Once again hello to all,
Well let’s see. I was supposed to go to Amsterdam this weekend, but I was unable to find a place to sleep that would not cost me an arm and leg. So I did not go. But I got a chance to do some other things.
Thursday our group took a trip into London for the day. It had been one week since the bombings. What was really special about it was that the whole city stopped and observed 2 min of silence for those lost. I actually found myself in Trafalgar Square for that. I don’t know if it made headlines back home or not. Or if you even got a chance to see pics of the square, but I was there, right down in the front. What was really neat about what they did was they had a big sign that said "One City, One World" and around it there must have been two hundred people from every walk of life. I mean everyone. So it was very nice to participate in such an event. It not only gave me a chance to think of those lost not only in London, but also those lost in 9/11. It became very clear to me that this is not just something that threatens us as Americans, but the rest of the world. After that we took a tour of the National Portrait Gallery. Saw great paintings of Henry VIII and all the wife’s he had done away with, but also his daughters Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Learned a great deal of information that I had not know before. Also I am finally understanding of who’s actually who when it comes to the Henrys, Edwards, and James, etc. So I now know new information to boar all of you with when I get home. After that we had free time in the city. I decided to go on a walking tour. I walked to Buckingham Palace. Which was really cool because the Queen was having a garden party at the palace. The garden party is like the Kentucky derby in the sense that all the women have on really cool big hats. Then I strolled in the park to Big Ben and Parliament. The group then met back up at the globe theatre were we saw the play "A Winters Tale". It’s was very frustrating at first because I could not understand what they were saying, but after a nice cold beer at intermission, for some reason I started to get it and really enjoyed it. The costumes were fantastic as well as just being in the Globe. Friday I laid low and just walked around Cambridge. Actually I met this South African guy at my pub that is now living in the UK and we ended up talking about each other’s countries and what we thought of England for about three hours. That’s one thing that I have really enjoyed are the people I have met and the long conversations that I have had. Saturday I decided to get a little more culture, so I went back into London with a couple of people to see Val Kilmer in the play "The Postman Always Rings Twice". It was very good. Full of sex and murder. Also it was a small playhouse so every seat was a great one. Val was very good and it was really neat to see such a big movie star so close. Also when we went into London we took the train to Kings Cross station, which was the place of one of the four attacks. Then down the street we walked past were the bus bombing had been. The street was still closed off and there were tons of flowers. The worst feeling though was seeing all of the missing posters of people that had been put up by loved ones. Also we did use the underground, which had had two attacks on it as well. People were on it because they need to use it, but you could see something in people's eyes. The attempt to look confident, but fear.
Got to run now, but will put up pics on Monday like I said I would.
J
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