Saturday in London Town: Natural History Museum Edition

Hello again mates!

Blogger champion of the year award goes to me? Yeah, this is my second post in as many days. Of course, it's one of four or so posts so far so maybe it's just blogger champion of the week. Wait, nope, blogger champion of the year. That was an incredible amount of "so"s in that last sentence. Three straight, every other word. Day-um. In terms of an update schedule, weekends will probably be fairly post heavy-or maybe Mondays will be. Weekends will be adventure time. Weeks starting on Monday will be class time.

Also, editorial note: I was informed by an avid reader (who may or may not be my mother) that I accidentally said that I flew to Denver in my last post. That was incorrect. As I wrote a sentence or two later, I actually flew through Detroit. This is a very important point. There were also probably some grammatical errors. My b.

Now, onto the real meat of this post. Today was a fantastic day of adventuring. I got off to a bit of a late start (yay sleeping in and not waking up randomly due to jet lag), but the day was still full! I had my last nectarine, tried to figure out my UCL email (no success, I forgot my password...oops) and then was off. Upon consulting my fancy, laminated map of London (please read that last bit in a pretentious voice, I'm mad proud of my map), I decided to see if I could get myself to the Natural History Museum. It's closer to me than UCL but in the opposite direction. Lesson of the day: mapquest kinda sucks. Next time I decide to use it or go somewhere, I will definitely be double checking against my fancy map, or I will try to figure out my own route with said fancy map. Exciting second lesson of the day: I am now capable of reading a map. That's right, I can look at a map and understand what it is telling me. This is a huge personal accomplishment. I bet if I looked at a map of Minneapolis I would finally understand how the highway system works. Mmm, that is definitely something I should be bragging about...

Back to the point! After a good deal of wandering around, going the wrong way and staring confusedly at street signs, I got to Cromwell Road. I walked past the Victoria and Albert Museum-which I fully intend on visiting soon-and arrived at the most glorious building I've ever seen. Seriously. It is BEAUTIFUL. Breathtakingly beautiful. And good news, I actually took pictures this time. And not with photobooth...with a CAMERA. Wooooooooooah.

Still not convinced? How about now?

That is how many people were queuing to get into the Museum. Quick side note: queuing is apparently a huge thing here. They queue for everything. And are very very serious about it. A couple of us Pomona people got sorted out at a restaurant queue for doing it wrong. It was hilarious. This line moved remarkably fast. Yay well-established and efficient queuing! After a couple minutes of alternately standing and walking and a quick purse check to make sure that I wasn't carrying any sharp objects, I was in. Yeah, I was awed by the outside...turns out that the inside is just as amazing. How amazing? Let me save you the thousand words...

See? See how pretty the inside is??? It's gorgeous! I guess I was expecting it to be a little like the Science Museums that I've been to but it is so much more. This will be a place that I will frequent. I think one of the guide books said that we should frequent a pub and get friendly with the bartenders. Pub people? Become a regular. That's it. I think I'll become a regular here though. There is so much to see and read and explore and look at. Speaking of which, whose this smexy man?

Oh yeah, it's Charles Freaking Darwin. *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAL* Sometime soon (I hope) I will be traveling to Down House-the house where Charles Darwin lived, raised a family, wrote On the Origin of Species, WAS. Oh my god, I'm so so so excited. Here are some of the shells he collected on his travels:

Yeah, I freaked out a little. He collected these. Which means he touched these. Darwin touched these. He held them. They were his. Ooooooooooh my god. Now we can't have a picture of Darwin without a picture of his Bulldog, the wonderful Thomas Henry Huxley. Mmmmmm...so awesome.

Why so serious, Huxley? Oh yeah, because you are so busy defending evolution. Hellz yeah. These statues made me so happy. Probably unjustly so: I may or may not be a huge spaz, but it's really nice to see Darwin and his pals seriously appreciated here. If anything has made me feel at home, it's been that.

More from the museum. I learned about human evolution and birds and ecology and bugs and whole bunch of other stuff. Cool new fact: the earth is baller. That or a creeper from the 60s.

Hey, wanna see an awesome segue? It'll be super smooth...

DINOSAURS

Oh no! I totally almost got eaten by a dinosaur! A bodiless, floating dinosaur! Crazy! Those are the ones you really want to watch out for. Note the look of absolute horror. Anyways, the Natural History Museum was great. I'm glad to live close to it (1.5 miles). I love how walkable this city is. Oh man, I love walking.

There was also an ice rink outside the museum. :) Daaaaaaaaaw, it is significantly classier than Highlands Rink, if you can imagine that. Unfortunately it costs something like £13. And I'm trying really hard to budget my resources responsibly. Woot sandwiches!

After leaving the the Natural History Museum (not by choice, I should add but rather due to museum hours) Kun-Wei (she met me at the museum) and I headed back towards Victoria Station. We ate a...dun dun DUNNNNNNNNN...SANDWICH and then walked towards the Thames. One 20ish minute walk later and we were at...

Westminster Abby! I can't wait to go back during the daytime to actually get a peak inside but it's lovely at night. :) Shortly thereafter we saw...

BIG BEN!!! Kun-Wei was my picture taking partner in crime. In fact...there is a very good chance that she took more pictures than me. Which is actually rather incredible. I can't imagine this needs to be said, but yay unnecessary verbosity! Big Ben at night is absolutely stunning. It's all lit up and spectacular, although I'm sure that it will be just as pretty during the day. We then walked a few minutes to the Thames and saw the London Eye. The river and eye and everything were...you guessed it...gorgeous. I'm so happy to be here. We also saw the House of Parliament. Because it's right next to Big Ben. I love being near so many amazing things. AAAAAAAAAAAAH EXCITEMENT!

Kun-Wei took the tube back to her dorm, I walked back to mine with a quick grocery store stop at the largest grocery store that I've seen yet. I got stuff for...SANDWICHES. Plus grapefruits and carrots. Mmmmmmmm.

So, that was my day! It was action filled and thoroughly excellent. I can't wait for tomorrow. One more day of freedom to explore and chill without any school pressure! I think I'm going to check out Hyde Park. Maybe even go for a run in it! Although my legs are starting to get worn out. Perhaps I will leisurely stroll through the park. Perhaps I will have a picnic. Perhaps I will bring a sandwich. Perhaps I will read a little Dawkins whilst enjoying my sandwich and Hyde Park. I guess we'll see.

Cheers and much love!