Operation MK2H

St. Paul's Cathedral

This week was crazy busy.  It seems that everyone is under the impression that my semester is all play and no work, but this week proves that my time here is no such thing.  Even though, I technicaly am only in class three days a week, this week felt like it was never going to end.  Multiple papers, a 20 minute presentation, and lots and lots of reading kept me from doing much sleeping.  And yes I did procrastinate on the papers, but I can't help it, after 20 years its hard to kick the old habits.  To make things more fun, the wifi in our apartment is horrible and we lost it the night I had to write my forensic paper.  Thats okay, I'm young, I don't need sleep. Tuesday we went on a tour of the area around St. Paul's Cathedral for my architecture class.  We didn't go in because it was expensive, so hopefully I will get to go in sometime.  It was such an impressive building and the design is so beautiful.  The other churches in the area are pretty impressive as well, 58 churches besides the Cathedral were rebuilt after the great fire of London in 1666 destroyed the whole city.  The area of St. Paul's Cathedral is part of the actual city of London which is only 1 square mile.  Finally Thursday, the week got better.  For my Soc of sports class we toured Arsenal's stadium.  It was huge and really fancy.  I guess its comparable to pro football stadiums in the states.  Just like at Wimbledon, they spend so much effort and money on their grass, keeping it perfect.  The cool thing about the stadium is that it is a working stadium and so they hold tons of functions during the week, including weddings.  Imagine getting married at a soccer stadium, can't quite imagine why anybody would want to.  After that tour, I took the underground across London to where the Tower of London is for the Jack the Ripper walking tour.  It was really cold and I was exhausted from sleeping for two hours the night before, but it was still neat.  We were shown the areas where the bodies were found and important locations where some of the events took place.  Jack the Ripper only killed prostitutes so we were shown where the prostitutes hung out and the places they stayed.  Clearly there was not much to see now since things have changed in the more than 100 years since the murders, but me being me still enjoyed it. 

Oldest Tower



Queen Mary's Doll house



Friday was the school trip to Windsor Castle.  Windsor castle is the Queen's weekend home, where she usually spends her Fridays through Mondays.  This trip finally happened on a nice sunny day which was a nice change of pace.  The operation I planned out with my friends was to find prince Harry to marry him so I can be a princess, which I titled operation MK2H (marry Kari to Harry).  The plan didn't work out the way I wanted it too. We went on a tour of the grounds, first seeing the changing of the guards.  Then we got to go on a tour of the state rooms.  We started in the room where the Queen's doll house was from when she was a little girl.  The doll house is multiple stories, has scaled detailed furniture, electricity, running cold and hot water and flushing toilets.  It was incredible.  We then walked through the different state rooms, some of which are used now for tourists, the drawing room, ballrooms, bedrooms, etc.  The artwork, decorations, and paintings were magnificent.  We also got to walk through some of the rooms that are still used today to entertain important visitors such as a dining room, ballroom, and sitting rooms.  I wish we were able to take pictures, but we were not allowed.  Once we finished the tour of the castle we walked over to the cathedral where King Henry viii and various other kings and queens are buried.  This building was also extravagent.  To finish up our Windor tour we took a group picture with the guard, it was kind of awkward but well worth it.  There is a little town around the castle where we went for lunch.  The cafe we ate at was really good.  We wondered around the town and ended up in various candy and chocolate stores.  I bought chocolate pasta in the one which should be interesting to try. 

Saturday we went to Camden Market again.  I bought a bejeweled British flag iphone case which I am really upset to find out doesn't actually fit my phone.  I also bought a painting of Big Ben that I am really excited about.  The markets always have great food and really intersting stuff to look at.  It was another nice day which made the whole day a lot more fun.

This week is midterm week which will make it rough, but this time next week I will be in Athens! So excited!!!