Last full day in London town! How crazy is that? I want to stay and play and explore….but it's time for a new adventure.
This morning, we met with the rest of the group for an actual class *gasp* with a special guest speaker: Rick Fisher. Dickinson alum, whaddup! He studied abroad on the Norwich program his junior year at Dickinson, and when it was time for him to go home, he found it was cheaper to buy a round-trip ticket instead of one way. SO, he went back to the US with a no-date return to London ticket, knowing that he would use it someday in the future.
And here he is all these years later! Just picked up and moved his life across the pond. That's awesome. Listening to him talk about his experience and making the move to London makes me hopeful about my own future in England! Who knows…but anyways, he is a lighting director for different shows (Billy Elliot, Swan Lake…he's kind of a big deal, actually). Definitely great to hear him speak about his Dickinson/England experience as we are about to set off on phase-two of our journey.
So after class, we had the rest of the day free to get organized for traveling tomorrow and do whatever we felt like we wanted to do before leaving. I'd really been wanting to go to the Churchill War Rooms, so I dragged Haley, Rachel, Jim and Amanda along with me-homegirl needed some companions.
There is a sneaky little entrance to the war rooms, and there was a nice walk over from out tube stop.
Looks kind of ominous as you walk in (downstairs and into a dimly lit area), but it certainly set the tone! And let me just say it now: it was worth every penny. I absolutely LOVED the exhibit, and can't wait to go back with my parents and sister in November.
They had an audio guide (SCORE), but I actually could have gone without it this time. I took the longest out of our group to get through all of the rooms because I really wanted to spend a good amount of time absorbing everything. I'm not a super history buff, but World War II has always been my favorite subject to study in classes (does that make me a bad person? no, I just think the horrific events are the most interesting and I could spend years reading and learning about them).
Most of the rooms were left exactly the way they were upon the end of the war, so that was really neat to see. I think the map room was my favorite! It had all sorts of maps and tactics up on the walls to track progression of each side and the land areas that had been entered/invaded/protected. Really, really cool. All about that authentic experience.
I also really liked that as a part of the audio tour there were snippets of conversation between Churchill and other authority figures (phone conversations, speeches, etc.). There was also an entire side room area dedicated to presenting information and artifacts about Churchill himself. That was really interesting for me, and I think I spent the most time in there as well, because I (regrettably) didn't know too much about him as a person, so I really loved that addition as well.
Also, it was nice to have Jim there because he is so into history and knew all sorts of random and interesting facts about things we were seeing and reading, so I was glad he was there to add to things! This was definitely worth the wait, and a great way to end the London trip.
Real talk though, I think I need a typewriter. It just seems necessary.
xx
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