I've fallen horribly behind on keeping this up to date, but I intend to remedy the situation. Life has been BUSY and will only be getting more busy from here on out, so apologies for future failures in posting in a timely fashion.
I'll begin with two weekends ago (21 October).
Friday - Afternoon spent at the Imperial War Musuem, which is HUGE. There's so much to see in this musuem; I was there about 3 hours and barely saw half of it, I think. There's a wing on WWI, a wing on WWII, an exhibit on the Holocaust, a gallery on London for Children during the Blitz, an exhibit on General Montgomery, and a special exhibit on Intelligence Agencies in Britain (MI5, MI6, etc.). Each exhibit had displays full of photographs, uniforms, weapons, documents of various sorts, medals, and lengthy descriptions of the artifacts. It was overwhelming to try to take in everything. Luckily, the IWM is free, so I'll definitely head back there at some future date - hopefully when Dad and Eric are here to visit!
In front of the IWM
The Lobby of the IWM - A boy's paradise.
The weekend of 21-23 October was also the Bloomsbury Festival, which is a literary festival held in the Bloomsbury area of London (Russell Square to be precise). There were events all weekend long, but I only made it to a handful. On Friday night, my friend Shana and I went down to Russell Square for the opening of the festival - the Lantern Parade.
Russell Square
Lanterns in the Square
Drums at the Lantern Parade
Shana Graff and I at the Lantern Parade
Hundreds of schoolchildren from the area make the lanterns and then parade around the Square. It wasn't quite the epic event I had imagined, but it was a neat atmosphere and I had a cup of very delicious (but very strong) mulled wine. Overall, a nice night out.
On Saturday, 22 October, I headed to Greenwich Market and Park with a group of friends from Tower Hamlets Community Church. I got a bit lost on the way there, which was interesting. To cross the Thames, I took the foot tunnel under the river - quite a scary experience. It did give me some idea of just how wide the Thames is, though I hated to think about walking under it...
The foot tunnel under the Thames
Two things. 1. So many stairs. Counting the landings for me = not helpful or encouraging. 2. 'Blasting'?!!!! WHAT?! Very terrifying.
Anyways, after the ordeal of the tunnel, I finally met up with the group. We grabbed some lunch from Greenwich market, which is a really nice market held in a lovely area of London. The food was DELICIOUS. I went for a Mediterranean wrap with lamb and spices and veggies. Yum. We had a little picnic in the grassy area near the Royal Naval Academy in Greenwich before heading to the gorgeous Greenwich Park. At the top of the hill in the park, I got to straddle the Meridian line (wooo whoo, big moment) and take the cheesiest tourist photo ever. The group of us then spent some time at the Tea Pavilion, drinking coffee and tea and playing silly games. It was nice to just hang out with friends and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.
Straddling the Meridian line. Two time zones at once.
View of London from the hill at Greenwich Park
Lovely fall day in Greenwich Park
I left the group a bit early to head to an evening event for the Bloomsbury Festival. I saw "The Bloomsbury Foursome" - a group of four poets who did readings from their works. The performance was free and was enjoyable. One of the poets (Bob Goody) was particularly amusing, though the subject matter of his poems was... special... inappropriate... anatomical... yeah. The musician who played a set as part of the reading was my favorite part though. Be sure to look out for L.A. Salami in the future - he's got quite a voice and a real talent for songwriting. His song "She Ran" was perfect.
On Sunday, 23 October, I went to church - twice. First to THCC in the morning, then to Hillsong London in the evening. Hillsong had AMAZING worship - obviously, they're HILLSONG. It was wonderful to see so many people come together to worship with such energy and excitement.
Last week Monday, I continued in the literary vein and attended a talk by writer Sebastian Faulks, the author of novels such as Birdsong and Devil May Care (the latest James Bond novel). Faulks talked about writing - his process, how he forms characters, what he thinks is important for inventors of tales, research, etc. It was fascinating and inspiring. The event was hosted by the Royal Society of Literature and held at King's Place near King's Cross. After the event, I met up with friends to celebrate a birthday. We had some fish and chips and drinks at the Glassblower Pub on Oxford Street to end the evening.
Fish and chips! And a gin and tonic! Yummm.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet - Tuesday night dinner and study with THCC small group, Wednesday student bible study and a nice Skype date with the grandparents.
And then Thursday, I left for a weekend holiday in Swansea, Wales. But that's for another post.
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