Day 9 : Final Day in London :(

Day 9 : Final Day in London :(

Today is our last day in London before we head back to Singapore.

Our first stop was to the Globe Theatre. It was founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker. R Shakespeare's Globe and is a unique international resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work and the playhouse for which he wrote, through the connected means of performance and education. Our guide shared with us on how the Globe theatre was like in the past.

Then we headed to BBC where we learnt more about its rich history, the different rooms and their uses.To our surprise,some of us could even try out acting in a radio drama and broadcasting. According to one student, Grace, she now aspires to be a broadcaster and has a new interest in this career!

Day 8 - London

Day 8 - London

As part of London’s efforts in heritage conservation (London Shh which stands for small historic homes), small historic houses belonging to famous London residents are conserved. This morning we visited Dr Samuel Johnson's house to discover his life and legacy. He was a writer and he compiled his Dictionary of English Language in the Garret. He lived and worked in London in the mid eighteenth century.  A workshop was conducted for us to understand contexts in which th dictionary was written. We also understood the origins of some words. For example, we made an interesting discovery that the words 'pyjamas' and 'bungalow' are originated from India.

We then headed for a backstage tour at the theatre Royal Drury Lane which is London’s oldest theatre. It was an interesting experience as it was an interactive tour with our guides dressed up as different characters who worked in the theatre of the past. Through the tour, we have a better understanding of the history of the theatre and We learnt the reason for a King and Prince Room, the stories behind the theatre (some were really scary!). 

After lunch, we had a workshop with Jacob who is a professional poet and educator. We learnt a lot about his poetry and how he started his journey as a poet. Interestingly, he was actually a basketball player before starting to write poetry about basketball ad soon expanding into the various poems he has written so far. We had an interactive session about describing different emotions using the 5 senses.  Our final product was a group presentation of a poem about ‘Home’. Jacob really gave us a whole new perspective about poetry and has definitely increased our interest for it.
In the evening, we watched a play - Jeeves and Wooster! The set was amazing! The characters were very energetic and captivated all of us. Many times we burst into laughter because of the humour in the play. It was definitely a new experience for us!

Day 7: London

Day 7 : London

Sadly, we left FSC this morning after a delicious breakfast. All of us said our final goodbyes to our tutors and took pictures with them before leaving. It was an emotional moment for all of us as we have definitely learnt a lot in the five days we spent there. Although we were sad to leave FSC and our wonderful tutors, we were excited and looking forward to the next part of our trip and that is LONDON!! Upon reaching, we met our tour guide, Sean, who is a humorous man from Scotland. As we roamed the streets of central London, he shared about the history and unique features of each place of interest with us. One common confusion that he pointed out to us is that the famous London Bridge is actually called the Tower Bridge!

We then headed to Covent Garden where we were given a short period of time to walk around and observe the shops, architecture and the culture of the place. It was intriguing to see the various buskers performing on the street. Then our guide, Riley, surprised us by bringing us to Jamie's Italian for dinner!! We had appetisers, pasta and desserts. It was an amazing experience to dine in a celebrity chef's restaurant! After the scrumptious dinner, we started for our final activity of the day: Wicked the Musical. While watching the musical, we took note of how the modern theatre portrayed mood and feelings through lightings, props and sound effects. Why is London so successful in its arts scene? Could Singapore's art scene be comparable to London's? Why or why not? These were the questions that we had to think about after the musical. Probably, the entire arts culture/ heritage is a lot richer in London as compared to Singapore.

Day 6 - Freshwater Ecology @ Embercombe

Today started off with devotions at the church beside the main building in the Field Studies Centre compound after a hearty breakfast. The church was quite large and was beautifully decorated with stained glass windows. We then had our usual morning class from 9.30 to 10.30am, where we were briefed about the field work that was to follow on freshwater ecology. The hypothesis that we were given was that the abundance of freshwater invertebrates depended on the abiotic factors of the river. 

Then, we headed to Exmoor National Park to carry out the said field studies. We learnt how to collect invertebrate samples from various parts of the river riffles and pools through kick sampling and stone washing, and also collected data of the abiotic conditions of the rivers. We counted the number of various invertebrates located in the samples that we took, and weighed out the different factors that could affect their abundance in the different sites that we visited. We were meant to take samples from four sites in total, but due to lack of time, we only went to three sites. While walking from site to site, we saw many different kinds of animals, such as deer, ponies and sheep. 

When we headed back to Nettlecombe, using the data that we had collected earlier in the day, we evaluated how the various abiotic factors could affect the abundance of the different kinds of invertebrates found in the rivers, as well as the different adaptations they have developed. 

Sadly, today was our last day of field work. :( We bade farewell to our lovely tutors Harry and Anelma. London, here we come!