British Politics and Culture

Last Thursday was our first day of class, British Politics and Culture. We met for a few hours to start discussing the history and culture of England, then went to the British Museum. This museum is full of artifacts from a lot of different cultures. We spent the most time in the Greece: Parthenon section and then the Celtic and Roman Britain and Europe sections. These are some of the historical things we learned about Britain’s past the first day.

Outside the British Museum (sorry you can't see us too well)

Inside the British Museum, glass dome architecture of Norman Foster
Norman Foster also designed the Gherkin, the pickle shaped building below, as well as City Hall of London (this was in a picture of ‘modern London’ in the previous blog) - Pretty amazing buildings.

Gherkin

This was the night we went to the show The 39 Steps at Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. It was a fun show to see. After that we went to Inamo, a restaurant with the menu projected onto the table so you could see what you would be ordering on your plate. It had a little touch mouse pad to move and click to select what you wanted, no waiter, just you and the virtual menu. You could play games like battleship with the person across from you.. I beat Jake :) Everyone at my table was nearly finished before I got my food and the fact that we didn’t have a specific waiter right off the bat, made it hard to get help when we needed something (like your food). Other than that, I loved the restaurant, it was very trendy and the food was awesome.

Lauren and me at Inamo

The projected menu on the table (I could see the Dragon Roll on my plate before I ordered it)

Friday we had class and went to the Museum of London. Our teacher, John, took us and we actually spent very little time inside the museum, he seemed more interested in taking us for coffee and cake. So we “had a chat with him” and learned a bit about everyone. Friday we went to a club called Miss Q which was really fun. Saturday we went to High Street Kensington to do a little shopping around, see a different part of London. We saw Harrods, which is a high-end department store that has over one million square feet of selling space. That night we went to another club called Traffic. When we got there we were standing by the door, debating whether or not to go to a different place because the line was so long. Then we got asked if we wanted in, just like that, no line. We thought that was pretty cool, and we had a good time dancing.

Harrods

Jake, Lauren, and Me in Traffic

Sunday Lauren and I kind of roamed around Chelsea and we all cooked dinner at home. Monday we met John at Westminster Abbey. It was really beautiful and John explained the history behind the church and a lot of the people commemorated in the church.

Westminster Abbey Courtyard

Westminster Abbey (we couldn't take pictures inside)

Well that catches you up a bit, and since Sunday was my last blog I wanted to say happy birthday to Nicole, 1/17 and to Grandpa Dave 1/19. Maybe that will get a comment out of Granny and Grumps :P I like hearing from you guys too! Miss you all!