Day 14 - Westfield Mall, Olympic Site, Canary Wharf

Late morning today, actually! Huzzah for some sleeping in!

We had a class meeting at 10:20 that consisted of a quiz and discussion of what we have been observing and putting into practice about how London's landscaping and architecture is different from what we've seen before and how it all ties into the idea of Englishness. We also discussed Orlando by Virginia Woolf, which is a pretty crazy book. Well written and enjoyable, but there is an undeniable element of crazy when the main character switches genders halfway through the book with no explanation given.

After that, we took a looooooong tube ride/combination DRL ride (some sort of small overground train) to the Westfield Mall in the East End, now Britain's largest mall. We went to the wrong mall first, because there's one right across the street from it, and this one was INSANE. There were soooo many people. And fruit and vegetable vendors! Right inside the mall! I have never seen that in my life. Definitely different. So after we got lunch and maanged to not get trampled in the process, we walked to the John Lewis store (sort of a very ritzy Sears), from which we could see the construction of the Olympics site. So that was pretty cool. And after that, we took the DRL to the Thames Barrier Park, which was sort of a bummer given that it was really industrial looking and we visited it on a very gray cold day. I did like the wavy bushes that were cut to resemble waves and remind you of the river.

Afterwards, we went to CANARY WHARF! Most Whovians will probably recognize that from the Battle of Canary Wharf. I was half-hoping for some sort of memorial or something, and to be fair we didn't walk around a whole lot, but it's pretty much just a financial area. Still, it had this cool little park with trees and small waterfalls and nice stone, and I can now say I'VE BEEN TO CANARY WHARF. Maria and I were nerding out about it the other day. Pretty legit.

Class was over at that point, so we headed back to the hotel and Cara and I embarked on an epic quest to find wireless and food. We got Burger King (don't judge - we were too tired to go much further) and did finally manage to get a wireless signal. After some email checking and sending, we went to Piccadilly Circus to a store called Cool Brittania to do some tourist shopping. Fun times! I can't wait to give people their presents!!!

Now some journaling and then bed in anticipation of tomorrow's early morning!