History...It's Natural!

I had to skip a day to keep my promise of not updating my blog every day, so yesterday there was no blog. But today there is!

Today was the first day of my first full weekend here and I finally got a chance to have fun. I met a few friends on campus and we all took the tube down to South Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum, one of the many beautiful, fascinating and completely free museums in London. Today was possibly the coldest day since I’ve been here. The temperature was at about -4 degrees Celsius (which is about 25 degrees Fahrenheit for you Yankees). It doesn’t sound very cold, but the humidity is high here, so the cold really strikes you. We hurried inside the museum, walking past the showcase of the first annual London Ice Sculpture Competition on the way to the front door. In the main showroom stood a life-size replica of a Brontosaurus, stretching the entire length of the handsome, high-ceilinged room. I’ve included a couple exterior and interior pictures of the museum, which is a gorgeous place.

We wandered through the rooms, visiting first the dinosaur exhibit, where we took pictures growling like dinosaurs in front of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Afterward we moved on to the Mammals room, which showcased the bone structure and a life-size replica of a blue whale, which filled the entire room. We just finished the Creepy Crawlers exhibit, which focused on insects, when we were told we needed to leave because the museum was closing, so we hopped back on the tube and rode back to our neck of the woods, getting off a little before our regular stop to go to a grocery store.

So far, I’ve tried to be pretty judicious about spending money on what I consider unnecessary items, so at the moment I walked into the grocery store, the total inventory of my cooking utensils included only a butter knife, a spoon, a fork, and a Tupperware container I had bought to use as a bowl. I eat cereal out of it. What more could I need? Well, in order to cook real food, which is something I’ve never done before, I was forced to purchase a flimsy pot and pan for about three pounds each, which I was thoroughly upset about until I got home and used them to cook myself a dinner which included more than cold cereal and a granola bar. I’m pretty happy with my purchase, but I think I’ll keep using the Tupperware.

Thanks for all the support on the blog.