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Background: Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter is suspended due to bickering over the peace process.

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By Heitman
January 29th 2006

Another Sunday!

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

I got up early and showered and went to an Anglican Mass! It was surprisingly similar to a Catholic Mass. However, the church consisted of 30 people present. But they people were very friendly! Now, contrary to common analogies of the churchgoing population. There were probably 10 elderly people, 10 middle-agers and 10 people under age thirty (those ten do include myself and the 3 altar servers). But the population at this church was a lot more diverse than what I was expecting. After church I went and got my groceries for the week at Sainsbury's! Pretty good stuff. then I [View Full Entry]

By Heitman
January 18th 2006

Wednesday

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

Slept in today! But I got up and checked my email, because my computer has oddly been working well the last two days! And I got some delta e-mails, and I just basically updated them all on my current situation. So, yea, didn't have class until 130, so I just stayed in and took care of housecleaning items, because I still had to put away my clothes from the weekend and plan out my up coming break. So, we'll see what happens with that. But I went to class. But after we were done with class, there wasn't much to do, [View Full Entry]

By Heitman
January 17th 2006

Tuesday!

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

Natural History Museum1

I think Tuesdays are my favorite days here! I have the best class in the entire world. And we learn so much about Elizabethan Culture. It is so intriguing! And I am always pumped to get up early and go to this class. Then, I get done by noon and take a little time for myself to go exploring random places in London. Today, I did not venture as far as I usually do. I just went to the Natural History Museum. And Natural History is really not my forte nor interest, but hey, it's free anyways! But I did to [View Full Entry]

By Heitman
January 15th 2006

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

Well, last night I was up for going out, so going out I did...I went out with Colleen and Christy. They are two chicas from SNC. We actually met up with Colleen's friends Tyler, Keith, Jason and Richard. We went to Oxford Circus to look for a nice pub where we could chill. And we found it. It is called the Old Explorer and it was very nice. Drinks were not badly priced either and there weren't any other Americans, which was nice for once. But after two drink, we decided to walk around Oxford Circus to see what it has [View Full Entry]

By Heitman
January 15th 2006

Second Week of Classes - Mon

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

The Guardian

Second week of Classes have begun! My first and only class today was British Life and Culture, or BLC as we students like to call it. My class is a fairly good size. Probably about 20 students. We have Students from SNC, Marist, Loyola-Marymount, Guillard, Arizona and American University in this class. Today we talked about Newspapers. The newspaper I was to buy was the Guardian, which is one of the leaders here in London. Also, it is one of the leftist papers, but as I was reading through it, I found it to be quite moderate. It is definitely a [View Full Entry]

By Heitman
January 14th 2006

Russian Winter Festival!

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

Russian KT

So, today on Saturday, Jacqueline and I woke up quite early to go to the Russian Winter Festival. It began at 11 am and continued all through the night to celebrate the Russian New Year. You all are probably wondering why? Didn't they celebrate the New Year two weeks ago like the rest of the world? Well, and the answer for that is Yes they did. But you see, under the rule of the Czar's Russia was Orthodox in religion. Therefore, when the Catholic Church, and quite frankly, the rest of the western world adopted the Gregorian Calendar hundreds of years [View Full Entry]

By Heitman
January 10th 2006

Tuesday-Friday Classes

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Kensington

Kensington Gardens1

Well, I apologize for not updating sooner, but I have had quite a busy week. And also my computer is being retarded; you see it doesn't charge when I need it to charge. And other times, I will have it plugged into the outlet and converter and it still won't be charging and then it will just die, so I have decided, now that it is charged to update as much as I can. So, on Tuesday again I had class. The class today was Shakespeare and Elizabethan Literature with Bryan Ridgers! He is truly an amazing professor and really knows [View Full Entry]

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