Hello everyone, I apologize for not blogging the last few days until now. Things have been really busy so far and I have been having trouble using the internet at the hotel. I also have had trouble getting videos and photos from the trip to upload so until things change, I just plan on posting those when I get back to the United States.
I plan on normally posting a new blog after each day I spend in London but since I am three days behind I am going to cover all the major highlights from the trip so far today.
Okay, Day number 1.
The first day of the trip may have been the longest day of my life! I woke up around 6:30 Sunday morning and didn't get into London until 11 O'clock Monday morning. To make matters worse, I didn't get any sleep at all on the plain or bus rides because I am such a light sleeper...... so to make a long story short I was up for 30 straight ours without rest. Other than the lack of sleep on the long bus and plain rides the first day was AWESOME! Right after we arrived in London we took a bus to Windsor. Windsor was really an eye opening experience for me because it is where I spent my first few hours in England and it is where I got to see my first castle. That's right, I said castle, Windsor is home to a very elaborate stone castle. Inside of the castle it is filled with all kinds of historical information; including tombs of past queens and kings of England. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing when I walked inside of it.
Day 2.
The second day I woke up, had my first English breakfast and then hoped on a bus headed to Oxford, Sratsford, and Warwick. In Oxford we visited the University or Universities. I didn't realize until yesterday that Oxford is really made up of many different schools. After Oxford our tour guide took us to Sratsford where William Shakespeare had lived growing up. This was a really impressive little town and I enjoyed walking around it sight seeing. The group I was with took a tour of the house Shakespeare had lived as a child. All I can say is for an old house it was pretty nice but Shakespear's family must have been really short because I had to my head each time I walked through a door. I know I'm tall but believe me when I say the door's had really small openings. When the group I was with finished touring Shakespeare's home, we grabbed a bite to eat and head for Warwick. I had no idea really what was in Warwick but when I got there it didn't take me long to figure it out. Warwick has an even older castle in it than the one in Windsor I saw the day before. The Warwick castle also had a little more character to it as well, meaning it looked just like a castle from the mid-evil times. Walking through it was astonishing, I was absolutely amazed at what I was seeing.
Day 3.
Today, the justice studies group broke off from the rest of the students that came on the trip and visited the Metropolitan Police's training center and a police station part of the Police Service in London. To sum of the visit, I learned an extremely a lot about their police service. For, one they want to be called a police service not a police force. Their police policies are very different from police policies back home in the United States. They take a softer approach to dealing with people than Americans and believe it is not necessary to carry fire arms to enforce the laws. Instead just rely on perfected defense tactics and a baton to control the criminals of London. I learned the reason they don't carry fire arms is because many police have been prosecuted in the past for using excessive force and deadly force on people. The attitude of the public here is different about the use of force in the U.S. and the police officers are afraid to be to violent because they don't want to be charged with an offense and prosecuted.
Well I think I am done for now I'm tired of writing and I have to go so you will here more from me tomorrow.
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