Friday morning I had class at 9 a.m. at the University of Westminster. I basically sat there for 3 hours and day dreamed. Hearing a history lesson from a professor speaking in a very heavy, hard to understand accent is quite boring. All I really took away from that class is that the British Navy is unstoppable. It’s funny to hear the way British people talk about battles in which they were defeated (like in 1776). They always just make excuses for why they failed or they blame it on some external reason, but it is never their fault.

After class we got lunch at a pub called The Apollo in Marylebone. I had my first cider! It was really good, but man those things are strong. I also was very experimental with my meal choice: macaroni and cheese.

After lunch we headed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but it was still pretty cool. We saw Admiral Nelson’s uniform. Man, people were small back in the day! (And yes, this is the famous Admiral Nelson that the booze is named after). We walked a few blocks, then up a very steep hill, and finally made it to the Royal Observatory. The Royal Observatory is home to the Prime Meridian of the World, making it the official starting point of each day and year. In order to stand on the line that marks the separation of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres you had to pay 5 pounds. So, we just stared at it through the fence because we spent those 5 pounds getting ciders at lunch, which in my opinion is a better use of money than paying to stand in a line to stand on a line. I guess it is a pretty cool line, but I was just fine looking at it through the fence.

I really liked Greenwich. The air was really fresh, it was not as polluted as the rest of London, and it was also a lot cleaner. I also think that we saw trees and grass for the first time since we’ve been here.

After that we went back to Spitalfields, showered, and went to Club 32 before dinner. Club 32 is the name that we made up for the sky lounge on the 32nd floor of our building. The Iowa kids have pretty much claimed that room as our own. We had some wine and beers in there, and then headed to Kings Cross Social Club for a free meal paid for by the University of Iowa. Unfortunately, the food sucked. So we left fairly quickly because we wanted to go out.

That night we went to a club called Cargo in Shoreditch. It was insane. There is really no other way to describe it. It was the first thing we’ve done so far that wasn’t touristy. It was just us Americans and all the crazy local college kids. They use the word “Uni” (like you-knee) instead of University. It’s hilarious.

This morning we got up early to go on a walking tour of Westminster Abbey. We were required to go for our program, which we were excited about until it was 8:15 a.m. and the last thing on earth we wanted to do was wake up and walk around a church. However, it was beautiful. Breathtaking. There is SO much history in that place. Also, there are so many cool people buried there, such as Franklin Roosevelt and Charles Darwin.

After seeing Westminster Abbey, we went on a boat tour down the Thames River. It started off great, it was sunny and hot, and then 5 minutes later it was freezing and pouring. The weather here is bizarre. Yesterday I looked out my window and saw snow and sleet. By the time it hit the ground it was rain, but I’m on the 23rd floor so up here it is pretty chilly.

The boat tour dropped us off in Greenwich. We were going to go exploring in the Greenwich Market, but we were all still struggling from last night and just wanted to go home and sleep. So we did, I took a four hour nap. For dinner, some people went to a pub close by. Jessica and I went to Subway…

Now we have to do our homework that’s due tomorrow. I don’t think we’re going out tonight because we are so worn out, but we’ll see.