Museums Galore!

Yesterday was a very educationally rich day to say the least! Actually, I think by the end of the day my brain was on overload from all of the things we saw and learned. Oscar and I woke a little earlier than usual and decided to go to some museums in London, being that they are nice and FREE! Oscar ran to the grocery store while I showered and got some stuff to make sandwiches for lunch. Mmmm and they were yummy...tomatoe, pesto, and mozzarella on a baguette! I packed up the lunches and we made our way into London around Kensington. The first museum we went was the Natural History Museum. We ate our lunch out on the lawn ( much more economical than eating at a cafe or something) and then made our way inside. There was some really interesting stuff too. Evidently, London is famous for its palentology work with dinosaurs and other prehistoric fossils. They had other sections on the human body, which was ok....but a little juvenille and uninteresting to me. After we muddled around in the there looking at dinosaurs and petrified trees, We made our way over to the Science Museum across the way. It was nothing like what I expected though. It was more about machines and technology than "science" or what I would call science. They had everything from steam engines to the first powered looms, to spaceshuttles, to other random machinery. The one part that I was somewhat interested in was the part where they had medical equiptment. They had the first MRI and the first CT scanners with info boards on when they were first created and how they were first created. Interesting to me I guess only because I have learned throughout my schooling how the new ones work and it was interesting to see how different and crude the first ones where...and how incredibly small and incomfortable they were. But then again, not everyone thinks that would be interesting but would love the steam engines....oh well.

The Next museum we went to was the Victorian Albert Museum. I don't know what I expected, mostly art I guess, but there was so much cool stuff to see in this museum. The one part I really loved was the fashion part. There were shoes and dresses dating back to the 1700s clear up to the present. Its so cool to see how things have changed over the years. They even had different styles of dress according to different fashion forward regions of the world like New York, London, and Milan. The other part of the museum we got to see was Raphael's cartoons for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel. Oscar had a funny joke but I'm going to use it now....I guess that now I've seen Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael....the only one left is Donatello ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?? I thought it was funny!) The last thing we did before the museum closed was we made our own coat of arms on this little computer thing and then you can email it to yourself! I think that is what I'm going to write my last paper on for my British Culture and Society class...liek the history and components of a coat of arms.

After we left the museum, we stopped in Harrods, which I have never been so it was interesting. I was surprised a little about how it was set up. Its kind of like a mall but more like little individual areas/designers/shops arranged in no particular fashion but more like a labyrinth that you could easily get lost in. I could never afford anything in there either, except maybe the stuff in the food court. They had a sweet shop that looked a little tempting I must say.

We decided that it was definately time to head home around 8 and caught a train. On our way home we were thinking about what we wanted to eat, realzing not too much is open that late on a Sunday night. However, there is an Indian Restaurant in Surbiton that we had been wanting to go too and it was open until midnight everynight!! Around 915 or so we went to the restaurant and I must say...it was delicous!! I had something called Chicken Tikiea Mussella which was chicken in a creamy spiced sauce. My favorite part of indian food in the non bread!! yummy fried like bread!! mmmmm. We had a nice little dessert called Fantasica....which it was...and then headed home around 1030....I love being able to eat out late!!

We headed to bed bc Oscar had to be at Liverpool Street Station at 540 this morning, which proved a little difficult considering the tubes dont start running until 550. We caught the first train into waterloo at 424.....oh yeah....we got up at 330....im pooped. Anyways, no one works that early in the morning obviously so we had to figure out how to get ourselves from Waterloo to Liverpool by Bus, which is my weak area....I hate buses! There happened to be a nice guy standing at the station who told us how to get where we were going and we made it with a few minutes to spare! Anyways, Oscar is on his way back to Sweden and is going up north with his family for a week. Only 4 more days of class for me though....I guess I should get on my 2 papers and start studying for my exam then. I can't wait to be done with classes so I can really enjoy my time here in Europe, worry free!! And in the next 2 weeks I will have added 2 more countries to my list....Ireland and France!! I'm so excited!!

Until Next time,
xoxo Jackie