So last night we had Jamie's leaving drinks. Some of Jamie's friends, me, Jamie and Lexi, Ashdyn and Ed went to a place called 'Bounce' where we ate pizza, drank cider and played table tennis. Had fun :) It was so foggy on the way home that I took some photos, but it doesn't really capture it.
Today I unfortunately didn't get work from either teaching agency due to it being the first day back after the break so it was fairly quiet.
But when in London there is no shortage of things to do so I got going and ticked off two more things off my list!
Firstly, before I left I got some things done. I checked my emails and I had received an email from the school I had an interview with. Unfortunately I didn't get the job but the assistant principal personally wrote to me to tell me I really impressed them and that they may advertise another job soon, if so I should apply. So I didn't get the job but I got a confidence boost instead! I am having issues receiving emails at the moment though so I'm a bit worried that schools aren't getting through to me...
Anyway I set off to my first stop - the Imperial War Museum. Set in a beautiful park south of the river, it had been on my list since the start. I spent two hours but probably could have spent longer! The bottom floor had some artefacts in it, the one I found most interesting was a V2 rocket. It said over 1000 of these were set upon London by the nazis in WWII but 517 actually hit. 2754 people died as a result of these rockets. The man who created them, Wernher von Braun was captured by the US and then made rockets for their space campaign. So in the 1940s he was seen as an evil person inflicting death and misery upon the allies, and in 1969 when one of his rockets sent Armstrong etc to the moon he was seen as a hero. Strange how context affects opinion hey.. During WWII the museum was actually damaged 41 times, a few times by rockets like this. They caused 30,000 homes to be destroyed, but the even more awful thing is that more people died making them than they actually killed because people in concentration camps were forced to make them.
On the same floor there was also an exhibition about World War I. It was really interactive with lots of digital parts. Firstly there was a video showing what life in London was like between 1900 and 1914. Only 6% of kids over 16 were still in school. The average life expectancy in the west end was 55 while in the east end where I live it was just 30. The weekly wage was £1.40 and a pint of beer was 2p - how times change!!!!
The exhibition talked about the British empire, then went over how the war started and the progress of the war. At the start of the war 1 in 4 people lived in a nation of the British empire. It spanned 13 million square miles, 1/4 of the earth's land mass. I went along reading and getting emotional. It was particularly strange for me now having been to the western front seeing photos and reading about places like Ypres, the Somme, Pozieres etc. At one point you even went through a trench replica. The only thing I found strange was that there wa literally one or two sentences about Gallipoli. I guess found it awkward mentioning the failures??? Bit disappointing though.
On the second floor there was an exhibit about World War II. 60,595 British civilians were killed by enemy action during this time, and 2.25 million people were left homeless during the blitz. Next floor there was information about MI5 and secret wars. I read about the terrorist attack on the tube here in 2005. Can't even imagine how terrified everyone must have been. Turns out the bus that was blown up was headed to Hackney, where I live.
Finally upstairs I saw an exhibition about the holocaust. I cry any time I'm reading about the holocaust or seeing pictures of it, and today was of course no exception. Everywhere I've been kind of tied in too. There was a model of Auschwitz-Birkenau and lots of information about what happened to people in Latvia and Lithuania which now made even more sense. Strange thing was there was a photo of Vilnius before the war and guess which street it was.....the one that my hostel faced onto! It was a photo of the gate I had to walk through to go to the station from my hostel. There you go!!
I walked to the tube and got the Bakerloo line for the first time all year. I get every other line regularly but the Bakerloo is out of my way! Today it was handy and I went to Baker Street. Got a photo with the Sherlock Holmes statue, saw the outside of 'Madame Tussauds' (I've been before) and the Sherlock Holmes Museum which is at the fictional address of 221b Baker Street where Holmes apparently lived!. Then I caught the bus to Oxford Circus. I cancelled my phone contract for when I go home and went to Paperchase. The Christmas lights are now all up and I'll have to go back one night before I leave and have a look!
Tonight Jamie and I are seeing 'The Book of Mormon' - I'm excited!!
Tonight Jamie and I are seeing 'The Book of Mormon' - I'm excited!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
No comments:
Post a Comment