I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

I ended up staying up until about 3am this morning because I was on a roll with getting things done and I planned on sleeping in anyway. I ended up being really productive and getting most things done. Including planning out my trip home Saturday. Making it to the airport will be an adventure in itself.

Today I went and saw the Wizard of Oz musical at 3pm, so the latest I would wake up would be 1pm. But about 11:30 I woke up and couldn't sleep anymore so I just got up and got ready. Then I ate some lunch and wondered around Oxford Circus for awhile. Then about 2pm I was standing outside the doors and the Salvation Army band came walking by and playing, I'm not sure why but I managed to get a couple pictures.

Then they opened the doors and I headed in. I ended up buying a souvenir brochure and then I found my seat. I was really impressed by the show and really enjoyed it. I thought they did an awesome job with it and had cool effects. A couple times people drop from the ceiling right above the audience which was really cool to see. I decided after seeing a couple posters that I just had to see the Wizard of Oz because of being from Kansas and I'm glad I did. I would rank it in the top musicals I've seen here.

Afterwards I hoped on the tube and headed to find Heather Road. It was an adventure. I got off the tube and got on a bus and then got off at the Heather Road stop, and come to realize it was on the other side of the six lane highway. So I ended up walking about 4 blocks to a pedestrian overpass and crossing it. Then I walked back up the 4 blocks to the sign to take a picture, and about 30 feet ahead was the bus stop that headed back to the tube station. So I got back on the bus and headed to the tube station to then head back. Altogether it took me about two hours get there and back, just for a picture, but well worth it.

Then after getting back I headed to the grocery store for some food for the last week here. By this time it was about 8:30 and I was rather hungry on the walk back and had decided on what I wanted to make for dinner and was pretty excited. Unfortunately, in the end I didn't eat much because when I went to make it, I only needed the microwave, the Chinese people on the floor had already taken over the kitchen which meant for me slowly being more grossed out the longer I stayed. It wasn't so much what they made, but the cleanliness. The stove was disgusting, floor sticky and dirty dishes everywhere. So by the time I sat down, in my room, to eat food no longer sounded good. It was a rather sad ending to the night. Luckily there is less than a week left of dealing with it, one of the reasons I am ready to be back home. 

I finished off the night with planning tomorrow and working on homework. Tomorrow I plan to go to the guards museum and stop by St. James to take a picture of the solider on guard.

London Random- Updated
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Cotswold and Oxford Day Trip

Well today was our last weekend trip. We went to Cotswold and Oxford. We left about 8:45 and it was only about a two hour bus ride, not too bad. I got to sleep a bit on the bus. And I managed to get my own seat again.

Our tour guide explained the Cotswolds is famous for its picturesque rural countryside and beautiful villages made from honey colored limestone. The word "Cotswolds" comes from the word "cots" meaning stone sheep shelters and "wold" meaning rolling hills. There have been people farming the land for thousands of years. In medieval times it was famous for it’s wool trade and as a result there was a decline in arable farming. Rich merchants spent their money on “wool churches” and manor houses. In the 18th century the Enclosure Act changed the landscape forever. This act of parliament allowed landowners to divide open land with drystone walls. This required less farm labourers and as a result many villages emptied as workers sought employment in larger towns. The Cotswolds are rich in Oolite limestone, many quarries are still in use today. Most old limestone houses and cottages are listed buildings and protected from any major alteration. Limestone quarried from this region has been used in the construction of St Paul's Cathedral in London, Melbourne Cathedral in Australia and many of the colleges in nearby Oxford.

We got to Cotwold and we had about an hour to walk around and we also went to a cafe type place and I had toast and hot chocolate, it was about 10:45.  We really didn't end up staying long but it was pretty cool to see. There were many bridges and foot bridges crossing the river. It was only about 10 inches so you could actually walk across it.

We headed of to Oxford then which was about a 45 minutes bus ride. When we first got there we did a short walking tour to see the area and then we had some time to wonder around and get lunch. We went into the covered market and found a cafe and I ended up getting beans and toast. They seem to put beans with everything here. And then we wondered around for a bit and looked at everything. Then we met up again with the guide and we went to Christ Church College, one of 39 colleges in Oxford. It was really cool to see. They actually had filmed a couple scenes from Harry Potter there and the Great Hall was based on the Great Hall there. The Hall in the college only has three rows of tables and Harry Potter needed four so they ended up building the hall in a studio, but the idea came from here.

Christ Church College

Great Hall Inspiration (Harry Potter)

 Painting in the Great Hall, as you walk by it looks like his head turns and follows you, it was creepy, but so cool at the same. And his last name was Strange.

Steps used in Harry Potter. As Harry and the new first-years enter Hogwarts they are greeted by Professor McGonagall. This scene was shot on the 16th century staircase which leads up to the Great Hall. 

We actually managed to get back in good time. When I got back I worked on various tasks for getting ready for tomorrow for the Wizard of Oz musical and finding Heather Road and some homework of course. 

And I can't forget the wonderful rose Chris ended up sending me, just because. 

Cotswold and Oxford Part 1
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Cotswold and Oxford Part 2
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Crazy Friday!

I left my room around 10:20 to head to the meeting point for the London Walk I was going on. I got there and paid for the walk and then around 10:55 we started. We headed to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guards. I had went before but we got a really good view and actually got to see them up close. Afterwards we walked down a couple streets and one street in particular were very old houses, mostly turned into business aside from one, which is owned by Sting. 

Then we made it to Westminster Abbey, and although I couldn't take pictures inside I did get to take some outside. The Abbey was quite a sight to see. First off, it was very large and is a very special place just because of everything inside. After it was built, they were able to fit 8,000 people in there for a coronation ceremony and today they allow about 2,500 people, for instance at the Royal Wedding there were 2,500 seats. By the one set of doors there was a memorial to Roosevelt which I thought was pretty cool that the United States is represented there. Also close by is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is the only tomb that no one is allowed to walk on. There is a row of poppies surrounding it. The poppy was chosen because it was the first flower to grow on the battle field following the war. Another interesting part is that the entire thing has pieces from various countries to symbolize all of the people that died in the war from all the countries. For instance, there was a United States congressional medal by the tomb and the soil came from the French. I believe the coffin came from Scotland and I can't remember who gave the ship bell. The unknown warrior was the last person to be buried in the Abbey. 

Some other famous people I recognized was Sir Isaac Newton who was actually buried there. Some people who had memorials there were Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote Canterbury tales, Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters, Shakespeare and Handel. Charles Dickens was another person who was buried there. Of course many kings and queens were buried there as well.

After exploring the Abbey for awhile I then headed to Emirates Stadium to check out the Arsenal Club. I ended up just going through the museum because of the price of the stadium tour, but I really enjoyed the museum. I have never really watched Arsenal play but I was impressed by the museum and they seem like a really good club. 

Afterwards I headed across London in search of Christopher Street, need less to say after some searching I found. Next up is Heather Road on Sunday. It is kind of fun to look for the random roads because it is an adventure to find it, and I get to explore other parts of London I wouldn't see otherwise. 

I then headed back to my room and rested for a bit before starting to work on random tasks and packing for our day trip to Oxford tomorrow. 

Also, after hearing about how a couple other people in our group really enjoy Buckingham Palace I decided it would be a good idea to check it out before I leave. It just opened last week for a couple months while the Queen is away in Scotland. So next Friday I will be going to see Buckingham Palace. A great way to end my stay in London.

London Walk (Changing of the Guards + Westminster Abbey)
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Emirates Stadium- Arsenal
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Olympic Walk

Not having class today meant I got to sleep in so I didn't get up until 10:15, it felt great to get to sleep in. After getting up I met up with my partner downstairs to work on our presentation. We worked on it until about 1:30 and we managed to get the entire presentation put together and all that we have left to do is to write down the extra info on notecards for the actual presentation on Tuesday. Then I headed back upstairs for lunch and I had planned on going somewhere but ended up just hanging out in my room because I planned on leaving for the Olympic Walk around 5:45 and I didn't want to end up missing out. And it was nice to just take it easy and hang out in my room. I got some random things done and worked on my notecards for the presentation. Then about 5:45 I headed to the tube to get to the meeting point.

As I was heading downstairs I ran into a couple people from my group so we all went together. It was a longer ride so it was more fun. But I was listening to Emily's story and we managed to miss our stop so at the next stop we hopped off and hoped on the southbound tube to get back and then switched lines. It was an easy fix and knowing the tubes makes it a lot easier, and we still had plenty of time. We managed to be the first ones to get there actually.

 Main stadium, 85,000 seats

The Olympic Walk was...interesting to say the least. I really enjoyed getting to see the progress and the different sites. We literally only could see the area from a viewing platform though. Something most of us from the group didn't enjoy was extensive information about the area. Although some of the facts the guide told us were interesting, we were bored after awhile. So the tour was so, so.

Some interesting things I did remember was that the Olympics is costing London 9 billion pounds (about 15 billion dollars). But 1/3 of it is contributed to a legacy which means that a lot of what they are building will stay there after the Olympics are over in order to help develop the area into a better living environment. For instance the large main stadium has 85,000 seats but afterwards it will be reduced down to 25,000 because a lot of the buildings were built to be dismounted afterwards. Then following the Olympics a school will be built to help students excel at athletics and fine arts. The Olympics is also doing a green campaign and they are doing quite well with it. In order to not cause a lot of emission 51% of the building material was brought in by rail car or by boats. Also, they were able to create 408 apprenticeship so far for actual people living in the area. This means they would teach them a skill like plumbing or electrical and then give them a job so that after the games they have skills that will help them down the road.

They had some big plans for the games and they are carrying them out quite well. London was originally supposed to host the games in 2005, but after the tube bombings they did not. So then they started working on a plan for the future and they managed to secure the bid for 2012, but they have been doing various phases since 2006 in order to prepare for it. Everything is quite impressive and I think the Olympics will be awesome next year, little less than a year away, and it will be a huge help to the surrounding around in helping it grow.

After the walk we headed back to the dorm and then our group all hung out in the common room downstairs for a bit, which was pretty fun because we got to spend some more time really getting to know each other. Then we headed off to bed.

Tomorrow I will be going on a walk, Royal London and Westminster Abbey. Then I will check out the Arsenal stadium and get my stuff together for our day trip to Oxford on Saturday.

Olympic Walk
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Last day of class for the week, and it's only Wednesday!

For being the last day of class for the week, it seemed to drag on forever. We went over the parts of a report, and after the first class and having to write a report I was well aware of them. Although we ended class with that, class did start off well. We did an NASA activity about being stranded on the moon and we had to make a 200 mile trek to the place we needed to be. We had a list of 15 things and we had to put them in order of importance. First by ourselves then in a group of four. The point of the activity lead to the first lecture about negotiation and persuasion, which I seem to do quite well. For the most part I was able to persuade the group toward my answers. Some of them were more like common sense and I could tell other people in the class lacked it because after doing it in the group for the first time our teacher gave us 10 clues, or information points and then we could alter our answer, we changed one. For us it was nice because we were done quickly and this whole activity managed to take an hour. One I thought was a no brainer that stumped some of the other groups, matches, they would be the least important because they would be useless on the moon and some people had them pretty high ranked. Also having the water and food supply at the top, and the map just seemed to be what made sense and some other groups did not have that.

So then after the activity we went through two lectures and then were done for the week. After class I headed back to my room and made some lunch and then head for the Natural Science Museum.

Ford Model T

The museum was huge. There were 5 floors of different exhibits to go through and I went through them all. It took me roughly about 2 hours. My legs were tired by the end of it. I did get to see some cool things. They had things like technology through the ages, medical advances, space, math and computers. Other than the mass of people there I did enjoy seeing everything and tried to take a lot of pictures. By the end of it I was worn out and when I managed to make it to the 5th floor, last exhibit there was a boy, about 4 years that said "mom" every 5 seconds (I kid you not) and the mom let it continue the entire time through the exhibit. Needless to say, I tried to hurry through it because it was starting to annoy me. I was amazed the mom didn't do anything about it either. The part that really got me was then I had to walk in front of the kid to get out of the exhibit and he was sitting in  a stroller and he actually deliberately tired to kick me. I really wanted to ask the mom what she thinks he is going to be like in about 10 years, but my patient level was shot so I just left. Of course I headed home during rush hour so there were masses of people in the tube but I managed. After getting back I Skyped with mom for a bit and then did some work to get ready to work on a group presentation in the morning.

Next week, my final week, will probably be a bit hectic with trying to pack and prepare to go home, but I have a presentation on Tuesday, test on Wednesday, and a one page reflective paper due on Thursday. I will be glad for Saturday. Probably one of the most amusing things to me is the time change. Saturday I leave London around 3pm and arrive in Chicago around 6pm, but will probably be in the air about 6 or 7 hours. But that's next week. 

Tomorrow we will be working on our presentation and then tomorrow night we are going on an Olympic walk with API, we get to see the Olympic sights I believe. I'm excited!

Also, I updated my route and completed it with pictures of what it looks like then from the tube station to the campus where I have my classes. Enjoy!

Natural Science Museum Part 1
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Natural Science Museum Part 2
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My Route to Class
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