The Start of Week 3!

I apologize for not updating my blog daily like I was when we first got here. I found that the longer we are here the harder it has been for me to find the time to write everything down, but I promise that I will try to update as often as possible. So with this post I'll try and catch up on the past three days.

Marble Arch

Sunday was a pretty simple day since I stayed in my room for the majority of time since it was really rainy here and I didn't want to venture out by myself since Sara hadn't come back from her trip to Scotland yet. I took the time to work on my projects which was pretty useful that way I won't be cramming before we leave to finish them. Gloomy weather makes me sleepy so it was only fitting that I took at short nap hoping that Sara would be back by the time I woke up. Turn out when I woke up she still wasn't back. When she finally came back she told me that she had lost her phone on the tube somewhere. Turn out this very nice man had called her boyfriend and let him know that he had found it as was turning it into the station. When he finally managed to get a hold of her we headed off to get it and the decided to grab some dinner on our way back since neither one of us had really had anything to eat that day. We stopped off at this local steakhouse near the tube and I think I left my pocketbook there since the price was so expensive. One thing that we American's are privileged to have are side dishes with our main entree and over here it's just the meat and the sides of course cost you. Hence why I paid £ 21 which is almost doubled in the US. When we got back to the room Sara told me about Scotland and showed me the pictures she took and then we called it and night.

Guards at Buckingham Palace taking shelter from the rain

On Monday we took a class trip to the British Museum, which put the National Gallery to shame size wise. They had a lot of artifacts from ancient Egypt as well as from Greece and Rome, which I found really nice. I thought it was pretty amazing how they have been able to preserve so much history in this museum. Everything for the most part was out in the open for people to take pictures and walk right up to, which is completely different from the other galleries/museums that I've been to since I've been here. I started with the ancient Egypt stuff first and saw a lot of thing that they took out of the pyramids, including a real life mummy! I'm usually not one for those types of things since I'm such a huge chicken, but I thought it was just so fascinating so of course I had to look, but only for a bit because then I scared myself thinking that it was going to come alive so I had to walk away. While walking towards the Greece and Rome section I stopped by an artifact that was completely surrounded by people because I wanted to get in on the action as well. Turn out that everyone was looking at the Rosetta Stone. After realizing that this was where the language learning program came from I felt pretty dumb but didn't feel so bad since I wasn't the only one who didn't know that the Rosetta Stone was a real thing. Once the area got too crowded for me I continued on to the section where remnants of the Pantheon were on display. Being able to get an up close look at these statues amazed me because I couldn't imagine the amount of time that went into sculpting something that flawless out of marble. I stood in awe for a while and then decided to explore other areas of London that were nearby. I hopped on the nearest tube and took it all the way to marble arch since I had been wanting to take pictures of that area but hadn't really had the chance. By the time I got out of the tube it had started raining so I was forced to seek shelter under

Wreaths at a war memorial

some trees since my umbrella just wasn't doing the trick. After taking some great pictures of the nearby area I headed down to Hyde park since it was right across the street. It was really nice to actually take the time to have a proper walk in the park, it honestly felt like a scene from out of a movie minus the gray clouds and rain. I then continued onto Green park which had a lot of War memorials which were very nicely adorned with wreaths. When I came to the end of Green park I found myself at Buckingham Palace and thought what an opportune time to take a close picture of the Guards. I took some fast pictures because it started to rain and I retreated back to Green park, but not before noticing two things. First, when it rains the soldiers retreat into this little black shed looking thing but still maintain their royal duty of protecting the Queen. Speaking of  HM the Queen the second thing I noticed was that a different flag was flying over Buckingham palace from the first time I was there so I can only assume that HM was in residence. After my fun trip to Buckingham Palace I jumped on a but to head to the National Theatre for our Productions of The Cherry Orchard. When I finally got to the end of the bus route I asked some people whom I thought were locals where the NT was and they told me they didn't know, so I hopped on the tube and went one stop back to Embankment station so that I could cross the bridge and know where exactly I was going. The Cherry Orchard was alright but mostly as snooze fest. I found that the script was very bland and I didn't care for it very much apart for the actors. My favorite one by far had to be Zoë Wanamaker, who happens to play Madam Hooch in Harry Potter. It was quite a pleasant surprise because I didn't recognize her until someone mentioned it to me. After the show ended I somehow managed to get lost from my group because I was following two people whom I thought were in my group only to find out when I caught up to them that they were not the same people. I had managed to get lost and had to walk back to the dorms by myself in the dark, with umbrella in hand in case I needed to hit someone with it. Turns out that my group got lost on the way back to the dorm as well and I managed to beat them back by an hour and a half.
 

View while walking in Hyde Park

Today has been a busy day. Housekeeping came into our rooms this morning and made me wake Sara up so that they could clean our rooms. We had to quickly get dressed before being kicked out of our rooms. We headed to the Common room, after making our lunches, for our two group class discussions. I was apart of lucky group number one and talked about the first section of the book. Our group did well and we had a good amount of discussion. After the morning discussions was over we headed by bus towards Covent Garden. On the way Sara said she wanted to stop by a glove shop she had seen the other day so I got off with her a few stops early and we checked out the store. We were once again greeted by the rain on our journey and made mad dashes in and out of stores to keep from getting wet. Around 3:20 we jumped on the tube to take the last few stops to Covent Garden, where we were to have our very last theater tour of Drury Lane. Surprisingly Sara and I were the first ones there so we decided to stop by Starbucks. Sara stood in line as I went in search of the Loo. When I had finally found it I decided to pass since there were literally like 30 people in front of me waiting to go. I decided to try another store, but they didn't have one. On my way back to Starbucks I noticed that our group was already waiting so I headed over to grab our tickets so Sara and I could walk over together. When I got back to Starbucks she was nowhere to be found and I went in search of her. You see she too had gone in search of me and managed to catch up with the group when they told her that I had done the same. Eventually we found each other and we headed in for the tour. This 

tour was by far the best one that we have been on since we have been here. They mixed a lot of history, with theatricality as well as a little bit of Ghost stories (which I was terrified by). We were taken in dark tunnels dating back to the 1800s and told about the man in gray who was found buried in the wall during renovations before being taken underneath the stage area. After the tour we headed over the bridge to the NT for a new documentary theatre productions of London Road, a new "musicalesque" show about the 2006 murders of five prostitutes in the town of Ipswich and the effects it has on the community. This was a very different production from anything that we have seen so far, but I thought it was absolutely amazing . It was also held in the smallest theatre withing the NT so we were in a very intimate space with the actors. I literally could have reached my hand out and touched an actor. Overall today was a Great day



Taking a Picture at Drury Lane with Shrek Poster