Trolling Around

Well, as most people in my group have found out, keeping up a blog can be quite difficult when you are surrounded by so many other interesting things! I think that to keep readers updated with what I am up to I will use the paragraph-form writing less and instead try adopting a list-like style of writing. I would hate it if my blog were listless. (Haha).Oh, before I forget here is Manson Place, where I have been staying:

So, exciting things that I have done this week:

1.The Canterbury Cathedral—The first class outing. Chuck piled us all onto a bus at 7 am and we drove to Canterbury to see England’s most renowned place of worship. The tour was a little longwinded but it was a nice chance to escape the big city. We were given an hour to explore and eat lunch (carrot and coriander soup with French bread-£2.90)

2. The White Cliffs of Dover—The second part of our outing. Dover was only about a 30 minute drive from Canterbury and I could have easily spent more than the 2 ½ hours that we were given to explore. I went on a interactive tour of the secret wartime tunnels and then used the remaining time exploring the castle. A perfectly gray, overcast day to spend walking around a castle by the sea.

3. Playing soccer/football in the park. So for the past two weeks I have been going with three of the other guys to play football in Kensington Park. We have been meeting up with European students who are staying at the nearby Baden Powell House Hostel. I say students but some of them are probably close to 40 (however, the older men are still much better than me.) It has just been nice to get all of the extra energy out while meeting new people. They have all been exceptionally friendly and I really look forward to these games. I will try to get a picture of the group soon. Until then here is a pic of the school team. Kensington Palace is in the background. We were hoping that Will and Kate were watching us place.

4.The museums here are amazing. So far I have only been to the National Gallery, the Natural History Museum and the National Science Museum, but I am planning to go to several more this week. Imperial students get into IMAX movies for free so I went with a large group to see Deep Blue Sea: 3D. An excellent way to start my Sunday.

5.Primrose Hill—Several of us went Friday night to the highest point in London. Although we were lost for about 45 minutes, it was the highlight of the day, being able to look over the entire city. The skyline was lit up and the clouds parted just enough so that some stars could be seen (pretty rare for these parts).

6.It was the start of the Chinese New Year yesterday so Rachel and I went to grab dinner in Chinatown. The place was packed so it took us quite a long time to finally make our way over to a good Chinese buffet. Since it was a special holiday, the prices were fairly high but we found a deal where you could fill a takeout box with as much food as you could carry for £5.00. We sat on the steps of a closed shop and people watched as we ate our noodles.

7. The Artist—I went to see it on Thursday and it was one of my favorite movies of the year. The theatres here are very different, (much smaller and with assigned seats) but the price wasn’t bad since it was a matinee and we are students.

8. Ben’s Cookies—There is a stand right next to the South Kensington Tube stop and it is so difficult not to get a cookies there each time I have to ride somewhere. My top three flavors so far are 1. Triple Chocolate. 2. Chocolate Ginger. 3. Coconut. I am allowing myself two cookies a week so I don’t spend all of my money on sweets.

9. On Wednesday I got a library card for the Central Kensington Public Library. It has a T-Rex on it.

Well, that still turned out to be more of a paragraph style with numbers incorporated, but at least I got another entry done! I promise that more will follow this week. Also, I stole all of these pictures. So thank you everyone for giving me access to them!