Loving life

Hey Everyone! Sorry that it's been a few days since my last post, I've been really busy with schoolwork. But, here is a little recap of the last few days.

On Thursday, I had to give a presentation to my History class. My presentation was about David Lloyd George, who was the British Prime Minister during WWI. It went pretty well, and I got a 3.5 (85% for all the Canadians), which I was happy about. Then, my afternoon class was Art. Our class met at the National Portrait Gallery, which is directly behind the National Gallery right by Trafalgar Square. This gallery was really cool. They had tons of different portraits dating back to the Tudor era. We looked at portraits of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. After this section, we moved on to the Victorian era, and saw a tons of portraits of Victoria and Prince Albert. This was so amazing, partially because I love the movie that was made about these two, called The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's great. Anyways, the actual Victoria was nowhere near as pretty as Emily Blunt, but it was cool because our art teacher pointed out that this royal couple was the first to marry for love, rather than for reasons of wealth, or power. After this, we moved on to 20th and 21st century portraits. We even saw J.K Rowling's portrait, which obviously made me happy. There is even a portrait of David Beckham (hottie) and Kate Middleton (my nemesis. She stole my boyfriend, remember?). This was one of the coolest exhibits I've seen.

Olympic Stadium

After the gallery, a bunch of us went to Stratford, which is where the Olympic Park is. It sucks because you can't really get anywhere near the stadiums, but I took a beautiful picture of the Track and Field Stadium. It was cool to be there, and after we figured out we couldn't get in, we went to the mall they built right outside. It was really fun. They literally have every store you could think of, and we saw some athletes walking around there also.

Naeem, Mike, and Peter at Buckingham Palace

St. Paul's Cathedral

Mike, Richie, Peter, Audrey, and Leslie at the Tube

On Friday, our whole group was given a bus tour around the city of London. One of the best things about this was that our tour guide was constantly pointing out significant places that have to do with Harry Potter. Leslie and I were really only excited when the guide said, "this is the street where you can get to the Ministry of Magic" hahahahah. Anyways, we've been making a list of all these places so that we can do one big trip! We went back to Buckingham palace, and to a lot of the places that Julia, Mike, and I went to. But, I still am not bored of it. The tour was very long, and we went from one side of the city to the other. We also saw St. Paul's Cathedral, which was so beautiful. Then, Julia and I came home, and got ready to go out. We had another fun night out, with the tube ride being particularly interesting. We got a little lost, but we found our way.

Princess Diana memorial.

The Palace!

Today, Julia and a bunch of the group took the opportunity to go on a weekend Homestay with an ethnic family. I wasn't interested, so Audrey and I went to Kensington Palace, and hung out there for the day. They have a beautiful gate area, where people have left notes and flower in memory of Princess Diana. This is the palace where William and I... I mean Kate (sorry, we get mixed up a lot), will be moving in a few weeks. It is so beautiful there. We sat in the garden and read all day. Tonight, we are going to see a movie. We are both way too tired to go out again. I need to catch up on sleep.

Anyways, in honor of Harry Potter, here is one of my favourite quotes from the books:

Dumbledore (to Harry): Do not pity the dead. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love.

Peace out.