[Whitney]'s Travels

The constant moving is starting to wear on all of us…I’m so tired all the time because we’re constantly going and going and going! No complaints though—just saying.

Today we had to meet really early again to get on a boat to Greenwich at 8:30. The tube has pretty much become natural to me at this point. Recently we’ve been taking different lines and routes just to see who gets somewhere fastest—and just for the record the Northern Line gets you to Westminster faster than the Circle Line. Lesson learned. Anyway, back to the boat. It was pretty chilly and windy today, so sitting on the top deck of the “cruise” ship was probably not the best idea, but we did it anyway. It was really interesting to see things from the point of view of the river instead of from the man made landmarks we’re supposed to see them from. I got to see The Globe Theatre from the river and I was so excited! We’re seeing Romeo and Juliet there next week and to be honest—I think I might cry when I get there I’m so happy about it!!

Greenwich is such a pretty place—we got to see the British Naval School and The Queen’s House and the British Observatory. The coolest thing (sorry London) was the fact that while we were wandering around the Naval School we happened upon the set of the movie Gulliver’s Travels starring Jack Black and Jason Segel!! There were all kinds of extras and actors running around in costume and we saw them to some filming before they shut the doors on us inside one of the buildings we were supposed to be touring. Jack Black never showed up, but I did get to see Jason Segel! He’s the guy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and I Love You Man! So cool! When we were walking around the area, one of the actors (not sure who he was) saw my Virginia Tech sweatshirt and shouted, “Yeah! The Hokies are in town!” That was really exciting too! We went to the Observatory after that and it was really nice, except that it was on top of a big hill. We were struggling walking up and got passed by a very pregnant woman and a married couple at least in their 80’s…ridiculous. The view from the top was amazing though—you could see so much of the city from there. There’s even a marker that calculates and shows where the Prime Meridian is, along with a ball on the top of the building that rises at noon each day so that people could know the time and set their watches back in the day. Interesting stuff.

After we walked back down the hill we hung around Greenwich for a little while and got some tea at a café. We took the DLR back to Bank and went from there to Angel station, and came back to the flat to take a much-needed nap. I was so tired today and the weather was cloudy and chilly—perfect napping conditions. At around 6:00 we left for the National Theatre to see Wole Soyinka’s play, Death and The King’s Horsemen. It was a really interesting commentary on the westernization of Africa. The acting was great, there was a lot of attention to detail, and the music was just amazing. Best play so far!

Now I’m back at my flat just getting ready to go to bed before I have class again at 9:00 tomorrow. I’ll be on the tube—bright and early with all the rest of the commuters.

More Tomorrow,
Whitney

P.S. Don’t put regular dish washing liquid in your dishwasher. The bubbles are a bitch to clean up.