Well this morning I didn’t go with my class to the glass blowing but instead joined my parents and their friend Paul for a tour of parliment. Parliment was cool to see. Much cooler than the US Senate I think. YOu can really see where history took place here in England. And the other cool part is you can go right
up close where in the US Capital, you are way far away. I got to touch the box Tony Blair speaks from. Afternoon event for class was cancelled but I joined up with a few of my friends and walked around. Stoped in at Starbucks to use the T-Mobile HotSpot to post some more pictures to the web. New pictures are mostly from Stockholm this past weekend including the Ice Bar! See below for the address. Tommorow we are going to 4-6 gallaries depending on time. The focus is now on contemporary art. Back to FL in a week from Tomorrow and MN on Sunday. Kind of a strange thought.

Pictures can be found at http://homepage.mac.com/twebster
Select London 2003, Stockholm 2003 – 1, or Stockholm 2003 – 2
London, England

Well, this morning was a chance to sleep in. Most of Stockholm doesn’t open until 12:00 on Sundays. I walked around the town doing some last minute shopping and site seeing before boarding the Arlanda Express back to the airport. I arrived back in to london at 19:40 jsut as scheduled and back to the house at 21:05. Met up with mom and dad and then went to the pub for a pint before coming here and letting mom and dad go to bed. TOmmorow I will be joining them for a tour of parliment and then join my class again for some contemporary gallaries. It’s been a long travel day so I am off.
London, England

Hello from lovely Stockholm again. Today I walked around a lot and was busy. I started this morning off with a visit to the Telecommunications Museum. This museum is dedicated just to the mobile phone and is sponsored by Ericsson. For those that know me well this place was totally up my ally. From there, I took the bus back in to town and walked over to Gamla Stan where the palace is and the old city. Pretty neat stuff. Then just across the bridge back to the mainland is the city hall. This is where the Nobel Prize is awarded every year. Like last time we were here, I missed teh inside tower but got a good walk on the outside. From there it was up and around Drottninggatan and some of the other shopping areas. On the way back up to Odenplan where my hotel is, I stoped at the Nordic Sea hotel and checked out teh famous Ice Bar. This bar is completely made of ice. The tables, cups and bar are all made of teh same ice as the Ice Hotel in the north. You pay a small fee to go in and are outfited with a heavy coat and special drinking gloves before you enter. Once you enter, your fee includes 1 free drink as long as it includes Absolute since they sponsor this thing and are a Swedish company. For those that want to see more of this unique place, it is featured in the new James Bond movie, Die Another Day. Well it’s 16:40 and most things closed today around 16:00. Relaxtonight and then get up tommorow to check out of the hotel and get some last minute gifts that I’ve been looking at. Flight back to London is at 18:00 and I will be back in London at 19:40 so I can meet up with mom and dad. Well that’s the update for today.
Stockholm, Sweden

Well for those that weren’t aware, I left London today for a nice weekend in Sweden! I arrived here around 14:00 today just as the sun was starting to go down. After getting situated in my hotel, I took off on a short walking journy around the area of town I am in. Made it all the way down to City Hall and the Shereton where we stayed the last time I was here. Tommorow I am going to walk over to the palace and then go hunting for that ABBA museum I have heard about. Also, tommorow night I plan on checking out this place called the ice bar. It’s a bar that is all made of ice. The chairs, cups, bar, plates, etc are 100% ice. Should be a cool stop. It is almost 18:00 here and it looks like it is like 22:00 at home. The sun sets so early! Well, I am going to go get some dinner and then take it easy in the hotel for tonight and make plans for tommorow on the map. This is such a beatiful town and I love it so much already. I will talk wtih you soon.
Stockhom, Sweden

This update is coming a little earlier today than usual due to me going out of town for the weekend. Today we started the morning off at the Sir John Soane’s house/museum. He was a famous architec back in the day I guess. This guy has a lot of old greek statues and stuff that he took when he was in greece in his basement. It’s like going to the British Museum but in your own home! We took a nice 2 hour break to get lunch and relax and then moved on to Picadilly and went to the Royal Academy of Art to see an exhibit on the Aztecs. This was sorta intersting though none of us were really in the mood for it.

The majority of the house is going away this weekend. I am going to Stockholm, Sweden for those that haven’t heard. A big contingent of the class is going to Paris and a few to Scotland. The few that are staying behind are mostly doing laundry and catching up from missing days of class for being sick. Tonight I will be packing my bags and going tobe early to catch the tube to Heathrow for my 10 am flight. I will try and post an update from Stockholm but it might have to wait till I get back on Sunday.

I have also updated my pictures online. go to: London 2003 and visit the new and improved picture page with captions!
London, England

Today was a long morning at the British Museum. We purposly allowed for 4 hours at the museum due to the extreme amount stuff in the museum. Did you know that the entire insides to the parthanon in Greece are here in London? How about the Roseta Stone? It’s all right here with in 2 blocks from our house. This is both amazing and disturbingthat it is all here. Disturbing in that it was all just taken. Then we had a nice afternoon off in which I had a chance to post the pictures I mailed about earlier and relax. Tonight was our group theater night and we went to see a play/comedy called what the night is for staring GIllian ANderson, scully, from the X-Files. It was allright but her fake accent got to most of us along with the sappy music. We have 1 gallery tommorow and the Royal Acadamy of Arts tommorow as well and then I’m off to Sweden till Sunday. WEll that’s the update for today.
London, England

Today was a long one despite only being one stop. We took the train to Canterbury this morning. What was thought to be a short 45 minute ride became two and a half hours. This thing stoped every five feet it seemed. Once we finally got to Canterbury, we had lunch at a nice old pub. For those that have been before and have taken a picture looking up the stream to the west of the cathedral and seen the ASK sign, the pub is just next to that. After lunch, we went to the cathedral. Same thing as last year. I am still amazed that this thing still looks as great as it does having been untouched in terms of repairs since the 1500s. Pretty neat. Over all we spent 3 hours there and then got back on the what we thought to be express train back to London. Three hours later, we made it back to London and the house for dinner. The school ordered us pizza but since we thought the train was fast this time it turned out to be cold by the time we got it but it was still good. Royal Opera House Tour tommorrow along with a play and another museum. Can’t remember the names for them right now. Give you an update again tommorow night.
London, England

Well today was as filled as anyohter on the trip. Class started officially at 10:30 this morning with a guided tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral. I actually learned some interesting things that I didn’t pick up on the self guided one last year. Did you know that they have a chapel dedicated just for American’s? It is part of the British Memorial to American Piolets that died in WWII flying from Britan. They even have all 50 states’ seals on the staind glass windows aroud it. Pretty cool. Due to time constraints though, we didn’t get to climb to the top. May be I will go back but I did it last year so the 536 stairs can wait.

Next on the itinerary for today was the Tate Modern. This museum is HUGE! It is like 6 floors tall and has so much stuff in it. Not being super in to the art, I managed to find some pretty cool things I liked in it. One that stands out the most in my mind is a room with a garden shed that was blowen up and video taped. The artist then watched the tape and picked a moment to recontruct in the museum. This looks just amazing. Some people were so intersted int eh museum that they missed the 17:30 class schedule at the house so we pushed that back to tommorrow.

Tommorrow we are going to Canterbury by train and will be there for lunch and a tour and then it’s back to the house for a group dinner (Pizza Hut) and class. Counting down the days till Stockholm on Friday. I can’t wait. Finally, a change in scenes. Mum and Dad are going to be here when I come back o0n Sunday so that will be fun as well. Time to head off.
London, England

Well this weekend was a nice relaxing one. Yesterday most of us just slept in and tookit easy. I left the house in search of a T-Mobile HotSpot so I could get some work done on my iBook and then walked around Covent Garden when I was done. AS for today, we took the day to go visit Portobello Road and Market. Just like the Flea Market in Nisswa! FOund some interesting things and managed to pick up Harry Potter 2 and Lord of the Rings 2 on DVD. Yea they are sorta cheep copies from amovie theater but they were cheep and it will hold ya over till the real ones come out.

After the market, we hiked back over to Leciester Square for lunch and then walked again around Covent Garden. Spent the rest of the day till now watching movies and updating our journals. Tommorrow we go to St. Paul’s Cathedral in the morning and Tate Modern in the Afternoon. Not as much as Friday but I’m sure we will still be tierd. Well that’s it for today.
London, England

Today was the day from hell to say it lightly. We went to 3 museums all across town today. Day started off at 0930 with class and then we ventured off in the nice London rain (at least it warmed up so it wasn’t snow!) to the Tower of London. We spent 2 hours walking around the tower until 1230 when we departed and ventured our way across the blustery and slipery Tower Bridge to the Design Museum focusing on industrial design. Some pretty cool stuff with a whole floor dedicated to aluminium. Then promptly at 1430 (that’s 2:30pm for non europeans) we ventured yet again our in to the rain and wind mix to the Tea and Coffee Museumthat our International Ed director said was great. Well from all of us including our teachers, save your 4 pounds.this thing was pointless and made most of us even more cranky due to the extra walking involved. Aside from the long walking, There were definately some interesting things. Thanks for all those that have e-mailed. it’s nice to hear from home. I’m kicking this nasty cold as well thanks to the wonders of british meds. Catch you all later. No clue what we are doing this weekend. its a free weekend and I know most of us are sleeping in a little tommorrow.
London, England