Sunday began with the brief walk to the British Museum and stopping by a few blue plaques. I find it interesting to see the homes of famous individuals. Oftentimes, I view a building in its contemporary circumstance, but it is cool to visualize people of significance living in that space. The British Museum was unbelievably expansive and elaborate. Even just meandering through the exhibits, I saw countless fascinating artifacts. I found the pharmacology display to be truly eye-opening. To see the number of pills the average person takes in their life was shocking. As someone who will be entering the medical field, it is important for me to have an awareness of facts such as that. I also enjoyed the sections on ancient Chinese and Japanese artifacts, due to personal interests in those cultures. After spending a few hours in the museum, I then went exploring around London. First, I went into St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was a stunning cathedral with intricate ceilings and stained glass. Then, I took the walking bridge over to Shakespeare’s Globe. To see the space in which he is famous for was truly neat. I enjoy theater and many of his works. After lunch in the area, I went out to Abbey Road and pretended to be the Beatles. There I bought pastries from a local bake sale and enjoyed speaking with some locals. After some additional meandering around the city, I came back to the area of the hotel and noticed that a very famous church that is around the world, held their services in London in the theater one block over from our hotel. So, I attended the Hillsong Church service in the Dominican Theater and enjoyed speaking with locals who regularly attend the service. They were very welcoming. It was neat to experience a similar church environment to what I have in the states in a foreign country. I spent a lot of time thinking about how what I experience in my faith is experienced around the world. I love seeing the universality of things, such as religion in this case, firsthand; it increases my appreciation of travel to an even greater extent. While there are many aspects of culture that are highly variant between societies, some things remain the same.
