Today was a pretty good day. I went to the Tower of London this morning! We got there at about 10:30, and he led us inside and basically told us to have a good time. I made sure I saw everything. First I went and saw the crown jewels. Some of those crowns are absolutely fantastic. The State Crown of India was probably my favorite. The amount of diamonds in those things is astounding. It was interesting the way they let you view the crown jewels. You stand on a moving sidewalk and it takes you past them, you don’t get to just stand in front of them and look. I kind of think that’s more to serve the purpose of keeping people moving than trying to keep people from getting to close or anything. At times it was a mad house in there. There were lots of people speaking all kinds of different languages. After the crown jewels I went over to see a few different towers, and one of them had an exhibit about the making of the crowns and the diamonds used in them. A few crowns, back in the day, were made with diamonds on loan from the national treasury, so there were crowns with no diamonds in them. One of them had 12,134 diamonds that weren’t set, but rather they were lying in two piles on either side of the empty crown setting. It looked rather odd. After that I went over and saw the Bloody Tower, and read some of the stories of prisoners who had been kept there. I thought we would actually be able to see cells and whatnot, but it wasn’t like that at all. You could go up the tower a bit and see some of the carvings that prisoners made in the walls and read descriptions of who did them and what they said, but that was really it. I went to the White Tower, which was the original tower and fortress built by the William the Conqueror and the Normans in 1066 (it wasn’t built then, but that’s when he took over). I wished it would’ve been a museum about the Norman history, but instead there was this big exhibit going on called “Dressed to Kill: Henry VIII.” Since it was the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s ascension this year they have this whole exhibit about him and his armor and how he lived and all that. It was interesting, but I was more interested in the tower itself. Let’s see, I also saw the exhibit about the various methods of torture used there. There was one I hadn’t ever heard of before, called the… oh nuts, I can’t remember. It was a strange name though. What it was, was this iron contraption that you had to bend over, fold your body into three, so calves to thighs, thighs to chest, and they locked this around you so you would be painfully stuffed in that position for hours at a time. It said it was a much worse form of torture than the rack or manacles. Let’s see… I saw some ravens. Those are some fat birds. I saw one get in a fight with a seagull, and then the seagull took the hint and back off and wandered away, and like two seconds later the raven got bored and started picking fights with it until it flew off. Those are some mean buggers. I saw everything else in there, but there’s not much to share. There was the palace where some kings lived. I actually stood in a king’s bedchamber today. I stood there and thought to myself, once upon a time, a king stood here. That’s kind of a crazy thought.
So I left there at 1, and got home a little before 2. Since then I’ve been working on my paper, which I’m proud to say I finished before 5 and sent in to my teacher. That’s a big weight off my shoulders. I went and ate dinner at 5:30, and now here I am. Back in my room, about to study for my final and watch Master and Commander tonight. I was going to go on the London Eye tonight but no one wants to go with me, and I’d actually rather study for my test, so I think I’ll go on Friday afternoon instead. I think I might end up going alone though, which is sad, but I don’t want to miss it. Most of my friends are leaving either Thursday night or Friday afternoon for Dublin, so I don’t get to hang out with them much anymore at all. Awesome fanfare for my departure, right? Ah well, they all have weeks and weeks left, so they don’t need to worry about it. And I’m okay with it. I’ve had a good enough time these past weeks that I don’t need to let one or two days spoil the whole thing for me.
Love you guys!
Jaime
P.S. 3 more days till I come home! 3 more days till I get to meet my darling niece, which I absolutely can't wait for!
So I left there at 1, and got home a little before 2. Since then I’ve been working on my paper, which I’m proud to say I finished before 5 and sent in to my teacher. That’s a big weight off my shoulders. I went and ate dinner at 5:30, and now here I am. Back in my room, about to study for my final and watch Master and Commander tonight. I was going to go on the London Eye tonight but no one wants to go with me, and I’d actually rather study for my test, so I think I’ll go on Friday afternoon instead. I think I might end up going alone though, which is sad, but I don’t want to miss it. Most of my friends are leaving either Thursday night or Friday afternoon for Dublin, so I don’t get to hang out with them much anymore at all. Awesome fanfare for my departure, right? Ah well, they all have weeks and weeks left, so they don’t need to worry about it. And I’m okay with it. I’ve had a good enough time these past weeks that I don’t need to let one or two days spoil the whole thing for me. 
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