The past couple of days have been a bit of a whirlwind. We started classes! Initially, I was in a History of London course, but I switched out of it after one class and changed to Roman and Medieval Europe. Here's why:
The History of London class was from 2-5pm. This interrupted my valuable pub/touring time and I wanted to spend the afternoons enjoying the city instead of in a classroom. Also, according to other students this teacher kept us about an hour late each class period. I didn't believe these rumors until the end of the first day, when he decided to take us all the the British Museum with 45 minutes left of class. I didn't end up meeting my friends at the Goat Tavern until 6:11. (Yes, I timed it.) I am only here for three weeks, I didn't want to tolerate someone who didn't respect my very little amount of time here. I got a Pimm's and things were much better. Rant over.
Anyway, I switched into this Roman/Medieval Europe class which seems pretty interesting. I've talked about a lot of this information in my Western Civ./Early Modern Europe classes, so I'm a little ahead of the curve. My professor is a jolly little British man who introduces every new character as "This is the geezer who...", so I find it hard not to like him. I also found out that our classroom complex has a coffee shop that serves Starbucks, so my life is fantastic currently.
Today was really busy, even after the madness of switching classes. Cody, Brandi, Lindsay, Katherine, Kelli, Liz and I all went out for lunch in Russell Square, this quaint 19th century neighborhood. We grabbed sandwiches from Pret A Manger, this huge sandwich chain over here. I was really impressed. I ordered a toasty, and it was delicious! They made it really easy for you to just grab the food and go, which was convenient for tourists like me. :) We decided to eat on a bench in this beautiful park, and this is where things got tricky.
Let me tell you about the London pigeons. They are unforgiving. They are ruthless. They get what they want. If you have ever seen the "Crazy NastyAss Honeybadger" video on youtube, think of that. We sit down to eat in the park, and the pigeons start to swarm. They kept thinking we were going to feed them, which was definitely not the case. After not having any luck with Brandi, Liz, and I, the pigeons moved to where Cody, Lindsay, and Katherine were sitting. They were flapping all over the place and cooing. After a bunch of shrieking and moving over a couple benches, the pigeons then gave up and proceeded to go diving headfirst into a nearby trash can (the one in the background of the photo) looking for food. The pigeons guard every trash can in the park. I turned around to throw my garbage away and they were just STARING at me, sitting on the trash can. I think I will avoid eating in parks from now on.
After our trip to pigeon hell, we went to the British Museum. This was easily one of the things I wanted to do most, and I was really blown away by this place. I was very humbled to be in a place that had so much history in it. They have the Rosetta Stone, pieces from the Parthenon in Greece, hundreds of early Christian altarpieces from the 13th century, Egyptian mummies, and way too much more for me to mention here. It was incredible. I can't really go into much more detail without spoiling the experience, so I really hope you get to go there yourself someday.
We stopped in a shop on the way home to buy some gifts for friends, family, and boyfriends. I bought a key chain that says "Keep Calm and Drink Wine", and I'm pretty excited about it. After a break at Atlantic House, we went for dinner at Pizza Hut (which is ironically a nice, sit down place here) and then headed towards King's Cross Station for something I've been wanting to do for the longest time:
Visit Platform 9 3/4 :)
I was devastated when I didn't get my Hogwarts letter, so naturally this place is somewhere I definitely wanted to visit. The platform 9 3/4 area isn't actually in between platforms 9 & 10, which was disappointing. It was off to the side in the lobby, by a bunch of ATMs and a bookstore. That didn't really kill the mood for me. I loved living out my dream of (kind of) going through the wall and getting on the Hogwarts Express!
Things crossed off the to-do list:
British Museum
Platform 9 3/4 :)
Til next time!
Lizzy
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