Tag Archives: Big Ben

June 29, 2008

London Eye and Salsa Dancing

By Pam Schwartz
It has been a busy weekend. Friday we went and knocked a few more of the touristy things off of our lists. We did the London Eye and the accompanying river cruise. The London Eye is 450 ft tall. So here’s looking out over London.

The next few are all pictures from the London Eye. There is Big Ben, County Hall (which houses little exhibits and an arcade and things) and part of one of the ferris wheel pods, a nice aerial view of London if you see the blueish dome sort of thing in the right hand side of the picture, that is the top of the British Museum’s grand court!
The river cruise was relaxing. It’s nice to get a slow different view of the Thames. Here is the London Bridge and all of us on the cruise. After all of that we just wandered the Thames area. Watched some street theatre which is always intriguing. This guy looked exactly like a real statue, he even had a pigeon on his shoulder at one point. These people literally paint their whole bodies and just stand in the street all day long. There were about 6 people or so doing it, this man, a silver wizard, a golden slinky man, a golden cowboy, a fish on a bicycle, and blue guitar man and I think that was it.This next guy was nuts. He pretended to be Indian and I don’t really know why. He was actually Australian and he did all sorts of crazy juggling. For his final act he climbed a maybe 10 foot pool and laid on a bed of nails while juggling, ouch but he was entertaining.

This picture doesn’t really have a purpose, we don’t really know what the sculpture is but Casey and I thought it would be a good idea to stick our heads through it and have our picture taken. However, when we started to get our heads stuck we decided it wasn’t our best idea so just posed like this instead.

Today Mai, Leslie and I went to the Carnival De Cuba, which is the world’s largest Cuban festival outside of Cuba. It was a lot of fun though my knees hurt from salsaing too much. Here we are sporting our fancy custom cut Cuba t-shirts.
Why do people really go to Carnivals? Not because I’m Cuban but because jerk chicken is tasty and I enjoyed a lot of it…and three strawberry smoothies.

Here is part of the festival set-up. There was live music all day long, which made for a lot of dancing. I’ve come to the conclusion the dancing makes my right knee hurt, I don’t think that this will stop me however. Below for example is Mai trying to take a cute picture when I’m too busy rocking out. The carnival was fun and made for a lazy day with great atmosphere.

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June 1, 2008

London!

By Pam Schwartz
Stick with me mates, it has been a few days and I have done a lot. This may be a long one. The flight from D.C. was fairly pleasant. I sat next to a grad student who was on her way to do some fellowship in a country that starts with an A that I can pronounce and she was very nice. We received free socks, eye masks, toothbrush and paste, and we started out with a snack. I had pretzels and a class of Chardonnay, my first legal glass of wine. I felt very cosmopolitan. For dinner we had a feast, salad, a wheat roll, a small block of cheese, chicken breast with a mushroom gravy, rice, sauteed spinach with a pepper medley, a slice of double chocolate swirl cheesecake, and a glass of Merlot. It was quite a meal. I slept most of the way in order to try and prevent jet lag. Night flying has to be one of the most amazing things in the world. Looking out the window was beautiful. Between the stars in the sky and the lights on the ground it was just a big blanket of sparkle. Here we are after our six and a half hour or so flight.Our first views of London, nice crowded little streets.
Here is what the outside of our accommodations at Liberty Fields look like, not too shabby right?
The view from my window, charming isn’t it. Though without screens on the windows I’m a bit scared I’ll have pigeons as pets before long.Here is my flat, a nice little closet in the wall that I share with one other girl.

 

We took a three hour bus tour today. The London Eye and Big Ben.The London Bridge

 


The Tower of London, I can’t wait to actually go here.
Here is a picture Dad might enjoy a little bit more, MI6 their spy headquarters. Recognize it from any of the James Bond flicks?

 


Last but not least, Casey, Ben and I wandered London this evening whilst looking for our internships places. Ben walks out of the tube right up to Big Ben what an unfortunate site to have to see every morning, it is truly amazing. Here you can see the London Eye in the background as well. Even though Casey is afraid of heights I think we’ve talked him into going up in it with us. We also went and saw the British Museum, HUGE! I can’t wait. I find out more about my internship tomorrow. I know I originally wanted to travel the whole island and maybe go to Amsterdam…but there is more than enough to keep me busy here for two months…and might save me some money! We’ll see.

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