Birthday Adventures

November 16, 2014
So, it was my birthday and I decided that I shouldn't sit in my bed all day doing homework, I should go out and do something I haven't gotten to see yet. Since I've been to the Tower of London quite a few times to see the poppies, I decided to actually go inside for once. I knew that they had already started to gather up the poppies a few days before, but I didn't realize how many they had gotten to. Although there are still a lot left, they almost cleared one whole side of the tower. I found out, once I went inside, that they place the poppies in the mote of the Tower of London because that is where all the soldiers lined up to pledge their allegiance to the United Kingdom and to fighting in the war. I never realized how big it was inside, but there was a lot to do. I walked all around the tower on the outside wall and learned different things when I got to each corner. There was a wooden section where there were triangles cut into the wood so you could pretend you were looking out to find the enemies and fight alongside the metal-structured soldiers. There was one section all about the crown jewels which I thought was amazing with a couple of the crowns from previous kings/queens (no pictures were allowed) until I found the actual crown jewels exhibit that had so much more (again, almost no pictures were allowed). There were also metal structures of animals throughout the place. After finding the exhibit for them, I found out that the royal family members used to give wild animals as gifts to each other since they already had everything else. After one woman got her flesh ripped off from a lion on the premises, and probably a couple other incidents, they created the London Zoo in Regent's Park and moved all the animals there. Since the tour groups were so large, I didn't feel like sticking with any of those and decided to move along by myself. However, by cleverly eavesdropping into other people's conversations as I stopped to take pictures, I found out that the cages that I saw occasionally around the grounds were meant for the crows. It is said that if the crows were to completely leave the ground of the Tower of London, the whole place would come crumbling to the ground (weird, I know the people I eavesdropped on said the same thing). After leaving the tower, I realized that I had more time left than I thought in the day, so I took a walk over to the Tower Bridge and stood in the line (that I thought would take forever!) to get in. When I finally got up the bridge, it was amazing. You could see so much from there and, my favorite part, they had just installed glass panels in the floor so that you could see right down to the cars driving by underneath your feet. After all of that, I realized I should probably head back before I miss dinner. I wound up skyping Justin when I got back who asked if I had found my present yet. Apparently, when he was visiting, he managed to hide it behind my sweaters in my wardrobe when I wasn't in the room. For three weeks I had no idea, so I'm clearly not as observant as I thought I was. After that, Nikki, Mia, and I went out to an Italian restaurant called Sergio's only a 20 minute walk from school. It was fully decorated for Christmas and it was amazing to see! Not to mention, they even had Christmas music playing inside the restaurant. Since it was my 21st birthday, you're supposed to go out and drink. The only problem is that my birthday fell on a Sunday. So, I decided that we should grab some beer from the store and go back to school to play cards against humanity. Definitely was a good choice for the night and a good end to a good birthday, but I'm excited to come home and celebrate with everyone else.