Not even a week yet? Seriously?

We have not even been in London for a week, but home feels like it was forever away, and Dickinson is even farther off! Hope that classes are going well, everyone!
So I left off on market day--my group was sent to Shepherd's Bush Market (why is it called Shepherd's Bush? Good question), which is in the middle of an immigrant community. The market looked sort of like a flea market, some place where people could find practical, daily-use type items. Just a block away from this very cosmopolitan area, however, was the largest shopping center that I have ever seen. Oh my gosh. All of the architecture was completely modern, and there were stores from Prada and Gucci to Nike and Adidas to H&M. It was insane--there were touch screen maps that would actually map out routes to stores because the mall is just too bloody big to navigate like a normal shopping center. On further research, I learned that it opened in October 2008 and is actually the largest shopping center in Europe. It was a really odd juxtaposition in terms of the immigrant community so close to an upper-class, predominantly white, mall. It also felt so much like an American city that I was disappointed.
During the afternoon we had to blog about our market adventures and make a slide show with narration, which took a lot more time than it should have. We ended up at a nearby pub for dinner, where I fell in love with the bartender. The first of many, I'm sure.
The next morning saw us on the Tube bright and early to take a walking tour of Roman London. We went into the Square Mile, the inner city that used to be enclosed by the Roman wall and the Thames (it stood until the 1700s, when some moron decided that it restricted air flow in the city and needed to be pulled down). It was very cool to be walking around the financial district and all of the sudden stumble upon ruins that are almost two thousand years old. Mini history lesson, because I love British history: Caesar's troops first invaded England in 55 B.C., but a permanent force didn't return until A.D. 44. Roman rule continued, with fairly successful integration of the Romans with the native Britons, until 410, when the Roman Empire was under threat of invasion from the Germanic tribes. They pulled out of England and left their capital of Londinium, which was soon occupied by Angles and Saxons. Their settlement, Londwic, was just to the side of Londinium. They were eventually invaded by Danes but continued to fight them off, especially under Alfred the Great in the late 800s, but the Danish king Cnut took over from Ethelred the Unready in 1016. The next major event in London/British history was the Norman Invasion of 1066. Okay, it's over, I promise. So we saw fragments of the Roman wall, which was further fortified by the Normans, who also built the Tower of London.
That's Tragas in the picture, the Roman governor most associated with building the wall, ca. A.D. 200.
Our walk ended at the Museum of London, which was a fantastic museum that covered London's past back beyond 3000 B.C. While wandering the medieval exhibits, Stephenie and I were attacked by an eager docent who told us that the chainmail shirt that we were looking at was actually probably seventeenth-century Ottoman rather than thirteenth-century European. Turns out that he's just completed his masters on armor and was more than happy to chat with Stephenie, Hermione of all things medieval, and me, who doesn't know as much as Stephenie. I offered what I've learned from various History Channel specials on Robin Hood. He told us that we should visit another armor collection, and as Stephenie is in love with him, I think that we probably shall.
We visited the Docklands Museum in the afternoon, which is the sister museum of the MoL, but goes into much more detail about trade, imperialism, the history of the development of the Docklands (which was a really big issue not too long ago; their development into posh commerical/residential areas has taken place within the last twenty years), and... Pirate Radio!!!! I thought that both museums were fantastic.
After dinner, we headed to Royal Albert Hall to hear the Czech National Orchestra at the BBC Proms, which is a summer concert series that has been running since before World War II. The hall was beautiful, and the concert was absolutely amazing.
Monday was a Bank Holiday here, so we had a class session in Regent's Square Park in the morning, and then the afternoon was ours. Stephenie, Matt, and I headed to the Notting Hill Carnival, which was utter chaos. The carnival started during a time of racial tension, when Notting Hill was primarily a West Indian neighborhood (it's been gentrified since then, and is actually a posh place to live now). It was a celebration of West Indian, especially Trinidadian culture, but today it's like an enormous block party with tons of booze, badly reproduced American rap music, and waaaaaay too many people dancing around in spandex who really need to cover up. There were some gorgeous costumes in the parade, but it was hard to figure out what people were trying to celebrate, besides alcohol. It's a bit like Saint Patrick's Day in the States. We did have fantastic food, though--jerk chicken, fried plantains, roasted corn on the cob, and Jamaican beef patties. So good!
After escaping the madness of the carnival, which was literally block upon block of drunk young Brits in spandex, we made our way to the West End because we had tickets to Billy Elliot!!!!!!! I have wanted to see Billy Elliot for years, so this was so exciting. We got discount day-of tickets, second row of the balcony, and it was absolutely fantastic. The cast did a great job, I understood most of their northern accents, and it was just a gorgeous production. And it was so British. We've been concentrating a lot on immigration, so it was nice to look at other issues within British culture and to compare them to themes that we've been learning about. Especially when they're presented in musical form. What I really liked was that the show wasn't too flashy or glitzy, but it was honest and kind of gritty, and therefore it was emotional. Oh my gosh, it was just amazing. So, so glad that we went!
After getting in fairly late last night, we had to be up early to get to the British Museum. Turns out that we got there an hour before it opened. Awesome. We've been working with a podcast called "A History of the World in 100 Objects," which the British Museum puts out on the BBC. Literally the curators have picked 100 objects that they think show the most important developments in history, and they've put together 15-minute presentations on each item. Today we listened to/saw the Sutton Hoo helmet and a few other Roman, Celtic, and Anglo-Saxon artifacts.
After a very short stint at the museum, Professor Qualls led us on a walking tour of Bloomsbury, which is the area that we're staying in. The neighborhood focuses a lot on education, children's charity, and the arts, especially literature. So we saw where the Bloomsbury Group met and all of that jazz, before attending another class discussion in the afternoon. After our discussion about the visions of London presented by different authors, Rick Fisher came to talk to us. He's a Dickinson alum who moved to London some thirty years ago and is now a lighting designer in the West End. He won a Tony for Billy Elliot, so it was even more important to see that show last night! He talked to us about the differences between London and New York as far as theater goes, and basically said that the West End is much more experimental than Broadway because producers and directors don't have to answer to as many financial backers. Putting on a show in the West End is much cheaper than it is on Broadway (note: this does not mean that it's cheap by any means! Just cheaper). Also, American audiences like more glitz and glamour and jazz hands than London audiences do.
So today was a very academic day. A bunch of us decided that we would end it with dim sum at a nearby restaurant, and then Professor Qualls led a yoga class in the garden behind the hotel. Quite a day for trying new things! Apologies for the length of this blog, but we've gotten so much in! And just to warn you: I'll be going to the Jane Austen Museum on Thursday, so just be ready for that. Miss you all!

Which country are we in, anyway?

Alright, back for more. We've spent the morning exploring various London markets, and right now we're all using our free time to a)sleep b)catch up on pictures and blogging and c)do homework. I'm procrastinating on the latter. So, without further ado... We arrived in London about 9:30 in the morning local time on Thursday. It was a very long and very, very uncomfortable plane ride. Virgin Atlantic apparently does not believe in leg room. But we made it, so that was all that mattered. Our first real experience of England was hearing one of the controllers in the airport say, "Professor Qualls, please come and collect your students. Professor Qualls," over the loudspeaker in a very clipped British accent. Good start.
We took a bus from Heathrow to Bloomsbury, where we're staying, and got to see a great deal of London on the way. Coming to London wasn't like flying into Germany--for the most part, streets and buildings here look very similar to American cities that I've visited. Bar the British accent, of course. Since we weren't allowed to fall asleep, we were sent out to find mobiles (cell phones) and then we were put into pairs and assigned a tube station to find and explore. Tyler and I were sent to St. Paul's station, which is, believe it or not, right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. So we explored around the area, and found a really beautiful, ruined church called Christchurch Godfries. It was a Christopher Wren church that was destroyed (I assume during the Blitz), and rather than rebuilding the actual stonework people planted a garden to mimic the inside of the sanctuary. It was very melancholy, but it was beautiful.
We also walked around St. Paul's Cathedral, which is absolutely stunning. The carvings on the ceiling are beautiful. We're going back as a group later, so hopefully then I'll be able to climb the stairs into the dome of the cathedral to see the spectacular view of London. St. Paul's, although no longer the tallest object in the London skyline since the advent of tall office buildings, is still one of the most iconic.
Since we were in the City (the oldest area of London, which used to be surrounded by the Roman wall), we decided to walk back to Bloomsbury down Holborn Road. We passed some beautiful baroque architecture, the sort of buildings that you think of when you think of European cities. Our search for a pub that night was unsuccessful (well, we found a gigabazillion pubs, but none of them wanted to accomodate American twenty-somethings), so we got Thai food and called it a day. My adventures with European showers continued as I couldn't figure out how to turn on the hot water. After a very refreshing five minutes of freezing cold water, I finally got it and proceeded to bed.
After a full night's sleep, day two was much brighter than day one, although it rained all morning. Huh, typical. We took a Thames Clipper from near Parliament to Greenwich, a ride that offered views of some iconic London sights. Once we got to Greenwich, we trecked up an invigorating hill to the Royal Observatory, where the Prime Meridian was determined. So yes, I got the cheesy tourist photo of me standing in two hemispheres at once.
We (I feel weird using the first person singular, because there are 27 of us who all did more or less the same thing) explored the museum, which included the home of Joseph Flamsteed, the first royal astronomer. He worked for years to compile accurate starcharts in order to determine longitude using the moon's movement against the stars. Yeah, sounds fun. Other royal astronomers included Edmond Halley, of Halley's comet. After our time in the museum, Professor Qualls led us on a walk down the Thames Path, winding up at Greenwich University, formerly the Royal Naval College, on the same sight that Greenwich Palace once stood. Greenwich Palace was home to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
We had lunch at the Admiral Hardy pub, where we dined on fish and chips (although I just had chips, the fish ran out too quickly) and samosas, and I had my first pint. It was cider though, not beer. Sorry, Dad. After lunch my friends and I decided that we needed to walk off our pints, so we wandered around Greenwich Market. I had a delicious banana-coffee cupcake (so much for walking off the pint calories...but the woman was wearing the coolest hat ever), which doesn't sound like it should go together, but it was fantasmic. We then went to the Discover Greenwich Center and learned about the history of the Greenwich area, which is currently becoming trendy again. For a while it was the home of sailors and dockworkers, as Greenwich was the point of entry for most commercial ships during England's imperial days.
To get back to the hotel, Sarah decided that walking through a tunnel under the Thames would be a grand plan. I felt like I was on the Titanic, and the sides of the ship were about to burst. I mean, water was actively dripping from the ceiling. Kaitlin's words of wisdom: "Well, we're all wearing our raincoats, so if the walls do burst at least we'll have some protection!" Indeed.
But we made it, and eventually, after much train chaos in the Tube, managed to find Millennium Bridge to get across the Thames to the Globe. The bridge is beautiful, especially when it's lit up at night, and there were no Death Eaters to be seen!
We grabbed a quick bite at a grab and go type place called Eat (their signs say "Ice cream. Eat," "Sandwiches. Eat," etc, just in case you forget what you're supposed to do. Quite helpful), where I started talking to the cashier. He noticed my American accent, and it turns out that he is saving up to travel across the continental U.S., from east to west. He's originally from Brazil, but he's lived in most of the countries in Western Europe in the past twenty years (his favorite was Switzerland. I don't blame him), slowly working his way toward the States. You meet the most interesting people.
But after dinner it was time to go to the Globe!!!! We saw "The Merry Wives of Windsor," which was so well done. The play just came alive when it was acted onstage, and I so enjoyed it. Ah, Shakespeare. I got excited shivers just walking into the theater. And it's rumored that Colin Firth was in attendence, although I did not see him myself. We did find a pub after that, and had a lovely end to the evening.
That's all for now! I think that I'm going to run down the street and buy some fresh bread and fruit for lunch, furthering my procrastination. Cheers!

The Promised Land

Because I don't have time to write a proper post about my first two days in England, I'll just give you some background information. I have wanted to go to England forever. Well, since I was ten, but that feels like forever. It all started when I read The Hobbit, and then Harry Potter came along and that was the end of that. Since then, many of my interests have formed themselves around Britain, so that I can safely call myself an anglophile--literature, history, literature, landscape, literature, film... you get the gist. So now, thanks to Dickinson and my amazing family, I'm living the dream and spending the year in search of Shakespeare, Tolkien, the Brontes, Jane Austen (and Mr. Darcy), Robin Hood, King Arthur, and, of course, Harry Potter and company. More to follow soon! Cheers!