Week gone by…ending with the bounty hunter!

Well it seems i have been slacking on updating my blog. I apologize and will try to catch you all up! Last thursday we had our usual BES and Contemporary Britain classes for Central and then I went to meet with my events presentation group before seminar. The researching for this presentation is getting really old and there is very little information on my subject so we just decided to do the best we can with what we have:) That was about all the excitement for that night, aside from a chill night spent with friends in Vandon House.

Fridays we get our room cleaned (so nice!) so we have to be out by 11. Erica and i decided to finish one of our British Experience Seminar assignments. We started out at Sir John Soane’s Museum. It’s a house museum full of a whole lot of random trinkets that a guy (sir john soane) had collected over his lifetime. He was a very skilled architect who designed the Bank of England and other buildings. The museum was…interesting and very cluttered. Not my favorite. But there was an Egyptian sarcophagus and it had hieroglyphics written all the way around it – inside and out. We then made our way to Lincoln Inn’s Park where we found a plaque that faced the Canadian headquarters during the war. right behind it was a maple tree planted to commemorate something or other. It was a very small park but it was gorgeous out and the sun was shining, people were playing frisbee and just relaxing in the sunshine. It was great!

We then walked to the Holborn area – an area where most of the London barristers (the hot shot lawyers who step in when other lawyers need assistance) work. People like Oliver Cromwell and Margaret Thatcher are on the rosters outside of each hall. It was so pretty and well kept. There was a park with a fountain and the area had a wall all the way around it so it was like its own community. We walked around the narrow pathways and just checked it all out and it was pretty cool. Although we wondered how hard being a barrister must be cuz apparently one of them had time to check their  facebook account:) After we finished walking around we made our way to the rounded Temple Church. It was the headquarters for the Knights Templar in the 10th century. Interesting fact, this church was used in the film The Da Vinci Code. I’ve never seen the movie, but for people who have i bet it was cooler!

That fulfilled our assignment but instead of taking the tube back, we decided since it was SO nice out, to just “take the Thames back.” We just walked along the river and did some people watching! Since it was a Friday, there were loads of tourists and a very large amount of school kids. If i was a teacher, taking my class to central London would NOT be a fun day for me! Stressful! We took a few pictures of things we saw along the way including the sphinx things next to Cleopatra's needle and pictures in front of Big Ben (where one guy decided to sneak up behind me and get in on my picture!) It was a very lovely leisurely walk!
Sunday we worked on homework most of the day and then headed out to Regent’s park for a little afternoon break. This is the largest park i have been to yet! There were like for sure 9 different football (soccer) fields and also gardens and other things to walk through. Very cool. It was a little chillier today tho so we decided to go for a short walk and find a coffee place. Well, we saw some sweet looking houses so we went down that street to check them out. However, the street in london are not…straight or grid-like. We got a little lost and ended up walking around for 45 mins. We finally found a tube station and went to Tottenham Court Road to get to Hillsong Church. Another amazing service!
Nothing too exciting for Monday and Tuesday – just the usual student stuff. Yes, i know its hard to believe but i do have to go to class and complete the coursework in order for me to graduate in May :) But Wednesday night we had a group activity – a “ghost tour” around St. Pauls Cathedral. We heard many stories of suspected ghosts who people claim to see once in a while in certain places and also went to a few courtyards where public executions were held. Things were way more grotesque back then by the way! seriously! It was chilly, but still very interesting with a different twist on touristy tours.

Today, was the excitement of the week. Started out with the usual Central classes in the morning. But this afternoon, we decided to go check out the bounty hunter premier in Leicester square. We only waited 3 hours for this one instead of the 5 for Valentines day, but we still managed to get great front row spots for some great pics! O yeah, and autographs of Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler! we even got a picture with Gerard! We had a nice little conversation about who spit on him and who was going to take our picture! He was so cool and very good to his fans! They both were actually. They took time to go around to the whole gated area to sign posters, books, pictures and even my friend’s magazine with Jens picture on the front that i helped him out with! It was a great time!