Adventures in the UK

Our Wimbledon delegate, Mallory M., has written about several of her adventures while in the UK. First, she describes her visit to the Churchill War rooms and touring London:

This morning we visited the Churchill War Rooms.  Because most of these underground rooms had been left untouched, it really made history come alive.  It's one thing to read about Churchill and another to see the tiny room where he actually slept and planned strategy at the height of the Blitz.

My favorite room was the Map Room because I learned from the audio tour that when the war ended the men there simply turned the lights off the first time in six years and walked out.  What an anticlimactic ending to their heroism!

 I learned several interesting factoids about D-Day, my topic for Ms. Ide's class presentation.  Evidently, Churchill originally planned to present in one of the ships at D-Day. The museum was really interesting as well and we learned about De Gaulle's reluctance to allow France to help the Allies cross the channel.

We really enjoyed seeing Buckingham Palace.  The flag told us that the Queen is in residence.  After a long and intellectually stimulating day, Krystal, my host sister, and I went to Harrods.  It was much more fancy and expensive than I had expected, but I still loved it.  I was getting yet another taste of Britain's unique culture and way of life. 

And here Mallory tells us about her excursion to Oxford:

After school on Friday, my host family and I  drove to Oxford. Surprisingly, we only saw a few people dressed up for Alice Day (celebrating Lewis Carroll and the Alice in Wonderland books) and almost no Alice Day related events-probably because of the rain!

Because my host mom attended Oxford, we got to stay in a Keble College dorm. The campus was stunningly beautiful, lush, and old! Then we walked into town and bought some candy at a local sweetshop. We walked around town and visited Bodelian library, the oldest in the world, then ate at a pub. While eating my fish and chips, a group of Americans walked in, set an American flag on the bar, and-I couldn't hear exactly what they said, but I think they declared the bar's independence! Anyway, we laughed for a while.Later that night, we walked to Oxford Castle to watch a dramatization of The Canterbury Tales. Even though we had to move inside because of the rain, I enjoyed it immensely!  Not much Lewis Carroll, but I got to experience Chaucer.

 This morning, we at breakfast in the University dining hall, also beautiful! At noon we were given a tour of Oxford: I saw many of the places Harry Potter was filmed (Griffindor common room, the ferret scene, Hogwart's infirmary) old city walls and many other wonderful places. At 4 o'clock, in honor of the Mad Hatter, we had afternoon tea and I tried my first scone! After tea, we headed home, content but sad to see the vanishing spires of Oxford..