Catch Up Everyone!

Hey all!

I would have posted way sooner, however BU has decided they wanted to be cheap when it comes to internet, so I have very very limited access. But let's try to catch you up on what I've been up to...

Last Saturday me and the girls walked to Buckingham palace, it was a beautiful day, bright and sunny (extremely rare!). We're really close to the palace, and we passed Harrods on the way, which is really huge and I plan to go back to. The palace was beautiful, although not nearly as big as I thought it would be. We just missed the changing of the gaurds, but we're going to go back one day for that too. I took lots of pictures! After that, we took the tube to the British Museum. Soooo many famous things are there, including most of the Parthenon, and the Rosetta Stone! Exciting! (Nerd Alert::Nerd Alert)

Sunday we went on a bus tour of London, and we saw Westminster and London Bridge and lots of other touristy sights.
The tour ended at the Tower of London. Inside houses the Queen's jewels, which are basically all of the crowns worn by past and present monarchs, the sceptors, the all other famous jewelry. The sceptor contains the world's seconds largest uncut diamond, and let me assure you, it was HUGE. About the size of a plum. It was really amazing to see. The Tower itself was just OK, I was expecting more gore and horror stories, but really all it was was a tribute to English armor and weaponry. We went into the dungeons, and on the walls there was scratchings and messages carved into the walls by the many prisoners that were kept there. Creepy, but also really fascinating. I love learning about all the English royal history. I found out that I'm actually already pretty knowledgeable about the order of the kings and queens and all the fun trivia. As per usual, the bulk of my knowledge comes from one of my favorite TV shows, the Tudors, and the many many MANY period movies I watch. And who said TV is bad for you...?
After that, classes started again on Monday, and they were filled with field trips. We had to read Oliver Twist for my pop culture class, so they decided it would be a good idea to take us on a tour of 'Dickensian' London. Well that was a waste of FOUR HOURS.
We walked all around London in the cold just to listen to our guide, Mr. WORST TEETH EVER OMG GET SOME BRACES AND CREST ALREADY, tell us about how it was rumored that Charles Dickens once sat on this bench, but no ones really sure. But whatever, it was still interesting to see the different parts of London. We went to Fleet Street (no Demon Barber spottings...). Also, I've realized that they absolutely HATE the Davinci Code here. Everytime we pass a place that the movie was filmed at, the guide mutters something to himself that sounds suspiciously like "bloody Dan Brown and his bloody books...". (INSERT CUTE STORY) --> That reminds me of a cute thing that happened at the Tower of London! One of the 4 towers there is called the "bloody tower," and as 'bloody' is a pretty substantial swear in England, this little boy was sooooo excited about the tower's title. He must have been about 8, and he just kept looking up at the sign, tugging on his mother's sleeve, and shouting "But mummy! It's called the bloody tower! The bloody tower! But you said I couldn't say the word bl-", at which point his 'mum' kept covering his mouth. It was one of the cutest things ever. I WILL have British children...

Anyways, then Tuesday was of course the big inauguration. For some reason, the British LOVE Obama. Whenever we actually get a chance to talk to some British people, the first thing they'll say, without a doubt, is something along the lines of "So, Obama eh? What do you think of 'im?" Well, I wish I was more involved politics (but not really) so that I actually had something interesting to say in return. On Tuesday, they let us out of class a half hour early so we could go downstairs and watch it live. It happened around 5pm our time, and the American students filled up about 3 huge rooms, there must have been about 150 people crammed around the television watching. Some people laughed, some people even cried. I'll never understand that, but whatever. The highlight of the night for me was, of course, free food! They brought in about 30 boxes of pizza. WORST PIZZA EVER, but I ate it anyway. The bottom was literally crusted with salt, but it was free, so hey!

Hmm, what else...Thursday we went to the Natural History Museum for another field trip. We went to see the Charles Darwin special exhibit in honor of his 200th birthday. I never realized how much the British worship this man. I worship him too, but I thought I was just weird... He's actually on the back of their money. Yup, Charles Darwin has top billing (literally! tee hee) with the Queen of England on the British money notes. Imagine how much of a scandal it would be to have Darwin on the back of money in America? People would torch the capital! I like how England is so low key in their religious zealousness (is that a word?). That night we went to Zoo Bar, which was an ultra trendy night club in Picadilly Circus. It was really cool, and the doorman let us in for free because we were Americans. SCORE! British guys are way more, let's say, 'free' in their dancing that American guys are. They are not afraid to get up and dance with each other, which American guys would never do. It's pretty awesome, I'm in love. (But we already knew that).

INSERT APOLOGY --> Sorry this entry is sooo long, but you missed a lot!

Friday we ventured to Trafalgar square, which is absolutely beautiful. Took lots of pictures there. Then we ate some traditional English Fish & Chips! I don't normally eat too much fish, but this was pretty spectacular. They serve it with mushy peas, which were not the greatest, but I'll live, because this fish was HUGE (it hung off the plate), and we only paid 5 pounds for it! After that we went to Imperial College, which is the English college right on our street, because they were having a 90s dance party. It sounded fun in theory, but we didn't recognize much of the music. But we made a night out of it anyway. Me and my friend jumped up as soon as "Gettin Jiggy Wit It" came on, and danced like crazy. It was really fun.

Yesterday we went to Portobello Road, which has a huge outdoor market where you can find anything you'd ever need in life. I didn't do any shopping, but I'd like to go back one day and shop for real.

OMG I forgot the best part of yesterday! Before we made it to Notting Hill, where Portobello Road is, we took a trip to King's Cross Station! (Any nerds out there realize where I'm going with this yet? If you do, I love you). Of course, this is where the famous Platform 9 3/4 is! (That's Platform Nine and Three Quarters for those out there that do not read Harry Potter). It was the highlight of my trip so far, even though it was only a sign on a wall.
They have a cart set up that is cut in half so that it looks like it's going through the wall! Of course, nerdy pictures were taken... (if only I'd brought my Gryffindor Scarf and Potter glasses...)



Well I think that pretty much catches you up to speed in my life! I'm sure you all wanted to know every last detail that I provided...I'll try to post more often, so the posts are not quite this long. But now I'm off to go to some homework and make some dinner.

Here are some other pictures that didn't really fit in the post, enjoy!






















Cheers!