Day Off and Day One

Sunday was great for establishing home base.  We slept in deeply and wonderfully until 10:30, missing breakfast in the cafeteria.  I managed to get my wifi working and start this blog before lunch though.  The food here is pretty good.  There's always something delicious going on.  I have been eating like crazy since we got here!  I think its all the walking around, I swear I'm not glutting myself but I'm eating everything!  Including some amazing strawberry Nutella crepes yesterday on erranding with some of the girls! Yesterday Grand Master Jane (who is the wizard of London!) took us on a walking tour and I got to see Big Ben himself.  Fun Fact: Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the tower; and  it weighs 10 tons!  I even got to hear it chime the hour.  We saw Westminster Abby and Buckingham Palace (from a distance), we walked through St. James Park, saw the London Eye and had the West Bank pointed out.  Between Stuart and Jane we could not be in safer hands!  They know everything about London, like the statue of Abraham Lincoln is built on soil from Springfield, Illinois and they remember seeing the war protests in the square famous for its protest movements.
Afterwards we went back to school and ate together as a group.  Our weird little family is really starting to bond.  We just got everyone to sign a "Mum's Day" card for Jane and we kind of love each other in a weird way.
I fell asleep while I was trying to do some reading so I threw off my sleep schedule and ended up needing a nap right after class today.  Hopefully I will be able to go back to sleep pretty quick here.
Today Claire and I had a small misadventure on our way to the practical part of our schooling.  We headed to the British Museum (tomorrow's adventure) instead of the Museum of London, easy mistake right?  Well we were only about 20 minutes late and we got to have some fun on our way.  The Museum was very very cool.  It follows London from the beginning all the way to present day social issues.  I learned that as early as 1500 AD people feel the need to make weapons to kill their fellow primitives, shortly after the Plague hit much of London was consumed by what's referred to as the Great Fire of London in the 1600s, and large portions of the city were hit by bombs during the Blitz of World War 1.  It's one thing to see Narnia and know that kids were sent to the countryside its another thing to see a plaque in your cafeteria that says the building was rebuilt after being destroyed by bombing (yes, our own refectory.)
Its Day 2 and I just have a list of what I want to see and what I want to tour.  Its exciting to see the city this way, be told what is what and allowed to decide what is worth seeing.  I know where I'll be spending my weekend.
The London Museum surprised me with its comprehensiveness.  We read about race riots in the 1960s and homosexual oppression as well as women's movements for equality.  I feel like I have a better understanding of London now by understanding its history.  London is crazy diverse.  I have seen a few Muslim women in burkas and hijab.  A visitor is as likely to hear Indian, French or German spoken here as legitimate English.  Everyone here seems to be from somewhere else.  And after learning about the racism after World War 2 it means more.  Knowing about the terrible hygiene makes the Plague make more sense and the renovations and plumbing that was installed after the fire.  So all in all it was a great stop for early in the trip.
Claire and I stopped at a few shops and I got myself some London tights :)  It was super fun to just go goof around London after the coolest day at school ever!

Well its late, I haven't managed to hit our student gym yet or do much reading so wish me luck!  Hopefully I'll be able to get a good schedule going for myself in the near future here.  Sleep, work out, study, and adventure are my only objectives.  Hopefully I can manage that alright!