As part of a sociology experiment, our orientation group was split into several groups to explore different areas of London. My group's assignment was Canary Wharf, a major business district in East London. For a financial centre, it was surprisingly beautiful. The juxtaposition of modern architecture and very old streets was strange but unique. We didn't quite fit in, us with our backpacks and jeans. But the men in tailored suits were out and about on lunch break, so we joined in:
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| Dee-lish-ous duck and sweet potato salad from a food truck. |
Canary Wharf is home to the 2nd-tallest building in the UK. As part of our assignment, we took a lot of video-recordings of the skyscrapers and the sleek architecture. But for pictures, I gravitated more to the older areas. These parks were absolutely gorgeous. The six of us ended up relaxing in the park for almost an hour before heading back.
"Leah x2"
The next day we presented our observations to the rest of the students and got to hear about the other groups' experiences. One such group was assigned to Camden Market, often called "Camden Lock", a collection of retail places with too much food and lots of free samples. It seemed really interesting, so on Saturday 10 September, (before taking our tour of Buckingham Palace), Ally and I explored the market for ourselves.
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| I got roped into testing some product that removes hair, Now I have this weird patch of bare skin on my arm. |
Most of the vendors gave us samples; we probably could've had lunch for free. But after sampling some crazy good cheese, we settled on The Good Yard for lunch:
It. was. so. good.
I'll probably go back and have it again, which is a shame because there are many other talented vendors. There just aren't enough meals in the day!
We stopped home after the market, and I took a quick long nap until Ally came bursting into my room:
We had a 3:15 time slot. I left my room to get Leah at 2:16 and she was asleep when I got there. She quickly got ready and we left the residence at 2:25. Then we hustled over to the tube station, once on the tube I realized CityMapper* was bringing us to the wrong address (I honestly don’t know how). We were still getting off at the same station, but instead of exiting we needed to change lines. We successfully did that, then we sped walked as fast as we could through Green Park as it was now 3:10. We ran across the crosswalk because the light was .5 seconds from changing. I then stepped in a puddle of water. BUT WE MADE IT.
And then it was time for Buckingham Palace.
It was rainy and gross out, so it was the perfect day to be inside the state rooms. I learned so much about the Queen (as expected) but also got to see original works from famous artists I'd learned about in class. An added bonus for this girl! The marble halls and gallery rooms were gorgeous, but even better was the temporary exhibit-featuring hundreds of gowns worn by Her Royal Highness. So much care and consideration is gone into the design and construction of her outfits, especially in the ones worn diplomacy (keeping cultural garment restrictions in mind). For example. this 1967 gown was worn on a trip to Canada. It's hard to see, but at the waist of the dress, the design features Canadian maple leaves:
This is a screenshot from Pinterest. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. Even so, I highly recommend visiting! We spent three hours and thirty minutes reading just about every word and listening to each section of the audio (yes, I've become my mother!).
On the way home, we stopped at Russell Square because we were craving this:
And of course, when we found this, we had to stop and take a picture:
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| "Oh how nice it is to give my feet a break from the cobblestone." |
And that's it for now. Off to Journalism class I go.
Cheers!
Leah
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