"Out of the jaws of death."

Thursday was a day of firsts for many reasons. It was the first time I got up before 7 a.m., for I awoke early to do my laundry. It was also the first day on this trip that I really wasn't looking forward to what was on the schedule. On Thursday, we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Now, I know all of you will think me stupid and petty for complaining anything on this trip but let me just point out the two things that weren't exciting me. One, we were going via bus and I really am not a huge fan of buses, especially when you're on them for over two hours. Second, we weren't going to return until after midnight, and the thought of that was just unpleasant. And since I had already risen at 630 to get my laundry done for the upcoming trip to Scotland, the prospect of being awake for 18 hours was not getting me all excited.

Nonetheless, I boarded the bus at 1030 and spent the next three hours on board. I did finish a book, which was a plus, but the fact that it took an extra hour to get to the town put me in a bit of a foul mood. There was nothing planned for us during the day and we didn't have to meet up as a group again until 7:15, so three of us went off and did some exploring. Another bad thing about Stratford-Upon-Avon: nothing is free. They really like to milk the crap out of the whole Shakespeare thing so you have to pay to do pretty much everything. Thus, we just visited the local public library and then wandered around the town itself before heading to the church where Shakespeare's grave is located. We had to wait about a half hour to get in because there was a funeral in progress (oops!) but we finally got to see the church and the grave. That was worth the 50p it cost us students to get in.

Then we wandered back into town to get a very late lunch/early dinner at the oldest pub/inn in the town, the Garrick Inn. They had some great food, amazing chips, and finally a well-pulled Guinness. Success! By the time we were done there, it had started raining, which ruined out plans to go sit along the Avon River and read. Thus, we found a Starbucks and settled in for an hour or so of reading. Before that, however, I broke down and finally purchased an umbrella. I had lasted almost two weeks with either my rain jacket or not caring about it. But I finally hit that breaking point and needed to get one. I really wanted to last the entire month but I just couldn't. I'm ashamed.

We then met up with the rest of our group and headed to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We had tickets to go see them put on the Twelfth Night (and we actually discovered later that it was opening night!) I was excited to do this but I had already been up for so many hours and the prospect of being up for several more was really putting a damper on my spirits. However, I rallied and sat through a great performance. I'm very glad that we had the opportunity to see it but would have enjoyed seeing it when I was more awake.

After the performance, we booked it back to the bus and were on our way by 10:34. We arrived back at the dorms by 12:36 a.m. and I attempted to go to sleep. Alas, the stupid and drunk undergrads proceeded to yell outside my window until 1:30. If I had had the physical power to actually remove myself from my supine position, they would have gotten some strong words from me. Alas, I did not have the energy and they eventually dissipated to their own rooms. This, my friends, is a faithful narrative of what I did on Thursday July 12., 2012. For the truth of everything here related, I can appeal more particularly to the testimony of Jenny Collins and Melissa Proulx. (Borrowed and adapted from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.) And it turned out to be a pretty okay day in the end so no more complaining here.

- Kate

Two Hemispheres, One Person

Today began our second week of classes (time is flying by already!) and we started this week by a trip to Greenwich. Greenwich is located to the East of our location but is still within Greater London. To get there, we took a boat on the Thames that allowed us to capture some great photographs of Tower Bridge and other sites along the Thames. When we arrived in Greenwich, we walked around the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College and then around the downtown area.

We then headed towards the Greenwich Maritime Museum, where we were to have our coursework for the morning. We were unable to access the Library, for they are closed because of the Olympics. However, we did go to see a special exhibit that is happening through September 9, 2012, and was erected in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. I will blog about this on my other page and you will be able to access it here.

I'm between two Hemispheres!

After going through that exhibit, we visited the other parts of the museum and then went in search of the Prime Meridian, since that is kind of an important thing for people in Greenwich. Now, the entirety of Greenwich (and London in general) has been overcome with construction for the Olympic Games, which begin in about 18 days. And Greenwich will be hosting the Dressage Competition, so they need to get the stadiums ready. Which means, they need to shut things down in the area where the Dressage Competition will occur....so that means the Royal Observatory is closed. And the Royal Observatory is where the big Prime Meridian sign is located, and where most people go to get their photographs taken in two hemispheres. Alas, we couldn't get there. Now, if we had been scheduled to have gone to Greenwich, say, last week, it would have been open and we could have seen it. But that wasn't the case. Nevertheless, we overcame this issue and found another spot on a random side street where the PM is located and took our photos there. Crisis averted!
 

Elementary!

After succeeding in finding the PM, we went off in search of some shops and then lunch. We found Britain's Oldest Brewery, Shepherd Neame, where I had a pint of their Bishop Finger and a lovely sandwich. It was quite good, but tasted much like a Yuengling. Go figure. We then took the boat back to our home location, and Jenny and I headed towards Baker Street. Here, we saw the Sherlock Holmes Statue and then decided against going into the Sherlock Holmes Museum because of the ridiculous line. Thus, a quick trip to the gift shop was all that was necessary before I headed back to the dorms to catch up on my blogs and diary entries. A short but successful day!

- Kate

London within London

Once more, I'm late on my promises of posting on time. But this time, you will receive photos of what I am doing here in London! Yesterday, we got a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral Library. I wrote a blog on it for class earlier and you can read that here. It was really amazing and we got to see behind the scenes at the library.

And of course, I don't have a photo of the front of the building, despite being there three times in three days. I will rectify this situation.

After that, we made an attempt to see the National Gallery but did not have enough time to make it there and back for our reception. We had a welcome reception at Somerset House, which is directly across the Thames from our dorms. It is very beautiful and has been used in several movies. 

The reception was held in the Chapel of King's College, who's decoration is sometimes referred to as a "Victorian Acid Trip" since the architect was a fan of laudanum. And it was crazy but I forgot my camera so I do not have any photos of it. You can Google it, though, if you're especially interested.

The Librarians then went out for more drinks after the reception and happened upon a German bar, where I finally found good beer! Zee Germans know how to make good beer. A do believe a good time was had by all but several of us were not feeling that hot this morning.

Today, we went to three different locations. The first was the Barbican Library, and I will be posting on that in my other blog this evening. It is a very atypical public library that is located in the City of London. The City of London consists of one square mile and it is the boundaries of Roman and Medieval London. Today, it is one of two cities within the Greater London Area, the other being the city of Westminster. I've already been to several major buildings located in this region, such as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Museum of London, and Guildhall, photographed on the right.

After Barbican, we got a tour of a corporate library from an alumni of the course. She now lives and works in London at Linklaters, the fourth largest law firm in the world, in their acquisitions office. I won't say too much about it because they are very private and confidential about their business but it was interesting to see a different side of libraries.

We ended our day at the Museum of London, a place I've now been to three of the five days I've been in London. Most of us didn't stay to see it, but headed instead to the National Portrait Gallery! We saw the Botticelli, Titian, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and even a da Vinci! And they really loved to paint religiously themed art so we saw a lot of Jesus and his mother, Mary. It was really awesome but once more, our legs and feet were completely shot from all of the walking and standing. Thus, we headed back to the dorms for an evening of writing blogs and uploading photos.


Speaking of which, here are some photographs of my room! It's small but nice and I like it. Although, the shower seriously gets everything in the bathroom wet for the next six hours. Enjoy!

It's really exciting! I'm sure you're all so jealous.

Tomorrow we head to Oxford and it's an all-day trip so I probably will not be able to blog until Thursday. It's also the 4th of July and we are planning on celebrating our American independence from England in a British pub. It should be a blast. Til next time!

- Kate

I'm Not in Shape for All of This Walking

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated but life has been non-stop since I arrived and with all of the activities I’ve been doing, I haven’t found time to blog. However, I have a free morning and will now regale you with some stories from my first weekend in London. I don’t have the time or space to tell you everything but you will get a taste of what it is like to be in this awesome city.

Museum of London: On Saturday, I went on a tour with several students outside of my class. We got a tour of the City of London. Now the City of London is a very small section of London. Its boundaries are defined by the walls built by the Romans in the 3^rd century C.E. I had a major nerd moment the entire afternoon because I just wrote a paper on Roman London aka Londinium and I was able to see what I wrote about as well as help our guide with the tour (politely). We stopped into the Museum of London for a short period of time, and that is seriously one of the best museums I’ve been to in a while. If you’re ever in London, please see this museum. It’s free and it has so many cool exhibits. It could take anywhere from 2-4 hours to walk through. We only saw a short part of it on Saturday so three of us went back on Sunday to see the rest of the museum.

Shakespeare: I’ve also already seen a play at the Globe Theatre and that was truly amazing. Two friends from the library science program, Melissa and Shannon, joined me for Henry V. We stood in the groundling section for three hours but it was absolutely amazing. We could have purchased actual seats but they were much more expensive and 5 pounds to watch Henry V is a serious deal. Again, if you’re in London, totally check it out.

Beer: Now I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by the beer. I have yet to find a bar that has a dark beer, and have been left to drink semi-crappy lagers. And the one Guinness I got was poured badly :( I hope to rectify this in the near future and I’m sure you will hear more about it. The food has been fine. Nothing spectacular, although I did have a Wild Boar burger and that was quite good.

Church: I went to a church service at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday morning and that was also really cool. They had an orchestra and a choir, both of whom were amazing. The church is stunning and if you go for the service, you don’t have to pay to get in to see the church. So I would recommend sitting through the 1.5 hour service if you’re ever in town.

Class: We start classes today and our classes consist of going on site visits. It’s going to be really awesome and I know we will see some really interesting items. Today’s visit will be to St. Paul’s Cathedral Library. I will have another blog going for my course because I don’t want to mix it up. I will link it here for you all to read. http://proofinpages.blogspot.co.uk/

As you can tell, it’s been a very busy two days. The weather was great the past two days but it is much rainier today. My legs have been in serious pain for the past two days but when you're walking at least 5 miles or more a day, it's to be expected. I will be adding photos to my posts, hopefully later this evening. I’m enjoying every second of this trip and can’t wait to continue to tell you all about it.

-         - Kate