London Saga: Part 6

Okay, so I didn't blog yesterday. But today will be an recap of my weekend in general. :-)

Yesterday, I did two main tourist-y things: the Tower of London and the British Museum.

The Tower of London was incredible. We took a tour with a beefeater, or a yeoman -- because yesterday was the Queen's official birthday, they were dressed in special outfits that was pretty cool. These beefeaters are tasked with 'defending' the Tower, and it's a pretty big deal to be chosen. They live on the premises, which means they get a house within the Tower walls -- how cool is that?

So we got a general overview of  the Tower and its functions, then checked out the Crown Jewels, which is opulence at its best. I was awed by the amount of gold and precious stones contained there. We also saw the torture rooms and the armory -- all cool stuff. I really enjoyed my time at the Tower.

My friends and I grabbed lunch at a nearby grocery store -- sandwiches on the go -- and headed to the British Museum. They have an incredible amount of awesome stuff in this museum; I felt like I could have spent days there.

We, however, made a beeline for the Rosetta Stone. Even the fingerprint-marked glass that hid the Stone couldn't really mask how incredible it was to see the thing in person. The Egyptian and Assyrian exhibits were especially cool -- go mummies!

We also checked out the Sutton Hoo treasures, and then we spent a good amount of time in a temporary exhibit on Chinese printmaking.

We walked back to Regent's Park (and got lost along the way), which was really nice because the weather was perfect yesterday. (Jeans and t-shirt kind of fare.)

Walking through Regent's Park was gorgeous -- there were people walking their dogs, impromptu cricket matches and little children running around enjoying the wonderful weather.

Once we returned to Regent's, it was time to watch the much-anticipated England vs. U.S.A. soccer (or should I say football?) match. I chose to watch the game at the College, which probably wasn't a bad idea. I heard that pubs were a bit crazy that night.

The game was really intense, especially during that first half. It was really interesting to hear the British commentary, because I'm so used to American commentary where usually the U.S. team can do absolutely no wrong. It was a bit strange to hear the other side of the spectrum.

Anyway, I think that I'm fine with a 1-1 tie, although a lot of the Londoners didn't seem too pleased with the results.

Today, I went shopping on Oxford Street with a couple of my girlfriends. We ended up in Primark, this giant confection of a department store with rock bottom prices. I bought a pair of shoes for two pounds.

As would be expected with the prices, the place was mobbed. The lines to the dressing room were out of this world, and I ended up trying on a lot of my clothes right near the racks. It was exhausting navigating around the throngs of people, but totally worth it. I was really pleased with my purchases. :-)

After stopping by Starbucks (hooray for American consumer imperialism), we returned to Regent's College to do some reading for class tomorrow and get ready for another week.

I got to Skype with my boyfriend and talked on the phone with my parents, which was really nice. And now ... now I'm writing this blog post.

So that was my weekend! Tomorrow, class discussion will center around a collection of poems about London that coincidentally was published by my press. (I remember doing the publicity for it.) And I think we are supposed to see Wicked tomorrow, which should be nice. I've read the book and enjoyed it, more or less. (This is more than I can say about Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.)

Ahem. That's probably enough rambling for today ... onward toward tomorrow!