I Can't Remember the Taste of Strawberries, Sam!

When writing my diary entry about the last Thursday of our trip, I drew a major blank. I stared at the page for a good bit, trying to rack my brain as to what I had actually accomplished on Thursday. And then it came to me.....The Research Symposium. Oh yes, the Research Symposium. But we will get back to that later since it wasn't until 6 p.m. at night and I did other things on Thursday.

The Olympic Torch!

It was our first full day of no classes so we took advantage of it. We started our day off with coffees and a walk to Millennium Bridge to go see the Olympic Torch. It was working its way through London on the last week of its three-month tour and would be going over the bridge and heading down towards the Globe Theatre at 10 a.m. There were a lot of people there but we were able to get right up to the barrier and see the torch as it went by. My pictures are only alright though because everyone was pushing in and getting in the way.

Then Melissa and I headed north into the City of London for our scheduled mani-peds. Yeah it seems kind of ridiculous to do in London but it was totally nice to get a little foot massage after all of the walking we had done that month. They were wonderful and we were even graced by a really, awful customer who yelled at the employees for messing up her one nail. She was a real piece of work. And of course her worthless boyfriend, whom she dragged along, just sat there and let it all happen.

Then we met up with Jenny for lunch at Mother Mash. I do believe I have extolled the virtues of Mother Mash on this blog and do not need to do so anymore. All I will say is that is was just as awesome as the first time and I officially like meat pies. After lunch, we headed over to Forbidden Planet, a comic book/nerd store. Yes, Jenny, Melissa, and I were pretty nerdy, evidence by our frequent references to Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dr. Who (Jenny and Melissa only), and other movies/tv shows of the like. We nerded out for a good long time before realizing that we needed to head back to the dorms to get ready for......

The Research Symposium! I know you've all been waiting to hear about this and now the moment has arrived. Now the push behind the symposium is so the students can educate the rest of the British Studies group on their research. We are took two courses: one that counted as a classroom course and the other is a research paper. So as the title dictates, it allows one person from each group to present to the program their research. Here is what we expected: The professor talks for about three minutes and discusses what their class did and then introduces the student. Then the student talks for about five minutes, just about their research.

Here is what we got: professors talking for 5-10 minutes. Then the students talking for 10-15 minutes, and just barely referencing their research. Mainly, they just told us about all of the places they visited. And about 90% of the students did this. So instead of running about two hours, it lasted three. And it was about 85 degrees in the room. It was absolutely awful. I'm listened to a lot of professors ramble on for a long time. But three hours? Seriously? And we didn't really get to hear about anyone's research. Some we did, but not most. And it would have gone longer if the director hadn't stepped in to cut the student off.

So that is how my Thursday evening went. And you can be damned sure that as soon as it was over, we found both food and alcohol. Both were a necessity after that shitshow. We put a nice touch on the evening by hanging out on the South Bank once more, watching the Fire Garden and just relaxing. Only one day left...

- Kate