A plunge into history and culture

Today was the start of British Seminar, our comprehensive everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-Britain-and-then-some class, by taking a field trip to the Museum of London. Although it's not nearly as large and lavish as the British Museum that I visited yesterday, the Museum of London is a little gem nestled in yet another corner of this fascinating city.

Since we're currently learning about the history of London, it provided a really cool look at actual artifacts that were excavated in the area, starting from prehistoric times and going up through the medieval period.

The great thing about going to museums over here is that there are SO many artifacts and specimens! I never really thought about it before, but because of the climate, the types of materials that were used, and I suppose just the sheer age of this place, everything was preserved really well.

The two pictures above are of the Shepperton Woman, dating back somewhere between 3640-3100BC. The first picture is the actual bones that were found, and the second is the facial reconstruction made from the pieces that were found. I thought it was pretty interesting, especially from an anthropological perspective.

There were also tons of spearheads, swords, skulls and tools on display.

Beyond the prehistory gallery were the Roman artifacts. The 2 black fabric-type things on the sides of the display are actully ancient Roman bikinis, in case you were curious (which you probably weren't before, but you are now).

Believe it or not, this wall outside the museum is actually an original Roman wall from the 1st century AD. It's been rebuilt a lot, but the pieces at the bottom are mostly original. I am just astounded to be surrounded by all this history.

I thought these were really funny. The ancient peoples seemed to like putting funny faces on their water jars...

This is a hundred year old model of the original St. Paul's Cathedral. I hadn't realized it looked so different at one time!

This is some chainmail armor from the medieval period.

Another medieval artifact - and old fish trap!

And yet another old piece -- this is a carving from a wooden chest depicting a scene from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I'm still amazed by the great condition these are in.

After finishing up at the museum, we decided to go have lunch in Chinatown, just a short Tube ride away. I guess it was lot like Chinatown in San Francisco, but less hilly of course. There were tons of Chinese restaurants, markets, and random little shops crammed along the wet street decorated with lanterns.

I'm definitely coming back here more often -- and especially for the Chinese New Year next week.

Well, this post has become waaaay longer than I wanted it to be, so I guess I'll have to write more about classes and daily life next time.

Until then,

Cheers!

Night Lights

Last night my roommates and I took the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral to take some night shots of the church and Millennium Bridge. It was absolutely freezing out (mid-30s with a windchill) but totally worth it in every way.

The street at night

This is the view out over the Thames at night.

This is me freezing my butt off on the Millennium Bridge.

St. Paul's Cathedral from across the bridge

View of the Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Thames.

Scavenger Hunt in the City

 have so much to tell about, I think I'm going to just do it by explaining each picture for now (seriously, I could practically write a novel about everything we just did today!). So, the first picture is our classroom/common room where we had orientation today. This basically consisted of meeting Sylvia, our cook, going over logistics, and learning all the house rules. We were given our Oyster Cards (Tube passes), signed up for meal duties, and Prof. Pitcher assigned us a scavenger hunt to do around the city.

The two pictures below are of our house from the back garden. I still can't believe I LIVE here!

The next 3 photos are of the views outside my window.

The first step on our scavenger hunt was to take the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral. Riding the Tube was easy -- finding the Cathedral, however? Not so much. First we turned the wrong direction and headed towards this old building, which we thought was something important, but oddly enough the sign on the window said "The Dentist." I still don't quite understand...

Eventually we turned around and someone said, "Oh, duh, it's right over there!" Lo and behold, there it was, a gigantic building impossible to miss. We walked to it the back way and finally found the front to take our picture at, as assigned.

Next we walked to Millenium Bridge (as seen in Harry Potter!) and admired the River Thames for a little bit.

From there we promptly go ourselves lost on the way to Trafalgar Square. Or rather, we took the long way to get there and learned the hard way that "Subway" does not actually mean a subway -- it's an underground walkway, which I knew before, but got confused by the signs.

Regardless, we got a good walking tour of the city along the Thames.

This was an interesting curved building along a side street.

This was also an interesting building with a little friar dude on the front and a train running behind it.

Finally made it to Trafalgar Square. It was pretty, but there wasn't much to it. Mostly a couple big fountains and a big statue thing and a lot of tourists.

Our next stop was Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (which are right next to each other. On the way there, we fon this interesting Women of WWII memorial in the middle of the street.

...And the London Eye, which I probably won't ride since I hear it's about 20 pounds to go on. It's pretty to look at though, and admire from afar.

And the infamous Big Ben tower. I'm going back sometime later this week to look at it some more. We didn't spend too much time here, but it was absolutely beautiful.

Across the street was Westminster Abbey. This place, too, was crowded with tourists, but right beside it in the courtyard was St. Margaret's Cathedral, a smaller (relatively speaking!) church that very few people seemed to notice.

I didn't take any pictures inside it, as that seemed highly inappropriate in such an obviously sacred place. There were a few tourists inside, but it was incredibly quiet, and aglow with candles and stained glass windows. There were tombs inside with people buried all the way back from the 1600s.

After a little while, we continued on to Buckingham Palace. By now it was getting late and we were all getting pretty tired. I didn't really get any good pictures of the palace, but again, I plan on returning there to see it again now that I know generally where everything is.

We rode the Tube to Piccadilly Circus (London's version of Times Square) just as the sun was beginning to set around 4:30. We decided we'd have to forego our last stop, all the way up on Oxford Street in order to make it back to dinner in time by 5pm. Back on the Tube, we rode home and then had an amazing dinner of lamb, roast potatoes, veggies, and Yorkshire Pudding (which is nothing like it sounds -- it's kind of like a light flaky biscuit!).

So that was my day in a nutshell! It's getting late here so I'm going to peace out for now.

Cheers!

Welcome to London!

Arrived today in London at around 6:50am after a 12 hour transit. All I can say is, I'm glad I won't be making that flight again until May. To be fair, it wasn't all that bad. But considering it's Sunday and I haven't slept since Friday, everything feels a little fuzzy right now. And yet, that's the joy of traveling, is it not? Putting yourself out of your comfort zone and just merging into a whole other world.

A whole other world is definitely what I found myself in when I arrived this morning.

In Detroit, I met another Eckerd student who was on my flight, so we traveled together as far as baggage claim in Heathrow. At that point, she wanted to take a taxi all the way to the house, whereas I had agreed to meet 2 other students and take the train into the city.

Everything went surprisingly smoothly until I realized my rendezvous was no where to be found. Finally I asked some employees at a baggage window if the students' flight had come in on time, and they told me to walk out some doors to the right and ask at the information desk.

When I walked out those doors (which were one way, mind you -- no turning back!), I was NOT prepared for what I found. I almost froze, dumbfounded as I stared into the eyes of what seemed like hundreds people leaning over a cordoned off area waving signs with peoples names they were supposed to be picking up.

It was a little terrifying. Beyond this wall of grim-faced Londoners was a massive terminal. I turned right and started walking, when suddenly I heard my name being called from a voice I recognized. Miraculously, I found the two students was meeting (or rather, they found me).

From there, as planned, we found our way to the Heathrow Connect (cheaper than the Heathrow Express) and rode it straight through to Paddington Station. I took a short video when we first came out from underground, which can be seen here.

At Paddington we followed the signs to the taxi area, where we quickly hailed a cab and rode to the London House. It came out to about 12 pounds which we split between the 3 of us.

At the house, I was first assigned the top floor double room, but later swapped with someone else who didn't want to sleep in the top bunk of the triple room the next floor down. Long story short, I'm now rooming on the 3rd floor (considered the 4th floor in the US) with the 2 students who I traveled with from the airport.

After getting everything sorted out, we walked around the city for the afternoon, sightseeing and trying to take everything in. I didn't want to take too many photos but I'll definitely take more tomorrow. There are no words to describe this city, other than that it is *nothing* like home.

There is so much more I want to write, but I'm really exhausted right now and can't think and I need to try and figure out how to sleep with the so far almost constant roar of traffic and sirens blasting through our window that doesn't close all the way.

What an adventure! More updates to come.

Cheers!

Song of the Open Road

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
...
From this hour, freedom!
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute,
Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the hold that would hold me.

I was looking up a quote today and I came across this passage the poem Song of the Open Road, by Walt Whitman (one of my favorite poets).  The entire piece is extremely long and rambles on in that great life-loving, celebratory way that Whitman seems to express in all his poetry.

Whatever it is, these lines spoke to me today. I guess it was partially the realization that this weekend I'm actually leaving for London. I'm about to embark on that life-changing, spirit-freeing, mind-opening rite-of-passage we like to call "travel."

My open road is not one in the literal sense. Rather, it is a path I'm taking in life, a personal journey to understand the world a little better and my own self as well.

London in a Fortnight

This morning I was struck by the realization that in exactly 14 days I will be leaving the States for my adventure abroad. I've wanted this for so long, but at times it just feels so overwhelming. I have chosen to embark on this journey, to begin a new chapter of my life and yet… This chapter seems to be one I am afraid to write.

But why?

I suppose it's for many reasons. It's always a little scary delving into the unknown. I'm afraid of all the things that could go wrong, but probably won't. Little stuff and big stuff. Just the whole idea of being so far away and isolated from the resources I know how to utilize at home is kind of an unsettling thought.

But at the same time, traveling to London is an exceedingly tame endeavor. Unlike many of my friends who have traveled all over the world to volunteer at orphanages in Africa, practice languages in Japan and South America, study marine science in the Honduras, and so on, visiting the UK for a few months seems like a walk in the park.

Yet in the story of my life, it is the biggest thing I have ever done. All conflicting thoughts and feelings aside, I know that in the end this will be an incredible character building experience, and hopefully one that will prepare me for the things I'd like to do in the future. On that drift, I am completely ecstatic about the trip.

I can't wait to see all the new sights, taste new foods, hear new sounds, experience life in a new way. I can't even fathom the reality of this opportunity. Fourteen days. How do I even prepare for this? What an adventure it will be!

Lundenwic to Lundenburg

I left off last time with the story of the "Warrior Babe" (as Mom described her when I told her the story!) Queen Boudicca. I must concur, it does seem to be a fitting name. But that was only in 60AD.

After that, more turmoil ensued, as tribes and empires and vikings battled it out on Great Britain's soils. Between about 70-120AD, Londinium was a fairly successful trade state, until it crashed and burned around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

Seems that a lot of emperors wanted to take control of the city, too. Although their names were quite entertaining to read (Carausius, Emporer Maximian, Constantius Chlorus, Diocletian, and Galerius to name a few), my textbook offers a tedious description of these emperors' tug-o-war battles over London.

Amongst the turmoil, in 313 AD arguably one of the most important events occured in Londinium: the establishment of Christianity. With this as the recognized religion of the city, politics slowly began to change. And as London continued to crumble off and on, in between bouts of successful commerce and trade the city began to evolve into the more medieval nature with which we tend to think of old England.

Between 400-886 AD, Londinium turned into Lundenwic ("wic" derived from Latin vicus meaning a village or quarter of a city). During this period, London was attacked by vikings, barbarians and warlords with awesome names (like Vortigern -- who could go wrong with a name like that??), and influenced by various popes and kings and whatnot.

There's an interesting tidbit in the textbook about the Knights Templar. Apparently (I either didn't know this or had forgotten) they were originally the "Knights of the Temple of Solomon of Jerusalem" and acted as a religious order formed for the protection of travelers on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Eventually the pope suppressed them in 1312, however and gave their house and services over to another travel agency group ("travel agency" in the historical sense, of course -- not Travelocity!).

On that note, this traveler is going to sign off for now. I'll enlighten you to more of ancient England next time. Can't believe I'll be leaving in just over 3 weeks!