Hyde Park Walk and First Day of Classes

Today was my first day of two of my classes: Inside Parliament: British Politics and History of London. It looks like my British Politics class will actually be pretty challenging, I have to write a hefty essay and present it - to a Member of Parliament (MP), yikes. My History of London class will be interesting even though my professor is a geeky Yank. I assumed that he would essentially be a very well-informed tour guide, but actually he's just going to give us worksheets, which is somewhat of a disappointment. Oh speaking of disappointment, I got another roommate today. For the last week it's just been me and my roommate Brandon sharing a triple room, which would have made it very easy for visitors to stay here. But this morning I woke up to a new roommate. Turns out his visa got delayed (one of my main fears before flying out here) so he showed up a week late, too bad for him. He's from Texas, and seems like a good guy.

Yesterday I went on my most ambitious London walk/trek yet. I actually mapped it out on Google Earth and it was 8 miles. First I walked down to the Natural History Museum, which is geared much more towards the younger crowd (which is what I expected). I'm not much into fossils and reconstructed dinosaurs, but their biology and ecology exhibits were interesting, not to mention the absolutely beautiful architecture. The building could obviously be considered one of the major cathedrals built to science. I did skip a few exhibits in favor of just sitting on the top floor and admiring Waterhouse's "idiosyncratic Romanesque" design. After leaving the museum I did a proper grand tour of Hyde Park - Prince Albert Memorial, The Serpentine, Hyde Park Corner, and the Wellington Arch. Looking at it all on a map makes me realize I should have hopped on over to Buckingham Palace, but I have a few more months. I walked by the Iranian Embassy on the way back to Kensington, which was interesting because I saw the exhibit on the SAS siege only a day before at the Imperial War Museum. I'm still getting used to seeing these sights in person that I've seen on television and in textbooks so many times.

I plan on taking it easy tonight, and perhaps spending some time in Hyde Park tomorrow before class, but we'll see. Cheers!