Cultured

I'm still loving life in London and trying to squeeze every bit of culture out of England that I can. That's not to say that the US doesn't have any culture, but I'm much more appreciative of it here and I love how nearly everything has a history. I've never explored LA like I've been exploring London. I may try to blame that on its lack of public transportation, but the reality is that I just haven't been as interested.

My architecture class has field trips every other week and our first one was to Parliament on Wednesday. For those interested, it was built from 1836 to 1868 in the English Gothic Revival style of architecture. What was interesting to me is that they tried to make it look similar to Westminster Abbey (right across the street) which was renovated in the Gothic style the 14th century. See, I'm learning things. =)

After our trip to Parliament a group of my friends and I went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. It was incredible... they kept the Cabinet War Rooms exactly as they had been in WWII (well, except for the wax figures). Even the maps are just as they left them.


The blue yarn on the right shows the German advancement in January, 1945.

The Cabinet War Rooms are connected to the Churchill Museum, both of which are under ground near Parliament and the PMs house.


Churchill's childhood tin soldier set. I was hoping for a plain white flag for the Frenchman in the back.


Churchill Fights On! [Tangent: USC's use of the Victory sign to mean "Fight On" dates back to WWII. Also, USC President Von Kleinsmid wrote in 1944 that "Fight On!" was played to inspire troops in the Aleutian Campaign.]

The entire museum was amazing and I couldn't help but think of Papa the entire time I was there -- it was really something he would have enjoyed. It's been one of the most interesting places I've seen here and I easily could have spent another few hours in there.

On Thursday I made British friends -- hooray! A guy from orchestra invited me to a dinner party he was throwing (homemade soup, roast duck in red wine sauce, and chocolate mousse = delicious), so I got to meet a bunch of his friends. It was really fun to On a side note, the use of the word "whilst" in everyday conversation never ceases to make me smile.

On Friday, my American friends and I went to a comedy club called the Banana Cabaret. It was standing room only, but well worth it. The comedians were great and we're definitely planning another trip back there (and to some other comedy clubs as well). Cheap (and great!) entertainment is always nice!


Yesterday I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum with a bunch of friends. It was really great -- they have an exhibit on the Tsars of Russia that I'm going to go back to visit. Here are some of my favorite things.


"Athlete Fighting a Python." I thought his eyes were somehow intense. Definitely my favorite statue at the museum.

I made a detour to the Musical Instruments room (surprised? I didn't think so). They had an entire floor of beautiful harpsichords, old guitars, a few lyres, brass instruments, and tons more.

The "serpent," an old woodwind instrument with a brass mouthpiece. Straaaaange.


Fancy? An old cornet from the 1830s... I think it'd be really hard to tune, haha.

The girls and I also spent a lot of time in the jewelry room, for obvious reasons.


So pretty! They had some jewelry from BC and a large collection dating from the 1300s to the present... I definitely would have been happy spending a few hours there.

After the museum, I went ice skating again, this time with my British friends. I was going backwards and doing a few tricks. Actually, that's a lie... but since I'm the one writing, you'll never know how bad I am. ;)

Here's a fun story: after skating, we all decided to warm up in a pub for a bit. We found a nice one by Liverpool Street and Matt pointed out that the pub was "older than my country." Everyone thought that was really funny. But when we went in they told us it was going to close in 15 minutes, so I pointed out that in my city, nothing ever closes. =)

So that's it! I'm having a taco party with Kevin tonight. We've been craving Mexican food (and seasoning in general), so we managed to find salsa and a taco kit. I bought avocados yesterday, but they won't be ready... they're quite possibly the least ripe avocados I've ever seen. I give them 2 weeks until they're able to be made into guacamole.