London

I've been back for a few weeks but finally getting around to writing my post about the trip to London.  I was there from March 21 to 26th and spent a very very full week, which may explain my laziness about posting.  The teacher who organized the trip crammed as much as we could do in 6 days but of course there are still loads of things I want to do there--I'll just have to go back!  I got to spend the week with my colleague Eva, a young (my age) Spanish teacher who decided to chaperone the trip to practice her English.  We got along really well, spoke a pretty equal mix of English and French, and always wanted to do the same things with our free time so we spent a really agreable week together.  Additionally, most of the students on the trip are not in my classes, but were really nice and interesting and we had a lot of fun together.

Here are some pictures from the first day: we went to the National Gallery and the London Eye (a huge, overpriced ferris wheel that offers a great view of London)

Lions in Trafalgar Square

View from the London Eye

Inside the "bubble" that you sit in on the ferris wheel

The second day, we had a tour guide in the afternoon who came on the bus with us and told us all kinds of things about London.  She mostly took us around East London, and we spend a lot of time visiting and talking about the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympic Games.  I admit, I was a bit skeptical when they announced back in 2005 that London would be hosting the olympics (especially since I happened to be in France at the time, and Paris was another contender!), and since London doesn't seem like a city that "needs" the games as an excuse to revive a dying city or anything, but I was wrong.  East London is actually very poor, dangerous, and run-down, and the facilities they're building will all be re-used afterwards to benefit the neighborhood in some way, and they have already added new train lines that can bring people from East London to the center of town.  Additionally, it's a really "green" project: 97% of the materials that had to be removed or destroyed to build on the site were recycled into the project, and besides the media parking, there is no parking in the whole olympics park--all the spectators must take the commuter trains and walk.

One of my other favorite things about the trip was the visit to Hampton Court, Henry VIII's palace just outside of London.  Not only was it a beautiful castle, but I have always been really into Tudor history so it was awesome being in the palace where so much of the history I've read about took place.

A great group of students in Hampton Ct gardens

Hampton Ct palace at sunset

We did a lot of museums during the week and my favorite was the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of the world's best art and design museum. We mostly let the students visit the museums at their own pace so they could see what they found the most interesting, and at this one they all blew ahead of me as I spent hours drooling over tapestries, drawings, jewelry, stained glass, etc.

Courtyard of Victoria and Albert Museum

On the last day we visited the Tower of London which was awesome.  Different parts of it were added in different periods so it basically covers English history throughout the ages.  It is also home to the crown jewels which was one of the coolest parts.  The building that holds the crown jewels is actually a huge vault with really intimidating metal doors and intense security.  Of course, no pictures allowed in there.

Tower Bridge from the Tower of London

In conclusion, I had a really great week in London and of all the places I've visited so far this year I think it's the one I want to return to the most.  I love how saturated it is with history (and history that I know!) and how diverse it is.  The population is really international, the different neighborhoods are all really different, and it has lovely parks--it's the city in Europe with the most green space.  Plus everything is just beautiful!