Week of Beautiful Sites

      I can now say that I made it through the first week of classes without getting lost on the train or the tube. To me that seems like quite the accomplishment. I have had to travel everyday into London for one of my classes, so I feel as if I have become a professional at finding my way on the tube. At times all the different connections can get confusing and going through during rush hour can be very stressful but I am getting the hang of it.

      For one of my classes, called Exploring Cultural London, I got to go up in The Shard. It is currently the tallest building in the European building, consisting of 87-stories. I only got to go to around the 72nd floor but for someone who is not fond of heights, that was high enough for me. From the top of The Shard, the view is just breathe taking. It gave me perspective into how diverse the architecture is in London. There could be a skyscraper standing next to a cathedral that dates back to the 1800's, it just fascinates me.

     

      Also this week, I got to go to Greenwich which was absolutely beautiful. For my class, we were looking at how London used to be a huge port city and it used to bring in a lot of trade. So we went around to all of the different ports looking at how they used to operate. Greenwich was our last stop of the day and we stopped at The Queen's House which was made for Anne of Denmark, the Queen to King James I. It has now been turned into a wonderful art gallery. We were fortunate enough to walk through and look at the paintings. Behind the house, there is a huge hill that overlooks the city. It was quite the climb but once you reached the top, the view was worth it. 

The Queen's House

 The Spiral Staircase in The Queen's House

The hill we climbed.

The view from the top. 

     The main thing that has changed for me while being here is my sleep schedule. The days here seem to be a lot longer. I know that they aren't but the sun comes up a lot earlier and goes down a lot later. Therefore, I tend to wake up a lot earlier than I normally would at home because my bedroom is lit up from the sun in the early morning. The sun doesn't go down till about 10 p.m. here so my body thinks that it still has like 3 or 4 hours till it needs to go to bed, therefore I can never fall asleep at night when I want to. 

   Overall, the first week full week here was absolutely amazing. I can't wait for all of the other places that I get to see in the coming weeks. I cant believe it has already been over a week. It feels like time is going too fast!