Oh London!

On Friday, the group traveled to London for the day! Dr. Lytle arranged for the group to have an exclusive tour of Lloyds Bank. Did you know that Great Britain only has four banks? Compare this to the thousans of thousans of banks in the United States. During the tour, we each had about 45 minutes to discuss individually with a stock-broker. This was very interesting. Andy, my personal stock-broker, showed me how just seconds can change an interest rate. My favorite part was seeing the exchanged rate of GBP change with every second. Thank you Greece for whatever is going on, because you are helping the EURO go down down down!! Next, the group traveled to Parliament. Once we arrived at Parliament, we were joyfully welcomed by thousands of people rioting on the street corners. One sign read, "We don't welcome racists" with a lovely swastika. I'm joking about being joyfully welcomed. It was literally the opposite. Along with the mass of people, thousands of policemen were around... on horses. The riots were due to the South African Prime Minister being in London. Anyways, Parliament was absolutely wonderful. Dr. Lytle worked his butt off trying to get us inside. We even had VIP badges! The Queen's thrown is breathtaking. Solid. Gold. Everywhere. !!! As part of one of my classes I'm currently taking, Introduction to Global Studies, we have to watch and reflect on the Prime Minister's Questionnaire. The PMQ is every Wednesday morning for thirty minutes. You think British politics are nice and polite... think again. I'm talking brutal and cut-throat! Well, as part of the tour, we got to sit in the room where the PMQ takes place! It was a great tour. AND let's not forget to mention I saw Parliament at NIGHT! It was beautiful, but I'm going back to take a night boat ride down the Thames River to capture an even better view! Cheers!