This week was very busy for the humanities program! We had class a few days this week and our professor gave us a tour of the London Eye and Canary Wharf areas. The Canary Wharf was an awesome area, though I probably thought this because there was a giant shopping mall there. Typical. Thursday night a Dickinson alumni hosted a reception for the science and humanities program at the Royal Auto Club in Pall Mall which was filled, to our surprise, with more wine than food. It was really nice to speak to Dickinson alumni and hang out with all the kids going to Norwich.
Friday we had the day off to prepare for our tours. We were all divided into different groups and have to give tours of different areas in London. My group decided to focus on the reconstruction, physically and mentally, of London post-World War II and found locations near the Tower of London and the financial and law districts to go to on our tour, though it took us about two hours (no big deal) to find a good location for my topic (of course) which focused on the high rise housing that was constructed after the war. We visited Fleet Street when we wandered through the law district which, contrary to belief thanks to Sweeney Todd, had no demon barbers... or so we think. I decided I would want to live in the law district when I'm older. Why, you ask? 1. It is a beautiful area with lots around it and 2. The possibility of me meeting a future rich, attractive, and lawyer husband would greatly increase. Yes, I am shallow. Sorry I'm not sorry :)
Today we went on another groups tour of the Kesnal Green Cemetery. It was really interesting to compare this cemetery to ones in the states: it was a lot more crowded and, instead of simply having a grave stone to signify where a body is buried, most of the buried had large, intricate monuments to signify their burial spot. It seems that people have a different attitude about death over here, as many of them start building their monuments long before they die because they know they are going to die at some point in their life.
After going on that very interesting tour, we went to Portobello Road, which is another market. It was a really cool place, full of vendors and stores selling antiques, nice clothing, and a variety of ethnic food. Too bad the price of a dress is more expensive than a plane ticket! Oh well, saving my money is probably a good thing. We would have stayed longer if it didn't start down-pouring.
It is SO weird that we have less than a week left in London. The next few days will be devoted to tours and then we're off to Norwich!!
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