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!