Fast Lane

Monday: Class, Tower of London
Tuesday: Payden Rydel, Shakespear at the Globe - "As you Like It"
Wednesday: Windsor Castle

Class has been good overall so far. We have just gotten past the initial introductions to the class, so I expect things will pick up. Dr. Gritta is teaching investments, but he is teaching a lot of English history at the same time. We go on field trips all the time. For instance, Payden and Rydel is an investment bank based out of LA, but we got to visit the London branch which is in the middle of the financial district in London. Lloyds of London, the Bank of England, and the London Metals exchange were all down the street. There was a cool little market there as well that serves the financial district. It was an odd mix of really expensive shops and street vendor stalls. Payden Rydel was really interesting and they had people from all aspects of the company speak with us. In addition they fed us an absolutely amazing lunch.

The Tower of London is also next to Tower bridge, which is the bridge that replaced London bridge (which is now in Arizona). The Tower of London used to be a residence of the royalty, but now it mostly holds a lot of history, some of the crown jewels, and a lot of history. We took a tour with a beef eater (retired soldiers that are now more or less the stewards of the Tower of London) which was absolutely fantastic. A trend is quickly developing, which is that the churches/cathedrals are absolutely amazing, and you can't take pictures of the inside of them. The crown jewels were utterly stunning and I could have spent several days looking at the jewels and the history stowed inside the white tower (the oldest tower in the tower of London). The white tower primarily holds the armor and weaponry of royalty through the ages.

Shakespear was totally wild. First, we were at the globe with standing room seats, birds in the rafters and all. We had seats, which was nice, though we were off to the side so it was hard to hear some lines and we couldn't always see everything. I was unbelievably tired from the long day at Payden and Rydel and not getting a lot of sleep the night before so I think I fell asleep in my seat a number of times. I'm glad we are going back, so I can be more attentive! The theater was excellent, with incredible acting, fantastic music, and obviously the allure of Shakespeare at the Globe.

Windsor castle was spectacular. Think castle, consider definition and input Windsor. In fact, portions of the castle were rebuilt so that they looked more like what people expected when they thought of "castle". The rooms were gorgeous, st. George's chapel was unbelievable, the doll house extraordinary, the grounds enormous. Windsor was incredible.

But I need to go! Homework and such to do. Thanks for reading, I'll try to keep posting regularly and with more details. I have pictures, hopefully I'll get those up at some time as well.

-Samuel