The Glory of Museums

I am in awe of the museums in London. I had been to art museums and stuff before, back in the States, but walking into a museum in London is just awe-inspiring. I feel like I walk around with my mouth gaping open in amazing constantly. Today I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see a plaster cast of the Trajan Column. The column (originally marble) is 38 metres high, including the square base, and covered in a spiraling carving of various scenes. It's just so immense..........
Anyways, that was my first venture into London alone today. I took the tube from Highbury & Islington to Green Park, and then switched to the Picadilly line and took it to South Kensington, and there's a big subway tunnel from the station leading right into the museum. It was pretty handy. I looked at the Trajan Column like I was supposed to, and then wandered through the fashion exhibit because I had some extra time. So many fascinating and beautiful items of clothing... There were a couple dresses that I would LOVE to be able to wear. Simply gorgeous.

However, it's almost supper time, so I'll end this post. I'm still loving London!

Intellectual Stimulation

Well, I'm two days into "classes" here in London. And I love it. Yesterday was absolutely overwhelming, with a three hour lecture in the morning and then my first experience in the British Museum that afternoon. I felt totally exhausted and worn out and like I had no idea what I was doing. However, this morning we had our first colloquy, or smaller discussion group. There are 25 students in the program, and 13 of us had a two hour discussion at 8:30, and 12 at 10:30. I was in the 10:30 group, and it was just wonderful. During the past couple days we've read Antigone by Sophocles and a large chunk of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian Wars, so those are what we were discussing today. It was so fabulous. I finally felt like I was with people who cared as much about this stuff as I do, and who are as smart or smarter than I am. We talked about the characters of Creon and Antigone and how they were portrayed and where their characters became too extreme and what their flaws and virtues were and how Sophocles was portraying the Greek gods and all sorts of wonderful things. And then we talked about Thucydides' historical method and why that was important and what he tells us about human nature and human reaction to problems and we were going to get into more than that, but we ran out of time. But it was all absolutely fascinating, and just really wonderful and I am so glad I am here.

My first London Sunday

This morning I went to St. Augustine’s Church in the Highbury neighborhood. It’s very family-oriented and pretty informal, but it had some nice liturgy as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed the service. The church building was gorgeous.
I also met a few local people there, as well as one woman originally from the Netherlands. I’m Dutch as well, so we had a nice conversation about Dutch stuff. I love the Dutch connections I find with people. Later in the afternoon, we went to Clissold Park, which was quite beautiful. I sat on a bench and journaled for a bit, and also took a few pictures. Well, I think that’s all for now. More later!

My first taste of London

Well, I’ve been in London for two and half days now, and I am loving it so much. We arrived shortly after noon on Friday and unpacked a bit. My friend Isabel and I are sharing a room. It’s nice, but quite small. We have a little sink, two large windows, one small dresser and one small wardrope, a little table, a nightstand, two chairs, and two beds. And a radiator to keep us warm. And a lovely green patterned carpet. Anyways, after a bit, we went out with Laura Jackson (one of our TAs) to the atm and the store, called Tesco. I got shampoo and toothpaste and stuff like that and Isabel and I bought bread and peanut butter and apples to share for lunches. And I paid with real British money! It was quite exciting to pay in pounds and pence. After dinner, we stayed up a little longer, but then went to sleep around 7:30 because we were so exhausted and jet lagged. We were going to get up at a decent hour the next morning to eat breakfast and everything before our ten o’clock meeting, but Isabel’s alarm didn’t go off, and so we didn’t wake up until 9:58, at which point we jumped out of bed and into our clothes and ran downstairs. After the meeting, which was full of information and rules about the Highbury Centre (which is where we’re staying) and things like that, we got ready for our first big excursion. Our whole group (twenty-five students and three professors and two TAs and two professor’s children) got on a red double-decker bus and took the bus to central London. We got off right by St. Paul’s Cathedral. We had about 45 minutes to explore on our own and then we started walking as a group. On our walk, we saw St. Paul’s Cathedral, crossed the Millenium foot bridge, saw Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre, the London Eye, a couple of street performers painted as and acting like statues, Westminster Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the Horseguard’s Palace, and a glimpse of Buckingham Palace. Josie (the daughter of the Professors Lipscomb) held my hand for much of the walk and I greatly enjoyed her enthusiastic chatter. Later she and her brother Ernie held both my hands and we pretended to be rabbits and skipped and ran. It was great fun, but rather exhausting. I’m finally starting to feel like I’m in London though, and it’s so wonderful! Also, the voice that I always imagine my thoughts in has become exceedingly British. As I write this, I can hear the words going through my head in a British accent. It’s amusing. I'll save more for the next post. Ta ta!