Back to Wednesday, Fred and I spent sometime at the palace watching the changing of the guard and then walked through St. James park to get to the War Rooms. He was able to talk his way in (since his tickets were good for Thursday, and he and his Dad couldn't make it then) and have them change the tickets! He told me before we went in, "I'm more foreign than you are, so let me do the talking." (Reminder: Fred is Australian.) Sure enough, I didn't speak until thanking them, and even then I said, "Cheers!" The Imperial War Rooms were magnificent. All the rooms have been left just as they were at the end of the war. There was so much fascinating information. What I was really impressed with was the museum about Winston Churchill. The interactive exhibits were unlike any I had seen before. Buttons and screens and games, a 40-foot interactive table of his life in timeline format. I was in exhibit heaven. Makes me want to go back and get that minor in museum techniques. Whew.
The information and historical items they have in the museum form his life are equally as phenomenal as the entire museum for the War Rooms as well. I picked up a few postcards from the gift shop and have been sending some out to those who requested them, and those who will be surprised!! :)
After Buckingham Palace and the War Rooms tour, Fred had to go meet with someone. I headed back to the International Student House (ISH) for some wifi to get some work done. On Thursday, I skyped in the morning with my mom, we have this kind of ritual on some days where she'll be up at 6am before work, and I'll Skype with her at noon. A number of times, this includes her watching me eat lunch and my friends laughing at the situation. Too funny. In the afternoon, I headed down to Wimbledon to work on some advertising with our set designer. She has all the capabilities of computer software and design applications that I don't. In talking, she was able to turn my half- and quarter-page sketches into respectable looking poster ideas before putting them into the computer and coming up with the final product! She also informed me of a new way to get to Wimbledon, taking the overground from Waterloo! It only took 20 minutes, instead of the tube's 45 minutes to a hour!
On Friday, our class was able to tour St. Paul's Cathedral. It is just as phenomenal as you would expect. The lighting is great, the sculptures and artwork are brilliant, the crypt is creepy. You know, typical cathedral stuff!! We're not supposed to take pictures in here, but a few of my friends did.. Here are the photos that I took, the left is the small view you can see from the river and the right is what peaks out between buildings from the tube stop.If you go through some of my recently tagged pictures, one of my friends snagged a picture of the ceiling in the cathedral with part of my face in it. Of course, he tagged me! I also picked up some post cards from here, let me know if you want receive the cathedral postcards!
On Saturday, our workshop for work was cancelled but a few of us from the production team were able to get together and discuss some marketing ideas and how we want to get ourselves into the schools to run workshops for the kids. It was going really well, and someone at the table next to us leaned over and asked if we were teachers, too. We explained that we weren't and what we were planning on doing. This teacher gave us her contact information and said if we had any questions about who to contact or anything, to let her know! Such great times in London. I love it.
On Sunday, one of my roommates (Taylor) needed to go pick up some shoes that were on hold down in Clapham and then she wanted to go shopping in Oxford Circus. After that, our plans included going back to The Globe pub to watch England play Italy. We took the tube to Clapham and picked up her shoes, then we decided a bus would be more fun to take to Oxford. We figured out which bus stop to take, and waited for the bus to come. When the bus came, Adrian got on first, followed by Taylor and then me. I went to swipe my Oyster card, and it said I was out of money!! Adrian had already headed upstairs to the top deck and I looked back at the stop- there was no stand to get a temporary ticket. I calmly stepped back off the bus, Taylor and I made eye contact that said, "I don't know how this is going to work out." On the way to Clapham, I realized I had left my UK phone charging in our room. I have my iPod on me, but I need wifi. And she has a iPhone, but she needs wifi for how we communicate. Luckily, Adrian has a UK phone with a data plan! I sat at the bus stop for a few minutes trying to collect what I needed to do and where I needed to go, but mostly how do I get back to the tube station to top-up my card and get to Oxford Circus?! I went to the tube, and put twenty pounds on my card. I decided not to walk back to the bus stop, I took the tube. The tube dropped me a block off of the main Oxford Circus area, and I found a coffee shop with internet. I sent tweets to both Taylor and Adrian, an iMessage to Taylor, and then went to Facebook. I already had a message from Adrian. I responded telling him where I was and that I was okay. They were still on the bus!! I not only left second from Clapham, but arrived first at Oxford. Once it was decided they would meet me at the station, I headed back towards where I came from. I quickly realized there were about six exits to the station, and at least four entrances. Without going back to get wifi, I camped out near an entrance, sitting on the rail that leads down to the tube station and waited, anxiously looking to the other corners of the intersection for familiar faces. After about ten more minutes of waiting, we were reunited. Crazy.
After some shopping adventures, we headed back to meet others from our group before getting dinner at The Globe to watch England v Italy. We also decided we wanted a place to sit, and drinks that were cheaper and not served in a plastic cup. At half time, we walked to the ISH building and spent the second half in ISH Bar, the perfect place.
That brings us to this week.. and I think the amount of information I have to share will be suitable for part three. I am trying to get this done before going to Dublin (TOMORROW), because that will be a blog and a half in it's self!! Thanks for reading, you'll get another one by the end of tonight!
CHEERS!
Sarah Marsh
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| For those of you who have not seen my new hair style!! |
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