A howling monster...

Warning, this post is quite mundane and boring.

On the 15^th of February I took a trip to Central with my British Life and Culture class to take tours of both Parliament and the Globe Theater.

Parliament is a very antique building with many beautiful rooms attached inside. King Henry VIII was the last king to actually inhabit this “palace”. Walking through the doors we stood in a corridor that was over a 1000 years old, I was utterly confused and quite scared as to how or why we were standing under this structure but marveled at the sight of the angels perched up along the archways.

            While we ventured through Parliament we were able to see the beautiful structures and designs that adorned the ceilings. We came upon the room in which the Queen get’s ready when she has called a meeting with parliament. The site was beautiful. The room in which she prepares herself before adressing parliament was also once the room of Queen Victoria. Her initials were painted into stain glass that were than placed along the ceiling where they still lay today.
 I suddenly became very excited when I was told that inside this room was the seat in which Queen Victoria would sit. You may ask yourself how one could become excited over a chair, but I mean come on tell me you wouldn’t be, this chair was quite old and held the markings of being used by a great ruler and a very big historical figure. It was a very beautiful chair and was quite small in size; she was a little thing, that’s for sure. Paintings of both her and Albert were hung on either side of the wall and the sight was pretty awesome.

            We were able to take a tour of both the House of Lords as well as the House of Commons. The queen herself cannot actually walk into the House of Commons so having this opportunity was neat. If you fancy finding out why she cannot step inside do so, it’s quite an interesting story and what she must do now in order to ask for an audience with members is quite comical. 

The set up for both the house of commons as well as the house of lords is simple, multiple benches on either side facing each other so they can square off when discussions are to begin. Unfortunately there were no members in wigs, but I did see a man wearing a wig and black suit later during the week, the sight of this was hysterical.

After we finished with Parliament we set out to the Globe Theater, which was quite brilliant, Sam Wanamaker constructed the new Globe.  During the tour they discussed the recreation of the theater, which has been done to the best of their knowledge with the use of writings and descriptions during Shakespeare’s time.

The stage is very grand with two trap doors, one in the floor for those coming up from “hell” and one in the ceiling to represent “heaven”. The tour guide gave us a break down on how a play would be conducted back in the day, and just how much it was more important to listen to the words as opposed to solely paying attention to the acting. I was most excited about seeing the Globe Theater when I signed up for this culture class so the atmosphere was great.

Unfortunately I spent the weekend stuck in bed sick, worst weekend since I’ve been here. Just wanted my dog to snuggle with and make me feel better but atlas I had to be without.

When Monday rolled around Tricia and I were both feeling slightly better so we decided to take advantage of the nice sunny day and head into Central on a whim. Once we got into Central we decided to just get off at Waterloo and venture out. Little did I know that my quick decision to step back and take a picture of Big Ben before I crossed the street would cause me to be hit by a bicycle. Poor Tricia was across the street and the poor man riding the bike almost fell completely off. Here’s hoping his bike suffered no damage and still worked afterwards. I simply asked if he was alright, looked around with a shocked expression and booked it across the street laughing so hard I couldn’t breath.

After that whole incident occurred we ventured towards Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown, as well as Covent gardens where there was a LOVE display. Huge letters were stretched three dimensional, and were decorated with metal hearts that people had decorated with sayings of love, declaring their feelings for one another or just simply drawing pictures. It was a pretty cool display and seeing it in the nighttime made it ten times better, all the light was reflecting off of the metal. There was also a man playing guitar and sounding a lot like James Taylor so it was a nice display/market to come upon. 

Tuesday was also a picture perfect sunny day so it was spent walking around and ending up at Hampton Court Palace, once lived in by King Henry VIII, which is set along the Thames with a beautiful park along side it. Many boats lined the river and the water was gleaming with sun, I was half tempted to just dive right in.

Today I attended my first football match to see Chelsea play against Sparta! It was an intense match, but such a great way to dive into the culture here. I honestly had such a great time and cannot wait to go again. Hearing the chanting and listening to the songs, made it that much more enjoyable and was a completely different atmosphere from any Philly game I have ever attended. Next time though, I have to make sure better seats are chosen, so we can at least see the whole field.  

Off to Oxford this weekend, so I’m sure I’ll have much to report. Till next time.

-Tally-Ho

On a completely random note I just have to let you all in on the horrific moment Tricia and I experienced while I was cooking lunch. A pigeon decided he wanted to come join us and tried flying in my window, literally scared the crap out of me and thought we were going to die. The birds are seriously out to get us here, I can promise you that.