A Day in the Life

Hello all!

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day. I got back into town from Dublin about 11:45, and Sara Ashley couldn’t bear to stay inside all day and waste the nice weather, so we decided to go on a walk in Hyde Park. We walked around the whole perimeter of the park, stopping along the way at the major sights. We checked out Speakers’ Corner, which is where anyone can come and speak their mind about any issue they want. We get a lot of “end of the worlders”, and also a lot of “come to Jesus” speakers, but there’s never a lack of entertainment. We had fun checking that out for a while, and then we kept walking. It was about 63 degrees, so neither of us wore coats and it was glorious. I could feel the sun warming me on the inside and it felt so nice to have some warmer temperatures. We rounded a corner and came upon the Italian Gardens, which are beautiful, and further down the road we found the Peter Pan statue! We ended up where we started, at the Albert Memorial. I love Prince Albert, so since it was a nice day and so warm, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture with him!

After walking round Hyde Park, we headed back down Exhibition Road, which is where all the museums are. Neither of us had been in the Natural History Museum yet and I really wanted to check it out, so in we went. It was one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to! They have it split into zones, and each zone has a theme. The Red zone is rocks and volcanos and the like, the Green zone is plants and animals, the Blue zone is water and sea life, and I haven’t been to the Orange zone, so I’m not really sure what’s there. But anyway, we had an absolute blast. I found several nautiluses in the museum. The nautilus is one of Kappa Delta’s symbols, because like the nautilus, we keep growing as individuals and as a sisterhood throughout our lives. It’s my favorite of all of our symbols, so I wanted to take a K∆ photo with the nautilus shell. We took a leisurely walk back home, and then started working on our homework for Shakespeare.

Monday started out as a typical day. Sara Ashley and I went to Shakespeare in the morning. After Shakespeare, my day became not so typical. My censorship class was cancelled because my tutor was sick. Since I didn’t have class, I decided to head home early. But I couldn’t get home because the Piccadilly line was closed. I assumed it was for something dumb, like a signal failure or someone dropping their bag in the rails. But it was actually really serious and scary. Unfortunately, a 55 year old man committed suicide in the underground really close to where I go to school. Because of this, the Piccadilly was shut down for the rest of the day. It’s really sad that people do that, plus it scars the driver for life. It’s much more common than you would think though…over 100 people commit suicide in the London Underground every year. I ended up taking the bus home.

Tuesday was a sad day, because it was Mom’s birthday and I wasn’t home to celebrate it with everybody. I did get to participate in the opening presents portion of the day, so that was nice to feel like I was a part of things. I sent Mom a joint birthday and “mum’s day” present, which was the book Five Minutes Peace. For those of you not familiar with this gem of a children’s book, it’s the story of an elephant family called the Larges, and the middle daughter is named Laura. All Mrs. Large wants the whole book is five minutes of peace from her children, but they keep annoying her. I loved this book when I was little, partly because it had my name in it and partly because I like elephants. Sadly, our original copy suffered a painful death by Nicholas and is no longer readable. So, I gave Mom a new copy of Five Minutes’ Peace so she’ll always have a copy!

Tuesday was also a happy day because I went to the Hunterian Museum for my history class. The Hunterian is the life collection of the surgeon John Hunter, who dissected cadavers and preserved organs for medical research in the United Kingdom. There are hundreds of preserved organs, bones, teeth, you name it. I was fascinated by the museum, but most of the people in my class were really grossed out by the whole thing. They had some old eye surgery tools, including a cataract knife. I thought that was really neat!

I woke up on Wednesday feeling pretty crummy, but thankfully I didn’t have class until 1:30 so I was able to lounge around all morning before I had to go to class. My architecture class met at South Kensington today, so I didn’t have to go too far. We walked all around the Kensington and Knightsbridge area, including Hyde Park, the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, and Harrods. It was a busy day! I took some pictures of the interior of the Natural History Museum because it’s just gorgeous. We also went into Brompton Oratory, which is the second largest Catholic church in England. It was absolutely breathtaking. I think I’m going to go there for Easter Mass! On the way home from class I went to the Post Office with my friend Dan, and then I went grocery shopping and fixed dinner with Katie. I’ve been struggling through The Last King of Scotland for my Modern British Novel class all week, but I’m almost finished! Only two more books to go for that class.

On Monday, we hit the 30 day mark of days left in London. I love London and I’m so glad I decided to study abroad, but the closer I get to the end the more ready I am to come home. My fun fact of the day is that James Taylor wrote “Carolina in my Mind” in London when he was recording a CD at the Beatles’ recording studio here, so it seems fitting that I would agree with his sentiment in the song. I daydream about feeling the South Carolina sun shine down on my face, drinking sweet tea and hanging out with my friends. I’m getting to the point in the semester where I have a lot of work to get done and not a lot of time for much else, and it’s hard being far away from your happy place when your stress level gets high. I’m really excited to have my family get here in just a couple of weeks! We’re actually starting to get the nitty gritty details worked out now, and I’m having a lot of fun planning out all the things to do with them when we reunite! Once they leave, I have a little less than a week until I return to the US of A.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me full of fun activities, so stay tuned for all the excitement! In conclusion, I’ve included a picture of me post-Monument scaling. I’m posing with my certificate confirming that I made it up the 311 stairs to the top! Cheers!

Song of the Blog: A Day in the Life by the Beatles