British Museum, Westminster Abbey, and Windsor Castle

Okay, it's been quite awhile since I've updated this thing. And a lot has happened, so playing a bit of catch up will be in order. The "problem" is that I've been making a good amount of good friends, so free time to sit down and type out the day's happenings is somewhat of a rarity. As a matter of fact, this may be a bit short because I just got back from Windsor Castle and will soon be heading out for the evening.

I'm really enjoying meeting new people out here. My new roommate Tim and I get along very well. We actually met a group of girls from Boston University last night, and they seem nice. I'm even planning on going to Italy for a week and a half with a few girls from Washington. I don't know, it just feels like now I'm actually beginning to have a social life out here, and I really like it.

On Wednesday I went to the British Museum, which was actually on the top of my list of places to see here, but one of the last places I've seen. The exhibits were absolutely amazing. Just getting the chance to see, in real life, those artifacts that I've read about and seen in history books felt like a privilege (and again, it was free). I saw Keats' Grecian Urn, the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, and a vast array of awe-inspiring artifacts from the Ancient Near East and the Persian Empire (not to mention the large Egypt exhibit). It was a shame that I wasn't in much of a museum mood and ran out of steam only after two hours, but needless to say I will be returning soon.

Yesterday was absolutely fantastic. My roommates and I headed to Trafalgar Square, we then walked to Parliament - a building with such spectacular architecture, I am sure I will never get used to seeing it (even though I will be taking a class there every week). Then the three of us attended an Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. It was a relatively small choir, but it was one of the best I think I will ever here. The combination of the moving hymns, hundreds of years of tradition, the acoustics, and standing in one of the most beautiful and venerated buildings in the world brought me to tears. I usually hate employing the superlative, but it was truly one of the most moving experiences of my life. If you were to attend that service and feel nothing, then I would doubt your humanity.

Today I awoke to a phone call from my friend Jenny asking me if I wanted to go to Windsor Castle in fifteen minutes. I couldn't resist the opportunity. So we (Lisa, Stephanie, Jenny, Chris, and Me) took the Tube to Paddington, and then took the train to Slough (where the British/original version of The Office takes place) and onto Windsor. Getting into the castle cost a somewhat hefty 14 pounds. Come to think of it, today was the first day I've paid for entrance into anything, I'd say that's pretty good. At half a million square feet, Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world. It's actually quite ridiculous in its enormity considering the fact that it is listed as a Royal residence, it's more like a city unto itself. It was interesting touring the State Apartments, but waiting in line for 45 minutes to see Queen Mary's Doll House was a bit laughable - being that it's just a big doll house. Just so I didn't feel like I just wasted an hour of my life, I had to lie to myself and tell myself I was interested in the exhibit, but I suppose I had to do whatever the girls wanted to do.

Well, this is where I cut it short. It's off to the Imperial Student Union yet again.

Hyde Park Walk and First Day of Classes

Today was my first day of two of my classes: Inside Parliament: British Politics and History of London. It looks like my British Politics class will actually be pretty challenging, I have to write a hefty essay and present it - to a Member of Parliament (MP), yikes. My History of London class will be interesting even though my professor is a geeky Yank. I assumed that he would essentially be a very well-informed tour guide, but actually he's just going to give us worksheets, which is somewhat of a disappointment. Oh speaking of disappointment, I got another roommate today. For the last week it's just been me and my roommate Brandon sharing a triple room, which would have made it very easy for visitors to stay here. But this morning I woke up to a new roommate. Turns out his visa got delayed (one of my main fears before flying out here) so he showed up a week late, too bad for him. He's from Texas, and seems like a good guy.

Yesterday I went on my most ambitious London walk/trek yet. I actually mapped it out on Google Earth and it was 8 miles. First I walked down to the Natural History Museum, which is geared much more towards the younger crowd (which is what I expected). I'm not much into fossils and reconstructed dinosaurs, but their biology and ecology exhibits were interesting, not to mention the absolutely beautiful architecture. The building could obviously be considered one of the major cathedrals built to science. I did skip a few exhibits in favor of just sitting on the top floor and admiring Waterhouse's "idiosyncratic Romanesque" design. After leaving the museum I did a proper grand tour of Hyde Park - Prince Albert Memorial, The Serpentine, Hyde Park Corner, and the Wellington Arch. Looking at it all on a map makes me realize I should have hopped on over to Buckingham Palace, but I have a few more months. I walked by the Iranian Embassy on the way back to Kensington, which was interesting because I saw the exhibit on the SAS siege only a day before at the Imperial War Museum. I'm still getting used to seeing these sights in person that I've seen on television and in textbooks so many times.

I plan on taking it easy tonight, and perhaps spending some time in Hyde Park tomorrow before class, but we'll see. Cheers!

Imperial War Museum

Another day, another museum and yet again my feet are very sore from all of the walking. Last night I decided to skip the Thames pub walk on account that I'm beginning to feel a bit ridiculous walking around London in a group of about one hundred Americans. Instead I went out with my roommate Brandon and his friend Tim to St. Pancras (a borough in northern London) to watch a rugby match a rugby pub, but after three transfers on the Tube and walking about a mile we found out that the game was in fact the day before. So while we didn't get to watch a match in the pub, we did get to explore a bit of North London. The area we were in was quite different from Kensington, the fact that was a little more gritty and far more working class seemed to give the area a little more character. I'm not complaining one bit, but it seems as if Kensington is constantly posing for its postcard picture.

I slept in a little bit today and skipped the Tate Modern field trip for the same reason as the pub walk, and the Tate isn't going anywhere. Instead I decided to go to the Imperial War Museum in Newington, a borough in south London. Word to the wise, if you can avoid it, don't take the Tube on the weekends - I found that out the hard way. The two main lines (District and Circle) that go through Gloucester Road were closed for maintenance, so that meant that everyone had to pile onto the Piccadilly Line. I think that ride will be some of the most cramped twenty minutes of my life, I think it might have even cured me of my mild claustrophobia. I also found out that the stereotype about Europeans not wearing deodorant seems to ring true, very true.

The Imperial War Museum was yet another wonderful and free London museum. Its displays did not glorify war, instead they attempted to show the gritty reality of it all. Walking into the World War One section was heart-wrenching, it was a series of war photographs coupled with some of the most poignant quotes I've read. While the primary source interviews and exhibits were interesting, the museum was a bit short on actual "artifacts" (I don't know if you can call them artifacts being that the museum only covers history from World War One onward), with the highlight probably being the infamous piece of paper brought back to Britain by Chamberlain, signed by Hitler in September of 1938, that promised peace. The museum also had what is supposed to be one of the best Holocaust exhibits, and it was very well done, I suppose it was as tasteful as anything dealing with the Holocaust can be.

Going through each exhibit I noticed that any mention of Israel was very subdued, the only thing I could find dealing with this conflict that has been going on for over sixty years was a small paragraph in one of the displays dealing with the Middle East conflicts. There was no mention of the formation in the Holocaust exhibit (it set aside two rooms to the aftermath of the atrocities). It seemed quite odd to me, and then as I walked out I saw a plaque that read "This construction and renovation of this museum was primarily funded by Oman, Brunei, and Yemen". I don't blame the curators for diminishing the importance of the Arab-Israeli conflict to avoid controversy, I would too.

I spent about five hours in the museum and returned to my flat late this afternoon. I skipped yet another "orientation" activity this evening (I didn't really feel like going on a booze cruise) and settled for wandering the neighborhood some more. I also booked two trips, one to Bath next Thursday-Sunday and one to Prague for five days in November. After spending about 400 dollars on those two trips (that's just on the train and plane tickets and hostel bed), I think I'll only be able to afford my week and a half heritage tour of Norway and Italy next month. And I'm still trying to comprehend the fact that I'm in London.