Field Trip

I'm taking a C.S. Lewis Class and one of the requirements of the course is that the class takes field trips to places in London and even outside of london where Lewis and his friends spent most of their time. A couple of days ago, my class went to the British Museum and The Winston Churchill War Museum. Once we arrived at the British Museum, i immediatly found the Egypt wing. The Rosetta Stone was on display and while that sounds like something great to see, and it was neat to look at for a few seconds, it wasn't that cool. I know we can now read hieroglyphics because of this rock but it also just looked like an ordinary stone. Anyway, we walked through these ruins and it was great because they had taken parts of old tomb walls from the pyramids and put them on display. It was so detailed. I loved looking at it because it wasn't trimmed in gold and there weren't a lot of decorations, it was normal stone that had been carved and chiseled to tell a story about the king and the peoples history.

We went down to the Africa section and that might have been my favorite. The art being displayed was very bold. There was a chair that was made out of guns and knives and michetti's(sp?). The art has a lot to do with the genocide and the war that has gone on in that country and is still going on, but at the same time they had a wall of masks that people wore during ceremonial dances and when these people danced.... I mean they danced. They had videos of it and it was beautiful. It was tribal dancing but it wasn't at the same time. The way the people moved and the way their faces looked while they were doing it... I wish I could see it in person. I don't think I'm really giving it a great description.

After, the British Museum we went to the War Museum. I was with my friend Brittany and Austin and we walked down to the basement because they had displays of World War 1 and World War 2. The displays consisted of officers uniforms and weapons they used during the war, they also had letters that soldiers had written to their families and friends. There were a couple of displays that showed what rationing looked like, as well as what women and children were wearing during the time. We then went straight up to the holocaust floor, and spent about two hours in that wing of the museum. I've always been very fascinated about world war 2 and concentration camps. I don't feel comfortable saying I love learning about it because its a very sobering subject as well as violent. I also think that in America we tend to romantisize the world wars and we kind of forget that it was horrible until we see an exhibition like this. However, I could have spent hours in that museum reading every display discription as well as watching the video interviews with some of the survivors.

Here are some pictures.


Part of a tomb wall from Assyria.


Close up of some soldiers on a tomb from Egypt.


Mummy from
Mesopotamia


Mummy Decorations?


The War Museum




Part of the Berlin Wall


World War One Uniforms


World War One


Different types of Lugars.


Shoes collected at Aushwitz


Prison Uniforms at Aushwitz

An Exploration that led to a park then to a palace and so on.

I woke up today with a whole afternoon of nothing to do but exploring. I decided it was about time I went to a museum, so I choose the Tate Britain. Which I now regret because I didn't really enjoy any of the wings I went to except for the hand drawn pieces. I took notes of the pieces I liked because I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the museum which I thought was complete... how do you say it.... rubish? yes.

Anyway, I go to the gift shop and showed the man behind the counter the list I had made and asked him if he has any of the prints in stock. He doesn't. I ask them when they will have some, they say they don't know. I decided I should move on at this point because nothing in this museum is going to improve.

So I head out of the museum and stumble across Green park which is right next to the Ritz hotel. I'm sure I looked like such an American taking pictures of the hotel but I couldn't help it, I was looking at the real thing.

So I started going through the park and when I come out of the other side I'm in front of Buckingham palace. I mean who goes on a random walk and ends up in front of a palace. It was probably the best surprise I've had. Lets just say this Queen Elizabeth does not have it rough. when I was walking out the other side of this park I noticed there was a huge gate (I now know its called the Canada Gate) near the keyholes are huge E's with crowns and swords around it. I mean really? Her face is on the currency, does she really need to put her initials on gates? But I think I would do stuff like that if I was the queen, so I don't really blame her.

After that I walked along the walls of the palace that are about 12 feet tall with barbed wire and these huge log spikes attached at the top, every time I looked at the wall I was thinking in my head "God save the queen?", I mean it looked like a tad to much, but I'm sure its been there for hundreds of years so why not keep it?

It had been about 5 hours of walking at this point and I decided I wanted to sit down so I got on a double decker bus and road around the city for an hour, I ended up pretty close to where I was staying and decided I should head back for some dinner and homework. Here are some pictures from the day.




The Tate Britain








A random college I walked past. Chelsea School of Design.






The Ritz






The street where I found the Ritz.







The famous bar










Canada?







The Canada Gate. See what I mean about those "E's"









The fountain outside Buckingham palace.. I forgot the name.








Statue on the fountain














Regents Park. They Shot Finding Neverland here.










The Wellington Monumnet













Underneath the Wellington Monument

London Town

London is splendid.


Most everything is beautiful to look at, even the ugly and the dirty parts. Their culture is similar to america but more polite and considerate of other people, the Subway(or tube as they call it) is clean and doesn't smell bad and everyone uses it. Even the tube stations are pleasing to look at. Its such a difference to be in a place where people seem to care about the places that surround them, I mean maybe there is a huge fine if you are caught littering but still theres a pretty huge fine in America if you litter and people still do it. I mean I've done it, not often but I totally have, everyone has. Anyway, People don't litter here. I have yet to see trash in the streets and at first I thought it was just in the tourist places that there wasn't going to be any trash but even at my college and the surrounding neighborhoods, its all clean.

I walked over to Westminister Abby yesterday and sat on the grass for about 20 minutes looking at this wonderful church, noticing the tiny details that made this place so big. I couldn't really take it all in. I think you can understand what I mean by looking at the photos.














































I got lost several times and it took me over 40 mins to get back to where I was sappost to meet my friends. Not so much fun, but I guess somewhat necessary in order to become familiar with this city.

Today I went to church at St. Pauls Cathedral. It was built by a man named Christopher Wren in 1668, after it burned down like 3 or 4 times. It was the most ornate church I have even been in. I mean I haven't been to Rome yet so I better not say that, but I'm just going to say that those old catholics liked their churches.
Anyway, the london symphony played at church and all the songs were sung in latin which was awesome, but I really couldn't concentrate because they had us stand almost the whole time and My feet are so soar from walking around eveywhere, so all my concentration was going into not falling over. The main priest that gave the mass was a woman, which really surprised me... I didn't know that catholics were about that but she was so cool, she sang a lot during the service and with the acoustics in that church it sounded like something out of Lord of the Rings. I really could have listened to her all day.

I don't really have any more thoughts at the moment, mainly because I'm tired and in need of food. I'm now going to a store to try and find something cheap and inexpensive for dinner. I'll try and upload pictures soon, but I'm trying to not take a ton because I don't want to come off more american than my accent makes me.

Cheers.

I love you in the morning and in the afternoon.

congrats, you found it.

The blog that will hopefully provide a good 5-7 mins of stories and pictures that will entertain or distract you from your job, class, homework, even uneventful day.

I haven't left for London yet, but the countdown has begun. Hope you are frequent visitors to this page.

Olms