London Field Trip

Cheers everyone!

I hope you are all having a great weekend preparing for Thanksgiving this week!  Unfortunately, the Brits don't celebrate this holiday (although I'm not quite sure why...), so I will be traveling to Rome!  However, more on this trip later.  I must tell you about the wonderful field trip that we took to London on Friday for British Studies!
We left at 8am (quite early for us here!) via coaches to go to London for the day.  We arrived at 11am at Trafalgar Square, which is home to many museums in London.  We were instructed to go on our own to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery to view specific paintings and artwork for our British Studies exam that is coming up in two weeks (the DAY before I come home!!!!).  I was able to see many different types of paintings (no pictures allowed I'm afraid) from centuries ago.  It was really cool to be able to piece things together.  After we had our personal time in these museums, we got to walk 30 minutes to St. Paul's Cathedral!

St. Paul's is beautiful, inside and out.  I learned a lot about the history of this building.  You would be surprised that this was built to model Anglican religion way back then.  Even more so, it is more of a military monument than a church; you have to literally look for any aspects of religion inside.  However, the building was beautiful, and we had a guided tour with our British Studies professor.  I was able to see Horatio Nelson's tomb, who won the Battle of Trafalgar for the Brits against the French with the Royal Navy.  Funny story about him- he took a coffin every battle he went to in case he died.  Unfortunately he came home in a coffin after this battle.  Another monument inside this cathedral is the Duke of Wellington, who fought during the World Wars.  I saw a plaque to commemorate Florence Nightingale, the mother of nursing as well.  I enjoyed St. Paul's Cathedral a lot.

Bailey (one of my roommates) and I went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum after the British Studies day was over.  This museum was AWESOME.  The people looked like people!  I got pictures with some of the best Hollywood stars, and it was so cool.  The museum was much more than a museum.  Inside was an amusement ride, 4D movie, and a haunted house.  Pretty awesome if you ask me!

When we left here, we strolled over near Regent's Park to Oxford Street, which was FULL of Christmas lights and shopping.  We had a blast taking pictures of all the different signs that lit up the street, as well as shopping in some great stores.  This included Top Shop, Forever 21, Primarx, H & M, and so many more!  We finished our night by walking in Picadilly Circus, which was full of people, lights, and noise (the usual).  All in all, just another day in London :)

Have a great night!
Taylor <3