"We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glow worm."

We did quite a bit today! We started off the morning with 14 hours of class. Maybe it was only 3 but it felt like eternity. Afterward, Ivy and I got crepes at the lovely crepe cafe down the street from where we have class. And then we headed off to the Churchill War Rooms!

So here's the dealio with the war rooms. They are an underground base that Churchill and his advisers used during the war. Churchill actually didn't like working underground and remained above ground for the beginning of the war in order to show the citizens of Britain that he was not afraid. When bombs damaged his home and office at 10 Downing Street, he was pretty much forced to relocate to the war rooms. After the war ended, the rooms were simply abandoned. In the 80's the rooms were reopened as part of the Imperial War Museum. Most of the rooms remain exactly the way they were when Churchill left. The chairs are the same. The desks are the same. There's even a little graffiti of Hitler on one of the original maps hanging on the wall. VERY cool stuff.

War Rooms

 Churchill's bedroom in the war rooms

 I passed Downing Street on my way out

And then I went over to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery which is AMAZING. Every way I turned there was a new room filled with more and more masterpieces. I probably didn't get through half of the museum so I need to go back when I have time. I saw Madonna of the Rocks today in person. No big deal. 

Trafalgar Square

 The National Gallery was beautiful! They don't allow pictures inside :(

And then we saw War Horse. Here's the thing... I love the story. We read the script before hand and I think it has a wonderful message. I just had a really difficult time believing the play because I was so aware that the horse was a puppet. I kept thinking "That is really cool how they are able to give the puppet such life-like mannerisms." But that was the problem. There wasn't a second where I felt like the puppet was actually a horse and, therefore, I wasn't able to give myself completely over to the story. It was good and definitely worth seeing but I wasn't blown away the way others were.

Early morning tomorrow.... bleh.