KmArbisi

Just down the way from where I am staying is a beautiful tucked away Garden called Chelsea Physic Garden. It was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in 1673 and is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain. It is a lot smaller than Kew Garden that I went to before but is really beautiful nonetheless. In the middle of the garden there is a statue of Dr. Hans Sloane (the person that Sloane Square is named after). It has a really old rock garden that is really pretty with a little pond in the center. I was never aware before how much of our medicines are plant based and how a simple plant leaf could relieve some pain from various types of diseases. One plant that I particularly remember is the Belladonna which is a foliage ... read more

So today I went to my first professional football game aka soccer to us Americans. It was totally epic! It's custom to go to a pub and drink before you go to the game. We went to the Fulham Football Club stadium but we were on the Everton side. Thank goodness I don't follow football so I didn't really care which side I sat on. The way they check your tickets though is through bar code. You just slide your ticket under a scanner and they let you go through those rotating bars. It's actually really efficient rather than have someone check each ticket at a window. Also just at like rock concerts in the states you aren't allowed to have the lids on top of your drinks or bring your alcohol into the stands so ... read more

Today I went on a walking tour in the East End of London which is in much more poverty than the area I live in which is Chelsea which is the 'poshest' place of London. I got off on the Liverpool Street Station which has a bit of history itself. During the second World War Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia to the UK and there were families awaiting at that station to take those children to their homes. He wasn't recognized for his bravery though until 1998 by the Czech president and was knighted in 2002 he was knighted. Other memorable places we stopped at was the Spitafields Markets and how its become more modern because it's covered where before it used to be home with plenty of street ... read more

On Monday the 10th we went to a play called the Pitman Painters in the Duchess Theatre. We sat in what is called the stalls and that's the ground floor that is eye level with the stage. I've found that I like the seats that are on the first balcony because you don't have to look around other people's heads if you're short. I also like the feeling of being able to look down on the stage and seeing it from above. This play is by the same guy that did Billy Eliot so of course I was expecting great things. It was about a group of miners in the 1930's that wanted to take some art appreciation courses. They eventually become good artists themselves and have a couple gallery showings in which they become popular ... read more

On Wednesday I went to a play called "Tell Them That I am Young and Beautiful" in the Arcola Theatre. This place was really interesting to find and was in a part of London that I was not familiar with at all but was an adventure nevertheless. The theatre has two stages and the one that I was in is supposedly much bigger than the other. The audience is seated on wooden benches that have padded seating in an L-shape around the wood floored stage and the benches only go about four rows up. The actors are so close to you and there aren't many props or much stage decoration to help with the setting. This play had several different stories that were about greed, hospitality, sacrifice, love, knowledge, truth, and freedom. The stories were constantly ... read more