Day 41-43

Day 41:

On Monday we didn’t do a whole lot. We had class in the morning and then had the afternoon to ourselves. In most of the parks in London they have bikes that you can rent for 24 hours for only a pound, so we went biking around Hyde Park. It is a huge park. We biked past Kensington Palace, a small lake with paddleboats, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and gorgeous trees and flowers. We biked just a piece of it for 45 or so minutes.

Afterwards we went back to the Center and watched the Jubilee concert on TV. It was performed on the top Buckingham Palace and thousands of Britons were lined up in the Mall where they set up large TV screens broadcasting the performance. Elton John, Bono, and many other artists performed and they shot off fireworks. They showed the Royal Family singing along and clapping. The Queen hardly smiled at all. I am sure she must be exhausted! This Jubilee celebration has been going on since Saturday.

Day 42:

Wednesday we had History in the morning and then headed to the Churchill War Rooms for the afternoon. It was one of my favorite museums. We walked through and saw offices and bedrooms of Churchill and many of his advisors. They had a movie of people who had worked as children typing things and running from room to room. They worked 10 to 16 hour shifts everyday and many times slept there. After the war rooms there was a Churchill museum. I have been reading a book about Churchill for my history class and as I have read it I have not been very fond of him! The book shows him as a white supremacist and racist. He didn’t think that other races could handle having freedom. Although, as I went through the museum I saw that that was how many people thought during this time where Britain was a great empire. With all of us his radical ideas and belief in the empire he was able to really help England in World War II. Near the end of his life he was made an honorary American citizen. He also won the noble prize for literature by writing a six volume history about WWII (mostly his part in the war). It was really interesting to learn about his relationship between America and FDR as well. I really enjoyed the museum.

After the war museum we were going to do the walk that Mrs. Dalloway takes around London in the novel. We ended up getting barricaded in a small section of the sidewalk with a bunch of people who were watching the Jubilee parade. We missed the Queen, but later we went back to the center and ate tea and scones with clotted cream and watched the parade. I loved walking around London after the parade and seeing all the flags that were hanging in front of doors and between houses. I loved walking past people wearing coats and using umbrellas that have the union jack all over them. It made me excited to go home and celebrate the 4^th of July!

Day 43:

Yesterday was our last day of our English class. I can’t believe how fast this term has gone! Afterwards we went to the National Science Museum. It was such a neat museum. I wish I would have had time to see all of it! We only had a little bit of time so I went to a temporary exhibit I had heard about in Time Out and seen posters for on the Tube. It was an exhibit where they had the London Philharmonic Orchestra play The Planets by Host and Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity by Joby Talbot. They had multiple rooms that focused on different instruments in the orchestra. They had one for harp, organ, cello, flute and oboe, violin and viola, horns, brass, percussion, celeste, and the conductor. It showed a video of just them playing with their instruments sound a little louder than the rest of the orchestra, and you could look at their score. Then on the wall they had an explanation of the acoustics of the instrument and random facts about each instrument. In the last room they had multiple screens where they showed an instrument from each section. It was so cool to be able to focus on one instrument at a time. I absolutely loved it! Jaden and I stayed in that exhibit for over an hour and a half.

Some of the notes I took:

-Celeste looks exactly like a piano except on the inside instead of steal strings it has steal plates so that it sounds like bells.

-The lowest note a bassoon can play is 29 Hz. The lowest we can here is 20 Hz.

-The oldest flute found was made 9000 years ago in China made from the hollowed out bone of a crane.

-Some church organs have long enough pipes to play notes that are so low we cannot hear them.

-People in Japan are looking for ways to make Violin strings out of spider silk.

-Choral singing releases Oxytocin into the brain, improves mood, and bolsters immune system

-The front of a Bass is made from Pine because the wood will move more easily.

That night after dinner we went to Shrek the Musical. We got there a minute, literally a minute, before it started. Luckily we still got tickets. The actors and actresses were fantastic singers. It was definitely not my favorite musical. I didn't love it, but it was fun. They made fun of a lot of other popular musicals in London that I have seen, which was pretty funny. I wouldn't really recommend this musical, but it was fun to see something different.