london monday

We had breakfast at the hotel (a huge selection of croissants, rolls, canned fruits, cottage cheese, regular cheese, yogurt, ham, eggs, beans, hash browns, juices, coffee, hot chocolate, etc etc.) It was served cafeteria style.
We all went together over to an institution called PPIMS. They talked to us for a while about what they do (basically help kids in a guidance couselor life skill support type of way). Some children come to PPIMS for academic classes, but mainly they run after school programs to help kids get job skills, communication skills, etc. We went to a school for children with moderate special needs that PPIMS supports called Bellvue. The children were doing a drumming workshop. The woman in charge showed us this really impressive book about a science lesson they had done abotu forces. She had asked them what they already knew and one child talked about the police in terms of a force. The other children just repeated back the word pretty much. The classes seemed to be very hands on and quick moving to keep the students attention. Teachers learn to be very adaptible.
In the afternoon I went to the Globe Theatre. It was really neat to see. It's not in the place it used to be becuase the original one burned down. Now the theatre is on the other side of the river. It looks very much like it would have at that time. The boards on the houses are held together by these pins and as the wood shrinks they actually become more stable. There are huge vertical cracks in the side of the theatre. The acoustics are amazing given that there is no sound system. There is artificial lighting. They do not use any scenery or added props on stage. The audience has to imagine. There is a large semi-circular area where people can pay much less just to stand up and listen. On the opposite end of the spectrum there are gentleman's rooms (private seating for the rich in balconies). The costume designer went to great trouble to make shoes appropriate for the time period but the actors were all slipping because the wood is finished in a different way so they had to add rubber soles. The wood is all marbled in these amazing maroon and orange colors that is correct for the original globe. The slats on the balconies on the highest level are much more rough hewn than the ones lower down.
We walked along the Thames which is gorgeous-lots of neat bridges and boats to look at.
We went up in the London Eye-a sort of enclosed glass chamber that 25 people can fit into. It goes in a circle sort of like a ferris wheel, but moves very slowly (1/2 hour for the ride). The view is amazing. You can see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, up and down the Thames, and the London skyline. They take a picture of you at the top. There was a small snow storm going on while we were up there which made it harder to take pics and to see but also kind of neat.
That night we had dinner at Brown's in Covent Garden. We had a beef pot pie, mashed potatoes, and green beans. For dessert there was gingerbread in a molasses sauce. We talked about what we're doing after study tour and what we had seen that day.