My first interaction with a horse guard
I have done more walking in these few days then I did all last semester. I do enjoy walking because it gives me a greater sense of the layout of the city. I realize that things are a bit closer than I originally thought from the bus tour. We had our first British Life and Culture class yesterday. I learned more about the history of the city as well at the part that we are living in (Kensington). Apparently, it is the most expensive place to live in not just London, but the country. I do feel very safe in this area and it seems like a great place to live. The professor pointed out that not many British people live here. While they may work here, it is too expensive to live here. She explained how England still continues to have a hierarchal class system and Kensington is an example of that.
Today was a busy day. I met up with a friend that was studying in Dublin last semester. We all started at the Museum of London as part of the field trip for British Life and Culture class. I was inundated with information. It covered the hunters that lived here to the Roman empire to the great fire. I enjoyed the information about Cromwell and Charles I since it brought me back to my old AP European class, but by that point I couldn’t retain anymore information.
From the museum, we stopped by Convent Gardens. It was a huge shopping district. Most of the stores were having January sales. I decided there is a need to take advantage of them while they are still going on. Thus, tomorrow my roommate and I decided to have a shopping day. We ate a good lunch special at Spaghetti House and then meandered by Trafalgar square and down Whitehall to see the House Guards. These guards do not interact with the people. I felt incredibly awkward as we got our obligatory photo including if we could even greet him. When we thanked him, he did respond with “you’re welcome.” As we left, I wondered… how many facebook albums is this guard in?
To go home, we walked though St. James Park. It was lovely. It stayed light later than I thought it would so we were able to see the park at a pretty time of the day. We walked past Buckingham Palace and saw the Wellington Arch. It was a nice change of pace to be within nature. And there are very many parks a including Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park hat are near here.