Hidden in a Museum

I forgot to mention that yesterday I had fish and chips for the first time in my life (well... I guess besides when I was a baby; Dad says people thought I was cute as I ate my chips). I felt a little bit of trepidation as dinner was served. When I was in second grade, I decided that I hated fish. And so I pretty much have never eaten it. I avoid it at all costs in fact. But I made it a goal before coming to England that I would try fish and chips while I was here. After all, my dislike of fish was based off of one bad experience from when I was a kid... and in all honesty, I couldn't even really remember what fish tastes like. So try it I did. I had a small piece just in case. It wasn't bad. I kept being afraid it would suddenly be bad, but it was okay. I think I'll probably have to try it again now that I'm over the first encounter with fish. It was one of the harder things I've done here...

Today I spent the day in museums. Or, as my facebook status says, I spent the day with Samurai and dinosaurs. :) I first went to the Natural History museum. I spent some time in the 'earth zone' looking at geology, rocks, volcanoes, etc. Then I wandered around with my friend a little bit to get to the dinosaurs. We saw a moon rock! It's an actual rock from the moon which was very cool to me. The dinosaur exhibit was quite fun. They have a few skeletons and what not, but then they have these fake dinosaurs that move and look at you when you least expect it. The coolest part though was probably the t-rex. He growls at you. Or roars is probably the better word. It was a little bit scary to stand by his head and have him thrash and be angry at you. I took a video on my camera of it because I thought it was that cool.

Next I headed to the Victoria and Albert museum. They have the largest collection of decorative art in the world. There are lots of random objects like rings, theatre costumes, sculptures, and even huge molds from buildings. I also briefly saw a copy of Michaelangelo's David. It's much bigger than I thought it was from the books! For my art class, I ended up sketching a tile from the tomb of Buyanquli Khan. They were beautiful. And very hard to sketch...I didn't do such a great job... I also sketched a Netsuke (a little thing used in Japan to keep your pouch or box from slipping when it was tied around your belt). The particular one I choose was a badger dressed in a lotus leaf. He's kind of strange looking, but sort of cute once you look at him for long enough like I did.

Later today I went for a walk along the Thames. Which I suppose I'll have to blog about once I upload a picture from it. While on the walk, I saw a sign that said 'Walk the plank.' Then when we were almost home, I saw a sign that said 'Diversion ends.' I wonder if they're trying to tell me something...