Just when we thought we'd escaped Syracuse, Syracuse came to us

SNOW DAY! We were shocked to wake up to an email saying not to come to class, that due to the weather the Faraday House would be closed. It's amazing how five inches of snow brings such a huge city to a grinding halt. London is not used to ever getting much snow accumulation, and today's is being called the worst snow storm in 18 years.


This is Russell Square - a park at the end of our street. It, like many other things, was closed today - the iron gates having never been opened this morning.

This is looking southeast down Southampton Row. We live one street over to the right; the Faraday House stretches between this street and the street one over to the left.


This is what the park in the middle of Russell Square looks like. Just yesterday Jessica and I cut through it and it was all green. The fountains were going, and joggers looped around the winding paths. There is also a nice little indoor/outdoor cafe in the middle of it. No one would be stopping to eat lunch there today...the park gates were not even unlocked this morning.


This is looking northwest up Southampton Row. Usually this section is full of cars and people. Transportation in London was a nightmare today. All bus service was suspended, rail service and the underground tube system saw heavy delays, and over 200 flights at Heathrow airport were canceled because the runways were not clear

Snowman building seemed to be the sport of the day...for children and adults. I think it was the latter responsible for this snow boulder that was pushed into the middle of an intersection!


There were cars all over the place that looked like this. Many offices closed for the day and a lot of workers either stayed in or walked where they needed to go.


Snow collects on the top of the iron fence that surrounds the park in Russell Square.


I don't think too many people would want to be on the phone for very long in one of these today!


Another snowman...this one holding a can of Rock Star energy drink. Or so the can says, I don't know...looks a "tipsy" to me, if ya know what I mean. Definitely an English snow man in that case.


Several of the places that were open at all decided to close early. This Starbucks on Great Russell Street was one of them. The British Museum across the street also closed early.


This is Old Gloucester Street, where the entrance to the Faraday House is. We received an email saying the forecast doesn't look good tomorrow either, and to check the website at 7:30 am to see if there will be classes.


Finally, this is how it all started: the snow coming down hard last night. This picture was taken from the front door of our building looking south down Bedford Place.