This morning during my swim practice, I got some reassurance and support from the lifeguard at the YMCA. He asked me if I was American and then asked if I was a professional swimmer. Because of his heavy accent, I first thought he asked me if I was a proficient swimmer so I was about to say "yes, I'd say so," but at the last minute decided to ask him to repeat his question. I am glad I did, because he probably would have started telling everyone that I was a professional American swimmer, which is clearly not true. In any case, he told me I was "doing brilliant." I love how everyone here uses the word brilliant and am trying to incorporate it into my vocabulary.

Anyway, today my swim practice involved using a parachute. For those of you who aren't swimmers, we sometimes do sets where we pull a parachute behind us in the water to increase the resistance. I felt it was necessary to forewarn my lane mate that I would have an odd-looking object dragging behind me as I swam. I was trying to prevent him from pushing off right after me and getting tangled in my chute. Wouldn't that be a mess. Anyway, he was very understanding and was intrigued by the parachute. Of course, right after I warned him, all of the other swimmers and the lifeguards wanted to view this weird object. I think I've made some friends at the YMCA.

Today was another beautiful day in London (26 degrees Celsius and sunny). Now that it's the weekend, London is especially bustling with life and I loved soaking in the energy of the city.

Put money on the flag of your home country

Sand castle building on the Thames

While we were walking, we passed Seven Dials, a road junction where seven roads converge.

Seven Dials 

Once we reached Trafalgar Square, we decided to go into the National Gallery. We walked through endless rooms of paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Raphael, Renoir, Seurat, Rembrandt, and many more. One of my favorite displays was William Hogarth's "Marriage a-la-mode" progress - a series of six paintings that chronicle the progression of an arranged marriage between the son of a bankrupt Earl and the daughter of a wealthy merchant. I won't go into too much detail here, but click here if you're interested: Marriage a-la-mode

The National Gallery

We then walked to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is one of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen. The inside of the church was absolutely breathtaking, and I cannot adequately use words to justly describe what I saw today. Amazingly, the original church that was erected on this site dates back to AD 604. The church as it exists today was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was tasked with redesigning the cathedral after the Great Fire of London in 1666. It only took me about thirty seconds inside the church to realize that Wren was a genius. The elaborate mosaics and designs on the ceiling and the domes in the center of the church were unbelievable. My neck started getting sore because I could not stop looking upward in awe. One of my favorite facts about the church: Wren made the distance from the ground to the top of the cross 365 feet, which is meant to represent the number of days in a year. Wren is buried in the church he brilliantly designed, but for some reason Caitlin and I had trouble finding his tomb in the crypt!

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral

After touring St. Paul's cathedral, we walked over to the Globe Theatre. We walked through the exhibit somewhat quickly because we were both starving by this time. It's hard to focus on the Globe with a hollow stomach!

The Globe Theatre

For dinner, we ate at The Wharf, which overlooks the Thames. The food was delicious and the view was incredible. We couldn't forgo dessert tonight. Caitlin got the chocolate cake and I got apple pie with a warm cup of mocha.

After dinner, we watched the sun set over the River Thames. As I watched the sun reflect off the side of Big Ben, I could not think of a better way to conclude the day.