Summer house of Dustin Hoffman.

The pink house.

A sporty version of the mini car?

The churches/cathedrals here are exquisite.

For you, Dad.

This reminded me of Alyssa. This is to warn one to mind the gap between the tube train and the platform. Even their signs here are polite.

The back of Parliament. And yes, that is a boat on wheels on the right side of the photograph. That boat floats across the Thames at the end of it's driving tour.

You can never go wrong taking a picture at random in London. Everything is photogenic.

Shark exhibit.

I have not the faintest idea what type of fish these are. I just liked the picture.

Statue outside of the "Movieum". Where have I see this before?

Darth Vader, of course.

At the Sherlock Holmes exhibit. This quote was never said in the books, just the movie.

A set from Sherlock Holmes.

Giant mug with giant pencils. This mug was about as tall as me. Oh, the coffee I could have in the morning if I owned this.

A raft from "Tomorrow Never Dies", a movie that I have not seen.

The outfit from Blade. I should have stolen this. How cool would I look in this get-up for the rest of my life?!

Some armor from the movie "Gladiator". I looks like the suit worn by Joaquin Phoenix's character.

A Yeti! This is the souvenir I am bringing back for everyone to share. It's going to look great on the plane seat next to me.

The tunic worn by the Headless Horseman in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

The original Joker suit worn by Jack Nicholson.

Superman, a.k.a. the love of my life.

Costumes from the movie "Excalibur".

Batman greeting me as I walked inside of the "Movieum".

The Aquarium and "Movieum" next to the London Eye.

Hi all-

I have been feeling pretty lethargic today... so this blog may not be very long. I did have a good/eventful day though. So at least I have a little bit to share. I woke up and ate my usual breakfast and then headed to class. We watched the old western "Stagecoach" starring John Wayne and Claire Trevor. It was fantastic; hands-down one of the best movies I have ever seen. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Westerns, and even those of you who aren't (you never know). The scenes are so much longer providing enough time for characters to interact with one another as well as enough time for the viewer to develop relationships with the characters. Go watch it! The point of the movie was to demonstrate how a story is told, and the main aspects of a story (hero, villain, landscape, etc.) because we are about to have to write a short story for the class. I've never written an actual story before, so it should be interesting.

After class concluded I came back to the Atlantic House and got my trusty map of the London Tube and headed to Westminster to see the "Movieum" (museum of movie-related items) and the London Aquarium. They were both rather disappointing and jam-packed with tourists. The "movieum" had some really neat (very small and poorly stocked) exhibits. I got to see costumes from "Gladiator", "Star Trek", "Stardust", and a few more. They also had a "The Beatles" exhibit which I was most excited for, but it turned out to be nothing more then a guitar played by John Lennon and a few black and white photographs. I wasn't allowed (due to copyright infringement reasons) to take pictures of that particular exhibit. There was, however, a very large "play" room/ screening room for adults, and children alike I suppose. Everything in the room was gigantic. There was a cream colored couch in the center that a full grown adults legs would barely hang off the edge. There were also various over sized mugs, crayon, chess pieces, and pencils (among various other toys). It was really neat. After my quick run through of the "Movieum" I went to the London Aquarium. Now, I realize I could see either of these things in the States and why waste my London experience on such things, but I just had to feed my curiosity. The aquarium had as many people in it as it did sea life, so it was hard to navigate through. There was a semi-cool shark exhibit, and seahorse exhibit. Most of the tanks just had plain, brown fish in them like you would see anywhere in a lake or pond in America. I ran through the aquarium (also pretty quickly) and headed back to Atlantic House. As I was crossing the bridge over the Thames River this man was holding a fairly good-sized, dark tan colored snake and proceeded to ask if I wanted to hold it?! Random man + snake + me= awful idea. I politely declined and headed for the Tube. I was very proud of myself for having sharpened my navigation skills to the point where I can get around all of the tube stations by myself. It was an adventure, to say the least. The rest of my evening has been very dull indeed. I am off to Oxford in the morning, Football (soccer) game on Sunday, Cheese Rolling on Monday. I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend. I miss each of you. I love you all. Cheers.

Always,

Mattie