The National Army Museum, Sir John Soane, and other things

(photos: the sir john soane musuem, ignore the scaffolding. The little yellow things are actual pieces of columns from the old palace of westminster that he decided to just throw on his home. Cool guy)
Wednesday i did things that probably should have been homework. Thursday ( the 9th of nov) i also should have done homework. I don't remember what i did either day, so we'll say it wasn't exciting..

I did however go to the Natioanl Army Museum on a class trip on Thursday. We were supposed to have very smart British man who knows way too much about the American Revolutionary War tell us the story from the British perspective. But he had taken ill or something equally unfortunate so we wound up with this ex-pat girl who did try to tell us it from the British side, but still defended the Americans very much.

It was very interesting because we - or at least i- was taught a rather one sided view of the war. We are Americans ,we want to be free, blah blah blah, we win, you lose , yay! I am not so good at remembering things i learned in school so i don't remember much about those lessons... But i found out that the French had a huge deal in our winning, in fact according to the lady at the musuem, we did not win the war, the french won it for us. And the Brits didn't seem to care much. From the sound of it, they were getting a bit tired of the whole thing as it was, and once they started losing they just decided to bugger off and go back home. There were some goings on in India and all that. Mmm spices and tea. Yeah. Bit of a different story coming from them ,but we didn't quite get the full effect. It was still very interesting. I wish i remembered more. You all probably know more than me.

Friday, the day i normally do not have classes, i had a day trip for my architecture class beginning at St. Paul's at 10:30 am. We went throught the whole St. Paul's Christopher Wren thing, and it was all quite lovely and informative and all. But i have discussed this a bit already. He allowed everyone some time to go up into the dome, which i and my friend had done already. Instead, we walked to Holburn, had some super fantastic hot chocolate at a cafe nero right across from the concert venue, and then rejoined the class as they met up outside the tube station.

We then had to inflitrate the John Soane Musuem, since apparently they told my teacher we could not come in as a group. So instead we sneakily went in one or two at a time and pretended not to know the others...there were only 8 of us, so it was not that big of a deal. I am pretty sure the curators must have caught on, but they didnt care as long as we didn't congregate.

I was not allowed to take photos of the place, but it was absolutely fantastic. Sir John Soane was a good old famous architect who designed the original Bank of England, among other things. He was also quite into collecting this, which is why his house is entirely covered with all sorts of artsy junk. I loved it. He has plaster casts, little pieces of famous buildings, models, drawings, paintings, even an actual ancient egyptian sarcophogus. I think one of the only ones in London not in the British museum or something like that. It was of King Seti I, i believe, and it was awesome, just chilling out in his basement. He loved the use of mirrors and wierd glass colours to bring in lots of apparently mysterious light. And most rooms were lined up in a way that you could look down a corridor and see to either end of the building. One of my favourite things, is the paintings that he had hanging on large doors that could open, close, swing around over this gap in the floor. It is very hard to describe this without being able to actually see the house in all its glory. And to think his sons wanted to sell all his stuff. Jerks.

But it is here, and if you ever come to London, you should go. I think i may go back. It's free , too. Interesting stuff, cool man.

I forget what the night was...but yes, probably nothing too fun since i woke up early the next day for the Lord Mayor's Parade.

But that is for another day. I am sleepy now, and though i am trying hard to catch up, i feel these are less british and interesting than the earlier ones due to lack of time. my apologies.