We started our day with the Florence Nightingale museum. We were able to enter the museum before it opened, so we had it all to ourselves. At the museum, we learned lots about her life. Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 on May 12. She was born in Florence Italy and has a older sister named Parthenope who was born in Naples. Her parents were named William and Francis and they were very rich. During her childhood, Florence Nightingale was very sickly and unwell. Her family and friends often made comments of it when she was young Florence Nightingale received a very good education as good as any boy at the time she was first taught by a governance, and then by her father when she was 11, although she was never expected to get a job eventually she stated that she had the call of God that called her to be a nurse when she was 17 the war fighter parents which she did it anyway she’s proposed to multiple times and almost accepted the proposal of a politician, but ultimately denied it, and her parents were very upset. In her 20s her parents still refused to let her train to be a nurse so she traveled the world instead and when she was away from her family, she would visit hospitals and other countries to learn more about healthcare. During the Grammy war Florence worked as a nurse, and created the first databases that demonstrated infection prevention. In addition to being a nurse, she was a avid writer during your lifetime. She wrote some 200 books pamphlets and articles as well as over 14,000 letters. She wrote about religion, philosophy, sanitation hygiene, hospitals, statistics and India as well as her frustrations about women’s rights at the time. In 1870 Florence Nightingale became involved in the Nightingale school at St. Thomas’s Hospital. at this hospital, young women were trained to be nurses and they took up posts as a matrons in hospitals all over the world.

Mary Seacole was also a prominent nurse during the time of Florence Nightingale. She was a British Jamaican nurse who was born in Jamaica. during the Crimean war she was not allowed to be a nurse, but she set up the clinical British hotel behind the lines where she cared for patients. Mary Seco is now the model for patient centered care while Florence Nightingale is the model for hygiene and sanitation.

At the museum, there was also an exhibit on hospital designs. Hospitals used to be dark with very little windows no fresh air. They often were damp and not conducive with healing today on the other hand hospitals focus on being a clean having good lighting having open windows, lots of fresh air, gnome, mold, or anything of the sort.

After the Florence Nightengale museum, we went to burrough market. I got a cinnamon roll and fruit juice for breakfast. I tried mango, pomegranate, watermelon, and superberry juice but ultimately pick watermelon juice because it was so refreshing. Also, while at burrough market, my friend bought a kilo of coffee beans, something she had been searching for since we arrived in london.

After Burrough Market, we walked to the Tower Bridge to take some photos. The, we walked in the other direction to get to the London Eye. The London Eye is so much bigger than I had imagined. As we were passing by, we saw a street performer and stopped to watch. His name was Tom and he was hilarious. He did some juggling, squeezed his body through the frame of and tennis racket (and he was not a little man), and rode on a seven-foot-tall unicycle. Once his show was done we walked to Big Ben and Parliament. On the way, a few of us stopped to get bottled water. We honestly could not have asked for a better day to explore London, we had blue skies and sunshine with a bit of a breeze to keep it from getting too hot. Once everyone got the pictures they wanted, we headed off for Buckingham Palace. On the way, one of my friends stopped to feed the squirrels and then we decided to rest for a bit in a cafe since we had been running around all day. After resting, refueling, and using the restroom, we went the rest of the way to Buckingham Palace. We accidentally timed it perfectly because when we got to the palace, the changing of the guard was happening. We stayed for a bit to watch. They even played Golden, a song from the popular kid’s movie K-Pop Demon Hunters, which was funny. Buckingham Palace was the last monument we wanted to see, so we went to shop. We went into a Jellycat store and I spent too much money, but I am really happy with what I got.

At 6:45, we met up with the rest of the group to see Moulin Rouge at the Picadilly Theatre. I had no idea what the plot of Moulin Rouge was before the show, only that Megan Thee Stallion had been in a production of it not that long ago. The show was absolutely amazing. It filled a Moulin-Rouge-shaped hole in my heart that I did not know existed before. I am so happy that we had the opportunity to see that show.

Today was such a day well spent in London. We did and saw everything I wanted to and more. During this whole trip I have made so many good memories and so many friends. It is bittersweet that this is coming to an end. I am so grateful for this exchange trip, I have learned and done so many cool things.