And off we go!

Today was pretty amazing. We had our first class of British Seminar, and we talked about all of the things we'll be doing in London. I'm super excited to be here, and Eckerd has structured this program in a really awesome way. The courses offer a lot of time for us to explore the city while still supplying a heavy education about this area and its cultural and historical backgrounds.
After Brit Sem, we took a field trip to the Museum of London; it's basically a huge history lesson from the earliest records to the Great Fire of 1666. The second floor was being renovated, so we were unable to see some of the more modern exhibits. It was interesting though, and I got plenty of photos. This is a yew tree from 2500 to 1200 BC! So crazy - the age of the different artifacts blows my mind!

Another thing that struck me was the sheer intricacy of many of the art pieces, from paintings to coins to amulets and badges. Some photos are shown below.

This was a model of Westminster Abbey - it was about 100 years old.

"Londoners visited the shrines of foreign saints and brought back pewter badges like these from France, from the shrines of St Eloi, patron saint of blacksmiths, at Noyon."

An illuminated manuscript of the Canterbury Tales!

Afterwards, we left the museum for Chinatown. It was a great experience - such a rich cultural centre just down the road. We ate at a small Chinese restaurant that was offering lunch specials for 5.50 pounds, which wasn't bad at all. We wandered a bit more around Chinatown before splitting up - I found an awesome music/DVD store selling media for super cheap; it was pretty awesome. I also found a couple of music stores and played guitar for a while. Boy do I miss it..I'll be back soon enough, I suppose.
I got back to the house for dinner, and we've been hanging out since. I'm pretty tired, so the plans for tomorrow might be pushed back until the afternoon so I can sleep in. I'm hoping to get to Westminster Abbey to take some more photos, really concentrating on getting some great shots. I'll be shooting in both digital and film (a medium that I haven't used in far too long...even though it's only been a few months...).
It'll be a good day!