Hello hello. Let me add a little more to my previous post.
UCL (University College London) is in Bloomsbury. We took the bus from Mile End to get there around 6 15 last night and it took about 45 minutes. They just started classes last week, so Kate's friend Peter didn't seem to know his way around the campus too well...he kept getting us lost. UCL doesn't have a campus like QM does, not many schools in London do. All of the academic buildings at UCL seem to be in the same area and they're really beautiful, but he lives in college housing off campus. He lived about 5 blocks from where I saw academic buildings, which is kind of a long walk. I would have to be highly motivated to walk five blocks or more to class everyday...it's much easier to walk three minutes across campus at QM to go to class.
The area around his flat and the campus was under a lot of construction and it seemed very touristy. It was much more city-like than Mile End and QM are. It's a more famous school than QM and I'm sure it's great, but visiting there made me appreciate QM a lot and for various reasons. For one thing, I absolutely love the campus aspect of QM. I also like that we're a little bit farther from central London, even though it's annoying to have to take the tube or bus everywhere, we have our own place to be out of the way of the constant craziness of the city. The fact that Mile End is so diverse has definitely opened up my eyes a lot and has made me more accepting of other people. I'm happy to be at Queen Mary :) Also even though UCL has its own reputation, QM is part of the University of London schools, so we have that reputation.
Today Kate and I searched for books that we needed for class. I found mine in the tiny on campus bookstore we have, but she had to look around online for somewhere to find her's. At 2, we met Erin and Sammie and the four of us went with the QM group to the site of the 2012 summer Olympics in Stratford, only a stop away from us on the tube. It's east of here in an area that had big industrial plants and was pretty run down before it became the Olympic site. Our tour guide said that the area needed something large like the Olympics to revitalize it. Much of the materials that are being used to build the different stadiums and buildings were recycled from the buildings and pipes that were already there. We got to see the stadium and the aquatic center. They're still building the Olympic village, but we saw the construction for that as well as the construction for the athletes' warm up area. We saw the basketball arena, which is only temporary, because England doesn't have any basketball teams. The stadium is going to remain there and hopefully become West Ham's futbol field (only with less seats) and the aquatic center is going to stay there too. Apparently London only had one 50 meter pool in the city before the aquatic center was built. That's so crazy!
Some of the Olympics are going to take place in different areas of London. The O2 is a giant theater/stadium in central that's going to be renamed (I can't remember what the new name will be) and the gymnastics and basketball finals will be there. The marathons are going to be run around central, past all the famous sights like Big Ben. There are going to be beach volleyball courts put by the Prime Minister's house, but I can't remember where he lives. Lastly the equestrian events are going to take place in Greenwich. Speaking of Greenwich...
We took the DLR (another version of the tube, but above ground) to Greenwich this afternoon after we were done at the Olympic site. Greenwich was absolutely amazing. I think it's one of the prettiest places I've ever visited. The buildings are all old and white and beautiful (think White House-esq) and the town was gorgeous. It was busy, but not as crowded as London. There were a lot of pretty things to see and lots of fields.
On top of that, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 was filming in Greenwich! We saw the set and a lot of extras standing around dressed up and some horses and guys dressed up as redcoats, but that's about it. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Johnny Depp :(
I still had a fabulous time. We walked through the Royal Naval Academy and to the Queen's House. The Naval Academy used to be a hospital for sailors, but now it's an academy. The Queen's House was built in the early 1600's by James I for his wife, Anne. I'm pretty sure she died before it was finished being built. Our tour guide said the king and queen always went hunting together and apparently one time she shot his favorite hunting dog, then he made a huge fuss out of it (typical of a man) and flipped out at her blah blah. Then he felt bad and tried to make it up to her by building her a house, but she died first. The house is really pretty, it's not as big as I'd expected it to be though.
Haha when we were walking to the house we had to cross the street and I was taking pictures of something beautiful by the Naval Academy so I was a little removed from the group and they ended up crossing the street before me...I got up to the street and the two nice police officers stopped traffic so that I could cross. What can I say? I stop traffic in every country.
Anyway, up the hill from the Queen's House is the Prime Meridian! We took tons of pictures and saw the line where the Prime Meridian actually is. There were loads of clocks around there too. It was so cool!
After that we were hungry and got McDonald's (they don't have snack wraps) and ice cream and took the tube back home to Mile End. I've just been reading my English book and relaxing since then because it was a long day, even though it was fun. Tomorrow night we're going to see Henry IV at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We have standing room tickets so that should be quite an experience. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow or something.
M
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