It’s been a whirlwind of emotions over the last week. There was the excitement of first arriving in London, followed by getting physically sick, homesick, and then finally starting to settle in. Things started to go rapidly downhill after my last blog entry when I woke up really sick in the middle of the night. Unfortunately I caught a stomach bug and spent most of last Friday in bed.

I’m feeling much better now, but being physically sick always makes me feel a little bit homesick (even though I just arrived). I was missing my family quite a bit over the weekend, but I’m starting to get settled in now and into a routine. I did try and make the most of my first weekend in London though; I just took it easy as I was still recovering from the flu.

I decided to visit the Natural History Museum on Saturday and really enjoyed it! The Museum is located in this beautiful building in South Kensington that has stone animals carved into it’s exterior. There are dozens of exhibits in the museum, so I had to narrow it down to a few that I really wanted to see; the first one being the dinosaur exhibit! The whole exhibit is just filled with these huge dinosaur skeletons, it’s unreal to see them just hanging from the ceiling all around you! I posted a few pictures of them on my facebook page if you want to take a look.

I also went to a mammal exhibit; the whole exhibit is featured around a life-size replica of a blue whale, which as you can imagine, is huge! It’s surrounded by other life-size mammals and there are several whale skeletons hanging above it. I also went to an exhibit on ecology, fossils, climate change, the beginning of the earth, and human biology. I stumbled upon the biology exhibit; it was an interactive exhibit about how the human body works and was actually really interesting. I finished up the day by going skating on an outdoor rink just outside the museum. It was especially fun for me as I got to skate circles around all the Brits 😉

On Sunday morning, I decided to go to church. One of the things I discovered in Malawi was that no matter where I go in the world, there is likely going to be a Salvation Army church nearby that I can go to. London, of course, is no exception. The London Corps is located on Oxford Street, smack dab in the middle of the shopping district. The front of the church looks like a storefront, but once you walk inside it open opens up in the back. It is a nice church and the people are just as friendly. It’s nice to find a little bit of home in the middle of a place where I don’t know anyone.

I spent the rest of the day walking around London. I didn’t make a plan or decide what I wanted to see; I just did as I pleased. It was nice to just walk around the City and do whatever I felt like. I walked to Trafalgar Square to see the fountains and the huge Lions. If you spend some time looking at the Lion statues you’ll notice that their back legs look kind of out of place. Apparently the sculptor didn’t know what real lions looked like, so he just modeled their legs after the legs on his cat.

I walked up the canal in St. James Park and caught a glimpse of Buckingham Palace. What I find odd about London is that everything here is green. The park is filled with green grass and all of these blooming flowers. It looks nice, but out of place with the chilly weather. I left St. James Park and walked to Big Ben and then I walked the Thames River back to the Millennium Bridge, which I finally walked over! I’ve wanted to cross it for years, having seen it in so many movies!

I haven’t done any sightseeing during the week, but I have been spending some of my lunch breaks sitting next to the river by Tower Bridge. I’d love to hear from some of you! Feel free to leave a comment, send an email, or give me a skype call!

Take care,
Maria

Hi Everyone,

I have arrived safely in London! My flight got in on Wednesday morning and I left the airport in search of the City YMCA, my home for the next four months. I’ve only spent one day and one night here so far, but it seems nice enough. I have a single room with a bed, a desk, a sink, and some drawer and closet space. At first it appeared that the view from my window wasn’t that nice, but once I took a closer look I realized I could see both St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Eye from my room!

After getting set up in my room I decided to go look for St. Paul’s as I knew it was nearby. After quite a bit of walking I had to conclude that I had gone the wrong way and must have missed St. Paul’s. I stumbled upon some old ruins though that turned out to be what’s left of the London wall. The wall used to extend around the center of the city and in the great fire of London in 1666 the wall prevented the fire from completely destroying the center of the city. I think it’s incredible that there are ruins like this throughout the city, when I was in London in August we saw ruins that remained from the Blitz as well.

I eventually gave up on my search for St. Paul’s and instead ended up on the London Bridge. Apparently London Bridge has existed in different forms for almost 2000 years. At one point it used to have buildings and houses built along it, however in 1212 the bridge caught fire on both ends and everyone in the middle died; kind of gives new meaning to the children’s song London bridges falling down. From London Bridge I had a great view of both the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

On my way back to the Y I managed to find St. Paul’s! Apparently St. Paul’s is the center of Occupy London so there was a lot of people camped out all around it, nothing too exciting going on though! It’s quite beautiful even with all the people camped around it and I’m excited to actually go on a tour later on. It is one of the few buildings that did manage to completely survive the Blitz; apparently Winston Churchill did everything he could during the Blitz to ensure the Cathedral wasn’t destroyed.

I started work today, which went pretty well. The office is nice and it’s only a 5 minute walk from the Tower of London. I walked by it on my way home just to take a look and I found out there’s skating there until Sunday, so I might check that out over the weekend! Sorry there are no pictures with this blog, like Malawi I still don’t really have great internet and they were taking forever to upload!

Love Maria

Hello friends!

After a year of silence I’ve decided to re-vamp my blog and start writing again! I’ve renamed it Maria’s Adventures: Thoughts from a young backpacker. I’ve been informed this isn’t true since I’m not really a backpacker, however I have done my fair share of backpacking and I like it. I welcome any better name suggestions.

I’m heading off to London for my fifth engineering work term on January 3^rd; I really enjoyed blogging during my work term in Malawi so it seems appropriate to fix up this blog. My mother was hoping I would stay put after I came home from Malawi, but I’ve discovered my love of travel and my work terms provide me with a great opportunity to experience new parts of the world for months at a time.

I’ll be living and working in London until May. I’ll be staying in City Center at the YMCA. There’s a youth hostel that provides accommodations for students living in London long term. I can’t wait to start exploring London and of course nearby European countries as well. I’ve decided not to focus my blog entries on my work at all, but on my adventures over the next few months. It’s a great way to keep you all up to date on what I’ve been doing without having to send dozens of emails!

I hope you’ll follow along and leave me comments. I loved getting thoughts and questions from you when I was in Malawi and I know I’ll appreciate it in London as well! Subscribe to receive email notifications if you want to know when I post new entries!

Stay tuned,

Maria