Week 15: Handling & Shipping

Many students believe that there is a conspiracy among professors who assign papers and presentations of have quizzes and examinations within a day or two of each other. I speak from experience; it is SO true!

Like I mentioned before, my MIS and MKT presentations were both on Monday (4/23). I think both of them very well (in my opinion, the best of the bunch!). The time I spent working on these assignments did not leave much time for my Theories & Systems paper, but I spent most of Tuesday (4/24) working on it. I did, however, take some time out to meet and catch up with my Uncle at Starbucks. Then, I spent another sleepless night writing my paper that was due on Wednesday (4/25).

After handling academic matters, now it was time for shipping things home. Considering that we are only allowed two free checked suitcases on our flight back to L.A, Rasa and I decided to buy a couple of medium-sized boxes to send home via UPS. I filled mine mostly with souvenirs from all the places we visited outside of London; and on Thursday (4/26), Rasa and I hauled our boxes back to the store to send to Renie, Rasa’s mom. It cost cheaper to send to same recipient, so our boxes were headed to Bakersfield. I say cheaper, but it still cost over £90!

Afterwards, Rasa and I finally visited the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, better known as Westminster Abbey. This gothic inspired church used to be London’s cathedral in the 16th century and now mainly serves as the coronation place and burial site for English monarchs. Queens and Kings are not the only people buried here. Rasa and I saw graves in the Nave of individuals such as Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, and the Unknown Warrior. Westminster Abbey also served as the funeral site of Princess Diana in 1997. Even though Westminster Abbey is tremendous, after walking through the Chapter House, College Garden, museum, cloisters, and ambulatory chapels, we felt that we saw the majority.

We had to head back to the dorms quickly because we had to get ready for our “Oscar Party” that evening at Nectar Bar. The evening was reminiscent of a “grad night” because of the festivities, including announcing superlative-type awards. From getting ready to walking there to dancing it up to the Tube ride back home – the entire night was such a blast!

Thursday was a great start to the weekend, because our next stop was the Imperial War Museum on Friday (4/27) – after I got out of bed, of course. Christel, Rasa, and I jumped on the Tube and exited on Waterloo (just a quick walk from the museum). After walking through airplane exhibits, listening to disturbing war testimonies, and ‘testing’ submarine communication systems, my favorite part was walking through a garden dedicated to Gandhi.

Before heading out to Portabello Market on Saturday (4/28), I took my camera with us (Rasa, Becca, Cloud, and Christel) to the cafeteria (just to give a true idea of what it was like eating in the basement) and Young Street (our typical walk to the High Ken Tube stop). We also made a stop to shop in Camden Market before heading back to the dorms.

After such a busy weekend, Rasa and I spent our Sunday (4/29) resting and recharging our batteries for the week we had ahead of us. (Although, we did allow a little time for play!) Come back next week to see how we spent our ‘dead’ week!

Your London Blogger,
Danielle