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Published: August 27th 2006
Union Jack
This is a display of flags flying across the street from my school. I just thought it was a neat picture.It’s Sunday, 27 August. Gretchen and I just got back from church and ate lunch. While she is taking a nap, I’m going to type up this blog update. Later this afternoon/evening I’ll probably head back to the Radisson down the street and take advantage of their free wireless to upload this…
Before I give you an update, I should clarify something that some of you have asked about. In addition to the photos that you see included with each blog entry (which you can click on to enlarge, by the way), there is a separate photo gallery on this blog site where you can see other pictures (such as the picture of the Loch Ness Monster that we posted last week). To access that gallery, just click on the “Gallery” icon at the top, above the actual blog. There is a little framed picture icon next to the word “Gallery.” Hopefully that will clarify the confusion. I probably won’t put much there because it is easier to just post pictures here next to the actual blog. (The advantage of putting them in the “Gallery” is that I can put higher resolution pictures there…but it isn’t like you are going
Damage from WWII
As you know, during WWII the Germans bombed the heck out of London. It's interesting because you'll see blocks and blocks of old buildings (pre WWII), and then, right in the middle of the block a few buildings with 1950's or 1960's architecture. Generally, that's where buildings were bombed out and had to be replaced. If you look at this particular building, which is near University College of London, there are little squares on the walls and entry that don't match the rest--this is where they patched up the shrapnel damage. Unfortunately, the patching didn't quite match the building here. There's lots of this all over London. to be printing many of these out for your refrigerators…)
Last Saturday evening (a week ago) Gretchen and I got back from our trip to Scotland. Because we left for Scotland the day after we arrived in London, we hadn’t really had a chance to see London. (Except of course for the Underground, which we saw plenty of as we carried our luggage all about and cursed at the engineers who didn’t construct escalators…) So after we got back from Scotland on Saturday, we went to the grocery store and then rested up on Saturday evening and on Sunday we began exploring.
Our first stop last Sunday was the Hyde Park LDS chapel—a place where great men such as Gordon B. Hinckley and Jeff Garrison have left their mark. We went to services there on Sunday morning, but ended up arriving about 30 minutes late because the bus from our hotel to the Tube station got caught in merciless traffic. Church was great, except that so many people there were American—it’s a ward that has lots of transient American businesspeople and frequent travelers stopping in on Sundays, so it wasn’t a “British” experience for the most part. After
Buckingham Palace
On our bus tour last Sunday we got out and walked around the outside of Buckingham Palace for 15 minutes. All of this gold that you see is 22 karat gold. Not too shabby... arriving late, we also had to leave early because I had skipped my school’s orientation (while we were parading around Scotland), and the director wanted to meet with me on Sunday afternoon. (I’ll take a 1 hour orientation over a 2 day orientation anytime!)
So we left the Hyde Park chapel, caught the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square, and took the Northern Line up to Tottenham Court Road, and from there walked to my school, near the British Museum. One of the things that all of the travel books and videos warn you about when coming to Europe is that pick-pockets are everywhere, so you have to be careful. I usually try to be very attentive to what is going on around me. During a segment of that ride from church to the school, Gretchen and I found ourselves in a standing-room-only train, with bodies crammed in fairly tightly—an ideal environment for a pickpocket. While we were standing there, riding along, I felt something brush by my right pants pocket, and so I immediately looked and reached for my pocket to make sure my camera was still in there—it was. To be safe, I kept my hands near my
Gretchen and Tower Bridge
I snapped this photo of Gretch in front of the Tower Bridge here in London. We took this picture from just outside the Tower of London. (This is not the London Bridge from the childrens' song--that's in Arizona.) pockets to protect them, but within seconds, I felt another brush, and a hand going straight at my pocket. Without looking, I swiped my right hand back forcefully and grabbed the wrist of the hand that was headed toward my pocket and spun around to confront the pickpocket—only to realize that it was Gretchen! After she gave me a dirty look for swatting and grabbing her wrist, she explained that she had just been trying to hold my hand, and that I should always look before hitting someone… (Sounds like something a former second grade teacher would say!)
When we had arrived at my school and gotten a quick tour, and I had met with my program director in her office, another student came in to take care of some business with the director. Gretchen and I were sitting there (still dressed up from church), and the program director introduced the student to Gretchen and me.
Gretchen and I sat back while the
"Actually, hookah is not an illegal drug..."
This is for Tara and all of the other "The Office" fans out there. This fine collection was in the courtyard festival at the Victoria & Albert Museum. student chatted with the director for a few minutes, and then the student turned to me and asked, “So I take it that you’re one of the professors—which classes are you teaching?” I am hoping that he just said that because I was wearing a tie—not because I look old enough that I could be a professor. But I suppose that a guy wearing a tie, accompanied by his wife, and meeting in the program director’s office on a Sunday afternoon, who had not been to the student orientation, could easily be mistaken for a professor…a young professor, of course.
After my little 1-on-1 orientation, Gretchen and I joined the other students for a bus tour around London that the school had arranged. That bus tour (which was not a red double-decker bus tour) was a great way to start out our time in London. Basically, we saw all of the main London tourist attractions in 3 and one-half hours. We went by Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower of London, several museums, Buckingham Palace
, the City of London (which is the financial district),
Mufasa!
The lions at Trafalgar Square are surprisingly tame. Actually, to me they looked like a huge set of bookends at the entrance to the plaza... the Inns of Court, Harrod’s, Soho, Chinatown, etc, etc, etc. Toward the end of the trip, most of the other students were asleep—so Gretchen and I felt like we were getting a private tour. Afterward, Gretchen and I got back to the hotel at about 6:00, ate a quick dinner, and then decided to take a one hour power-nap; however, we didn’t wake up until the next morning…
On Monday we went back to the school, which is in the Bloomsbury District, near the British Museum, and joined the other students for a three hour walking tour of central London. The highlight of the tour—for me at least—was seeing Jeremy Bentham’s embalmed body in a display case at University College of London. Jeremy Bentham was an eccentric who lived in the 19th century—for those of you familiar with economics, he contributed greatly to the theories of utilitarianism. In his will he left part of his fortune to University College, with the stipulation that he be present at important university board meetings (post-mortem). So the college embalmed him, and would wheel his embalmed corpse in for the board meetings. (I’m really not making this up...look it up on Wikipedia.) In
This is as close as I got...
This guy didn't really believe that I was having lunch with the Prime Minister Blair, so he stopped me at the gates... time (and this is a bit gross), his head was detached from his body, and students from rival schools would steal his head and play football (soccer) with it, hide it in various locations, or leave it riding across London on a bus—so the head was basically ruined. The head that is currently set atop Bentham’s embalmed body is a replica made by Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum—but the rest of the body is his actual body. (Apparently his real head is in the school’s vault somewhere…) Needless to say, Jeremy Bentham was not Gretchen’s favourite part of the tour. But I digress…
Again, it was really nice to get a quick orientation to where things were via the walking tour, but by the last half hour or so, Gretchen and I were seeing the law of diminishing returns set in, and so we abandoned the group and went where any wide-eyed American tourist in London would go—to the Pizza Hut ₤4.99 lunch buffet! (After my prawn cocktail and Gretchen’s Pizza-Boy-R-Dee from the last week, we weren’t willing to chance it this time. I think Pizza Hut was the first decent meal we’d had since we came to the UK…)
Jeremy Bentham
Okay, if you haven't read the blog yet, you at least have to read the part about Jeremy Bentham. I've wanted to see this ever since my Economics professor told me about it in college. Not every day that you get to take your picture with a person who lived over a century ago! After lunch Gretchen and I went shopping for mobile phones and explored central London a bit more on our own, and then we came back to the hotel wiped out.
On Tuesday we ventured out to Belsize Park to locate the flat that we are moving into tomorrow (Monday, 28 August). We loved the area! We walked around Belsize Park and found little parks, libraries, and lots of little shops. It looks like everything we need will be pretty convenient, and it is a pretty quiet residential area, but still close enough to the town via the Tube. Just down the road from our flat there is an Italian restaurant, an Indian restaurant (yummy!), and a “Tesco Express,” which is basically a miniature version of a grocery store. A little bit farther away, but still easily within walking distance, was another grocery store which was a bit larger than the Tesco Express (but not as big as an American Kroger or HEB). The store reminded us a bit of Fresh Market in Dunwoody or Brentwood. I was extremely excited to see that they sell warm,
Gretchen at Trafalgar Square
This picture was taken from the front steps of the National Gallery of Art here in London. In the background you can see the tall monument at Trafalgar Square--on top is Lord Nelson. Farther back in the distance you can see the House of Parliament. It's really an amazing view. freshly baked curry slices (which are kind of like gourmet Hot Pockets filled with chicken curry) for ₤0.99. We’re both excited to finally move out of the Marriott and into a real place tomorrow (although there are advantages of having someone else make your bed and leave shortbread in your room every day).
Wednesday was the day my classes started. Currently I have classes on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. My Friday class only lasts for the first few weeks, so pretty soon it will just be classes on Wednesday and Thursday. (Nice…now if I could just convince my law firm of the desirability of a five-day weekend when I get back!) Classes seem to be pretty much what I expected. The vast majority of the other students are Americans who are here to sight-see, so it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a very cut-throat environment. The professors seem to be pretty understanding of that mentality, and even though there is an attendance policy for classes, many of the professors said that they will be lenient with that if we let them know ahead of time that we are traveling. (As one professor told us, having a hangover
Tower of London
This is me wearing my "professor costume" last Sunday. After church we went on a bus tour of London--our first stop was the Tower of London. is not a valid excuse for missing class; however, going to Prague is.) On Thursday I had four more hours of class, and then two hours on Friday.
During the time that I was sitting in classes, Gretchen was out exploring. On Wednesday she walked down to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and some other exhibits. On Thursday she went to the National Gallery of Art and got to see her favorite Monet painting and check out some of the other art. I won’t say more about this or you’ll see how ignorant I really am when it comes to art. On Friday she just walked around and found a restaurant where she wanted us to go for lunch. It is called Maoz, and it is a vegetarian place that specializes in falafels. It was our first time having falafel—and it was really good. In addition to the falafel (pita bread, hummus, couscous, lettuce, and fried eggplant), you can fill it up with other stuff—fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, tahini sauce, yoghurt sauce, and all kinds of other stuff. It was really good and fairly inexpensive (as long as I can train myself
Gretchen at Victoria & Albert Museum
This is inside the Victoria & Albert Museum. Gretchen could probably tell you the sculptor and title of this piece, but she isn't here right now, and I'm ignorant. to think in Pounds, not Dollars), so I’m sure we’ll be back, as it is close to the school. Feeling especially adventurous, I also ordered a lemon-mint drink, which was basically lemonade, minus the sugar, plus a mint leaf—served chilled. That was pretty good, too.
After lunch, we walked all over checking out the sights. From the restaurant, we walked over to Leicester Square, which is kind of in the middle of the West End theater district. They have a half-price ticket booth, where you can get half-price tickets to the theaters here. There weren’t many good deals there on Friday afternoon when we got there (obviously), so we decided not to catch a show on Friday night. (But on Saturday I got online and ordered half-price tickets to go see
Les Miserables this coming Tuesday night at the Queen’s Theatre.) From Leicester Square, we walked down to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery of Art. Aside from the art which is there (which is incredible), the building itself is amazing! There are lots of painted domes and arches and columns, with mosaic floors, etc… From the front steps of the National Gallery, you can look out
Courtyard of Victoria & Albert Museum
This is the courtyard in the middle of the Victoria & Albert Museum. On the day we went, it was filled with some Arabian festival--which was neat to see. There was Arabian music playing in the background and the strong smell of incense. between the huge stone columns and see across Trafalgar Square and see the House of Parliament in the background, near the River Thames. It’s really cool to actually be where all of these things are—things that I have always seen in books and on TV (or built while playing Civilization…). After taking some pictures around Trafalgar Square, we walked down Whitehall, which is where most of the major government buildings are. We stopped at 10 Downing Street (home of the Prime Minister), Big Ben, and several other places, including several cafes as Gretchen searched for the perfect pastry for the afternoon (which she ended up not finding and eventually settled for a bottle of juice).
On Saturday we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is a huge collection of art and design. (We also went to Harrod’s, but that store is just way too big for me, so we left pretty quickly, and I’m going to let Gretchen explore that without me later on…) Gretchen especially liked the exhibit on fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum—it had dresses and coats and hats and shoes from as early as the late 1500s, and as recent as a
No Originality Points for this Photo
This is just one of those things that everybody seems to do in London. A picture with the red phone booth is a must--I'm not sure why we did it. couple of years ago—from New York, Paris, London, and other places. For me, it was interesting to see so much artwork from the 1400s and the 1500s. I don’t think that I paid so much attention to what the art looked like as to how old it was. One thing that I’ve realized since being here is that in the United States, when we say that something is old—such as a building—it is generally not from before the mid-1800s or perhaps occasionally the 1700s. Here, that is still considered relatively new. There are all kinds of buildings that are centuries and centuries old. We saw the Tower of London last week, and parts of that are over 900 years old! After St. Paul’s Cathedral was destroyed in the huge fire of 1666, Christopher Wren rebuilt it in the late 17th century—and it’s still standing—and it is absolutely amazing to look at. I’m really enjoying the history here. Being here really is an educational experience, both inside the classroom and outside…probably even more outside.
One of the classes that I am taking is an introduction to the British legal system, which I find very interesting. I guess I always just
Big Ben
This is probably the most famous clock tower in the world... took for granted that the UK’s government was essentially just like ours—except that the President was called the Prime Minister and Congress was called Parliament. In my mind, the Queen was merely vestigal. But during our first class session last week, we talked about how the UK’s government is structured, and it became clear very quickly that there are major differences. I won’t go into detail because this is probably boring for most of you, but I guess I was shocked to learn that the UK has no written constitution—no Bill of Rights. (Which, in some way, I suppose, is why we declared independence from the British, but I thought that they had subsequently changed to become much more like us.) And elections for the Prime Minister are significantly different than our US presidential elections (no Al Gore jokes, please). I thought it was humorous in that class last week when our professor—who is a British professor from University College of London—was describing the British government and asked our class full of Americans if we had heard of the concept of “checks and balances.” In my mind I thought, “Heck, we
invented checks and balances!” At any rate, the confluence
Not a typo....
So TJ Maxx here is called TK Maxx. Not sure why. of being here in London, taking classes about British and European Union law, and reading a biography of Winston Churchill right now, is really enlightening…but like I said, I’ll stop there before you start drooling on your computers…
Moving away from civics, I should mention another observation that I’ve had since I’ve been here. Londoners love to talk about the weather. I’ve heard that before, but it’s really true! I sat on a bench up in Belsize Park last week while Gretchen ran into a store. I hadn’t been sitting there for two minutes (eating my nice warm curry slice), when an older gentleman came and sat beside me and started asking me for my weather prediction for the coming days! I suppose it isn’t that unusual for people to talk about the weather—but what gets me is that Londoners spend so much time talking about it, and the weather is, from what I can tell, exactly the same every single day—it’s sunny for a while, it gets cloudy, it rains a little bit, it gets sunny again…it’s unreal. I wanted to answer that guy on the bench by saying, “My bet is that it will be exactly like
Our New Car
The surprised look you see on Gretchen's face is because I just surprised her with a new Rolls Royce. I wish. We're seeing lots of Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Ferarris, and whatever else. I bet it wouldn't be nearly as much fun to haul 8 peices of luggage around in this car as it was to haul it around on the Tube! yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that…” but of course I didn’t because he was just trying to be friendly. Oh…and speaking of European idiosyncrasies…I actually saw a teenage guy wearing a David Hasselhoff shirt the other day on the Tube! Okay….
Well, I’m not going to try to think of the things that I might be leaving out of this blog because it is already too long. Once we move into our flat (tomorrow!), we’ll have an internet connection, so I can update this more frequently and thus avoid the infrequent, but incredibly long blog updates. And of course…you’re always free to stop reading when your eyes glass over… Until then, cheers!
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Vonne
non-member comment
Professor
Well, when you eat Crunchy Corn Bran and wear a tie, it's no wonder people think you're an old man :)