My, what a weekend!

After the first week of classes overseas, I can safely say, it is going to be a hard semester. Luckily for me, I can take the pressure of school work and classes off, by going on day trips. First, however, let me explain my school week. I am taking four classes here in London. The first is only on Mondays, Humanities for three and a half hours, followed by an hour and half museum visit. Not a bad day. I am also taking a speech class that focuses on Greece and Turkey. My communications class encourages discussion on intercultral communication and then my other class is really hard, British Pop Music History. Okay, so it is not that bad. I am fortunate only to have classes four days a week, however the classes are much longer in length since we will be finishing them before we leave for Greece at the beginning of March. Overall, the classes are great, some are more interesting than others, but so far so good.

On Friday, two of my friends and I set off for an adventure. Our plan was to take a bus to Oxford and explore the city. So we took the tube to Victoria station, found the bus station, and found the bus. After an hour on the bus we arrived to the rain but beautiful architecture of Oxford. We went to the famous pub, The Eagle and Child, where CS Lewis and JR Tolkien famously met to chat. We explored Oxford Castle and even managed to find a Krispy Kreme right outside of it. I was delighted. Oxford castle was used as a prison until 1996 and just last year opened up for tours. We explored throughout the whole thing, even climbing on top of a large 'mound' of dirt and grass, taller than the castle, to take a look of the city. We walked through the many universities that fill the streets. Oxford was a great place to explore a city that has so much history and beauty where ever you turn.

Saturday, bright and early, several of us took a long bus ride into Cardiff, Wales. We decided on the one day affair because visiting my family that lives in Wales was a lot further and a great deal more expensive. So we headed for the capital and found ourselves exploring another castle. This one, however, was filled with the decor of a home and a palace. We took a tour of the castle and even had tea in the dungeon. We also explored the Bay and walked the streets of this Welsh city.

Sunday, I went to three church services (read the previous blog for the details) but in between I went to the Tower of London. I believe they were called beef eaters, which were the tour guides and they were hilarious. He started the tour by asking where everyone was from. When he called the United States, he stated that this history could have all been ours if we only paid our taxes. We saw the royal jewels...bling bling. Wow, one diamond in a crown was 530 carrots. Dang. We walked in the footsteps of queens and people who eventually got beheaded by some king. There was lots of death in the tour, but overall lots of history learned. I love living in a city that has so much wisdom behind it. England and especially London has so much history that everywhere you go, you learn about why things were created and how that may influence our modern culture, language, and life.

Now it is Monday and I hope you all have a great week. Myself, living in the UK, did not get the day off of school, but I hope you all enjoyed or are enjoying your day. Cheers!

P.S. Pictures coming soon!