Orientation Begins....

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Today we had a continental breakfast (a very good one with great variety) at LSE High Holborn and then went over to the study centre for more info about our year abroad. They fed us a lunch of sandwiches which were very tasty.
After lunch they took us to Westminster where we were given a tour by a London Walking Tour Guide named Peter. He was fantastic! We saw Westminster Palace (The Houses of Parliament), the Jewel Tower, Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret’s Church, and the Georgian back streets with their political salons and bomb shelter signs from WWII. I’m sure we saw lots more but trying to recount all of it is quite near impossible. Oh….and it rained.
New info: Big Ben is not the tower as is commonly referred to but the bell that chimes on the hour from the palace bell tower. It has been correct since it was installed except during a brief time of war when it was knocked slightly off its course.
The Houses of Parliament are only housed in the Palace of Westminster but the building itself is not the Parliament building.
Passing a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in a park entry, past the Palace and Abbey, we learned about women’s suffrage. Emmeline was the woman who brought about women’s suffrage in England. She put aside her campaign at the outbreak of WWI. She was at some point, I believe, put in jail for her efforts. Also, a woman who may have been a part of her suffrage group threw herself in front of a horse and was trampled by its hooves. This caused great support for the women. Women were eventually given the right to vote in 1927??
After the tour we were given time to roam about Westminster. A group of us went and looked around the cloister of Westminster Abbey while others took a look inside the main portion of the abbey.
We then all met back and wandered along the Thames River towards the National Theatre for a play entitled “Playing With Fire”. It’s a political story about a small town in England and the high powered officials from London. It was a very interesting play but hard to grasp due to its nature—if you’re from England it makes much more sense, but it was fun and free, which is always a plus in England as things are more expensive.

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