Westminster Walk

Another glorious day of culture in London.  :)  I had planned to visit Westminster Abbey, but when I arrived at 10:30, I discovered that they did not open until 2:00.  Since I was supposed to be at St. James's Park at 2:00 for the Blue Badge Tour and I did not want to rush through the greatest church in the English-speaking world, I opted to do the Westminster Walk as outlined in my guide to London by Rick Steves.  I started on Westminster Bridge and made my way up Parliament Street, finally ending up at Trafalgar Square.  (Incidentally, it was in Trafalgar Square, rather than at home in Indianapolis, where I was able to test my Spanish skills by chatting with another tourist.  Hooray for foreign language skills!  Although I wished I knew French yesterday so that I would be able to intimidate the bratty French children running amuck in the British Museum...)  Some of the personal highlights of my walking trip were standing under the statue of Boadicea (gotta love a strong female role model!) and seeing the relatively new memorial to the women who fought and died in WWII.  On my way, I also stopped by the Banqueting House, which is beautiful (classical architecture of Inigo Jones and a ceiling featuring nine large-scale paintings by Peter Paul Rubens)...I enjoyed the irony that this building is an artistic celebration of the divine right of kings as well as the place where King Charles was put to death under Cromwell.  :)  I also found it interesting that Charles appreciated the arts to the point that he did not allow any masques to take place in the Banqueting Hall after the paintings were installed on the ceiling, as the smoke from the torches would damage the artwork.  Hooray for art patronage!  :)  

After I took the audio tour at the Banqueting House, I walked up the street a few blocks to Trafalgar Square, had a picnic lunch by the fountain, then took the Tube to St. James's Park for the tour.  Rather ironically, the first part of the tour followed essentially the same route that I had taken earlier in the day.  :)  I got quite a bit of additional historical information, though, and we wandered further than my little tour had, eventually hopping on a bus over to Saint Paul's Cathedral and finishing by crossing the Millennium Bridge on foot.  Our guide was really sassy and had the great dry humor that I appreciate, which was such a great change from most of the interpersonal interactions that I have had over the last week.  (She is a Battersea girl as well, so she knew all about my internship site.)

This evening, we had the EUSA welcome reception at The Big Chill (the pub down the street from Nido).  It was probably the most overrated event I've experienced in a while...ah well.  Most of the other participants who are still underage in the states seemed more excited about the free drink vouchers we received than our internship placements (both of my vouchers were spent on Diet Coke, because I'm awesome like that...although one of my goals for this trip is to order a Pimm's in a rough, working-man's pub), and by the end of the two hours, it was too cold and smoky to really enjoy the surroundings anymore.  My experiences with some of the other EUSA participants has helped me start the mental list of universities that I will not allow my future children to attend, at least.  And the small group of Midwesterners can easily be identified: we're the ones saying "Please," "Thank you," and "No, after you...".  (I'm starting to think that the Midwest might be better known as "Little Canada"...)

Tomorrow is our first Professional Development Seminar.  I'm not really sure what to expect...I hope that there will be some information that I have not heard before, but my hopes are not too high (no offense to the program, but I've just had really great professional preparation through my department so far).  I'm staying open to the possibilities, though, and fortunately it will be over by 1:00, so I will still have the afternoon to go museum-hopping.  :)