Monday was our last class excursion. We went to The National Portrait Gallery. We were not as excited about this because we are not huge fans of portraits. However, we saw some really cool portraits done with many different mediums. We saw a portrait of George Washington, Ronald Dahl, Ed Sheeran, Queen Elizabeth I, Elton John, Amy Winehouse, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and some paintings done by up and coming artists dealing with social issues. It was cool seeing all the different styles of paintings, photographs, and busts. When we got home we wrote our papers and hung out with the flatmates.

Tuesday was our last class day. We were very sad to say goodbye to our professor. We really loved her and the class! After class we went home to pack for our trip to Iceland. Once we finished packing we decided to head over to the location they were just filming the new James Bond movie. We took our picture on the road Daniel Craig drove on with the Aston Martin (unfortunately, we did not have one to drive- it was still cool nonetheless). After we got our picture we decided to explore the area a bit. We were in a place they call Whitehall. This is where all their government buildings are. We saw the Ministry of Defense, the place where the Prime Minister Lives, and many other buildings surrounded by armed guards. It was a really pretty area, but it was kind of scary with all the guards staring at you. After we explored a bit we went to St. James’s Park and walked on the Princess Diana memorial walk. It was absolutely beautiful. We walked across a bridge over a pretty pond with gorgeous flowers. From there you could see Buckingham Palace. It was a really pretty and relaxing walk. We then made our way to the Horse Guard Parade. This is where they have the cavalry. At exactly 4pm, they had the dismounting ceremony. It was really cool to see, but we preferred the changing of the guards because it didn’t smell like horse poop. From there we made our way back home to get prepared for our early morning. We are currently typing this in the Heathrow airport waiting to board our plane to Iceland. -SYD & SAM