Today was kind of quiet for everyone who didn't go the optional visit of Buckingham palace. However, the specialist lecture I had this morning was one of the best at LIYSF. Roma Grewal was a head engineer on the design of the Shard: Western Europe's tallest building:
The unusual 306m structure is composed of 11,000 tons of steel and 22 Olympic swimming pools of concrete around 95% of which is recycled material!
We learned volumes about what it takes to consider every conceivable influence to create a successful project on this scale. I can certainly attest to the respect this lecture has given me for engineers and so I was privileged to offer the vote of thanks for this talk.
At lunch, we savored one of the last get-togethers in Queen's lawn. A handful of us enjoyed a brief game of rugby among several different nationalities.
As I said, the residences were strangely quiet for all who didn't go on day tours in London, so these guys look pretty bored:
Me? Never bored with this blog! Nonetheless, to make the most of the rest of the day, I arranged a soccer game via Facebook. When we had enough people together, we set out for Hyde park:
Under the beating sun, ten lads from Nigeria, South Africa, Israel, Cyprus, Brazil, Poland, and Canada hustled the ball across the parched park lawn for around three hours. Although we were really pooped afterward, it was something we all wanted to experience at this forum and the memories were worth the sweat!
The Poles (Eric and Martin) and I crossed the field to a water park where we descended upon the artificial creek as to an oasis in the Sahara:
Wow was that ever refreshing! The other players sure missed out but I'm so glad we took the plunge.
Going back to Beit residence, I was caught by Ben and his troop going "promming" next door at the Royal Albert Hall.
With a five quid ticket, one can experience a professional orchestral performance in this majestic theater. The catch is you have to stand for the ninety minute show
After Mahler's Ninth Symphony and (one of my favorites) Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis we spent the rest of the evening in the common room:
Tomorrow would be our last day to cultivate our friendships and enjoy all LIYSF has to offer.
Etienne
