That's a Wrap on London

So, the last week in London. It was an odd mix of scholarly (or semi-scholarly) activity and touristy fun. We all presented our walking tours during the week, so I spent a great deal of time in the British Library. The British Library is amazing and wonderful, but it's also incredibly frustrating because you can't talk and because the people who work there don't give you any hints as to proper book-requesting ettiquette. You have to request your books online two days before you want to use them, and then you go to the appropriate circulation desk to pick them up before bringing them back to your silent little cubicle. But they don't tell you that you have to do all of these other silly things first, and then they judge you when you make mistakes because no one told you what to do. Grr. But I digress.
So as you might imagine, I spent all day on Wednesday researching the early 1960s in Britain. Not too exciting, but we went out for a Writing Center reunion at a pub called The Court later that night. It was a really good time, and the atmosphere at The Court is great. There are a lot of young people and loud American music, so it's a fun place to go out with a group and just have a good time. Plus, they play "Don't Stop Believing" as their closing song every night, and it was so loud that I got to sing without anyone complaining. That was especially nice, because it was one of the first nights that I didn't have to do homework, and I felt as though I was finally able to enjoy a little bit of London like a twenty year-old is supposed to do.
Thursday was another day of work--we walked our tour route again (without asking directions to any fantastic places this time) and hammered out a lot of the speaking parts. We were good humanities students and drew overarching connections and themes between history and music... look at us go! After our walk, I snuck away to a discount bookstore on Charring Cross Road (Kaitlin assures me that the Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be on Charring Cross Road, but I cannot confirm this. The bookstore looked like it belonged in Diagon Alley--stacks of books on every available surface, not a lot of rhyme or reason--it was heaven). This store has books for $1.95 (except in pounds)!!!! I was happy.
Friday was a bit more exciting, I promise. Well, I went to the British Library again in the morning, but I couldn't focus and so left to go see about half-price theatre tickets in Piccadilly Circus after lunch. The man in the booth was completely unhelpful and kept spitting sandwich crumbs at me, but I met two very nice Lithuanian women. We bonded over having bits of cheese sprayed at us. After popping into the Wellcome Collection to see an exhibit on skin (weird), I headed to the National Theatre to meet the rest of the group for a backstage tour. The National Theatre is cool because it's a pretty innovative venue, and it's a charity, so all proceeds go directly back into the theatre. Their mission is to provide exciting, new theatre (and some of the classics) to audiences at reasonable prices, and they make all of their sets and costumes on location. During the summer they have free outdoor events centered on a set of giant, turf-covered furniture, so we were acting like three year-olds. After the tour we stayed to see The Habit of Art, which was a play within a play type deal. Good, but not my favorite. BUT--sitting appoximately seven seats away from me was... SIR IAN MCKELLAN. I know, whoa. I did not talk to him, though, because one does not bother a wizard. The actors got wind of this by the second act, and since the play took place in Oxford they inserted some new dialogue: "Professor Tolkien was at dinner. Apparently he's writing another book."
"Wonderful. Probably more fucking elves."
Saturday was a great day. We rehearsed our tour again in the morning, and it went really well. Our group got along well and I had fun workiing with [most] everyone. Stephenie and I met Jess and Kaitlin at Old Spitalfields Market for lunch, where we got crepes and wandered into a huge Japanese festival. Lots and lots of Japanese food, traditional clothing, and cultural demonstrations including drumming and martial arts. We also got to walk through some medieval ruins because it was Open House Day, which is when all of these historic places in London are open to the public.
Stephenie, Sarah, and I decided to go to King's Cross to look for Platform 9 3/4 after escaping from the crush of humanity at the festival, and we were finally successful! It's actually at 8 3/4, which I guess doesn't sound as cool as 9 3/4. I pushed really hard, but alas, I could not get through the barrier. We did miss the September 1 deadline, though, so that's my excuse.
Saturday night I took a solo trip to see War Horse, since Jessica hated it so much. This logic actually worked--I loved it! The show is about a young boy and his horse in Britain at the outbreak of the First World War. His horse is sold to an officer, so the boy up and enlists, and is sent to the front, but never stops looking for his horse. Sounds kind of weird, but I actually got really invested in the story, and the staging was absolutely incredible. It was a little like Lion King because the horses are puppets, and you can see the puppeteers working the mechanisms, but they were so believable! I really, really enjoyed it.
On Sunday morning we actually gave our walking tour, which went really well. So yeah, if you want to know anything about why the 1960s rock music scene was possible in London, just let me know! We had to be the audience for a tour that afternoon in Westminster, so Stephenie and I headed that way for lunch. We just so happened to stumble across a celebration at Westminster Abbey--it was the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain (when the Nazis tried to bomb the daylights out of London in order to crush British morale, enabling them to take the country. The Royal Air Force put up a hell of a defense, otherwise we'd be speaking German right now. Winston Churchill commemorated the occasion when he said, "Never have so many owed so much to so few."). Most of the Royal Family was at the Abbey, and tourists were just lining the road. There was a procession with a military band and a division of the RAF (I assume) and a flyover by a Hurricane and a Spitfire, two planes that were important to Britain's defense. There you go, Dad, just for you. Apparently several RAF veterans had done a flyover earlier in the day, and it was the first time that they'd flown in formation since the war. It was very cool, and it was interesting to see how a country that was on the front line (more or less) of the war commemorates it. Also, we were walking in St. James Park afterward and Prince Charles, Camilla, and Prince William drove by. I'm just saying, London is cool.
We wound up in Covent Garden after the second tour--such a cool place! It's a giant, semi-permanent market that sells all of the scarves that you could ever want, basically. Also, delicious cookies. So I browsed, ate cookies, and watched the street performers (they were everywhere). Street performers here are very mean to their audiences! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and then I headed to Chinatown with Steph for dinner. Chinatown here is part of SoHo, and it's basically just restaurants, and a few corner grocery stores. But it's really colorful and fun. We met some other friends and proceeded to eat too much food and laugh much too loudly. It was excellent!
Monday was an entirely free day, which was absolutely amazing. Kaitlin and I headed to Buckingham Palace in the morning to watch the Changing of the Guard (told you that I was doing all of the touristy stuff this week). Let me explain my feelings regarding the Changing of the Guard: it's the most ridiculous thing that I've ever seen! All this pomp and circumstance and stopping traffic for something that could be discreet and take all of five minutes. But no, tradition must be followed! I mean, yes, it was fun to watch the guards march in and out, but after 45 minutes it was a bit old.
Anyway, there are the guys in funny hats. Enjoy. Following this spectacle I actually went into Buckingham Palace and toured the State Rooms, which are open during the summer while the Queen is at Hollyrood in Scotland (except she was at Buckingham while I was there. Shh.). The rooms are absolutely gorgeous. I forget how old the original estate at Buckingham is, but it was the home of a duke for a bit until George IV made it his palace. John Nash designed it and went incredibly over budget, and so it wasn't finished until Queen Victoria's reign. It's stunning, as you might expect, but there are SO MANY TOURISTS. Most of them from Asia. I still have not found a suitable explanation for this phenomenon. After a month in London, I was quite impatient with "regular" tourists, even though I was technically still a tourist.
I spent the afternoon at Regent's Park, in Queen Mary's Garden amongst all of the roses. It was quite lovely--parks in London are fantastic. I think that there are so many parks because Londoners recognize their own need to escape from the city. In the parks and gardens (and even the little neighborhood squares) you can almost forget that you're in the most cosmopolitan city in the world, and you can escape from the noise, the dirt, the tourists, and the sense of a crowded rush of humanity bearing down on you. That's why Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens were built--Queen Victoria realized that Londoners needed a break from all of the pollution and grime in the newly industrialized city, hence, a ginormous park.
Okay, nature rant over. Monday night was also excellent! We went to see Death Trap, a new thriller-comedy (sounds like a good combination, yeah?) that we'd been seeing ads for all month. We got half-price front row tickets! I love the theatre in this country. It wasn't my absolute favorite show, but it was really good and really self-aware. All of the shows that I saw in London (except maybe Les Mis) were very aware of the theatrical traditions that they were coming from, and they played with those conventions. So maybe the British focus on tradition is good for theatre, but bad for traffic at 11.30 in the morning by Buckingham Palace. Anyway, we got to meet Jonathan Groff (Jesse on Glee) after the show (he was one of the leads). He was really nice and didn't seem to mind that there was a group of American girls waiting for him at stage door.
Tuesday was our last day in London, which was so weird. We'd all grown so used to being in the city that it became normal, so leaving for another new place so soon made all of us a little wary. So I was nervous, but excited because I was ready to leave the city. I also had trouble remembering that I wasn't heading home after London--I was going elsewhere for much longer than a month! But we had our last class gathering on Tuesday morning. We hiked up to Hampstead Heath, which offers a beautiful view of London (beautiful view, ugly city. What can you do?) So there was some sentimental wrapping up from some, and frolicking from others. I was one of the frolickers, and we got very lost on the heath (which is just a name for a big hill) on our way back to the city. I considered writing a gothic novel while I was there, but we found our way out again.
That night my friends actually convinced me to go on the London Eye. Yes, me, with my fear of ferris wheels, rode the largest ferris wheel in the world, white-knuckled all of the way. It was a half-hour ride, and it really was beautiful. London at night is amazing. Much nicer than London during the day! We had a great time though, and some of the cliquier members of the group actually condescended to join us. Dinner at a pub afterward, and I felt like it was an appropriate way to say goodbye to London.
So I definitely enjoyed my time in London--I was able to do some absolutely amazing things and I learned a lot, both about London and about myself. It was a fantastic experience, but I am glad to be out of the city. Norwich has been absolutely amazing so far, and I'll try to update on that soon!

"Excuse me, officer, could you tell us how to get to Mordor?"

What's this? Could it be another update so soon? Indeed! Basically, I'm procrastinating on writing intellectual blogs for class, so you all get to reap the benefits (assuming reading about my various adventures is a benefit).
We got to be tourists again on Friday, when John, our wonderful blue badge guide (the official England guides, sort of like cabbies--fountains of random knowledge) gave us a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral. Some of the random knowledge that I picked up--a cathedral houses the seat of a bishop, whereas a church does not. But St. Paul's was beautiful. There's been a church on that spot for hundreds of years, but it's kind of like the Swamp Castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail--one was built, then it burned down. A second one was built, and that burned down. A third church was built, and that got pretty delapidated because it took up so much space that people started using it as a thoroughfare to get from one side of the city to the other, so there would literally be horses trotting on through. Finally someone with sense commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to renovate this church. He said something along the lines of, "Well, this building sucks, let's build an entirely new cathedral!" to which the The Powers That Control Finances replied, "Um... no." But then, presto! The Great Fire happened in 1666 and burned that church down, too, so Wren got to start all over. It took him some thirty years to build, but it's gorgeous. One of the only surviving parts of the pre-1666 church is John Donne's statue. Donne was a famous poet in the seventeenth century, and also served as dean of St. Paul's. He coined the phrase, "No man is an island," to which John our tour guide responded, "Except the Isle of Man."
We didn't get to take photographs inside of the cathedral, but a group of us climbed to the top of the dome. Until the building boom following the Blitz, this was the highest point in London at 365 feet, and it took over 500 steps to get there. The first area that you come to is inside of the church still, and it's called the Whispering Dome. You can stand on one side, whisper something into the wall, and a person standing on the opposite side will hear it. Up another, much narrower staircase was the Stone Gallery, which is on the bottom of the outside dome. This offered some beautiful views of London, but the view from the very, very top was even better. Climbing up the last third felt a little like a scene from The Hunchback of Notre Dame because there are spiral staircases going everywhere, and it was a little scary. The view was amazing, though, even though London is definitely not the prettiest city in the world. Ah well.
After our morning workout, we headed to a lunchtime concert at St. Martin in the Field. After explaining to Stephenie that this was actually a church, not a field, I enjoyed a very nice program by a woodwind trio from the Guildhall Music School. After this concert, a small group of us ate the best lunch ever at a small Italian cafe. The food was amazing, and they were running a promotion where we got free desserts. Awesome? Yes.
Saturday was another day out of London! I've really enjoyed being in London, but I'm very excited to move to Norwich where life will be a little more relaxed and less crowded. Walking in London is incredibly frustrating because there are no established traffic patterns. You'd think, "Okay, they drive on the left side of the road, so people probably walk on the left side, too." Well, that only applies to about one-third of the population. Another third walks on the right side, and the last third just walks down the middle of the sidewalk and runs over anyone who is in their way. And no one will look at you, either. They just stare straight ahead and book it to wherever they're going. Very odd.
So on Saturday we escaped (kind of) to Oxford in the morning. John came with us and gave us a very nice tour of the college area. The University of Oxford is made up of 39 colleges who are all under the authority of the university. The school has existed since the twelfth century when English scholars returned from France and received a charter from Henry I to establish a college. Now, Oxford is famous in my book mainly for two things: 1) the Great Hall of Hogwarts is almost an exact replica of the dining hall in Christchurch College, and 2) J.R.R. Tolkien taught there. He and several other literary figures, including C.S. Lewis, were part of a literary society, called The Inklings, that met at the Eagle and Child pub. I did not get to go to this pub and make the proper homage, but I did get to see Merton College, where Tolkien taught Anglo-Saxon history. It's not much to look at, but this is where he was grading papers one afternoon and wrote on the back of one, "In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit." So no Harry Potter Great Hall and not much Tolkien, but Oxford was a beautiful example of a medieval town.
After our tour, we piled back on the bus to head to Stratford-upon-Avon, which truly is a tourist trap. But being Shakespeare's birth place and all, it's pretty important. Shakespeare's childhood home is a bit of a joke, and I felt as though I was on Splash Mountain instead of in the home of the man who was arguably the greatest writer in the English language. We were herded into several rooms with scenes painted on the walls and ridiculous animated movies playing, and artifacts would light up at random times. Very, very touristy. But we got some fun pictures. We also visited Shakespeare's grave in Holy Trinity Church, so I felt that the appropriate pilgrimmage was made (his tomb is not nearly as attractive as Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo though, so you get the picture of Leo instead. Check facebook for more photos!)
Sunday was a completely free day, which was wonderful. It's been difficult finding time to catch up with myself, especially since I'm always around people. Part of this is the nature of the program, and part of it is living in a city. I've realized that I'm fairly Wordsworthian in that I need trees and rolling hills, and quiet. But I got some decent work done in the mrning, and then my group visited all of the sights for our walking tour of 1960s rock music in London. We got to see Abbey Road studios and the famous zebra crossing. This is the only place in London where motorists actually pay attention to pedestrians because it's a zebra crossing and because there are always at least four tourists trying to cross in a line, with a fifth member taking a picture from the middle of the road. And yes, we're going to try to recreate it next time we go back! But it's cool because the walls outside of Abbey Road Studios are painted white, and people have written messages all over them. I could see earlier messages through the paint--I wonder how many layers of paint are on those walls? We got a bit turned around trying to find Wardour Street, so we decided to ask a passing police officer (or bobby, I guess I should say). David misheard me when I said, "Wardour," and so he actually asked the poor guy how to get to Mordor. Quite understandably, the policeman looked at us like we were completely barking.
That night, all of us headed to the South Bank to visit the Thames Festival, which was a lot of fun. There were beautiful lights up everywhere, and a lot of craft and food vendors, plus live music. It was a beautiful night and a really great atmosphere. We ended the night on Millennium Bridge watching fireworks over the Thames. It was fantastic.
Monday was back to work, and we spent the morning at the East London Mosque, which was very, very interesting. We had all read about Islam prior to our visit, but our guide wasn't sure what to do with us. He asked, "So what do you know about Islam?" This is like asking, "Well, what do you know about books?" Where would you like me to start? What would you like me to say? So no one said anything for a second, and I think that he stereotyped us as ignorant Americans. He did take us through the basic beliefs of Muslims and opened the floor to questions, but he seemed very defensive. He was very quick to dismiss fundamentalists and Muslims who mistreat women or participate in violence as false Muslims. He did draw some interesting points about the differences between the Islamic faith and various cultures that Americans view as extremist or backward. Islam is actually a very tolerant faith. Because our guide immediately stereotyped us, however, I think that we missed a chance at a good dialogue. He mentioned the need for cross-cultural understanding on the parts of both Muslims and non-Muslims, but he didn't seem to want to engage us on that level. Even more interesting, when we were out in the lobby we were watching some children playing in a gymnasium area nextdoor. A woman who was obviously from a more conservative Muslim tradition saw us and immediately pulled down the blinds in the windows and locked the doors to the gym. Very interesting. Stupid pastor in Florida.
Lunch was in Old Spitalfields Market, and I tried Indian food for the first time since I've been in London. It was delicious! We had class discussion in the afternoon, and then the alumni event that I alluded to earlier was that night. We got all dolled up and went to Barclay's to hobnob with President Durden, the chairs of the Board of Trustees, and other alumni. It was probably the highest society that I've ever been in.
President Durden asked a really interesting question, as only he would: have we seen anything since being in London that has changed our ideas of what we want in life? This definitely got me thinking. My political views have certainly become more formed through a combination of listening to NPR all summer and through seeing the British government system and how it works, but I will not bore you with that here. Another aspect of London that I have fallen in love with is the incredibly easy access to the arts here. Londoners seem to have a keen interest in good art and in making that accessible to people. Most of the museums are free (maps are not, however, which is where they get you!) because they're subsidized by the government, and some of the most famous pieces in the world are here. And I've gone to the theatre so many times, for only a small fraction of the price that I would have paid in the States. There's also a global awareness here, both in the arts and in other aspects of life, that I really love, especially since it's mixed with so much history. I don't know if I could live in London, but I do love those aspects of the city.
Today we visited a synagogue in the morning and learned about the history of the Jews in Britain. I've really enjoyed learning about so many different religions during our time here. This afternoon we saw a play called The 39 Steps, which is a spoof of the text that inspired the Hitchcock movie of the same title. Again, loving the theatre--it was fantastic. It was so clever and spoofed not only Hitchcock but theatre and Englishness in general. It was so well done, and the performers' timing was impeccable. Apparently it's playing off Broadway now in New York, but I don't think that it will do very well in the States. It's just so wonderfully British, and I think that a lot of the humour would be lost on the general public elsewhere. I realized half way through the show that I actually watched a Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of the text last year, so I enjoyed it even more. It was like Spamalot, except it made more sense.
Well, that got rather long-winded there, but now you're all caught up! And this week will be a lot of research, so not as much to report back. I miss you all, and I think about you a lot, especially when I have to get up and I remember that I could be sleeping for five more hours in the States. One more week in London!

Off With Her Head!

So I've been horribly remiss about keeping up with the blog in the past week--apologies! I've been very busy running around to different places and hobnobbing with alumni. This past week was our last week of major class outings and discussions. We've started working on our final projects, which involve creating a walking tour for a specific community in London. As an homage to Pirate Radio, my group is concentrating on the advent of rock music in the 1960s and what it meant for youth culture in London.
So I left off on last Saturday, yeah? (that's how everyone talks here--you either have to add "yeah?" or "innit?" on the end of fairly rhetorical statements.) Sunday was the first time that I was able to sneak off alone, and it was lovely! We had the whole day to ourselves, so I took a solo trip to the National Gallery in the morning. Best decision that I've made since I went to see Billy Elliot. The National Gallery is fantastic--they have a great collection of pieces ranging from Duccio to Van Gogh. I got to see Leonardo da Vinci's cartoon for "Madonna and Child," as well as William Hogarth's "Marriage a la Mode" and several great paintings by Gainsborough, Turner, Monet, Degas, and others. I'm really glad that I took an art history class!
Stephenie and Matt met me for lunch, and then the three of us headed to Kensington Gardens to conduct more creeper park research. We saw Kensington Palace, where the gates are still covered with notes and pictures of Princess Diana. We also found the Peter Pan statue after much hunting and getting rather turned around. That's another thing off the bucket list (we tried to find Platform 9 3/4 the other day, so we headed to King's Cross and looked for Platforms 9 and 10. First of all, there is no barrier between said platforms, just an open track. Second, it's outside. What??)
Sunday night I had a ticket to see the world premier of Bedlam, the first show written by a female playwright ever performed at the Globe. It takes place in Bedlam during the eighteenth century and is about the corruption of the institution, although it's a comedy... Yeah, it didn't work too well. I enjoyed it, but I won't be rushing back to see it.
I spent most of Monday at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is the craziest place ever. Holy crap. I have never seen so much stuff packed into one place. And it's all shiny! It was total sensory overload. But seriously, that museum has exhibits on everything from fashion to jewelry to micromosaics, to every piece of silver that has ever been hammered into any shape that at least resembles a dish, to medieval artifacts. The material wealth in that museum is ridiculous, and it drove home the idea of a consumer culture. Imperialism begets opulence and the accumulation of random stuff from every corner of the world. There is so much stuff in there that it's impossible to take it all in--your eyes just start to glaze over. My favorite part was the exhibition of Beatrix Potter's original illustrations to Peter Rabbit.
After escaping from the V&A (the maps were completely useless, so you actually did have to escape), a group of us went to see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre. Stephenie had dragged us all over creation in the morning in order to get tickets, and I'm glad to report that it was worth it (and I only paid 20 pounds. Win). The show was beautiful, full of big, belty, Broadway classics that are still stuck in my head... very enjoyable. I did like Billy Elliot better, though, because I thought that it was more honest. But I mean, Les Mis is Les Mis, and it's hard to argue with that. Now I want to read the book!
On Tuesday we visited the gorgeous Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a very famous Hindu Temple. They had a fantastic educational exhibit, so we learned about the basic Hindu beliefs and even got to take part in a prayer ceremony. Growing up as a Christian, I was always taught that the worship of idols is bad, but the Hindus believe that their idols are actually imbued with the spirits of the gods they represent. They dress the idols everyday, leave them food three times a day, and even put them down for afternoon naps. It was really interesting to see, and I learned a lot. Everyone there was so welcoming, too, and they were amazingly tolerant of other beliefs.
Wednesday was the two-week mark, which seems insane. I feel like I've been in London forever. I'm pretty sure that there's a time warp thing going on somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Time-space continuum aside, I visited the Sir John Soane Museum on Wednesday morning. Another fun fact about imperial nations--if you're rich, you can buy important artifacts from all over the world, stick them in your house, and then open it as a museum! Material culture again, I'm telling you. But Soane was an important architect in the Victorian Era, and he actually designed his home to hold all of these insane artifacts. I mean, the man has Hogarth paintings tucked in a little room, and there are Turner sketches on the secret walls that fold out from the main walls. He also built a crypt to house his Ancient Egyptian sarcophogus. Right then. The whole place reminded me of a wizard's house--it looks completely normal from the street, but you walk in and BAM! there's a giant wave of eccentricy streaming from every room. He had a Shakespeare shrine built into his wall. Win.
Thursday was yet another long day, but it was excellent. We visited the Tower of London, and I spent all morning there. It's extremely touristy, but it's also an incredible place in terms of British history. We saw the Crown Jewels first (can't take pictures of them, though), where the guards talked to me and Liz for almost an hour. The magnificence of the various crowns is incredible. One of the kings once complained that he was tired of wearing the heavy crown (they're about five pounds)--Sir, you have over 2,000 diamonds on your head, which is more money than I will probably ever make in my life. Shut up.
Liz and I spent the rest of the day investigating the Bloody Tower, where the Princes in the Tower were supposedly murdered (NOT by Richard III, thank you Shakespeare), Tower Green, where Anne Boleyn was executed, and other fun, nerdy-awesome sights. The Bloody Tower is only named such because it's where the Princes were murdered (the picture shows the staircase in the White Tower where their skeletons were found), and Beauchamp Tower is where many political prisoners were kept, including Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Robert Dudley, and Lady Jane Grey. The White Tower (not in Gondor) had a lot of fun exhibits, including armor from King Henry VIII. In Tudor times, the White Tower housed the armory, the Line of Kings exhibit, the chapel, the garrisons, and served many other important functions. Fun fact about the Tower of London: the royal ravens are also kept here. Legend says that when the ravens leave the Tower, the monarchy will fall. So what has the monarchy done? Clipped the ravens' wings. True story. Cheating? Yes.
Thursday afternoon was spent at the British Library, which is mammoth. A lot of things here are mammoth--maybe the Brits feel that they have to keep reminding the world that, once upon a time, they had the biggest and the best of everything. But the Library is like a city unto itself, complete with eighteen thousand cafes and, of course, a gift shop. But I got my reader card and went through the "Treasures of the British Library" exhibit. This was absolutely amazing. They have the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf, arguably the mother-text of all subsequent English literature. Oh my gosh. I cried a little bit, not going to lie. In the same case was a gorgeous illuminated copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and further down the line was Jane Austen's journal and writing desk! Too much literature wonderfulness to handle! Other treasures included a typed and edited poem by Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare folios, hand-written Beatles lyrics, and a draft of a Wordsworth poem. Oh, and the Magna Carta. No biggie.
That gets us through most of the days, yeah? I'll catch up more later, but now I have to go to bed! Love and miss you all!

"What are men compared to rocks and mountains?"

The immortal words of Jane Austen...especially relevant this week as we got to explore outside of London (not that London isn't amazing, of course). But that will have to wait until Thursday. Wednesday was much more business as usual. We started off with a walk through the East End. The West End is famous for its theatres and for being the playground of the wealthy, but the East End has always had a bad rap in London's history. It started as the area outside of Roman Londinium, so it's always been separate and sort of mysterious. Later on it became an industrial center, full of slums, with overwhelming poverty and violence. Pick up a Charles Dickens novel--you'll see. In the Victorian era it was home to Jack the Ripper, who both made it famous and further degraded its reputation. The East End was also Cockney territory ("'ello, guv'nah," rhyming slang, and all of that), but it's been home to immigrant communities for hundreds of years. The Huguenots moved to the East End from France in the eighteenth century to become weavers, and a sizable Jewish population grew there during the Russian pogroms of the nineteenth century. In the past twenty or thirty years, however, these groups have moved farther out of the city and the Bengali population has exploded. The area around Brick Lane is called Banglatown because of the enormous concentration of Bengali immigrants who live there. The community has remained very close, with a tight center on religious and family values. Now, however, young "yuppies" are starting to move into old warehouses that have been turned into apartments, which drives up real estate costs and forces poor immigrant families out of the area. There you go, more than you ever wanted to know about the East End.
We had a class discussion (imagine that) after a quick lunch at a nearby pub, and then we had an awkward amount of free time. Professor Qualls doesn't really seem to have a realistic idea of how long it takes to eat lunch or how long it takes to go anywhere productive in the city. We wanted to go to the Tate Modern, but there wasn't time before we had to be at St. Pauls, so we got distracted by the Olde Sweet Shoppe instead. Good decision.
At 5 we attended Evensong at St. Paul's cathedral, and I got to sit in the choir stalls (called the quire, no idea why). The singing was beautiful, although everything involved so much pomp and circumstance. Following prayers, some of my friends and I hit up a grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner. Our favorite grocery store is called Sainsbury's, which is middle of the road. I've noticed that grocery stores are much smaller here than they are at home, I think because people tend to buy more fresh food here and therefore go to the store more often. For example, the only frozen vegetables available in London seem to be peas. I don't know why peas have been given this honor, but there you go. Anyway, I made avegolemono soup, and we had bread and grilled peppers. We had to fight the other group for the kitchen, which was a fairly political battle, but in the end everything worked out, and I got to have my favorite soup. After clean up we had dessert and cider in the garden, which turned into the hotel staff (who were having a fairly rowdy gathering already) giving us free bottles of wine, which led to drinking wine with Professor Qualls and Carol Anne in the kitchen until the wee hours of the morning. Good times. Tired times, but good.
Thursday, of course, was our earliest morning thusfar. We got on a coach for the two-hour ride to Stonehenge, which I was very excited about. I wasn't disappointed. Even though the walking path is literally ten feet from the highway (and by highway the Brits mean a narrow two-lane road through the countryside) and there were a gigabazillion tourists there, everything around the henge was still tranquil. I knew that Stonehenge was an engineering masterpiece, but I didn't know how sophisticated it actually is. First of all, the inner circle of stones was built around 3500 B.C., and the outer stones were added a few hundred years later, around 1600 B.C. Wow. Second, about one-third of each of the standing stones is actually buried underground. Third, the sun rises through a different space every month of the year--Stonehenge is a calendar. So incredible. I've come to the conclusion that the only rational explanation is magic.
After our brief time at Stonehenge, we piled back onto the bus and drove through the Salisbury Plains. I wanted to see the chalk horses in the side of the hills, but our road didn't take us that way. Before too long, though, we were descending into the city of Bath, which is absolutely beautiful. It looks like an old European city, with cobblestone streets and beautiful Georgian architecture in warm stone. So, so pretty. And it's legendary Jane Austen country (she lived there for several years, and although she didn't write very much there, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey both feature parts set in Bath. It was the fashionable place to be). We started off in the Roman Baths, which were built around 60 A.D. Bath is home to the only hotspring in the United Kingdom, and the Romans built the baths and a temple to the goddess of the springs there. It's maintained its popularity as a destination for people to go and take the "healing waters" of the spring.
We wandered through the museum and saw the Roman ruins, then Liz and I found our way to the Pump Room of Jane Austen fame. This was the place for all sociable people to see and be seen during the day in Georgian Bath. It was here that people formed acquaintances so that they could be invited to dinners and parties later. So Liz and I sampled the famous water, which was hot and tasted kind of nasty. Not sure about its healing powers, but I think that once is enough!
After the baths, the rest of the afternoon was ours, so Liz and I almost ran to the Jane Austen Centre, where we spent a lovely afternoon going through the exhibits and the gift shop. We also had proper afternoon tea in the Regency Tea Room run by the Centre.
I had a great time in Bath, and I definitely hope to go back. We didn't have time to see anything beside the Jane Austen Centre (again, Professor Qualls's concept of time is very different from mine), and I would love to see the Crescent, the Abbey, and the Fashion Museum, as well as just exploring the beautiful city. Check out my facebook for more pictures of Bath, because there are a ton!
Since Thursday was also Stephenie's 21st birthday, we caved and went to Hard Rock Cafe with her for dinner and drinks (21 is still exciting, even if it is in England), so it was a really fun end to a great day.
Friday was the Day of Museums. In the morning I visited the National Portrait Gallery and saw surprise! Cassandra Austen's portrait of Jane, along with the first part of the collection. I liked being able to put faces with names of various historical figures (like the entire cast of characters in Elizabeth). But we only had an hour or so there before we had to meet at Westminster Abbey for a guided tour, which was phenomenal. The Abbey is gorgeous, of course, and there are so many famous people buried there! I looked down once and realized that I was walking on David Lloyd George's grave, so I hastily stepped to the side. Probably walked over Charles Darwin. Who knows. Fun fact (or maybe not, you may be sick of these): every English monarch since William the Conquerer in 1066 has been crowned on the sight of Westminster Abbey. It was built in 950 by Benedictine monks, then Edward the Confessor made it a church in 1042. That didn't survive, so Henry III built a more magnificent church that included flying buttresses (I mean, how could you go wrong?) in 1216. Edward I was therefore the first king to be crowned in the actual church.
Lunch was in St. James Park, by Buckingham Palace, where we had to awkardly observe other people and take pictures for a class assignment. After our anthropological stint we visited Winston Churchill's War Rooms, the underground cement bunker where he directed World War II. When Churchill and his cabinet left the bunker in 1945, they literally just up and left all of their papers, pens, etc. on the tables (I guess I would too after being underground for the better part of five years), and those rooms have been preserved just as they were. It was really cool to see, and they have sound clips from meetings and even a phone call between Churchill and President Roosevelt.
Kaitlin and I hurried back to the National Portrait Gallery (by way of Big Ben) after the War Rooms, where we finished going through the collection. You'd think that two and a half museums (I count the Abbey as half a museum) would be enough, but no, we had to go to the British Museum before dinner to see certain artifacts. We're still working with the series "A History of the World in 100 Objects," and last night we saw the Rosetta Stone and a few other objects. The Rosetta Stone makes sense to me, but one of the other objects was a collection of clay cow figurines from Ancient Egypt. Really? Maybe I was just out of patience. The British Museum annoys me, because I feel like it says, "Oh hey, we stole a bunch of random stuff from all of these other cultures because we're the biggest, baddest, most imperial nation ever, and now that we don't have an empire anymore we're just going to stick all of this stuff in cases with little tags." Job done.
Today was less museum-heavy (thank goodness). We started out with another classroom discussion, this time about Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. For lunch we went to Borough Market under London Bridge, which is the oldest produce market in London. There were amazing amounts of food there, and it all looked so good! After lunch Professor Qualls led a walking tour of Southwark, which is on the South Bank of the Thames. Basically, the North Bank, where the Square Mile is, decided that everyone who was deemed "unworthy" could live on the South Bank of the Thames, so all of the criminals, prostitutes, dock workers, and *gasp* actors were shipped there. The Elizabethan theatres, including the Globe, were all built on the South Bank, in the red light district no less. The South Bank had become synonymous with entertainment and debauchery, as well as crime, by Shakespeare's day. All of London's major prisons were here, too, including Newgate and The Clink, which was so notorious that it has given its name to all other prisons. Lovely place, really. Now it's been cleaned up, and the late 1990s saw major efforts to develop it in time for the new millennium. This is when the Millennium Bridge, the new Globe Theatre, and the Tate Modern came into being.
Speaking of the Tate Modern, I visited it after our walking tour was done. I have come to the conclusion that modern art and I are just never going to get along. Ever. I came, I saw, I shook my head in confusion, I left. We had a lovely barbeque (although British people haven't seemed to have mastered the art of grilling in the thousands of years of their existence) courtesy of the hotel, and I decided that a quiet evening was in order. More museums tomorrow!
Author's note: If you're bored to tears by my random tangents into British history, let me know. I just find it all so fascinating, and I want to share what I'm learning with you.