Day 6-8 – London England
and the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games
Due to the expected
traffic delays for the Olympic Ceremonies in London, we left Cambridge earlier
than scheduled; we left at 8:00am. It
took 1.5 hours to get to London and we didn’t experience any traffic, much to
everyone’s delight. Once we arrived in
London, we headed to the Imperial War Museum (much like the Smithsonian in
Washington, DC) for our tours of that building.
It is the UK national headquarters for all things related to British War
History since 1914 and also the main headquarters for the Duxford Airbase. Upon our arrival, we were given a brief
history of the current museum, which is housed in the former London Mental
Hospital since the early 1930s. Also, we
were given a tour of the art museum which is housed in the IWM that the museum
has commissioned artists since WWI to create.
We were given free time to explore the museum after our tours/lectures
were over. Two of the best things I had
the opportunity to see were the hands-on exhibits of trench warfare from WWII
and the bombing of London in WWII; sadly, these interactive exhibits will be
removed once the renovation of the IWM begins at the end of the year. Holly, Jenny, and Greg (the organizers of our
summer residency program) are very disappointed because they believe that the
heads of the museum are taking away something interactive that the museum has
to offer for all of the thousands of school children who come to visit the
museum each year.
After we finished our
time at the IWM, we began our journey to Victoria Park, which is in the heart
of London, and it is right next to the Olympic Park (where the opening
ceremonies of the Olympic Games were to be broadcast on 3 large screens). Everything was fine and dandy until we
arrived at the park and that is when all hell broke loose (pardon the
expression). It took almost 3 hours to
get into the park due to horrible check-in/security measures; everyone was at
their breaking point and many of us didn’t even want to watch the opening
ceremonies at the park because of the extremely long lines but we soldiered
on. Once we FINALLY got through the
security checkpoint, things went lovely and everyone had a great time. It was amazing to me about all of the
diversity of citizens from other countries were at the park to watch the
ceremonies and I became very enthusiastic for the US to have the Olympic Games
as quickly as possible; so much energy and patriotism surrounded the park not
just for the UK but all nations involved in the Olympics. The opening ceremonies were one of the best
that I have ever seen; especially the whole Industrial Revolution sequences –
AMAZING!
After the opening
ceremonies were over, we headed to our weekend accommodations in London and
everyone in the group was not thrilled; considering that we didn’t arrive until
3:30am didn’t help much either. Our
accommodations were at a hostel – basically, a hostel is very cheap
accommodations where you share rooms with other people and share a bathroom
area (much like SHEPHERD)! We saw some
things that will never be mentioned again because what happens at the hostel stays
at the hostel. Also, to make matters
worse, we had to be awake at 7:00am so no one got any sleep and we were
physically exhausted.
The next morning, we
met for breakfast at the Borough Market on the Bank side of London across the
River Thames, and for the first time since I left home, I had a decent
breakfast – eggs, bacon, and bubble (an authentic English breakfast). Bubble is leftover food (vegetables,
potatoes, etc) from the previous day that when mixed together and cooked,
bubbles. Afterwards, Jenny took us on a
back-alley tour of the streets of London that the major tourists don’t know
about – it was fascinating and everyone had a wonderful time. Some people even commented that they learned
more about English/London history in those 6 hours than they ever did in a
classroom. Many of the highlights
included: St. Paul’s Cathedral (I walked
to the top and parts of my body hurt that have never hurt before, the site
where William Wallace was executed, and the sites of the movie locations for
Bridget Jones Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral. We
were extremely EXHAUSTED – we have done nothing since we arrived but walk and
tour historic sites and we are also on very little sleep; especially after the
previous late night and our lack of sleep at the hostel! Once we were finished, we had 2 hours before
the play – London Road began at the National Theatre in London; we all decided
to site see and shop together as a group.
One of the many things that I have taken from this trip, as well as
everyone else, is the fact that we have become a tight-knit group who enjoy
each other’s company, have done everything together, and we also haven’t
strayed from the group – we are becoming like a family!
London Road was an
interesting play – it was about a series of mass murders on London Road in
London in 2005. The premise dealt with
the people who lived on London Road when it occurred; the creator of the
play/musical interviewed numerous people in the neighborhood during the time
period in 2005 to get their reactions to what was happening and what they could
have done to unite better as a community to form a neighborhood watch. It was very good and I would highly recommend
it to anyone who will be traveling to London anytime in the near future and you
want to catch a show at the theatre.
Due to our pure
exhaustion and our horrible experience at the London Hostel, about half of us
decided to take the late train from London back to Cambridge at 12:15am because
we were physically and mentally exhausted after one week of non-stop activity,
while the others stayed the night to finish touring London. The only thing that I didn’t get to see on my
travels throughout London was Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard,
which I found out Sunday evening from the people who stayed back in London occurred. Also, the Queen’s flag was flying which meant
that she was in the palace, and they happened to see the Olympic bicycle race
while they were there as well! L
Despite my disappointment and the fact that we
didn’t arrive in Cambridge until after 2:00am, I needed to come back and get
some much needed rest. I didn’t awake
until 12:30pm and it was by far the best night’s sleep that I have had since I
arrived in the UK. Also to make things
nicer, it was an ugly rainy day in Cambridge (reminded me of those ugly days at
Shepherd when it rained and we skipped class to watch movies all day); due to
those circumstances, I was able to relax, check some email, call Sarah – I didn’t
take a shower until 3:30. After I
somehow was able to clean up, I headed down to the local Subway to get
something to eat and by the time that I returned to Homerton College, it wasn’t
until 4:30 that I had my first meal of the day.
Then we went out to dinner in Cambridge at 6:30, but since I ate so late
in the day, I wasn’t as hungry as everyone else and had a small appetizer. We were all very excited about the beginning
of our second week of the summer residency program and the majority of the
conversation was about what types of activities and learning strategies that we
were going to create not only for ourselves, but the UK students who will be
arriving during the following week for our weeklong camp!
No comments:
Post a Comment