I had planned to wake up a bit early this morning to get an early start on the day. After soundly sleeping through the night, however, I did not want to get out of bed. I finally forced myself out of bed and out the door just before 9am. I live about 3 steps from any and all of the greatest shops ever as well as all the bus stops I could ever need. Like I said, I am in an amazingly perfect location. So I grabbed some coffee and hopped on the bus headed for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The bus system here is amazing. I actually think I prefer it to the Tube (this is in my vast experience with London transportation in the past day and a half). I make that claim for a couple reasons: 1. It’s cheaper. 2. You actually get to see the city while you’re riding it. On the trip from my flat to St. Paul’s I saw Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, The Houses of Parliament, and Trafalgar Square, to name a few.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is spectacular. With your entrance fee, you are invited to go on the guided tour for free. Always eager to learn more about art and history I decided to go for it. Well, Ms. Jean Pattson did not disappoint! She led us on a very thorough tour  (1 hour and 45 minutes long) that was not only interesting but allowed us to go places normal people aren’t allowed to wander through. And if you know me at all you know how much I like seeing things that are otherwise roped off. One of the things we got to see was the Dean’s Staircase. This was designed for only the Dean of the cathedral to ever see and use. It was also the staircase used in the Harry Potter film when they’re walking to the Divination classroom. So my take away lesson from her talk about that room was: I got to stand on a Harry Potter set!! We sat in the choir, in the Chapel of St. Michael and St. George (which is otherwise reserved for those appointed to the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The Queen has a chair there and Jean says it is “horribly uncomfortable”), under the dome, and explored the crypt all while Jean explained everything there is to know about St. Paul’s. My favorite story she told was of the St. Paul’s Watch, a group of men who essentially lived on the roof of the cathedral during the German bombings of London in World War II. They kept the roof (and the whole building really) from catching fire and being destroyed. Jean told of a bitterly cold night on December 29th, 1940. When the men went to roll up the firehose, they couldn’t. The water was frozen inside it. Last year, on December 29th, an old man came up to Jean after her tour and said he was on the roof that night. I got chills just thinking about that…

After the tour I climbed 528 steps to The Golden Gallery, pausing at the Whispering Gallery and Stone Gallery on the the way. The Whispering Gallery is up around the inside of the dome. It’s so called because if you stand on one side and whisper towards the wall you can be heard on the other side. The Stone Gallery is outside the building about half way up the side. The Golden Gallery is all the way at the top of the dome. The views were breathtaking. On this rare, clear, blue skies day in London I could see the entire city. It was beautiful. A kind American tourist who understood the importance of picture taking offered to take my picture, which was nice and made me forgive her when she didn’t know what the Globe was when I asked if she could fit it in the frame. I think at first she thought I was asking her if she could fit the whole world in the picture. Silly Americans…

Speaking of Americans! Did you know there is a memorial to the American soldiers who lost their lives fighting in England during World War II inside St. Paul’s? Well now you do! It’s behind the altar and includes a lot of symbolism such as the Burning Bush and the 1st commandment in Hebrew as a tribute to the Jewish soldiers who fought and the horrific events of the Holocaust. There are also some important dates such as the founding of Jamestown and the year America became a country. I think the latter is such a funny slap in the face to the Brits. “Please build us a memorial in your most sacred building in town and oh, by the way, we would like it to have the date that we officially kicked your butts in the American Revolution. K thanks!” All jokes aside, though, it really is a nice tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives. We also saw the Order of the British Empire chapel. That one is in the crypt and was being closed later today because members of the Order can have weddings and baptisms there. I creepily took this picture of the extremely British family who was arriving for their newest member’s baptism as I left the cathedral. You can’t quite see them in this picture but the hats were fantastic (say “fantastic” in a British accent in your head, please, it sounds more like how I meant it when you do).

 After spending much longer in St. Paul’s than I expected, I decided to just walk around the area. So I crossed the Millennium Bridge and walked to The Globe. There’s a new theatre there which is roofed so it can be used in the winter. When we were there freshmen year, we each donated a pound or two towards the effort (shout out to my Dean’s Scholars). You’re welcome London. I hope everyone is enjoying their new theatre. The inaugural season just began and I’m hoping to see a show there soon.  I continued walking and soon saw signs for the Rose Theatre. I stopped in and watched a brief film about the recent discovery of the foundations of the Rose in the late 1980s. Due to plans already in place to build something on the site and some issues with preservation, the remains are just barely visible. This is a longer story but this post is getting to be really long. It is pretty interesting though so if you’re curious, you can read about it here: http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/the-history/.

Leaving the Rose, I found a Pret a Manger, grabbed a sandwich, and wandered around. I came upon the Borough Market, a massive food market with stalls selling meats and cheese and any kind of dessert that exists. I’ll have to come back for lunch some day because everything looked delicious. I sat with all the happy Borough Market customers eating their food while I nibbled on my sandwich in the Southwark Cathedral courtyard. At this point my feet were a bit tired, I was a little chilly, and it was getting to be later in the afternoon so I decided to head back towards my flat.

I got to relax for a bit and then went to meet Amy and John for dinner. We were supposed to meet at a place on the South Bank at 6:30. Amy told me the directions on the Tube but with due to my love affair with the buses, I Google mapsed (it’s a verb now, right?) how to get there and it said the bus was just as fast. I queued up for the bus (like the new vocab?) and hopped on. Well… about 5 stops before where I needed to be, the bus decided it was done and the service was terminated. So I waited for the next bus and was 15 minutes late. (Sorry John and Amy!!) Once I got there, we had a wonderful time. The restaurant was Wahaca and had some delicious Mexican food. Not going to lie, I did not expect good Mexican food in England but I was proved wrong. I’ll definitely be going back. (I use a lot of parentheticals don’t I?)

Anyway… now I’m back in my room. My roommate still hasn’t appeared so I’m all alone. Oh! For those of you wondering just how small the shoebox is, here are some photos:

In this picture, my bed is to the right. The desks are to the left. Through the door with the towel is the bathroom. The big white unit to the left is where our microwave and mini fridge are.

This is my bed. I’m standing just next to the ladder to my roommate’s bed which is slightly bunked above my bed but mostly above our closets and chest of drawers.

  Here is Cici, enjoying his new bed.

Sorry… this post got a little long. I start school on Monday (I can’t wait!) so there will be less sightseeing to report on. Until tomorrow!!

Cheers!