London the first time

From St. Deniol's Library, we moved all too quickly into the big city of London. I had some apprehension about navigating the city and figuring it out, once things got going I came to love it.

The first full day, we went on a typical, touristy “Hop on, Hop off” tour of London on a double decker bus. On that tour, I viewed Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. A friend and I took a cruise on the Thames up to the Tower of London, and walked over to the Tate Modern, where we saw many modern artists we’d studied in school.

The next day, I wandered through the British Museum and got to see the "Elgin Marbles"--famous and controversial grecian sculptures orginally from the Parthenon. I enjoyed them immensely--half of the figures were a play by play of some man fighting a centuar, and losing. Except none of them had heads. After this, I did a little shopping on Oxford Street and explored more on foot. That evening, our group went to the Agape Arabic Christian Center, a small Arabic bookstore in an Arabic Quarter of London. While there, we got to hear from several Christian Arabs about their lives and ministry to muslims around them.

I went to church the following morning at an Evangelical church, a very interesting service that reminded me of church at home. Afterwards, a few friends and I went to Hyde Park, a busy tree lined park in central London. With the sounds of an ABBA concert echoing through the green park, we enjoyed some time journaling and reading. Later that night, a bunch of our group went to the Thames Festival, an outdoor art festival along the River Thames. Outside the Tate Modern, they had created several art installations using fire, and had little fires around the yard and along the river. With the live music, festive food, arts and crafts, and cool dry air, it was a perfect night to be out.

The entirity of my day on Monday ended up to be trying to find a place to get a hip London haircut. And I did!

Tuesday was our day at the Globe Theater, starting with an insiders tour and class and ending with a performance of "As You Like It". It was pouring rain. The tour and class were interesting--we got to learn about how Shakespeare would have directed a play in his time. We had a break then, during which a few friends and I travelled across London to go to a cheap clothes store and buy Ben's Cookies--an england term legacy we are carrying on. Then we headed back to the Globe for one of my favorite nights of the trip. "As You Like It" was wonderful. The energy and talent of the actors, the way they interacted with the crowd, the atmostphere of the historic globe theater, and the story itself made for an absolutely fantastic performance and a wonderful night for our last one in London.