This was on Saturday, January 14th. I had come back from California the day before. Every time I go visit my parents and California and then return to wherever I live I get this overwhelming feeling of wanting to pack my bags and move back home. When I lived in Chile it was a lot worse though, because going back to Chile meant going back to work and that was tough! I would be depressed for like two weeks. This year I was coming back to London which is way cooler, but I had that feeling of "I want my mommy" anyway so to get over it Alex and I decided to go to central London again, and it was worth it!
The first time I went to central London was a few days after I had moved here on September 18th, 2011. Interestingly enough, September 18th is also Chile's independence day, so I wore a t-shirt with the Chilean flag on my first day in central London. I didn't go before that because the first two or three days I spent them in Greenwich setting up the apartment (or "flat" as they call it here) and getting my university things in order, but as soon as the weekend was here, we went to see the Big Ben. Now, for those of you who haven't been here, you may not know that Big Ben is not really that clock tower that you see up there. Big Ben is the name of the big bell inside of it.
The story goes something like this: in 1834 there was a fire that destroyed the Palace of Westminster so they had to construct a new building for the Houses of Parliament. This new building incorporated some of the pieces that were not destroyed by the fire, like Westminster Hall, but it also included new designs like the clock tower and the big bell inside of it. It is believed that when they were trying to come up with a name for the big bell, Sir Benjamin Hall, a large man that was affectionately called Big Ben in the House of Parliament, gave a long speech on the subject. When he sat down, someone jokingly said: "Why not call him Big Ben and have done with it?" Everyone laughed and the bell was indeed named Big Ben. Not long ago I went on a tour in which the tour guide added: "We should be glad his name was not Sir William Hall or Sir Richard Hall."
The first time the bells of the Great Clock of Westminster rang was on May 31st 1859. It is also said that Astronomer Royal, George Airy determined that the clock had to be incredibly accurate, so "its performance" had to be telegraphed twice a day to the Greenwich Royal Observatory and a record had to be kept to make sure that the clock was never ahead or behind. If you want more info about Big Ben you can go to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry website. Most tours here in London will tell you about this though, so if you live here you will hear it a lot but you can find more details in this website.
Anyway, so the clock tower is still commonly known as Big Ben, but I personally call it "The London" because to me there is no icon more representative of this city. When I was little my dad used to say he would be very emotional the first time he saw Big Ben because he always dreamed about coming to London after studying English at the university and learning all about the UK and its culture. I didn't really care much about Big Ben or London either way, but the first time I saw it in person, I thought of my dad and how I got to see it before he did which made me unexpectedly emotional.
Now I just love to see it whenever I get a chance because it reminds me of my family, which is why it just made sense to go see it on my first day back in London. It just made me feel better. My dad still has not seen it, but he and my mom are coming this summer hopefully, so in the meantime it is still here waiting for them.
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