Lately in London: Lighting London

Today was a fun day and the start of the holiday season here in London. This morning I had biology and then we headed to the Natural History Museum to go through an exhibit titles “Our Place in Evolution.” It compared humans to apes and Neanderthals. The exhibit was quite interesting, but my favorite thing was exploring the remainder of the museum. I thrilled to see the many dinosaur fossils, stuffed cats, and of course, the stuffed birds. However, I must say that the life size Blue Whale and Polar Bear were really cool. After the museum Abby, Laura, and I found our way to the bus stop through the pouring rain. We then came back to the center and did some homework/attempted to get an Internet signal/make curry jokes.

Natural History Museum

As already mentioned, today was the start of the holiday season and the lighting of the city kicked it all off. Each year London turns on lights in different parts of the city, but this year they combined the event with the world premiere of A Christmas Carol. Laura, Lauren, Kacey, Abby, Annie, Mandi, Jackie, Brooke, Courtney, Emmy, and I all bundled up and hit up each area that was celebrating. Our first stop was Regent Street. The cast of “Oliver” made performances and Colin Firth was the celebrity chosen to switch the lights on at this location. We then made our way up to Oxford Circus. This was the main stage and performers included Peter Andre (the celebrity we saw at McDonalds when we were in York), The Saturdays, and some British singer. Jim Carry was the celebrity chosen to switch on the lights at this location. We were pretty close to him and it was just fun to be in the same place and with so many people. Lighting also occurred at St. Paul’s. We didn’t make it down there, but it was broadcasted on the screens at Oxford Circus. After the light had been switched on we headed to Leicester Square for the World Premiere. Although we didn’t have tickets for the show, we did get to see the red carpet, theater, and the people attending the premiere. Once we had seen everything we went to a delicious little hole-in-the-wall Chinese place and then headed back to the center. Tonight got me really excited for the holiday season and I think it will be fun to celebrate some of it here.