Happy Birthday, Liz

It's beginning to feel real that I'm here, but only a little bit, and only in short moments every now and then. We walked down the Thames today and saw a few sites, took a few pictures, etc. We walked by Parliament and Big Ben--we (flatmate Nicole, neighbor Lauren, me) walked down towards Westminster Abbey, passed it; I was looking around at all the buildings and all of the sudden, there looms Big Ben, and behind him, Parliament. It's so weird to be right next to it, to look at the elaborate spires slicing up into the sky, looming. I think one moment in which being here felt real was walking away from Trafalgar Square, I could see only the tops of Westminster Abbey, Parliament (the tallest part) and Big Ben. Westminster and Parliament both had flags flying and if you just ignore all the modernity of everything else, you feel very medieval, seeing tiny flags atop enormous, intricate towers imposing almost angrily. The spires look severe and serious, not to be messed with by intruders...or something. As many replicas of old architecture that we have in the states, it's hard to think to oneself, no, this is not built in Gothic Style; it was built when Gothic architecture took hold; no, this is not made to mimic an old church, nor has it merely aged badly; it IS that many hundreds of years old.

On a lighter note, there I am in front of Parliament, on the south bank of the Thames:
This picture misses the dark and strong of the spires.
Also on our river walk, we saw living statues:
Two of which, for particular reasons, I just couldn't pass up:
(I wonder why?) Apparently, they are quite nice to you if you put change in their dishes.

This is a random picture of the north bank from the south bank; I just thought the architecture was sort of neat. In London, buildings that are hundreds of years old are juxtaposed inches away from modern buildings, and I don't think anyone thinks of it much.

That same thing is sad about the next picture, even if the sight of its only visible portion did bring me quite near to tears:
There it is, Shakespeare's Globe (albeit, rebuilt twice since the original, but still), and it's all surrounded by new, ugly, brick buildings that almost completely cover it from sight.
Still though...it is The Globe. And we are seeing Lear there tomorrow afternoon!!!

All this was after our morning activity, which was wishing Queen Elizabeth II a happy birthday. We stood outside on the street behind people that were much taller than us, and watched as all the soldiers came out, some played in a marching band, others lined the streets to protect the queen. We were surrounded by a group of Germans, a French couple, two Chinese girls, and a couple that spoke a language I didn't recognize. The cool and/or strange part was the Germans waving British flags during the celebration:

First came Princess Camilla with Prince William and Prince Harry, I think:

Then my camera chose to focus on the absurdly tall man in front of us instead of Queen Elizabeth (in the blue):
Here she is again, slightly more in focus. Find the bright blue dot:
It's pretty far away, but still--it's the queen! (I believe the fanciest one on horseback is Prince Charles) Also in the next picture you can see her in front of the Palace if you look really hard, her carriage drove around a few circles in front of all her soldiers.

It was pretty cool, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime chance that I would be here during her birthday, and I honestly was not that far from the queen. So we're like best mates, now, I think. Really though it was pretty cool.

Last night we made friends with the Student Travel Agency guys on our campus when we ran into them at the pub. We were watching the football game (Netherlands v. France, I believe) and saw them right next to us, a day after they had come and talked about the STA information to the students. Their names are Tom and Dai (Welsh for David) and they were really nice. They sat down with us and answered many of our still-unanswered questions about Britain, and told us some places to go around Scotland and Wales. We'll have British friends yet. But not sitting in our flats on our computers, we won't.
Cheers!