Monday, June 6, 2011

artifacts, 5 a.m. phone calls, and lots of dead people.

After church yesterday (which was another adventure attempting to figure out how to get there because once again random tube lines are closed), I headed to the British Museum. I just went by myself because my friends and I all get home from church at different times. It was a pretty overwhelming place. There were about 50 gillion people there and its GIMONGOUS! But freaking awesome as well. It took me some time before I found a map because I didn't go through the main entrance. Once I found the central area, which is way cool looking, I grabbed a map and headed on my way. I didn't really closely examine everything because it's so big but I skimmed through most of the Greece exhibit. Some of my favorite things were the Parthenon room, which had big giant pieces of the Parthenon in this room that was supposed to look like a replica of the inside of the Parthenon. Ok I may have made up that last bit. Maybe it's just supposed to look like Greek architecture, but in my mind, it was the inside of the Parthenon. They also had this thing called the Nereid Monument which was this way sweet Greek monument. I saw the Rosetta Stone on my way out as well, which is bigger than I thought it was but pretty fascinating to look at. Also I learned where the word mausoleum came from. I know, your jealous, so I guess I'll share my knowledge with you. This guy named Mausolus had this tomb. And it was a pretty cool tomb because it was like really big and really decorative and so it was one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. So Mausolus eventually became mausoleum and the parts of the Tomb of Mausolus now lie in the British Museum. Cool factoid huh?


So yeah then it was dinner and lots of reading because it was raining and there's not a whole lot we're able to do on Sundays anyways.


Today after class, we went and took the Westminster Abbey tour. On our way to the tube, I stopped at the bank whose cash machine had stolen my card on Saturday. I stood in line for about a zillion hours. Or maybe like 30 minutes. And when I got to the desk, they were just like "Oh when the technician came, he didn't find any card, so someone must have stolen it." WHAT THE FREAK?!? I wasn't even sure how to respond to this. I was like "Umm are you sure?" and she was just like "Yep, I had him check three times." So then I walked away dumbfounded. Tara, Amy and Hannah were waiting for me so when I told them what happened, Tara was like "Oh heck no!" and marches over and glares down this other man who had talked to us on Saturday. Eventually he acknowledges her and gets someone else to help us out. That dude basically told me the same thing. He said that people will put little things in the machine to jam the card and then they come and steal it. I wanted to yell at him "Well maybe if you retards hadn't waiting until this morning to have the technician come it, they wouldn't have been able to come back and get my card" but I refrained. So instead I'm like "Well you need to let me use your phone then so that I can call my parents and have them figure things out with my bank in America." He was like "Oh of course" and took me back to some office. He asks me what part of America I'm from and then says he's moving to North Carolina soon. I said that was cool and that my friend was from North Carolina so he asks which one and while I'm freaking out trying to get a hold of my parents he goes and brings Hannah in to talk to her about North Carolina. How unprofessional. Also, side note. My parents didn't answer their phones, which I was pretty annoyed with at first. Until we left the bank and I realized I had called at like 5 in the morning. So then I have this whole scenario planned out in my head about how they're going to see these international missed called and then think that I died and then have crying fits. Want to know what really happened? The call came in as restricted so they just ignored it and cared none at all for the safety of my life. Sad, I know. Anyways, I left a message on my dads phone. Hannah finished up talking to bank man about whether or not North Carolina had capital punishment (who even asks that when their moving somewhere new? maybe he's the one that stole my card...) and we head of to Westminster.


By the time we got to Westminster, I only had time to do the "Highlight" audio tour, because I'm on dinner crew so I had to be back early to help set up. Although I wish I could have spent more time there, the highlight tour was pretty cool. There are so many awesome people buried there. I got to see where Queen Elizabeth I was buried and where Mary Queen of Scots was buried. Also Charles Dickens, John Dryden, Issac Newton, and everyone else cool that is buried in the Poet's Corner. The building is just beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed it.


After dinner we had this guy come talk to us about World War II and the Blitz. He lived in London during it so it was really cool to hear him speak about it, especially since World War II is one of my favorite historical subjects. I'm not going to lie though, I did fall asleep for a couple of minutes...I feel bad about that, but it was dark and warm and I was tired.


I can't believe my time here is almost over...my parents will be here soon, finals are on Monday and then before you know it, I'm back in Provo. Where did all the time go?

1 comment:

  1. A parents perspective on phone calls at 6am....1st off my phone was downstairs and on vibrate. 2nd, dad gets weird phone calls all the time so if a number doesn't come in on caller ID he ignores it. 3rd. you could have called the house phone. And just so you know, I would have cried hysterically if you had been hit by a bus, but I wasn't that worried so no tears were shed. sorry!

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