Trip to London

This is my prison-like apartments. My address is: Michael Mayeda King's College 167 Great Dover Street Flat 70-F London SE1 4XA
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I woke up at 12:00 PM today because it was so gloomy outside.  It was cold, my heater wasn't working properly and I didn't want to get out of bed.  I eventually made myself a sandwich from the groceries I bought yesterday.  Geeze it was a horrible sandwich for lunch.  And for dinner as well.  Anyway, I put on one of grandpa's sweaters, my snowboarding jacket, a beanie, and some trousers (pants refers to underwear in London).  I set out by foot thinking I would walk along the Thames River and see what there is to see.  I accidentally went on London Bridge at first and couldn't get to the Thames path so ended up crossing the river.  I checked out my map from the Amasakis and saw that I was headed towards "The Monument".  I figured anything that was distinguised enough to be called "The Monument" must have been worthwhile seeing.  It's a tall tower that is some 200 feet tall.  It was built by Sir Christopher Wren in commemoration of the fires that destroyed London in 1666.  See http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_sights/monument1.htm for more information about the tower.  Anyway, it was neat to see.  It cost some money to enter and walk up to the top.  The weather was miserably raining so I didn't fork over the money to walk up.  Instead, I continued my getting-lost tour of the northside of the Thames and headed to the Tower of London.

nearby Cathedral...oh bother I can't remember it's name.
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The castle was great and I saw a quick video at the welcoming center about the castle's history and what it had to offer to tourists.  The entrance fee was a bit much and due to the weather I figured I would see the outdoor attraction when the weather permitted.  I crossed back to the southside of the Thames on the Tower Bridge (see photo).

I kept wandering back towards the London Bridge area, overshot, and headed towards Shakespeare's Globe Theater.  I went inside the visitor's center and didn't really see much.  I walked back out intending to head to the Tate Modern Collection.  But I was attracted to a large crowd of people.  They were watching a group of theater actors performing outside!  I was lucky to run into them.  Everyone seemed really happy to be out (despite the weather) so I tagged along for an hour or so.  It was a moving performance (in that it actually moved from location to location along the Thames) and was very crowd - interactive.  We oooh-ed and ahhh-ed  when they said certain things (I did it at all the wrong times of course).  They had sing-alongs and what not, just generally a jovial get together.  It was supposedly celebrating the incoming of a new Christmas? is what one audience member said to me.  I wasn't too sure, but I was happy to be there anyway.  They played live music with a tamborine, handheld drum, violin, and something wrapped in a garbage bag that sounded like an accordian.     I continued to head towards my initial destination: the Tate Modern.  I looked into the Thames and noticed that the water level was much higher than before.  I took a picture but unfortunately have nothing to show for comparison's sake.  I got to the Tate and perused around (see my review of the place).  I was glad that I went.  But overall, I wasn't very wow-ed like at the British Museum.  The contemporary and abstract art was lost on me.  Hence, I am an engineer.

Thames river
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I walked back towards the Great Dover Street Apartments (where I'm staying for this semester) after a soggy day.  My flatmate Ledonga came over to talk to me (I always prop my door open) and we talked for a couple of hours (sorry Donna and cousin Jess).  She was asking about life in the states and if it was really like they showed on tv.  Unfortunately for us, I answered affirmative.  She gave me a disgusted look, which I returned.  I have to say that life here (as I've experienced in the past four days) is so different.  Already, I'm seeing things that make more sense than they do in the states.  For example, why can't under-21 year olds drink but they can still marry, have children, abort children, etc?  Also, most people here drive small cars, mopeds, motorcycles, bicycles, or don't drive at all.  Their streets aren't nearly as crowded as ours, even during what we call rush hours.  I've acclimated to their culture and walk everywhere.  If you search the destinations I've been you can see that I can cover quite a bit of the city by foot.

Crossing London Bridge
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Tonight I'm going to stay in and research going to other countries.  I figure I won't go until February because hopefully by then I will have exhausted London's attractions.  I may simply try to get out of the London area but not leave England.  We'll see.  Anyway, nothing else going on today so bye all.

This just in, I talked to Sachel (name spelling?) who plays for the 4th football team here at King's (there are 5).  He says that he'll give me some information about trying out for the team.  They have training on Mondays, games on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  He says that it's pretty competitive but good fun.  I'm really afraid that I'll get walked all over but I'm going to try out for the team anyway.