Greetings, England- Day 15: Madame Tussauds and some Intensive Walking Tour

Today is excursion day!
Being fully booked, I couldn't go to the River Thames or the Westfield Shopping Center, and there was only one left, the Madame Tussauds and the Oxford Street.

Since it was the last one available, I signed in immediately, even ignorant about what it was. Perplexed, I went to Google for some answers.
A wax figure museum?!
Well, I was wrong to make assumptions that wax museums are not quite... interesting.
Actually, I was totally wrong.
It was actually really awesome, with different areas of exhibition, added with mechanical features or real people acting elements.
But first, let's first focus on the wax figures. I was planning to stick with some of my friends/classmates throughout the whole trip, but the others vanished pretty much in the beginning of the tour, leaving Amanda, the Brazilian girl who also went ice-skating on Thursday (the others said that we were the ones that vanished) and for the whole day I was going around with her because she was really awesome and she also likes books.
The wax figures were so real! That really was surprising, with my initial impressions with wax-made statues: a lifeless shade of skin, dull eyes, inhuman postures... None of these for the statues right here! I said more than once that I would never stay over night in such place because they looked like they could start moving so easily...

I saw someone bumping into him and saying "oops sorry" before realizing that it was a wax statue.

If this were a horror movie, the moment you went close to it, it would turn its head, and roll its eyes and look at you with a crooked smile...

Surreal and unreal.

I sent this picture to Aubrey, hoping it would trick her; it didn't work, and I looked like a fool :D

The plaque next to this guy said that he was a Youtuber, never seen him though. 

Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to... WAIT A MINUTE.

Another thing was the Sherlock Holmes experience. Though we had to pay five pounds to enter, we both thought it was worth it. It was about finding clues to a mysteries of a leg stolen from the morgue. I still couldn't get over with what the female M.E. said, "I don't understand, who would steal a leg? A pirate?" (personally, I think that the joke alone was worth the money)

Robert Downy Jr. in Sherlock Holmes' outfit.

British youngest Olympics Diver, Tom Daley

Artists.

Royals.

Authors.

Fighters.

Physicians.

Singers

Innovators.

Leaders. All the inspirations in a museum. What else can you ask for?

In the section "Behind the Scenes"

If you ask me, these can make awesome Halloween decorations

No kidding.

Due to the extra exhibition we have gone through, Amanda and I were late for two minutes. We had fun, though. Then, our next gathering place was a shop on Oxford Street, a street in London. We had two hours of free time, so I went to Google Maps once more (for times like this, we really do rely on technology a lot) and we immediately decided our first destination: The Buckingham Palace. It was about twenty minutes of walking distance, but Amanda basically roamed around St. Clare's as much as I did, so we were both good. The Palace wasn't open then, but soon after we got there, we heard a small commotion.

Awesome parks all around.

This is beautiful...

We looked over from the place we were standing, and we see a man leading a group of people in an orderly fashion, to the front of gates. Some had flags in their hands, and some didn't. We tried to ask the photographer following them, but he seemed very occupied with his job.

Then we spotted a lady who had just finished answering someone else's question, so we went over to her and asked about this. She had a rather thick accent, so all I could make out is the phrase "to honor the king of Belgium in the past"...? But now when I typed the words on Google, I could see a similar small ceremony like this. Also, the lady gave us a small poppy flower pin like this:

More found on monuments.

I think it was from last year, judging by the year written on it (obviously) but I'm not sure if the two things are related, for we had seen paper flowers with the same design on the monuments we have walked past. On the pin, it said 1916, so I looked for information on this once more. It seemed like this pin was to commemorate specifically for the 1916 Sommes War, a war that had just met its hundred years of passing. This is one of the wars that took place in WWI, causing over a million of death or injury. I am not entirely sure about this, so Tim, can you please answer these two questions for me?
(1) What does the flag ceremony have to do with some Belgium king in the past?
(2) Some details of the Sommes War, or what the poppy flower pin really is about.
Thank you!

I read the map wrong, and I lead us to this monument of these gigantic statues

This memorial is dedicated to the 55,573 Airmen from the United Kingdom British Commonwealth & allied nations who served in Raf Bomber Command & lost their lives over the course of the Second World War.

After the ceremony ended, we decided to look for some bookstores (Amanda also loves books! I mean, a lot of people here obviously do. The French guy whom I went to the Park with and his sister both love reading; a guy who also was in my "planned" group (we just got lost with one another) had a thick hardback blue book in his bag; a Turkish girl named Melissa is a big fan of John Green, and she is by my side reading his book at the moment. But, details later) and shockingly, the nearest bookstore was about forty minutes away. Having not much time left to hesitate, we took off, regardless of the remaining hour we had. We could have had a rather nice stroll in the bookstore, but were continuously delayed, including my misreading Google Maps, a handsome man playing the electronic violin on the street, more old buildings, and a rare book bookshop (we didn't stay long though, as we knew we won't be able to afford them)

The haunting sound of the violin did catch the ears of a number of audiences.

Finally, we got to the  Bookstore, and we only have twenty-five minutes to return to the gathering place. We quickly grabbed ourselves an Agatha Christie book, and we started running. Through parks, across roads.

Never forget to take pictures, even if you're in a hurry.

Afterall, it was still like a walking tour.

Well, the park running was unexpected though.

We made it to the designated gathering place five minutes late, but we were somewhat the early ones, so we felt relieved.
So where am I now? Not at the dorm, that was an hour ago. Now, I am in the garden next to the art studio of St. Clare's. It was also next to a girls' dorm, so when my friend, Melissa came by and she called out to me and soon went back to fetch the book written by her favorite author, John Green.
~
Okay, so I am back at my dorm again. Since she had come, we were pretty much just chatting right then. I tried to convince her to go to the Deer Park in Magdalen College, for her eyes had lit up upon mentioning the word "deer". Still, she said that her friends wouldn't want to because they like shopping more. I said that she could have just gone alone. She said of course not, and then there was the debate where I kept trying to tell her to go, where she said that she had long been alone, and she doesn't want any more of them. "Oh, trust me, I know what it feels like to be alone" but she didn't believe me. Then, I tried to convince her that forever conforming with others is not necessary. In the end, she pulled out that guilty game by bringing up a suggestion that I go with her. But with my extra work from Ms. Sophie, I couldn't bring myself to say yes, for the deadline is right on tomorrow. It was a pity for her, but I tried.

I want to live next to a garden like this~~~~~~~~~

Tomorrow is a day of nothing but a lot of things to do.
But for today?
This is all.