Friday, May 18. First thing when I got up I found an email from Tom Kelley reminding me that I had not responded to a new research paper we are co-authoring with Jacqueline Hollows on sexual violence and the Three Principles. I was able to review half the paper and make changes before I realized if I didn’t leave right away I would be late to meet my friend, Sylvie. So I sent out half the paper to him and then scurried into the shower and quickly had to pack up to get out of my apartment on time. So I left with my heavy bags and trudged back through the park to the tube station, then followed my precise directions and met Sylvie at Victoria station. She was late so I had time to check my bags so I wouldn’t have to trudge any further with them. Once I met Sylvie we had a grand old time. We walked past Buckingham Palace and into the Buckingham Palace Gardens Park. It’s really nice in there. We lay on the grass and had a beautiful talk and catching up. I hadn’t seen her for a year. Then she wanted to take me to one of the oldest bookstores in London, but we got all fouled up because as we headed there her phone ran out of battery so no more GPS and we got completely lost— went around in circles, as we kept asking people and they kept giving us contradictory directions. But we still had a really nice time, then took the tube back to Victoria station, where Sylvie headed in one direction and I headed over to the Victoria train station where I picked up my bags–really expensive–and met Miriam Rooney, whom I had met in my Cape Verde Islands training. Miriam and I took the train to her house in Bromley, where I was greeted with a whole family affair— teenagers and their friends and Miriam’s mother. It was kind of chaotic but it was so nice of her to put me up for a few days. What a gracious and kind host!