Tuesday was definitely one for the books. Instead of meeting for class in the study room like usual, we met at our tube stop (North Acton) and headed over to Oxford Circus to meet a NPR reporter. NPR just so happens to be located inside BBC headquarters. So we got to walk around the BBC news room and see where they film their broadcasts. Very neat and definitely impressive. Sadly, this is not where they film shows or movies and I didn’t casually bump into Benedict Cumerbatch. However, I did get to see the NPR office and hear a lot about reporting all over Europe and how different it is compared to the US. We’re very lucky as journalist in the US because we have the first amendment, in the UK if someone disagrees with what you publish about them they can take all sorts of actions against you. So bizarre.
After spending a good while there, I returned to North Action to conduct an interview of my own for my final project. Unfortunately, it was a phone interview and I had to turn my data on (sorry mum) but it went spectacular!! After I finish writing my piece I’ll publish it here so you all can see what the heck I’ve been doing over here.
Tuesday evening we traveled a bit further to visit a store I’ve been wanting to see since day one. I can’t name it because I bought a souvenir there and don’t want to spoil it but, just know that it was very cool. After that we thought we’d simply walk over to Battersea park. (AKA the area where they shot the cover for Pink Floyd’s Animals album.
We quickly discovered that we were a bit further than we thought. 2 pounds later we were riding on an overground train and traveling back across the river. (Thank God for Jack who was a top notch navigator in this moment and shout to the City-mapper App for never steering us wrong) The overground was a whole new experience. On top of that we had to then take the bus. Luckily our Oyster cards (like a metro card) work on buses and we’ve rode one before with out professor.Up until this point though we 
have walked 20,000 steps (not even kidding, check the fitbit) rather than take the bus ni fear of messing up. We as a group do not mess with those double deckers, no sir we stick to our beloved tube. FINALLY we made it to this park and at this point I really had to use the bathroom. London doesn’t believe in porta potties and they’re little sidewalk bathrooms cost up to 50p (that’s like ehhh 80ish cents?) and as a stubborn American who has never paid to use the bathroom I refuse to. I was so desperate at this point I would have paid 5 pounds. So we wandered around this park which we quickly decided was the weird cousin to Hyde Park that no one talks about. Ever heard of Battersea park? No you probably haven’t because it’s like walking through a ghost town. Everything was closed (including the public toilets) and the structures were faded and the deeper we 
went the cloudier it got. Birds were screeching, I felt like I had just stumbled into the abandoned Jurassic Park. Just as I turned a corner a huge T-Rex would jump out and snatch me up like the tourist loving carnivore he is.
Okay maybe I’m being a bit dramatic but it was like a ghost town. They had a zoo, also closed, but there was a bathroom ALL THE WAY ON THE OTHER SIDE of it. How convenient. Also the bathroom was barely functioning. But beggars cant be choosers. So we made our way out of sad, sad, Battersea Park and caught a bus back towards home. We then prematurely got off the sub par mode on transit and gladly sat on the familiar hot and mildly dusty tube the rest of the way home.
kwagnr 
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