Yesterday was the hottest day on record in the United Kingdom. Today was much cooler, fortunately. Our first excursion of the day was to the British Museum, a collection of (mostly stolen) artifacts from around the world. The first area I explored was the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery of China and South Asia. Interestingly enough, Sir Joseph Hotung is my great uncle's father (my great uncle who was married to my great aunt, my grandmother's sister). Sir Joseph Hotung was known for his business ventures as well as his collection of Chinese antiquities. The gallery was impressive and displayed such a wide time range of Asian history. I also explored the Japanese and Korea galleries which had a much more different feel. There was so much to see that it was hard to fixate your attention on one particular artifact. I had to navigate through the large crowds in the Egypt gallery (not to mention it was really hot inside). The crowds there were so bad I didn't want to spend a lot of time in the gallery. I found my way into the Ancient Greece and Roman gallery which had a lot of sculptures and excavated ruins. I also got to see the Rosetta Stone which had a large crowd around it but I was able to get close to it. It's cool to see something so small yet iconic that I've seen in pictures and read about. I walked around the main hall which had a bright, rounded glass ceiling with the reading room at the center. I also explored galleries that explored the museum's history, the Americas, Africa, and one about life and death.
Polynesian statue at the British Museum
After the museum, we took our coach to the Tower of London which ended up being a long ride, despite it being not too far away (that's city traffic for ya). While we were there, we got to see the Crown Jewels (no pictures, of course). Again, seeing things that you've heard of so much and then only being a few feet away from them is something that feels so unreal, like your whole life has been leading up to this moment. That's why I treasure these moments and why I want to travel more because these experiences cannot be taken away from you have you've done it. We walked along the the interior wall and through the towers which had cool exhibits such as the "Royal Beasts" which showed what kind of animals were housed at the Tower such as lions and an elephant which is crazy considering this was over 700 years ago. We also saw the crows (which have apparently torn off the noses, fingers, and ears of visitors), the torture room, the Royal Guard, and the Yeoman Warders. The Tower also had good views of Tower Bridge and the Shard which was cool to see from land after seeing them from the Thames river cruise. One more interesting thing was the restrooms by the parking garage for the coach because the entrances for the men's and women's toilets had gates that looked like security checkpoints where you had to pay fifty pence to use the toilet.
View of the City of London from the Tower of London
The Royal Guard
Tower Bridge
Back in Cobham, our house parents took us to an art studio in a neighboring town to paint pottery where we competing for most detailed, most creative, and most British. I decided to paint a bowl with a map of central London. I thought it looked pretty cool but it probably wasn't the prettiest looking. I thought that it was a cool experience because who paints pottery in a new country they travel to? It's the small things like this that makes me appreciate this special trip.
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