Random pictures

Leicester Square

Street performers

You don't see that everyday!

The underground is maddening!

My M&M color, I think it is pretty accurate!

Dojo training

Yet again Constable Watson has out done himself! I had so much fun learning the hand to hand combat of the metropolitan police. Since they can only use batons and cs spray they have to rely on their common sense and their ability to calm down the situation. They are very well trained, and every officer has to be trained every six months through out their career. Everything that the police officer does in regard to the use of force has to be justified, every strike from a baton. The building that the dojo training took place in was the central location for all of the meals that are prepared and served to all of the constables that come to London from surrounding areas to help with the special events. They can push 500 officers through the cafeteria in an hour! This is a picture of the front wall, it is a replica of the titanic because the building has been around for that long. Forgive me but I can't remember what Constable Watson told us about that building, it had something to do with the planning of the titanic, or something completely different, but they built the building as a replicate of the titanic because of an important reason I can't remember haha!

Hyde Park

Today we went to Hyde park and it was absolutely beautiful! I can not believe how many cool trees they had, and fountains, it was very peaceful. Here are some pictures from the park taken with my roommates Jessica, Michaela and Nick.

Natural history museum

The natural history museum was really interesting, it was so big we could not see all of it! We also went on a pub crawl and it was so much fun! We met people from around the world, and even met a guy from Texas! What a small world we live in :) every person we saw had something else to say about Americans. Mostly people don't hate us so that's good! It's just interesting how differently people view us. I was shocked that many if the people didn't even know the states, I don't expect them to know all of them, but they did not even know the different areas. On girl asked me where Wyoming was and I said mid west and she just shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't know where that was! But almost everyone said they wanted to visit the US sometime. 

Special Operations

Constable Watson has been so nice to invite us in to his world and show us what goes in behind the many events here in London through the special operations department. The lifestyle here here is so different from America, they have over 20,000 closed circuit televisions (CCTV) around the London area. As citizens in London and the people who worked here I. The city it is second nature to them to be filmed everywhere they go. In America our citizens would have a hard time with it. Sergeant Matt Andrews took time out of his day and showed us the Special Operations Room (SOR) there, he is the most hyper Englishman I have seen yet, he made me laugh! Sergeant Andrews told us the goals of the SOR dept was to keep everything calm, in control and professional. He told us that everyone has learned their lessons through experience, like the time they lost our president (George W Bush) in a helicopter ride with the mayor. Thank you to all of the people that welcomed us into their day, it was very interesting and I learned a lot about how the CCTV works and the advantages if having them! Cheers!

English Traditional Dinner

This is the most traditional dinner here in London, Great British roast beef

London Eye

We went to the London Eye last night and it was really amazing to be up so high. I was a little weary about going up because I am afraid if heights, but it really was not bad, the view is amazing! It's one if those things that you have to do while in London! We also walked by the house if parliament and the clock tower that holds Big Ben, I think I was more blown away by this building then any other building! I took a lot if pictures of it. Here are a few pictures from last night.