Week Two: London

Monday 6 September 2010
 
Today was a fairly average day. Went to religion class and Jane Austen class. I absolutely loved religion class! Uncle Dave is looking at Christianity from a truly fascinating angle, I know I'm going to learn a lot. Austen class was good, but I've never been a huge fan of pure discussion classes. At least I raised my hand and participated a few times. More importantly: today was the last day of dishcrew!!!! Actually, our crew has another week in October, but I'm not thinking about that right now. We didn't really go out today, just walked to the grocery store. The tube workers are on strike today and tomorrow so that's not really an option.

However, there is going to be a free flute concert tomorrow at one (one of a series Julie and I are going to try and make it to a few times) at a church--St. Martins-of-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square--that we want to go to. We'll probably take a bus right after our last class gets out (12:05), with the overground system it'll be a close call. But, Julie played the flute in high school and the church is supposed to be beautiful, so it's worth it.

Today was also the first day of actual rain we've had here. It was damp when I woke up and while we were out it sprinkled on us. This makes it official. We have arrived in London.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Wait, what, it's Tuesday? I am completely losing track of the days here. But, I guess that's a good thing. This morning: NO DISH CREW. That is a big deal. I still woke up early because I simply have to do that when I live with a big group of girls like this. But after finishing my hair I did some reading rather than immediately leave to set up breakfast.

Other than that, nothing much to report. Just classes and homework. Oh, Katy, Julie and I walked down Bayswater and then onto a nice little side street and enjoyed some of the best gelato ever. This was my first experience with Italian ice cream. Heaven. It's the real deal. It was melting as we tucked in--no preservatives. Wonderful. I even took a picture. It was also good for us to take a break from studying and be able to chat while still enjoying a new sight of London.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Today was our first London Study. Generally these are on a Friday, but today it was on a Wednesday and our big field trip of the week will be on Friday. Go figure. We set out right after breakfast, put enough money on our oyster cards for the month (so last Sunday's fiasco won't happen to anyone else) and set off for St. Paul's. Fortunately we experienced no tube trouble. Praise be--the strike is over.

We got the "supertour" of St. Paul's and it was phenomenal. Generally, I am very into art. But recently, it has been all about the architecture. Professors always joke that architecture is the part of the art history class where everyone falls asleep; and it certainly isn't interesting in book form. But, there is something about actually walking around a building, it simply cannot be compared to. I learned so much! In fact, it's list time:

1. Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington are buried in St. Paul's crypt
2. Winston Churchill was honored after his death here, but is buried elsewhere
3. Joseph William Turner (an amazing Romantic artist)--among others--is buried in the crypt
4. The Whispering Galleries actually work: I could hear Katy from across the dome
5. Cathedrals are beautiful and enormous
6. The only stained glass in St. Paul's (Sir Christopher Wren--the architect--wanted natural light so that the cathedral was bright) is for the tribute to American soldiers at the end of the apse
7. There is a rocket in the stonework of the American tribute, disguised as a flower (monument completed in early 50s--America leads the Space Age)
8. No matter how long you stare at stone columns they never get any less monumental
9. The view from the top of St. Paul's is perfect, even on a misty day
10. There are 484 steps to the top of St. Paul's and 544 down. (Two different staircases)
11. Part of Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. was filmed at St. Paul's and part of a Harry Potter film (oy)
12. There are several stones from Jerusalem in the cathedral, one possibly from Herod's temple
13. "St. Paul's Watch" was a group of cathedral workers and volunteers during WWII who patrolled the cathedral roof during the Blitz and doused incendiary bombs with sand or water before they could explode--there was hardly any damage to the building throughout the war. One night 28 bombs landed on the roof and the crew got 27. The last one landed on the dome and could not be reached. But, a gust of wind carried to another part of the roof and a member of the watch was able to reach it. Only two bombs caused any damage to the cathedral during the entire blitz (damage to Baldachinno over the High Altar).

Basically, that cathedral is hopping. It is still one of my favorite sites in London. It's my first real cathedral and I think that it is absolutely beautiful and amazing. I could just sit in there all day. One deterrent: 12.50 to get in. (And most of the museums are free...go figure.)

After doing St. Paul's we walked down the street a bit to the London Museum. I have never been here before, and it is quite the experience. It takes you through the history of London from prehistoric to modern times. The amount of history in this tiny part of a small island is staggering! You could spend weeks in this museum.

1. Charles II helped with bucket brigades during the Great London Fire of 1666
2. The Great Fire was started in a bakery on Pudding Street
3. Constantine was made Emperor in Londinium (Roman London)
4. A majority of London would be flooded if the Thames overflowed its banks
5. A headdress like the one Anne Boleyn would wear is enormous! (Yeah, we tried one on)

I loved walking and looking around, although my senses were crying out for relief at the end--there is just so much to see and do in there. As we left the museum, it was raining. Hurrah! It had been overcast and the exact temperature of Seattle in the fall all day. Finally the weather made good on its promise and life was good. I love rain. And I love overcast skies. And I love wearing light sweaters and long sleeves and being in the "perfect state of warmness" (Gwyneth Paltrow).

One important thing I learned today: this city truly is inexhaustible! There is so much to do here, and even if you have all the time in the world, it can never be accomplished. I don't view this as a glass-half-empty why-even-bother situation, but an incredible opportunity to say that I need to come back. Julie and I are going to be "go, Go, Go!" the entire semester. Goodbye homesickness.

Thursday 9 September 2010

Today was quite a good day. Classes in the morning, like normal. Religion class was quite interesting. Jane Austen had a good discussion, but it's fairly surface level: nothing interesting or difficult to tangle with. Not exciting but not too detrimental either.

Julie and I went to the V and A again today. Marvelous stuff. We saw the cast rooms (the famous works of Europe), miniatures for an Austen field study, and some other things that I would love to spend more time on. Julie I think is having a hard time with culture shock and jet lag. It's just hard to adjust to a new situation and so she gets tired really fast and we can't spend as long out doing things as I would like. But, at the same time I don't want her to get sick. Hopefully she gets well soon and then this won't be an issue.

I have to go to bed because it's so late and we have to get up early for a field trip (breakfast is at 6 so I'm getting up at 4:30 to shower. crazy I know). But we're going to Canterbury and Dover. Oh boy.

Friday 10 September 2010

Today was supercalifradalisticexpialidotious! First we got up at around 5 to shower, eat breakfast, and pack lunches. We were on the coach and out the door by 7am and on our way to Dover. Because our final stop was to be Canterbury, we started out by reading the beginnings of Chaucer's General Prologue from the Canterbury Tales--Andrew Tate did it in Middle English. Wow, wow, wow. Awesome. At Dover Castle, we walked through the secret WWII tunnels (seeing the hospital, mess, barracks, and where Operation Dynamo (rescue from Dunkirk). My slightly disturbing enthusiasm for WWII was rekindled--it has to be my favorite war.The tunnels were damp and chalky to the touch (shocking, I know). We also walked through a real Saxon church (with Norman repairs, etc.) and walked into a Roman lighthouse--the first use of the white cliffs of Dover. Then we walked through the keep at the center of the castle. It was all so cool, a great first start to a field trip.

After Dover we headed to St. Augustine's Abbey, which is only open on Saturday and Sunday during September. Uncle Dave made a lot of phone calls and we ended up going to another one of the oldest churches in England: St. Martin's. When the Normans (I think) were ruled by pagan King Ethelbert his wife, Bertha, was a Christian and worship at a Saxon church on the sight of St. Martin's. It was a beautiful building, and the program has never gotten into it before. It is always closed to the public without calling ahead, but we thought we'd try it since we were missing the Abbey. Fortunately, a woman was there doing the flowers for the pulpit and let us in a gave us a great brief lecture on the history of the church. We then sang hymns, and actually sounded really good. I like our church buildings, but there is something so beautiful about the architecture they use here.

We actually did get into the Abbey, a worker rushed over and unlocked it especially for us. We walked through St. Augustine's abbey and church. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to convert the Angles (who he--by legend--deemed to be Angels and so they deserved the gospel). It was an awesome ruin--brought to us courtesy of Henry VIII who destroyed many Catholic churches, relics, and monuments after breaking with Rome (Disillusionment 1538).

After the Abbey we walked to Canterbury Cathedral--our own mini pilgrimage, about a mile and a half--and got an hour and a half tour. This building is enormous, and there is so much to learn! It has got to be one of my most favorite buildings that I have ever been in. I still love St. Paul's, but somehow this church was even more awesome to me. It used to be a pilgrimage site because St. Thomas Beckett was murdered here and his relics were kept here. We also so the tombs of Henry IV and Edward the Black Prince (Edward Plantagenet). You could actually take pictures here because only the crypt is still reserved for prayer (no pictures there). At the start of the tour a woman priest led those in the cathedral in prayer (on the hour, at noon). We were encouraged to say the Lord's prayer with her in our own language. It was cool to hear it echo around the enormous nave, but it didn't have the same feel as St. Martin's (a parish church). Like Uncle Dave said about a parish church: "This is where true Christianity happens."

At the end of the day we each got 5 pounds for dinner. We had Thai food. Yum yum. Just a place off of Queensway that the Seelys really like. It was a great trip and I have some really phenomenal pictures from it. Love it!


Saturday 11 September 2010

The original plan for today was to go with Katy to Portobello Road street market. However, it turns out the Seelys had a soccer match to attend today so Julie and I went to the science museum. Here we saw the original command module for Apollo 10 and tried to do some skillful work with space suit gloves on. We failed.

Then a quite beautiful Catholic church called Brompton Oratory. Here, in a side chapel, we found a monument to fallen WWI soldiers. This was excellent because we can use this place as a supplemental journal entry for our WWI/modernism class. Go us!

Next we did a walk through Harrod's. So so so crowded. Actually, not that fun at all. At least we can say we went in.

From here we went to Piccadilly Circus and did some show research. The plan is to try and go to Les Miserables within the next few weeks. The matinees on Saturdays give decent student discounts. We also saw 39 Steps advertised, which is supposed to be quite good. Actually, we got there an hour before the Saturday matinee and could have gotten 47 pound seats for just 15 pounds! But I only had ten pounds on me. This is highly troublesome. Both Julie and I got 100 pounds out at the airport, and that is all. I only have a little over 10 pounds of that left. Julie says she has 60 pounds. I have bought the same or less than her! What has happened? I haven't been robbed from, I simply don't know where the money has gone. Actually, Katy is super smart and helped me work out what I have spent and then told me to go through all of my stuff. I found 40 pounds in my suitcase. Then I remembered that after we got here from the airport I removed some money so that if I did get robbed I'd still have some money left over. I'm such a dork. I'm glad that I have the money now though.

Now it's time for some serious homework. Wish me luck tomorrow, I hope getting to and from church is a lot less painful and that I don't do too terribly awful on the piano.

Sunday 12 September 2010

I think it's safe to say that today church was a highly successful endeavor. I did reasonably well in Primary on the piano (those songs are hard) but I just ached to teach Sharing Time. I don't know if I could have done much better but the teacher herself wasn't too clear on the story of Daniel and not eating the king's meat that she was telling. Next week the senior primary teacher is going on holiday so I'll teach them. They're a good group not rambunctious like Grant and Holli's class, and there is something so adorable about an English accent coming out of a little mouth.

Sacrament Meeting wasn't too bad either. The conducting member of the bishopric started the meeting while I was still putting up the song numbers. Then he said we'll proceed directly to the opening hymn, and I haven't found a chorister yet. Luckily a fellow primary teacher helped me out. I played reasonably well.  (I don't know if I mentioned last week but our three hour block goes in reverse)

After Sacrament Meeting we decided to attend the ward munch and mingle and then catch a later train home. So we talked to a few different people in the ward and met the missionaries. One of the missionaries is from Luxembourg and has been out about a year. The other is from North Carolina (oh yeah) and left the MTC on Thursday. They found other girls from our program (who attend the later ward) and wrote their phone number on a missionary card to give to us. They want us to call them and they'll get us involved in the ward since there are no ward missionaries. Whatever that means. Should be interesting. They're both brand new to the ward, so we're not sure they understand that we're over here for school, not just to serve in the ward. We'll see.

Counting the seconds until dinner. Perhaps Julie and I will go to Speaker's Corner.

We did end up going to Speaker's Corner. We took the tube to Marble Arch and then walked around Speaker's Corner. Super exciting. There was a black British gospel choir which was very interesting to listen to and a lot of Muslims. Then Julie and I walked through Hyde Park over the water (the Serpentine and the Long Water to get to the Serpentine Gallery which had an exhibition of a contemporary photographer. A little bizarre but at least we can check it off the list. I get to Skype with my family tomorrow!!! Ahh!!