Monday 7/22 – Today we had a guest lecture in the morning. We discussed morality in theater and arts. We then talked about our afternoon excursion to the British Museum. Our task was to find an artifact that was “stolen” from another region and discuss the morality behind it and what people may have been thinking during that time. It was cool to look at different artifacts from all over the world. We then spent the rest of the afternoon in the flat doing homework. We decided to have another movie night with the flatmates. We had dinner while watching a new movie that just came out on Netflix. It was a great night spending time relaxing with the flatmates.

Tuesday 7/23 – We did not have class today so we decided to go watch the changing of the guards again. We stood along the road this time so we could see the horses and band march in. It was cool to see it from a different view this time. Our friend had a few tickets to visit the Mews, where they keep the carriage so we planned on doing that after the changing of the guards. Unfortunately, they did not let us in because it was not our signatures on the backs of the tickets. Her grandma and her friends had already signed the tickets but they ended up not being able to go, so we were going to use the tickets. Who knew they would take horse carriages so seriously! It was still a fun morning! Once back to the study center, we met up with our professor to discuss our final project coming up. It was helpful getting feedback from him and advice on how to improve our ideas. We then went back the flat to have dinner before getting ready to go see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater. This was such an amazing experience. The actors were all amazing and all had very beautiful voices. This was a new cast; the show we saw was only their second time performing together. You would have never been able tell because everything went so well. The show was incredible, it was such a fun night out with some of our friends.

Wednesday 7/24 – Today we took a day trip to Cambridge where we toured the chapel and explored the campus a bit. It was a beautiful school, but it didn’t really feel like a campus or a college at all. For lunch we went to a really good Italian restaurant. Their pasta was amazing. We sat outside and ate with all of our friends. We then spent some time wandering around the town and popping into some shops. Then we met up with the rest of our program to go punting down the Cam river. It was nice just relaxing in the boat while learning about the town and the buildings. However, it was just under 100 degrees outside and the boat only had a few umbrellas so we all had to squeeze together to get into the shade. After the boat ride, we made our way back to the train station to head home. Unfortunately, we missed the train that had no stops, so our ride back home was almost 2 hours. Back at the flat we ate dinner and spent the rest of the night relaxing. It was a fun day exploring a new town.

Thursday 7/25 – Today was the hottest day ever recorded in July in London. We were all very happy about that because our flats and study center don’t have air conditioning (please note my heavy sarcasm). We had morning class but we convinced our professor and the program assistants to let us have our class in the lecture theater because it is one of the only rooms with an AC unit. That made class a little bit more bearable. Our afternoon excursion was to the Churchill War Rooms which we were all excited for. However, we were not excited for the 30 minute walk in the 103 degree weather. Once there and in the building we were in a much better mood. It was so cool seeing where Churchill lived and everything they did underground during World War II. One of our favorite rooms was the Map room where we got to see how they kept track of different data and how they mapped different things out. It was almost surreal to think that where were were standing was where they stood during the war. It was so cool to learn about who lived down there and all the different roles that were necessary to keep things running smoothly and safely during the war. Once back at the flat we all sat in front of our fans trying to stay cool. Syd got Indian food for dinner with some of our friends. We then had to pack for our trip to Ireland this weekend. We can safely say that we had the worst night’s sleep because of the heat. However, it didn’t much matter because we had to wake up at 4 in the morning to head to the airport anyway. This week was a lot of fun and we can’t wait for our weekend in Ireland! -SYD & SAM