Yesterday we got up early, around 7:30am and got ready to head to a park--i'm not too sure which one but it wasn't too far away, and there was a Chipotle next to it! We arrived and there in the middle of the park stood Ari Shapiro, reporter for NPR. I had watched a few videos of him on youtube and was a little bit in shock that it was actually him! We walked across the park with everyone from our study abroad group as well as our professors and sat down surrounding Ari.
We all just sat and listened to his story and life as a reporter which was something I wish I had on video. He spoke to eloquently about interviewing leaders of foreign countries, touring the country with the President, and some of his most dangerous visits to countries. One of our professors had us turn in an assignment of questions we would ask each person and place we met with so we were able to all go around the group and ask him questions. It was just so interesting how cool, calm, and collected he was and so humble--and handsome!
After finishing our meeting up--hari krishna's music in the background, we headed back to the tube and were off to find Amnesty International. Before we caught the tube, some of us stopped by a McDonald's to use the restroom and get a little something to eat. The McDonald's in London is pretty much just like the ones in America just FYI! We left, caught the tube, and began our "long" journey to what we thought was Amnesty International. We ended up walking very very far and were basically lost. It wasn't too bad, just the weather was making things worse and people in our group seemed to be dehydrated and tired.
We finally found the right place and it felt like a million bucks to be able to sit somewhere with air conditioning. Once we were greeted in the meeting room, our guide, Eulette Ewart, who let us know the background and goals of Amnesty International. We learned that Amnesty was a paper and business devoted to human rights and recognizing stories that may not have celebrity status, but can make a difference and spark interest if posted about. We were also able to ask a lot of questions and find out a lot about this company. Even though we were all tired, this was probably my favorite place to visit because of their focus and the fact that their office was a lot more downscale and quaint than Bloomberg News. It was interesting to compare and contrast how the two ran themselves.
After we finished our meeting, a few of us went across the street to visit this market in which stores were held in old cargo boxes. It was so cool to see and I even got a necklace from the 80s in one of the stores! We took the tube to Harrods and went inside this palace of a "shopping center" as they call it in London instead of a mall. It was amazing seeing everything as well as the high prices for almost all of the items there. We also went across the street to H&M and Topshop and decided it was time to eat. We went into a cafe/pub for fish and chips again and then headed back to our apartment.
Once we were back to our apartment, one of the guys wanted to walk to the Tesco (supermarket) to get a fan for his room so we made the what felt like 2 mile trek to find that the Tesco had no fan, but ended up at a hardware store buying one. I got back to the apartment and found two large blisters on the bottom of my feet which was not fun to deal with. I stayed in and wrote some postcards and rested my feet as well. I was able to facetime with one of my sorority sisters, my sister, and my Mom and told them about my trip so far--meanwhile the sun was still up at around 9:30pm! The rest of the girls came back to our apartment and we all hung out for the rest of the night until we went to bed around 1:30am. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep for long because tomorrow I was supposed to be up and ready by 7am for the Queen's Birthday Celebration and Buckingham Palace!
No comments:
Post a Comment