London Eye!

I finally rode the London Eye on Sunday. We were given tickets as a part of the program here in London and I hadn't gone yet. Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day so it was a good day to ride the Eye.

Walking up to the Eye.

Looking up while waiting in the queue (also known as the line).

The capsule next to ours as we were starting the ride.

House of Parliament, the Bell Tower, and Big Ben on the way up around the Eye.

Looking north up the Thames River.

The tower in the center is near where my flat.

Looking at Buckingham Palace, it is the building past/in the middle of all of the green space.

Looking down at the old County Hall Administration building, this now houses the London Aquarium amongst other things.

Our group as we were finishing the ride.

And finally, a picture of me taken by someone else!

Musical Number 3!

I have been fortunate to see some great shows while in London. So far I have seen Wicked and Les Miserables. On Saturday night after the day trip to Windsor I was pretty tired and didn't want to do too much, so a group of us decided to take a long shot and go to a theatre 30 minutes before the start of the show to see if we could get discount tickets. We were able to get tickets to Legally Blonde. It was surprisingly good and really funny. I really enjoyed the show all around and was impressed how it followed the storyline of the movie.

On Wednesday I am going to another musical...I think I would go to a different show everyday if I had the time and could afford it! Heck, I would break out in song and dance on a regular basis if it was socially acceptable!

Windsor Castle and Eton College

Saturday a group of us took advantage of a "cultural activity" being offered by AIFS. We went on a day trip to Windsor Castle and Eton College. In Central London there are only palaces, so going to Windsor to see a castle was pretty cool. It is the oldest castle that is still used as a residence.

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside of any of the buildings, so you only get outside shots. The state rooms were absolutely gorgeous! And it is even more impressive that they are still used today. One big attraction at Windsor is Queen Mary's dollhouse which was built in the 1920s. It is a miniature replica of everything, with a ratio for 1 inch to 1 foot. Even more impressive is that everything in the house works! Plumbing, lights, vacuum, Louis Vuitton luggage...the list goes on.

I wonder if this is where we can learn about moats. I have always wanted one, so I should learn about them I guess.

The church on the grounds of Windsor Castle. It was absolutely beautiful.

At the castle.

We got to see the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle.

We even had front row spots to see the ceremony!

The Queen was home at the castle while we were there!

It was such a pretty day it looked like a picture needed to be taken while walking over the Thames River from Windsor to Eton.

Eton College is a very prestigious all boys school. Originally it was a place for free education for 70 boys that tested very high on entrance exams. Now, over 1,000 boys (ages 13-18) attend. They still must test very high to be admitted, but now it costs about 30,000 pounds a year to attend. This is also where Princes William and Harry attended school.

In the courtyard of Eton College.

The original classroom at Eton College. This is the oldest classroom in Europe (possibly the world) that is still being used today.

A Day in Bath

On Friday, we had a class trip to Bath. It was a pretty long day. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Bath in the morning and over 3 hours to get back (yay for London/Friday traffic).

While in Bath, we got to spend the day touring the Roman Baths and had some free time to explore the city. It was really interesting to see the Baths and feel like you were in ancient times.

The Crescent building in Bath, this has 20 houses in it. This has a clear view of the city since it is on top of a hill.

Entering the Roman Baths.

The water is green because of the algae that grows. When this was an active bath, there was a dome over the top of the area so the water did not have the algae problem.

There is a museum section throughout the building that has a lot of the artifacts they were able to recover from the site, like this one.

This is where the hot water (naturally hot) enters into the bath.

Me in the bath...too bad I couldn't take a dip!

Part of the Bath Abbey.

A pretty garden/park in Bath. We didn't go into the park because it cost one pound to get in, so I took a few pictures from the sidewalk that looked into the area.

An awesome lion with a football (read soccer) made out of plants.

A view of the Avon River and a pretty bridge going over it.

Learning about UK Healthcare

One of my flatmates fell the other night and had a few injuries. Well she is okay, she was a little beat up after going down a flight of marble stairs. The next morning her wrist was still hurting so she decided she should get it checked out. This means I got to experience an Emergency and Accident Center in an UK hospital...and even better, I was not the one hurt!

After four hours at the hospital we found out that MK was lucky not to have any broken or fractured bones. Unfortunately, she will be sore for the next few days....or possibly weeks.

Finally leaving the hospital!

The best part of the afternoon/evening, was when leaving the hospital. The hospital and seeing this beautiful sight at dusk.

Two Hemispheres

Thursday morning (as usual) we had class. This week we had a guest lecturer speaking about London at war. It was really interesting to hear about the city during World War 1 and World War 2. After class a group of us went up to the Prime Meridian in Greenwich. That's right, I was in two hemispheres at one time!

Hiking up to the Royal Observatory.

The official clock!

In two places at once!

London's only planetarium.

To get to the line (the official marked one) and the Royal Observatory, we had to climb up to the top of a very steep hill. It was a little warm to be doing that kind of hiking, but it was great once we got up to the top. There was an amazing view!

Les Mis!

On Wednesday night we went to Les Miserables. It was amazing! I think that I could go to a movie every single night...if only I could afford to do that.

The really exciting thing was that Nick Jonas has been starring as Marius in Les Mis in London and he was performing on Wednesday night. I was skeptical about his abilities before the performance. I was pleasantly surprised with his performance.