One thing I forgot in my last post was Parliament. Last week for one of my classes we took a tour of Parliament. To be honest I don’t remember much from the tour, except there were a lot of old paintings of Kings and Queens and we weren’t allowed to sit in the seats where the members of Parliament sit every time they meet. And the Queen only goes to Parliament once a year…to sign something or do something I can’t remember. Clearly I was paying attention. We also weren’t allowed to take pictures anywhere except the first entrance so these are the only picture I have:

This past weekend I had to go to the Open House London for one of my classes. Basically a bunch of churches and community buildings are open to the public for free tours. I ended up going to St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe Church, which is the most simple church I’ve been to in London. There’s only one stained glass painting in the church because the architect thought stained glass made the room too dark. Yesterday for my literature class we went on a Dickens walk and saw a bunch of places Dickens wrote about. Once again, I saw another church. This one was made famous by Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code. All I can really tell you about it is it’s called Temple Church and has sculptures of dead parishes.

We also went into this building called Middle Temple Hall. Middle Temple Hall is one of the four Ancient Inns of Court. Once again that’s about all I know, and it’s another really old building with really old paintings and church-like architecture. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all really cool and I end up taking a hundred pictures of one buildin, but after a while they all start to blend together and have the same general look.

That’s pretty much all I have for the Dickens walk. There were more beautiful gardens everywhere, but as with churches and old buildings, they all start to look the same.

One thing I learned the other day while at a Starbucks (I didn’t want to go to a Starbucks here but they’re everywhere- it’s unavoidable) is don’t ask fo apple cider in a coffee shop unless you want to be looked at like a confused alcoholic. All I wanted was some caramel apple cider, which Starbucks usually has on their menu. My first clue should have been the fact that this was nowhere on the menu. I decided to ask anyways, thinking they would know how to make it. Wrong. When I asked the guy if they could make apple cider he just gave me a really weird, confused look and asked what I meant. This should have been my second clue to just order from the menu. I asked again and he gave me the same look followed by, “this is Starbucks, the bar is next door. We only serve coffee and tea here!” After wondering why he thought I wanted a bar, I realized he thought I meant cider. Alocholic cider. I quickly explained that I was talking about a hot drink with no alcohol. Apparently apple cider does not exist in London Starbucks. Lesson learned.