Today is our last day in London and it is a very bitter sweet moment.  It has been an amazing experience to come to London and to see everything that we have on this trip.  There is so much to see here in London that I was not able to see everything I had wanted.  For our last day here, I decided I wanted to see to see Buckingham Palace and London Eye before we left.  Buckingham Palace was a lot bigger to see in person than I had expected.  Everything about it was elegant and beautiful.  The architecture was really neat to look at because it had so many fine details.  My favorite part about Buckingham Palace was the sculptures/statues in front of it.  They were amazing works of art to look at.  The statues were made with such beautiful details and were massive in scale.  The center statue was my favorite. It was so captivating to look at I felt like I could just stare at it for hours.  After I visited the palace, myself and a few other students walked through a very pretty park.  It was so peaceful yet very busy at the same time.  There was tons of ducks, pigeons, pelicans and swans everywhere that would come up to people walking in the park and interact with them.  It was unusual to see these animals so comfortable with people.  After we took our stroll through the park, we headed over to the London Eye.  At first, I was skeptical and did not see why this ferris wheel in particular was so special.  But once we started approaching the top of it, I understood why.  The London Eye had the most amazing view of the city.  It overlooked all of London and the River Thames.  We could see all the major and iconic landmarks through out the city.  I wished I could’ve stayed at the top forever.  Having the London Eye as the last place I visited was a fantastic way to end the trip.  I will forever remember the awe-inspiring view I had overlooking all of London.

This weekend we were apart of a hackaton/ design-jam for a “design for good” project. The goal of the project was to tackle the problem of how technology can help young people with depression. This project was sponsored by Big Radical Design Group, the Nation Centre For Universities and Business and The XD’s (The Experience Design Group).  People from all different fields were apart of it from medical, business and design.  They all came together and worked in 5 different groups to collaborate on a solution for this problem.  Being able to work in a creative setting and collaborating with others to come up with and design solution for a real problem in the world was amazing.  By being apart of this design jam it not only gave real professional experience but also re-solidified my passion for graphic design and my reasons for going into this field.  Honestly words can’t begin to describe how amazing of an opportunity it was to be apart of this.  This is, by far, the highlight of my trip.  I can’t thank Regina enough for setting this up for us.

Today we visited the Design Museum.  This was the more impactful museums we visited on our trip.  We specifically checked out a show called “California: Designing Freedom” which displayed innovative design that pushed the field of design forward.  This was very exciting and important for us to see because it showed us how much design has grown over the years.  My favorite part about the show was seeing the up and coming designs which showed design being integrate with virtual and augmented reality.  Later on, we as a group went to see the show “Wicked”.  Over all the show was absolutely amazing but my favorite part was the set design.  It was so cool to see a different aspect of design that we don’t see normally.  The set and stage was beautifully designed to be multi-functional, intricate, and moveable. It was a great to see such an impressive example of functional design.

Today we visited Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and the British Museum.  Though the wax museum was cool, my favorite was the British Museum.  They had exhibits from all over the world.  It was amazing to see so much history in one place.  On top of that, many of the stuff there were things we learned about in our art history classes.  There were ancient Egyptian statues, mummies and Egyptian literature like the “books of the dead”.  They also had beautiful pottery and statues from ancient Greece as well as the famous Rosetta Stone.  There were so many exhibits it was impossible to see them all.  One of the big exhibits they had on display was the American Pop Art exhibit.  This was one of my favorites.  It was so cool to see the different Pop artists’ work and the process they took to get to the final outcomes of their work.  It was also neat to see the variety of subjects and mediums pop artists used as well as the meanings behind their works.  The British Museum was so amazing I definitely need to go back some day.

Luckily the rain held out long enough for us to get a great tour around the City of London.  We got to ride in one of the Double Decker buses which made it possible to get some amazing shots!  On our journey we got a close look at so some awesome places like the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Palace of Westminster, the Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St. Jame’s Palace, the Wellington Arch, the Dorchester among many more.  Part of the tour was taking a short boat ride down the River Thames where we got to see some of the sites along the river such as the London Eye, the London Dungeon, the Imperial War Museum, Shakespeare’s Globe, the London Bridge, and Tower Bridge.  Afterwards, some of us got off at Leicester Square and got lunch there and explored some of the shops in the area.  Over all we got an amazing tour of all the different sites throughout the city and were able to get amazing photos of them.

Weary travelers leaving the airport.

This morning we landed at Heathrow airport after a long 6 hour flight. After we made it through customs and baggage claim, we were picked up by our ride to bring us to our hotel.  Since we had to cut across London, our driver made sure to pass by and point out the many iconic sites throughout London.  Our driver showed us sites such as the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The London Eye, Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Westminster, Harrods, the Tower of London and many more.  It was so cool to see how full of iconic sites the city was.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Big Ben

After the group checked into our hotel rooms we had an awesome “family” dinner at The Dickens Inn and checked out some of the cool typography they had on display.

The Dickens Inn Grill Menu

Fish & Chips Sign at The Dickens Inn

“We Recommend” sign at The Dickens Inn