How high can you go?

5/17/11

This morning we were required to wake up early in order to make a business-visit, which technically was a lecture from a man by the name of Ron Judd. He was an interesting person. We learned how important it was to have a specific skill set as well as your own brand.  After the lecture, we were given free time until we had to meet up at the Bank of England. I had planned on traveling with a different group because I did not want to hang out with the same people the whole time, but when they had left I was looking around for people who were leaving, but no one was. I left the building and was walking behind them about a hundred yards back, but they noticed me and stopped.  I was the same people as last night. We ended up walking over St. Paul. We arrived just in time to make to the top. They were closing it early because of same anniversary of this tradition.  The view from the top of the building was spectacular. I love landscape! London is one of the most beautiful cities I have been in. Because of the low level buildings, the view was amazing. Once we scanned over the rooftops towards the financial district, each building was very unique and fun to look at to see were the architect got the idea for the building. The architecture though in St. Paul’s was unbelievable. I did not understand how something this magnificence could be made out of wood and stone, but it was. Architecture is a gift and if you have it, you should exploit because you can build sites that will inspire others. I loved walking around and seeing sketch artists because they were creating works of art. I was impressed with them as much as the architecture.

After St. Paul’s we had about twenty minutes to walk over to the Bank of England. We watched video about the operations concerning the bank and how they are really only in charge of the monitoring of the currency as well as setting interest rates, which is strange. Who deals with the monetary and fiscal policy? The video was not the informative as the question and answer period, which I would rather be spending time asking questions. Following the Bank of England, the same group headed to the National Museum, which was kid of boring because when you are tired it is hard to focus. Ashlyn and I were just walking around and enjoying us by making fun of the art. Ha! An hour went by and we decided to meet the rest of the group towards the entrance of the museum. We watched the two black guys in front entertaining a crowd with boring material, but they were able to entertain hundreds. We regrouped and headed over to the Les Mes theatre to order tickets for tonight, which only cost around twenty lbs.  I have never seen Les Mes, but I was excited to finally watch the show that has been Jaclyn’s favorite for over a decade.

Once the tickets were bought, we set off to find a place to eat. Our only criteria were finding a place to purchase fish and chips. Kandace wanted them.  In the process of finding this place we walked down a street that was very interesting. Catcalls from guys are not flattering when you are receiving them as a guy. After passing through this sector of town, we found a pub that we wanted to eat at. The food was pretty good, but I am tired of food the UK because there is not much flavor.  Once the food was settling in the stomach and we felt like it was ready to leave we called for the check. It is hard paying for dinner in a group because you always end up paying more than you were supposed to. Ha! However, we did not care because we were about to see Les Mis. We headed over to the theatre and we enjoyed one of the most amazing productions I have ever seen. I was very excited that I even cried during some of the performances because I remember listening to the cd growing up. I was impressed mainly with John Williams who played the main character. He has an amazing voice. After the play finished, we met up with Luke, Suz, Janelle, Courtney, John, Christina, and Shardae. We went to McDonalds on order to purchase ice cream with Cadbury ingredients. The shake was pretty good, but it is something that I would probably not purchase again because I have had better. When we finished we head back home on the tube. Walking out of Earl Station, I saw this cute girl that I wanted to talk to but I did not know how. However, I took the opportunity after Kandace’s encouraging words. I walked up to her and her group of friends and began to speak, but they did not understand much of what I was saying. They were from Austria. Ha! That made for an exciting night especially since she left and joined her friends on the other side of the circle. We all returned to the hotel and planned for the free day the next day.