Natural History Museum

On Saturday morning a group of about seven of us left Queen Mary at one o’clock in the afternoon and took the District Line train to South Kensington to go to the Natural History Museum. The building itself looks like something out of Harry Potter! It’s absolutely beautiful. I wish I took a picture of the outside of the building, but it was freezing and just couldn’t bear to take off my gloves! If I have a chance to walk by that area again, I promise to take a picture of it and post it for you all to see.

Anyway, once inside we spent the bulk of our time in the Dinosaur exhibit. We were pretty goofy and took quite a few pictures roaring like dinosaurs.

There's a giant T-Rex behind us but you can't see it in the picture!

Another Dino Pic!

Then we went to the “Dino-Shop” and had some fun there too!

Oh no! He found us!

Next we moved onto the mammal exhibit. On the ceiling there was a life-size replica of a blue whale, just like the whale in the cafeteria in the Museum of Natural History in New York. I’m still in awe of just how big they are!

By the end of the exhibit I was absolutely exhausted and my back was hurting from all the walking. However, much to my dismay, my friends insisted on going to see the Creepy Crawler exhibit. And yes, the Creepy Crawler exhibit is exactly what it sounds like, BUGS. Anyone who knows me for longer than a week knows how absolutely terrified I am of bugs, especially bugs with wings. I tried to keep my fear of insects to myself until I passed by the gigantic picture of a bee. Then, I decided it was time to sit down and close my eyes to avoid looking at the pictures or samples of dead bugs (and a few living ones too… ewww!) Thankfully, the museum was closing so we couldn’t stay very long in the exhibit anyway.

We then took the train back towards Queen Mary and quickly stopped at the supermarket called Sainsbury’s. I have literally been to the supermarket about four times since I have been living here. Since it’s about a ten minute walk from my flat I have to shop light in order to carry it all home. There are two supermarkets closer but they’re more expensive and have a much smaller selection. It’s worth it just to make multiple trips to the Sainsbury’s.

That night we were all so tired we just hung out around campus.  Despite the exhaustion, it was a great day!

On Sunday it was finally a little bit warmer in London.  In the evening, we went to a pub to watch the Giants game. Unfortunately the Giants lost, but I shared a really good sundae with my flat mate P and OH so the night wasn’t too bad.

OH is a really fun girl I met from Ohio but goes to school in NYC. My second day in London, OH asked if she could sit down next to P and me for dinner. We’ve hung out every day since. OH is really great at making friends so we’ve assembled a nice entourage to travel around with (which you can see in our dinosaur pics!)

Each day I’m getting more and more comfortable with my surroundings and in turn liking London more and more. This week I’m hoping to do more exploring.  I’m also really excited because an old friend from high school that I haven’t seen in two years is going to be in London for the next two weeks.  I’m really looking forward to seeing her!

I heard it’s really cold in New York.  To all my friends and family back home, keep warm!  I miss and love you all very much!