Fieldtrips Galore, Halloween, and Guy Fawkes Weekend

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The last two weeks have been PACKED with fieldtrips. We've been to Stonehenge (overrated), Salisbury (beautiful cathedral where the Magna Carta is kept), Bath (site of ancient Roman baths), Liverpool (the Beatles) and Manchester (center of the British industrial revolution). All this traveling has been offset by the celebrations of Halloween and Guy Fawkes day. I'll just do a few quick highlights of each place to give you a general idea.

Stonehenge
Honestly, I was not that impressed. Yeah, it's intriguing to wonder about how they got into that formation and all, considering they're big and heavy... but after seeing the Parthenon, nothing compares. There are, however, some cool myths about the big famous rocks, which are worth mentioning. It is believed to be around 4,000 years old, and some theories claim that it was originally a sacred burial ground. It has also been called a place of worship and healing, and attracts visitors to this day for such purposes. Other theories say that it has something to do with lunar and solar movement. All in all we probably spent less than an hour there; we got out of the coach, walked around the monument, took some pictures, then left.

Salisbury Cathedral
This was a beautiful church, and it's a shame we were so rushed. Even though we've already seen several places that are quite similar (Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral), it's still a treat to see these cathedrals, especially if you have an interest in architecture, which I am rapidly developing. There was a beautiful fountain at the center of the church, it was about five feet high and maybe four or five feet across. The water appeared to be perfectly still, except at each of the four corners, where it poured out of a spout-like part of the fountain into drains built into the floor. There were Bible verses inscribed along each side of the fountain, it was quite beautiful. The Cathedral's claim to fame is that it is a current home of one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, one of the most important documents of English history, and the basis of the American Constitution.

Bath
Yes, the town is actually called Bath. It's in southwest England, and was first established as a spa resort by the Romans in AD 43. This was because the only known natural hot springs in the UK were located here, and the Romans turned it into a temple and shrine to the goddess Minerva. They also used it as a marketplace, bathing complex, and meeting place for government officials. The site has since been reconstructed, redeveloped, and converted into a museum, which in turn generates over one million annual visitors. We went on a self-guided tour, which was nice because we were free to go at our own pace. We had hand-held devices that look like a walkie talkie, and around different areas of the museum were plaques with numbers, and you just enter the number into your controller and a recorded voice tells you about what you're looking at. The museum contained tons of artifacts that had been found at the baths, and we learned a lot about the ancient Roman way of life and their beliefs.

Halloween!
Alright, so we're Americans. Being in a foreign country did not stop us from celebrating one of our favorite holidays. We were told early in the semester that Brits don't really do Halloween like in America, but we were bound and determined. We found a live music venue that was doing a Halloween night, and spent the whole night dancing our ridiculously dressed arses off. Among our group, we had some pretty epic costumes- the Alice in Wonderland gang, including Alice, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp version in Tim Burton's upcoming remake), the White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts. We also had a mime, a rugby player (yours truly), an Arsenal football fan, a punk rocker, an 80s rocker, a masquerade girl, a fairy, and a vampire. It was, as you can probably imagine, an excellent night. We danced all night and I can't believe I had the strength or willpower to get up the next morning to play rugby.

Rugby
Playing with the local team is going well, despite the fact that I've only been able to make it to three games and one practice due to our class schedules and traveling. On November 1st I played in one of the most muddy games of my life. You know that mud that's a little bit sandy and gritty? Yeah, that's our home pitch. I woke up the day after Halloween and it was POURING rain, very sad. But the show must go on... we played anyway, and it was an awesome game. We tied 0-0, which normally sucks, but it was a really great game. I'm lifting in the lineouts and we had some great plays- I even got to do a play where instead of lifting our jumper the ball was thrown directly to me and I got to run with it. I think my tackles are improving, and we've had some really great scrums. I'm going to miss this team but I can't wait to be back with my Flamingos (shout-out to any BSU ruggers reading this: congrats on making it to Final Four, Mamma Kat is SO proud!). After the game we had a mini social at our clubhouse, I was named one of the two MVPs again! Then we went to Finchley for post-match celebrations; one of the girls on the other team works at the Walkabout and they were having a Beerfest that night so all the rugby girls got in free! I had a lot of fun, there was a very enthusiastic German style band complete with a tuba, accordion, clarinet, and trombone. We learned a German drinking song, how to say "cheers" (PROST!), did a conga line around the pub, and danced on the stage.

Art

Photo 8

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German band at Beerfest

History
This class is going well, I really like the professor and the fact that we actually go out into the city and look at art, rather than sit in a classroom and talk about it. This past week we went to Sir John Soane's Museum, which is actually the house where Soane lived and has been converted into a museum to display his work, as well as his collections of art. Sir Soane was an English neo-classical architect who our professor compared to Frank Llyod Wright (in popularity, not style). He had massive and eclectic collections of art, including tons of Greek and Roman sculptures, a collection of stained glass, Medieval objects, a room with over 100 pieces of mirror in it, a room FULL of famous British paintings, a collection of clocks and timepieces, and even an Egyptian sarcophagus! We really didn't learn much about him as a person or as an architect, but it was really stunning to wander around his place for a while. He was apparently very into the use of natural light and incorporated lots of skylights and windows into the design of his home.

Theatre
On Tuesday night we saw another play, The Woman in Black. It was essentially an interactive ghost story, which was great fun. The play is about a man who goes to a professional actor for help turning his written memoir into a production. He tells the story of how, as a young business man, he had to spend a weekend in a haunted house. The show only had three actors, and the two lead men were continually switching characters to tell the story. It was an interesting choice, but it worked pretty well, despite being a little hard to follow at times. There was a female character who had no lines, but would sporadically appear onstage or in the audience, creating a very spooky feel that literally kept the audience on the edge of their seats. She was dressed in all black and had the most terrifyingly ugly stage makeup that I have ever seen- she looked like she had leprosy. You eventually learn that her character lost a child and went crazy in her mourning, and haunts the house near a bog where he died. The show was definitely captivating- lots of fog and lighting effects, and great work by the actors. It was a fantastic way to end the Halloween season.

Liverpool
The next day we were up and on the coach bright and early for our two-day field trip. The first stop was Liverpool, home of the Beatles and the Liverpool FC, one of the best and most famous football teams in the League. Having already met some Liverpudlians while in London, I was anxious to see the city and what it had to offer. Liverpool is a major port, and contributed to significant economic development of England due to trading. Our tour started along the Mersey, which is the main port where the river comes into the city. We saw the Albert Dock, the town hall, the Titanic memorial, St. George's Hall, Liverpool Cathedral, and Anfield Football Stadium. Our tour also catered to the Beatles fans in our group- we saw The Cavern Club (where the band used to play and were discovered by Epstein), The Grapes (a bar where they used to hang out), a statue of Eleanor Rigby, the school where John Lennon met his first wife, Penny Lane, and where Paul and George went to school together. The hostel we stayed at that night was also Beatles themed- there were posters and murals of them all over the walls. We were free to roam that night, as long as we were up and ready to leave by 8:30 the next morning. After free dinner at the hostel, a group of about six of us made our way through the downpour to a comedy club. We saw about 12 performers, and it was definitely an entertaining night- we had front row seats and the comics were all about audience interaction, so you can imagine what happened when they found out there was a bunch of American girls front and center. After the show we found our way back to the hostel and stayed up for another hour or so goofing around until we finally decided to call it a night. Cheers to Liverpool.

Manchester
The second part of our trip took us to Manchester, about an hour's drive from Liverpool. Manchester is famous for being a major catalyst of the British Industrial Revolution, and (of course) for its acclaimed Manchester United football team. The city was huge in the 19th century for cotton processing mills and textile production. They traded heavily with the southern US states, but stopped during the American Civil War in support of the abolishment of slavery. This caused a severe decline in their economy, and hundreds of Mancunians fell into poverty. There is a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Manchester that serves as a monument to their involvement in helping to stop slavery- apparently he wrote a letter to the people of the city thanking them for their efforts, and it is inscribed at the base of the statue. After WWII, Manchester began to heavily focus on regeneration of the city- a common theme throughout England. They transformed old buildings, mostly factories, into things that can be used today, such as flats and office buildings. Manchester also has several beautiful canals that remind me a little bit of downtown Indy. We also got to tour Old Trafford stadium, home to MUFC. ManU is the current World Cup champion, and the club has been around since the late 1800s. The stadium is known as the Theatre of Dreams, and has also hosted rugby matches, baseball games, concerts, and even weddings. The tour was pretty neat, we got to go into the team's dressing room and sit in their booths in the stadium. We were even in the room where Posh Spice first met David Beckham... awww. After the tour we were let loose in the gift shop- you'd be amazed at some of the things people come up with. My personal favorites were the ManU rubber ducky and the toaster that leaves a MANU imprint on your bread. We then had a four and a half hour bus ride back to London. On the way there we saw some fireworks out the windows of the coach, ringing in the weekend.

Remember Remember the 5th of November
This past weekend was Guy Fawkes weekend, marking the day that Guy Fawkes and some other conspirators tried to blow up Parliament. V for Vendetta, anyone? It was a rainy weekend, so we didn't get to experience the full glory of Bonfire Night, but we did see a lot of fireworks from Thursday to Saturday. It has become a tradition to set off loads of fireworks, as well as have massive bonfires and make effigies of Guy Fawkes and then burn them. The British are a bit twisted like that. The other night we went out to dinner near Leicester Square, and afterwards I went for a walk along the River Thames to get some pictures for our Photo Project assignment. I walked along Westminster Bridge and looked out over Parliament- still standing, all is well.

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