Night of Day 6

Tonight we went out to a club. We got off the tube stop in Leicester Square and were greeting by a very good looking man. He stopped us and asked if we were looking for a good time...kinda felt like we were in Magic Mike for a second. After we clarified that we wanted to go to a night club he led us to a ticket office. When we got there it was 20 pounds for a ticket...we were going to leave but then they said they would only charge us 50 for all 5 of us. We accepted and headed down to Rumba. This club was smaller than I expected and the drinks we were told were discounted were 10 pounds a piece. We ended up closing out about 4 am. Mind you we had to be on the bus for Stonehenge at 7:45am.

For the full unedited story please ask me directly lol

Day 6 Houses of Parliament

This morning we toured The Houses of Parliament

There were so many interesting facts about Parliament when we went there. I couldn't help but write pretty much all of them down.

• The Queen opens each session of Parliament, she has only missed twice during her rein, and she wears a crown that weighs 2.2lbs and has over 3,000 diamonds on it.
• There are over 700 Lords but there isn't enough seating for all of them so they have to have a lottery to see who will sit in on the session.
• The House of Commons can overrule the House of Lords (the people are in charge)
• Not since 1642 has a monarch stood on the floor in the House of Commons. The Queen must remain in the House of Lords while the House of Commons comes to her.
• There is still a hostage taken while the queen is at parliament to ensure that she is returned safely . 
• Certain words are not allowed to be spoken in Parliament so you must ask the speaker before you use a word which is pretty much just a passive way of insulting someone you oppose.

Day 5 Crazy busy day

K so today we had three stops to make. First we went to Oxford which is a little over an hour outside of London. WE were meeting up with our tour guide but we arrived late so we had to rush threw the tour of Christ Church which is one of the most exclusive colleges in Oxford. Our bus dropped us off in the center of Oxford and Christ Church is on the North side of Oxford. We were split into 2 groups, our tour guide was very determined to get us back on schedule.  There are 38 individual colleges that make up Oxford, when you graduate you receive a degree from Oxford but you attend classes at one of the 38 colleges and these colleges answer to Oxford.

Alright so a brief history lesson so my blog meets the standards for the class. Christ College was founded in 1523 and was originally given to Cardinal Wolsey who was under King Henry the 8^th. When Wolsey couldn't get the annulment for King Henry in his 1^st marriage Wolsey was removed from power and King Henry took over the college.

There is so much history at Christ College that I wasn’t aware of. 1^st Louis Carroll was a math professor at Christ Church College, he was also a photographer. Louis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. For those of you don’t know, I have been obsessed with Alice in Wonderland since I was little. Alice was inspired by the Dean of Christ Church’s daughter, Alice Lindale. Carroll use to tell stories to the Dean’s daughter’s and Alice was very imaginative and gave him a lot of ideas for his books. The world of wonderland was inspired by the grounds of Christ Church because that’s where Alice grew up. As our tour continued we learned of other things that gave Carroll his inspiration for his books. There were these statues in the fire place with elongated necks which happens to Alice in his books. Also, Alice’s father was the inspiration for the white rabbit. He was always running late and looking his pocket watch. The reason he was always running late because Christ Church runs about 5 minutes ahead of time because it runs on Greenwich Time. Another FF about time in Oxford, the bell at Christ Church rings 101 times for the original 101 students that attended Christ Church, It rang at 9:05 to signal the students that it was time to return to campus before the gates closed for the night.

Another cool thing about Christ College was that part of Harry Potter was filmed here. The staircase the 1^st year students walk up and meet Professor Magonnical in the Sorcerer’s Stone. Totally got a picture at the top of the staircase and took a video for my fanatical Harry Potter friends.

Another cool link to Oxford is this street we walked down that was the inspiration for the Narnia books. C.S. Lewis walked down this street every day. The lamppost that is feature in the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was on this street, along with a door with a lion’s head on it which inspired Azland, also next to the door there were entry way carvings that inspired Mr. Thomnas. After we left this alley we were in Radcliff Square (which was not named after Daniel Radcliff).

We left Oxford and went to Stratford Upon Avon and we only have about 45 minutes there and we were all tired after our cardio tour threw Oxford. It was pretty cold out and we just wanted to get inside and get something to eat. The tour for Shakespeare’s birthplace was supposed to take about 30 minutes or longer. I wish we would have had more time but we had to be back on the bus to head to Warwick Castle.

We arrived at Warwick and it is your stereotypical castle, huge tower’s, a mote, beautiful gardens and a huge courtyard. This is big tourist spot because you are able to walk all around the castle grounds. We went up in a couple of the towers, threw the garden and the little zoo they had. We had only about an hour and half at the castle which I could have spent all day at.

It was a long crazy busy day but it was worth every second. 

Day 4 VIP Treatment

So this is the day that all of us criminal justice majors were looking forward to. Today we were escorted by some amazing members of the London Metro Police, Constable Richard Watson and Phil (sorry Phil). We started off by going to #10 Downing Street which is where the prime minister lives. There is a huge iron fence surrounding this neighborhood, the added the fence in the 80’s to prevent terrorism against the Irish.  We arrived while there was a session going on.

View from behind the gates

Constable Phil, Dr. Nobiling, VP of CSC Dr.Snare and Constable Richard Watson

Me outside of #10 Dowing street the house of the Prime Minister 

Next we were surprised to find put that not only were we going to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace but we were going to go inside the gates up to the steps of the palace to watch changing of the guard. This is a pretty exclusive honor. We were escorted up to the gates which are blocked off by police during this time. So we looked like a pretty big deal, there were people staring and taking our picture because they assumed we were pretty important…which we are obviously. The ceremony lasts a little over an hour but the new guards march over from their quarters and waited until the old guards marched over from St. James’s Palace. After that they do this face off thing where both marching bands play, they paid a Clint Eastwood theme song and Sir Duke (not sure of the other songs they played.) While we were watching the changing of the guard we were joined by some future Cold stream guards who were there to learn what to do at the changing of the guard. For those who don’t know what a cold stream guard is, they are the British guards with the bear skin hats, the cold stream have a red plume on the right side. Towards the end of the ceremony their major was marching back and he started marched up to us and he stopped and talked to us. 1^st I didn’t even know they were allowed to talk while in uniform and 2^nd Constable Watson said he has never seen a cold stream guard stop and talk to guests. So this was a pretty rare experience. I was very grateful that I was able to do this. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the gate but I will never forget
it.

Later that day we went to New Scotland Yard, which as a huge cj nerd I was pretty excited. We attended a lecture by some of the constables and they talked about the set up they did for the London Marathon and the
Olympics.

Later that same day(3)…

Alesha and I found this medieval dinner theater type thing. It was a little pricier but we thought it would be worth going to. So we called ahead and bought tickets for that night then we planned our route using our tube map. Well…we didn’t chose the best route…we left Russell Square and rode the Piccadilly line 9 stops and got off at South Kensington and rode that 11 stops until we got to Tower Hill. Well that is 20 stops which equals out to a little over an hour riding the underground…our train of thought was that we would only have to change trains once. Anyways neither one of us brought the directions to the dinner so we were already late and walked a mile in the wrong direction before we realized we were going the wrong way…oops. So we power walk our way over to St. Katherine’s Harbor and walked across this dock and found the little hole in the wall Banquet room. So by this time we are about 30 minutes late but they hadn’t started the meal yet. We are seated in this underground tavern type room at the end of a long table. Our server was introduced to us and instead that we called her wench and bang our fists on the table if we needed something. There was unlimited wine and ale at the table which is a good start to any meal and while we waited there was live entertainment. They had a jester who was the best juggler I have ever seen and he wasn’t hard on the eyes. He juggled 3 pins while balancing a spinning ball on a stand that was on his face. There was also signing and a couple amazing contortionists. The meal was interesting…we had ground up veggie soup which we drank straight from the bowl, a cold meat tray with questionable meats on it, a pot of chicken and frozen apple pie. The table we were seated at consisted mostly of Australian and Canadian citizens. One of the Canadian guys was so excited about the huge pot of chicken they brought to the table. He exclaimed that you can’t just get a bucket of chicken anywhere and then I reminded him about KFC…he wasn’t very amused. After the meal was over they started playing music for everyone to dance to and not traditional medieval music but club music..lol it was interesting. Over all it was a good time I wish the meal was more authentic but the performers we good so it balances out.

Day 3 Supreme Court

K so back on track. Today was the first day I had access to a computer/internet. Our hotel only has wifi in the lobby which is always crowded and also has no outlets. The first few days have been a series of technical difficulties. The 1st day my roomie Allyson blew her converter. So Alesha and I went hunting for another one which apparently is impossible to find. We finally talked to the front desk last night at 11pm and they informed us that we don’t need a converter to charge laptops because there is a built in converter. (slaps forehead) well good to know. However, I haven’t been able to straighten my hair in 3 days so I’m looking like a hot mess.

Anyways, this morning we went to the Supreme Court. Which England has only had since 2009. That’s when they decide to separate it from parliament. What I found interesting was the process of becoming a Supreme Court judge is relatively easy here. You need no prior judicial experience, you only need 15 years legal experience and you apply like you would any other job.

Another interesting thing about the Supreme Court was their emblem. It consists of 4 flowers which represent the jurisdictions it covers. Just a little FF (fun fact) the carpet pattern in the building was designed by Sir Peter Blake who also designed one of the Beetle’s album covers.

Well that’s all for today. Not sure what I’m doing tonight, I heard that there is a night time Jack the Ripper Tour which sounds pretty BA.

Day 2 1st day of Court and Rock of Ages!

For today we went to the Magistrates court. This court handles all types of crimes from traffic violations to murder. Mostly this court handles the lower level offences and then they send the more sever crimes to the higher courts.

What surprised me the most about the courts here are that they are more laid back than U.S. Courts. The hearings are more like business meetings. The best part is that the head magistrate openly insults the offender. He made various statements about their life choices and how unintelligent they were.

After we were done with the court for the day my roommates and I went exploring in Leicester Square which is the theatre district. We were able to get discounted tickets to Rock of Ages for the night.

The show started at almost 8pm. When we arrived we were moved up to row J and in the center so we had a perfect view. The show was Amazing!

It was filled with awesome 80's music and hilarious sexual jokes. The best part of the show was Lonny played by Simon Lipkin. He was the narrator and that boy rocked the hell out of a mullet.Totally had a toner for him by the end of the show.