St Paul’s british museum object 2This is the best trip I have ever had. First of all, I saw many of the architectures I learned in class and helped me understand all the concepts better. Second, I truly love London. London surprised me a lot. From my imagination it should be a really big city with crowded people. But actually, London makes me feel that it more likes a peaceful town. It does have some parts covered by tall buildings and crowded people, and people there walk really fast. But most architecture in London is old British style, and people are very friendly. There are many small walking roads with flowers on the road side, and some lovely café on each side of the road. All I see are romantic, relax, and enjoyable life. The third thing I have to mention about this trip is that I love all my group members. This is the first trip I have with American students. They are all very friendly and glad to hear my words. I tried to speak in English for the whole trip and I think my English improved. Though we were really tried of walking, sketching and posting every day, after we come back, all of us miss our time in London; we learned a lot and had lots of fun together.
Author: Tian Zhang
On the last day for London trip， me， Wenli， and Andrew went to cambridge！That is a perfect day！Andrew keep saying “we had a really good time！” Because we really did！ We started at 8：30 this morning and took central line then transfer to piccadilly line at holborn then we transfer to take train at king’s cross station. It took us nearly 2hours to cambridge， but believe me it worth！We choose cambridge for our free day because there was a famous chinese poet，and his best known poem is about his love story in cambridge. That is the most romantic poem I have ever read! We find the river and bridge he wrote in that poem and took pictures. We enjoyed atmosphere in that small town. I saw people there prefer to ride bike than drive car, which is a really healthy life style. There were also some people playing instrument and singing on the road side，which makes me feel peaceful. In noon， we had some really great chinese food in cambridge！ I’m glad that Andrew enjoyed those chinese food. After that because we need to finish the project for british museum， we run to catch the train. I got pictures for Wenli and Andrew while they were running.lol Me and Wenli had a lot of fun with andrew today. We share a lot of things about our culture and food with him. I was trying to speak in english for the whole day，after I back to hotel when I wrote postcard to my family I even want to write it in English. haha Anyway, all of us learn something new and enjoyed our time together!
Arch studio
Today we visited the AAM architecture studio.I really like the design of this studio. my faveriout part is that there is a open space which people can see others doing at the first floor from the second floor. For the floor garden，I think that is great！I can even imagine how enjoyable that will be when they sitting at floor garden chat with each other in free time. I like the way they work. They work as a team，and they separate studio by project not by duties. In this way I think eneryone can learn more things in every aspects not only in their own part. I really hope I can work in a place like this one day, having wonderful working environment in the middle of London!
London eye
Today we went to London eye during sunset after the group tea, which I have expected for a long time. We had a really good time on it. Everyone was taking pictures with others and with Big Ben. Big Ben was the supper star. We also saw many other architectures we have been seeing these days. London eye is definitely a great spot to see the full view of London. I feel so grateful to be in this team. We are all getting along really well, and had a fantastic time with each other during the trip. I send many pictures to my family in China, and they are happy for me that I am having such a wonderful and well organized trip in London.
Stonehenge
When I was a little kid I always see pictures about Stonehenge in some scientific books. Now at the age of 20 I finally standing in front of it, it’s hard to tell the feeling. It’s like you have a dream long time ago and one day it finally comes true! Though it was smaller than I thought it should be, still amazing. It feels great for architecture students when we see the actual objects that we learned in class before. Seeing it and sketch it is absolutely the best way to learn. The whole world become much more beautiful and impressive when I see it from an architecture student’s view.
Post from yesterday for St. Paul’s
This trip is even more incredible than I thought it could be. In the past two days we have been to soooo many places, and when I post photos online my friend was like “oh god you are having a busy trip! Went to this many places within 2 days that is amazing!” I have to agree with this comment! I have been too tired everyday so that I go to bed at 9:00pm. I feel tired outside but really enrich from inside. We are absorbing a huge amount of knowledge about architecture, art, history, culture, even about food everyday! My favorite part in the past 2 days is St Paul’s. It have huge inside open space and much much details decorated on every spot. I cannot imagine how did they make those fabulous decorative patterns on stone and put them together in that height. When I stand inside St Paul’s, I was thinking this is such a pure and impeccable place people should always visit from generation to generation and remember it forever. I had really good time on the top of St Paul’s seeing nearly all architectures in London. There is no doubt that
St Paul’s is always the icon for London.
Finally arrived
After more than 10hours flight we are finally arrived! Cannot believe that now I’m sitting in the hotel room in London! I was really nervous about this trip when I was packing at home. I wrote down a list about things I need to bring, and I put all the things on my desk check one by one follow the list for three times. Hope I get all the things I need!
That was a long trip, and I really sleep for the whole time except wake up twice just for the meal. One interesting thing about this trip is that the first stop in Washington is actually my first time in DC.
I believe everyone is tired now, and hope we all have a good night.