Oh London, the things you do...

So I haven't posted in awhile, I guess for a couple of reasons:

1. Other than school, I didn't do too much this week. My school is private, so other than all the others around me, my last class gets out at 4:45, and school ends at 5. By the time I get home, it's just about time for a shower, some homework, reading, and then crossword puzzles until I crash.

2. Homework- Boy when I get home I going to jump on the bandwagon of supporting teacher salary increases. As a STUDENT teacher, I am working hard, which means all the other regular teachers around me must be pooped! Its an exciting job, and I am blessed to have entered this career. When you think of other careers where you work a 8 hour job, then leave with about 4 hours of homework, you normally think of the $$$ that comes along with it. I just think its unfortunate that society (aka government) depends on this career field so much then takes money away from the teachers and the schools... Ok, enough for now :)

3. SNOW! Yes, we had another snow day on Wednesday. Unfortunately for me, and others, we didn't get the notice of the snow day until about an hour after waiting for the bus outside in the pouring snow. My bus driver couldn't get up a hill on the other side of town. I waited for about 45 minutes, until the principal let everyone know that school was cancelled and we could go home. No worries though, I went home and slept for about 4 more hours :)

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Needless to say, I was very excited for my outing with Heather on Saturday yet again to London. We met up and immediately headed off to the National Gallery. The National Gallery was created in 1825, and has over 2,300 paintings in it.

There are no pictures allowed in the museum, but I found a few online so you can imagine them :)

Probably my favorite was seeing Vincent Van Gogh paintings:

This was probably my favorite of the whole museum, the strokes for the sky are brilliant. Here is another one of the famous ones there:

:) I wish I could have shown you the real deal, but I guess you'll have to come visit me to do that !

Also, the coolest painting with history was the Leonardo Da Vinci painting of the Virgin and Child, St Anne and St John the Baptist:

If you look closely, you can see the bottom of the painting, and the hand is not completed, and that is because this is a cartoon. The word Cartoon comes from the French word carton and the Italian word cartone which both mean heavy paper. The meaning of the word is the preliminary sketches made by artist on such paper. :) Cool, huh?

Outside of the national Gallery....


The next event we had planned was for an excellent musical of The Lion King. However, our event was cut short when the only remaining tickets were about 50 pounds each! We decided that would be another day, and headed off the the Tower Bridge. It was at this point my camera decided to stop working, and I actually haven't been able to get it back since. :( Hopefully not broke broke... That being said, the following pictures my friend Heather thankfully let me borrow. 

The Tower Bridge was created in 1894 by Sir Horace Jones. It is beautiful, and a iconic legend of London

How awesome is that?!?

As soon as we got there, we realized that the Bridge was opening up for an old school sailing boat. 

Here is the bridge opened!

We went on a exclusive tour to go up to the top walkway of the bridge. The lower one is the one that opens to ships, but the upper walkway is for pedestrians only and doesn't move. Here is a glance from up high :)


It was a great day, and although it rained, it melted most of the snow away! I managed to get home by dinner time, and relax for awhile. Heather and I are hoping to go to Brighton next weekend, it is located on the very bottom of England, is apparently is a beautiful little beach resort. Hopefully I will have pictures to share of that soon!