Let's see, I believe I left off at Tuesday of this week. Well, on Wednesday, our group took a walking tour of the South Bank. We started off by the London Eye, which we had already seen plenty of, but this tour was different. It was led by a lady named Kim, who has lived in England for her entire life and in London for more than 20 years. So she knows this town. Not only did she show us several sites that we hadn't been able to see yet, but she also provided a ton of great information on English history that I knew nothing about previously. For instance, at the very beginning of the tour we stood in front of a large building where County Hall used to be housed and she told us about some of the worst times in the English economy, during the 1980s, when unemployment was at an all time low. County Hall is directly across the river from Parliament and apparently, those who worked in County Hall would hang huge banners outside of the building listing the numbers of people that were unemployed. The numbers were updated daily and were written large enough so that Margaret Thatcher, across the river in Parliament, would be able to read them. I was curious about English politics since I know next to nothing about them, so I made my way to the front of the group to ask Kim some more questions. She had mentioned that Margaret Thatcher was very "right wing" so the first question I asked was whether English right wing is equivalent to American right wing. Her response? "Well, Margaret Thatcher was very good friends with Reagan, if that clears anything up for you." It did. Kim went on to tell me about a family from California that she took on a tour this summer. She said that, during the tour, the mother made a comment regarding the recent decisions made about health care and social security in the United States. The mother's words were, "Now that we're taking our first steps toward Socialism....etc. etc." and Kim told me that she was quite taken back. She explained that in England, people didn't view this as Socialism at all and they understood it to be a basic human right, that everyone should be given health coverage in some way, no matter their age or economic standing. It was a very interesting discussion.
But on to more interesting topics! We continued walking down the South Bank and saw many notable sites including The National Theatre, at which I have been told to see literally every show that I can, and The Globe Theatre, the replica of Shakespeare's first theatre. Although it's not the real thing, it was still a grand sight to behold and I fully plan on going back and seeing a show there as well.
Later that afternoon we made our way back to my area of town to spend a little time at Harrods. You all know what Harrods is, right? Matt didn't. His exact words were, "So....what's Harrods?" At this point I nearly hit him. If anyone reading this blog doesn't know what Harrods is, please allow me to explain. Harrods is the grandfather of all department stores. It is huge. It is wildly expensive. It is completely overwhelming. We didn't even see the entire store and we still spent about two hours there. It really is mind blowing to imagine what kind of person could possibly be able to afford the objects sold at this store. Yet this store has almost everything you could ever need to survive! I say almost because I never saw any toothpaste. So, save toothpaste, you could basically live at this store. There are gigantic rooms filled with nothing but designer purses. Then you go up to the next floor and find an entertainment section that rivals Best Buy. The toy section spans across several large rooms fulfilling every child's wildest dreams. Matt and I spent most of our time there. Playing with toys. Hula-hooping, to be exact. In the end, we decided that we simply could not leave empty handed, so we bought a cookie. It was a delicious cookie that only cost one pound. But I still got a bag from Harrods, so I am satisfied.
Classes start on Monday. I've forgotten what real work is.
You must buy me something from Harrod's.
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Margaret Thatcher rocks!
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