we're in London why African America ones?). In the classrooms there were pics of what the children had done and things were labelled. There were numbers and the alphabet up on the wall. Much more academic in feel than my site in Denmark. Sure Start offers programs for parents about breast feeding, nutrrition, etc. There are also just social events for them to talk. There is a specific group for Somali immigrants. To transition to the next school teachers from there come to Sure Start and the children go there to visit so it's not as strange.
After that I went to Camden Market which is a lot like Quincy Market. It is all open air and there are little booths where you can buy stuff. It seemed to be mainly asian/middle eastern stuff. There were lots of gorgeous scarves and wall hangings for sale as well as bags. I was talking with two DIS people who went to Concord Academy and we were arguing about the map of Concord and trying to figure out where I lived.
I went to the Children's Museum after that. It sounded better than it was. Basically it was toys throughout from the last few decades behind glass cases. It was interesting to see the write ups they had about inspiration, superheros, toys that move, creativity, etc.
Went to look around in Harrods which is a HUGE really expensive fancy department store. The dresses and clothes there were amazing.
dinner with Elizabeth, Ashley and Pwin (a woman from Burma) to a Morracan restaurant. I had a falafel wrap. Unfortunately you are allowed to smoke special types of pipes in the restaurant.
After dinner we went with all of DIS to see WICKED! It was such an amazing musical. We decided that the woman playing Elphaba in particular was great. There is this amazing scene at the end of the first act where she is suspended in air with light just on her and it looks like she's flying.