London wednesday

I had breakfast at the hotel.
I went to the Lindon Bennett School. It's a special school only for children with moderate to severe special needs. We got to sit in on the end of a music lesson. Pretty impressive voices. We then went to snack. The children had to ask for what they wanted to eat. Some children couldn't really talk so they put the velco words on a board with velcro strips to communicate instead. One girl talked really quietly until they told her to get out her "big voice" from her pocket. She did it and then could speak perfectly fine. Amazing way of dealing with it. We then went on a tour of the faciltiy. They have a light room (white walls, disco ball, colored moving lights, etc), and a dark room, there is a sensory garden with different textures underfoot and plants like lavendar that smell when you brush against them. The garden also had a little pool of water. Newts lived in the pool and were tryign to get to wetlands nearby and that type of newt was endangered so they had to stop construction. Now that area of the school is called Newt Way. It was sad there was an area with plaques for the students who had died. Soon each class is going to be doing a little skit that has to do with the garden. Basically moving around to music and singing. We got to see a couple of them and it was so cute. There was a big emphasis on getting the children to do stuff and be to be self sufficient. The children have to go up to the counter and ask for food for lunch. Staff really reacts to anything the children do to encourage them to be expressive. There is a small pool. This is used to help the children who cannot move by themselves get to move a little because the water takes there weight. One girl was in a wheelchair but now she can move around fairly well. Impressive progress.
After that school we went to Brick Lane. I saw a woman from Smith there randomly. It was such a strange coincidence! Brick Lane is OK lots of restaurants. Very diverse almost all people of middle eastern/eastern european descent.
Went with Elizabeth and Pwin to Westminster Abbey. It was so amazing. Huge really high vaulted ceilings. Amazing stained glass. Some of the stained glass was destroyed in bombings during the World Wars. In the Abbey there is an area called poets corner where they have plaques commemorating all the famous british writers (Shakespeare, Chaucer, Kipling, James, etc etc.) Lots of tombs with royalty (Mary Queen of Scots). Amazing colorful flags with different symbols on them.
That night Elizabeth and I had fish and chips (you have to when you're in London). We went to see Avenue Q. Such a hilarious show. The music is amazing. It's all about life after college basically. The songs are The internet is for porn, we're all a little bit racist, my life sucks. The actors wear puppets on their hands but you can still see them. I was really impressed with how they could sing, move their body and have the puppet gesturing and opening its mouth as well.