The Time I Finished My Study Abroad and Saw Westminster Abbey

After two solid days of studying biological profiling, trauma analysis, and bone cell histology, we took our final on Thursday morning. It was a relief to be done with our test, but I was sad to think it could be a long, long time before I ever return to the classroom in the Botany Building of Regent's College where we held lectures. 
Though I'd spent five weeks in London, I still hadn't seen Westminster Abbey. What better way to spend my last day in London then to see the famous, historic landmark? Between instinctively knowing which Tube line and stop to get off for the Abbey and not feeling the urge to take pictures of Big Ben when I passed it, I felt like a real Londoner. Entering Westminster Abbey, however, that feeling passed. Entering the Abbey completely takes your breath away. Grand, imposing, and lavishly decorated, these walls have seen a thousand years of English history: it has seen monarchs be crowned and wed (some more than once), and many, many, important people be interred in its floors and walls upon their deaths. Similar to St. George's Chapel in Windsor but on a greater scale, Westminster Abbey feels in many ways like a giant mausoleum. We saw the final resting places of Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary I, Mary, Queen of Scots, many Edwardian kings, and James VI of Scotland and I of England. We saw the graves and memorials of poets from Chaucer to Keats to Shakespeare; of composers such as Handel; of actors the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier; and of the famous scientists Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Everywhere you look in Westminster Abbey, there are inscriptions, tombs, and monuments to the dead. Some are plain and simple stone, others are gilded and brightly painted. Many of the coffins and tombs bear death masks of the people inside them. In every corner and on almost every inch of ground you can step on, there are plaques in memory of the individuals buried there.
It wasn't only famous dead people; we also saw the grand, mosaic-tiled stage where monarchs of England have been crowned for hundreds of years. It was a sobering moment thinking about how many centuries of history this building had seen and wondering how many more it would see in the future.
In the afternoon, all of us on the program met up for the last time in London at the Larrik, the pub around the corner from our flats where Mallory, Holly, and I had eaten dinner our first night in London so many weeks ago. We all got our grades from the final (all my studying paid off, I 4.0'd the class!), bought the professor a pint, and reminisced about our summer abroad in London. I couldn't believe it had gone so fast and that it was time to say goodbye to all my new friends until the fall.
On our last outing in London, some of us went to Hyde Park to wander around the scenic Serpentine and listen to the concert that was being thrown in honor of the Olympic Torch finally making it to London. The sun was just beginning to set as we waded through the Princess Diana memorial fountain, snapped pictures of the swans floating serenely down the Serpentine, and sang along to the concert in the distance. It was a perfect last night of an amazing summer in London. I hope to be back soon, but at least for the next two weeks I'll be able to live vicariously in London through watching the Olympics!