This Tuesday I didn't have to attend my internship because my supervisor is on a holiday(that is what they say when they go on vacation here). It was nice to have an extra day to explore on my own! The weather was simply wonderful on this day, about 12 degrees Celsius(which is almost 55 degrees Fahrenheit). Converting temperature still throws me for a loop, but I know that when it is above 10 degrees Celsius it will be nice day. Kilometers instead of miles also took some time to get used to, but I am getting the hang of that too! Since the weather was so nice, I decided to walk to Kensington Palace. I had yet to see this royal home. Kensington Palace is where Princess Diana resided during her marriage to Prince Charles until her death. After Diana's death it is said that over a million bouquets of flowers were placed outside the palace by the public. I am not quite for sure who currently lives in the Palace; it is certainly large enough to house quite a few people, assuming they are royalty of course. The Palace is also associated with many other famous members of the royal family dating way back. To get to the Palace I walked about 2 miles through the parks, instead of taking the Tube. The parks around the Palace were stunning. Kensington Palace Gardens are known to be fabulous in the summertime. I was surprised at how many people were out in the parks during the middle of a work day; there were people everywhere enjoying the weather. Kensingotn Palace is a fabulous building. It is quite simple compared to the Queen's London residence at Buckingham Palace, but still very impressive. The Palace is surrounded by wonderful trees, bushes and flowers. I didn't go inside and take the tour for 12 pounds, instead I just explored the exterior of the building. Some pictures below.
On Wednesday I had my advertising class in the morning and then I ran a few errands around town. When I am buying a lot of groceries I take the Tube to the better, larger, less expensive grocery store. There is a nice grocery store about 2 blocks from my house, but not the largest selection and a little pricey. This afternoon I went for a run because it was another brilliant day outside. On my way back home I was running past Buckingham Palace when I noticed something quite unusual. The front gates of the Palace were open and cars were driving right inside. I have never seen anything like this before. I decided to hang around and check it out. I looked on top of the Palace and saw the special flag flying that symbolizes the Queen's presence at the Palace. There was an extensive amount of security around as well; I had a feeling this was a big deal. I then noticed that there were very well dressed people standing in line to get into the palace as well. I stayed and watched for a while, but still had no idea what was happening. The next morning I read in the newspaper that the Queen hosted a Tribute to British Fashion at the Palace. This explains the nicely dressed people and the procession of cars filing through the golden Palace gates. Apparently meeting the Queen is a big deal! A few of the students here in my program were talking the other day about how they secretly wish the Queen dies while we are here because then we would get to see a royal funeral and a coronation of the next King. I had to laugh when I overheard them talking about this. Witnessing all of that would be impressive, but I can only imagine the complete madness.
Thursday I had class in the morning, nothing too exciting happened today. The faculty liaison for the abroad program from Central College is visiting this week to evaluate the program. He came to check out our class this day. I had a course with him last semester so he asked me if he could walk home with me from class to make sure he went the right way. I really didn't mind, but it was a little awkward sitting next to a professor on the Tube when I am used to sitting in front of him in a classroom. Good thing I got an A in that class! This night I went out to eat with my good friend, Chelsea, also on the Volleyball team. We went to a nice grilled chicken restaurant called Nando's. The food was great and the very best thing was free refills on soda. I have not found a place that has refills on soda yet, so I usually just get water. However, tonight was a splurge night. Another exciting thing was the fact that this restaurant had ice! Ice-cold drinks are rare around here, so we were impressed! When we returned to Vandon House it was completely dark! Earlier in the day construction workers had been working on a remodeling project and apparently did something wrong because the electric company shut the power off due to a faulty wire or something. Our program director told us we could go out to the cinema for the night on the program and the power would hopefully be fixed when we returned. This was pretty exciting as I hadn't been to a movie since I have been here and the program would reimburse us! About 6 of us girls headed to the cinema. We ended up choosing to see The Bounty Hunter (I wrote previously about this movie premiere that I attended). The movie cost 8 pounds which is about 12 dollars so prices are not too terrible compared to a large city in the US. Definitely not as cheap as the good ole 99 cent Center Theatre in Grundy though! We were all surprised that before the movie even started we had to sit through 15 minutes of commercials and then 15 minutes of previews. Definitely a different experience. The movie was very funny and I really enjoyed it. We took the tube home to find out that the electricity wouldn't be on until the next day! Not really that big of deal since I was just going to bed.
On Friday I woke up early to go get tickets to the musical Hairspray with Chelsea. To get really good tickets the day of the show you need to be the first at the box office. We arrived at the theatre at 9:00 and had an hour to wait before the box office opened at 10:00. It was a little brisk this morning and if Chelsea hadn't insisted we get there so early, I wouldn't have stood outside for an hour. However we got some breakfast and time went pretty fast. Breakfast was on Vandon House again since the power was still out when we woke up. By the time the theatre doors finally opened we were the first in line of about 5 people. The great news is that we got front row seats to the show for 25 pounds. We were pretty excited and it was well worth the wait. The power didn't come back on in Vandon House until 2:00, but it was plenty of time for the water heater to kick in so I could take a warm shower and get ready for the show. Hairspray was fantastic. It was really funny and an overall cute production. I was really glad I went because the show leaves London on March 28th. I thought the actors were very good as the show required a great deal of singing and dancing combined. Front row seats were quite impressive, but not as good as I expected. We were really close to the band that plays right underneath the stage, so it was very loud. Also sometimes when the whole stage was used in an act it was hard to see everything that was taking place. I really liked how I could see every little detail though!
Saturday and Sunday were pretty relaxing days. I went to my usual 2 markets each day and got some fresh fruits and vegetables. I went to the flower market again, but I refrained from purchasing any flowers! I really just enjoy browsing through the stalls and taking in everything around me. It is quite the culture experience. On Saturday night I was able to watch the UNI game via the Internet. I couldn't believe they upset Kansas. How exciting! Other than that I had a nice restful, entertaining London weekend. I am ready for another busy week before I head off to Switzerland next weekend!
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