death

Yesterday was a day full of death.


We got up and a bunch of us went to the St. Paul's area for one of the walks we needed to do for class. It was a pretty sweet walk, especially since we took our time and made some pit stops instead of just hurrying through to get the walk done. One of the pit stops was this cute little candy shop. It was an old school candy shop with all the jars of candy on the wall. I'm thinking I may have to go back when I'm leaving because I know my sister's would love some of the candy they had there. We'll see how much I like them when that
time comes though. ;] We also stopped at this little church (which really means absolutely nothing because there are little churches on pretty much every block out here. Instead of a Starbucks on every corner, they have a church on every corner. Too bad no one out here really seems to actually attend church). They had a crypt that we went down in. First occasion of death. The pastor also told us a little about the history of the church and he was telling us that the Peeps (who did something famous but I don't remember what) had been baptized there. Too bad the first thing that pops in my mind when he says this are little marshmallow peeps being dunked in water to be baptized. I don't know why that popped in my head, but it was a ridiculously funny image and I almost laughed out loud. Later as we were walking along, my camera, which I have been using a lot, dies. This was a pretty sad death because it wasn't even noon yet so I had to spend the rest of the day with no camera.


After our walk we got some lunch and ran to the National Gallery, which is this way cool museum. We didn't actually look around very much because we didn't have a lot of time, but it's free so I'll be going back. Then we headed back to St. Paul's Cathedral for a Supertour with our entire group--but not before stopping at a little bakery and getting an amazing chocolate eclair. It's ok if your jealous. The tour was super awesome as well. St. Paul's is literally ginormous. We walked all through it and it it so beautiful on the inside. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the inside, but since my camera was dead, it didn't really matter anyways. Some of the parts of St. Paul's that I thought were super cool were the chapel dedicated to America where they have a bunch of dedicatory stuff for the American soldiers that died in Britain during WWII. Or maybe WWI and WWII...now I don't remember for sure. Then they took us to this circular stair case where, drum roll please, Harry Potter was filmed. If you will remember with me please the third movie. We have Harry on his way to Divination and what staircase do they use to get to Divination? Well, that would be the staircase in St. Paul's which leads to the library. Awesome, I know. Then we were taken to the crypt there, which is ginormous and also my 3rd experience of death. They have lots of famous people buried there (ok, I actually didn't recognize hardly any of them, but according to Mr. Tour Guide, they're famous).


Part of our Supertour was to climb up to the Golden Gallery, which is basically at the very top of the dome. So try to picture this with me (it may be helpful to look up a picture of St. Paul's to really understand what I'm talking about. First we go up 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which is still inside the building. It's basically around the bottom part of the dome, right before it starts to curve upwards. It's pretty cool cuz if you whisper along the wall, someone of the other side of the gallery can here you. And it had a cool view. Then we climb up some more steps to the Stone Gallery. All of the steps are inside, but they lead you outside. There is a cool view of the city but I didn't stay and look there very long because they were getting ready to close so they were trying to get everyone to go up to the Golden Gallery. Here occurs death experience number 4 and probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. I am terrified of heights. And I mean terrified. I was ok up until we got to the stairs to go to the Golden Gallery, because up until then, I didn't really have to look down at how high I was, I just had to look out. The looking out part doesn't bother me so much. But here's the thing, the stairs to go up to the Golden Gallery were those stupid metal stairs that have holes in them are there are no back to the step so you can stick your whole foot under the next step. This is where I really started freaking out. I couldn't talk to anyone, because if I did I would have burst into tears. But I couldn't turn around and go back because they have two sets of stairs, one for going up and one for going down. I also knew that I would hate myself later if I didn't do it. So 528 steps later (from the ground floor) and about 279 feet above ground, I finally make it to the top. It was definitely worth it. The view was amazing and I'm proud to say that I didn't chicken out. I will never do it again though. Especially since I freaked out even more on the way back down because it's a lot harder not to look down the stairs of death when your going down them.


After St. Paul's, we came back for dinner. A bunch of people were going to a ballet, but I didn't care enough about it to pay the price for the tickets. I was planning on staying home and getting homework done, but one of my professors had tickets to see All's Well that Ends Well at the Globe theatre, and he literally would not allow me to stay home. I told him I needed to stay home and study and he told me he didn't care. So if I don't get his homework done, I'm blaming it all on him. The play was really cool though. And we had real seats instead of standing seats, which is what most of the seats are like. I enjoy Shakespeare a lot more when the plays are being performed than when I'm reading the play. In the middle of the play, this old lady just slumped over and wouldn't wake up. Her husband kept shaking her and they ended up bringing over a medic. I literally thought she had died (thus making this death experience number 5) but eventually they got her to wake up and took her out. Surprisingly no one died in the play, which I feel like usually happens in Shakespeare plays.


I'd say it was too much death for one day, but it was a fun day nonetheless.