Festivals and Field Trips

As I said when I left off on Saturday, on Sunday we planned to go see fireworks in the evening. Because I knew Sunday evening would be dedicated to having fun and I needed to make sure I had all my homework done for the week, I spent the day Sunday getting my life together and doing homework.....or as much homework as I could do. Interestingly enough, I didn't actually have any homework. There was a bit of reading, but it was pointless, however, I did it anyhow. With the homework situation out of the way in about an hour (I spent time organizing my class papers and such) I moved on to working on the trips I want to take around Europe. And I bought my tickets for fall break. I am officially going to Rome and then Madrid. And I'm doing it for $150!! I love cheap airline tickets! I'm also working on going places within the UK including Wales and Scotland, and hopefully I'm going to get to Ireland to see Dublin. I'm also hoping to see Paris.

So Sunday evening we headed for fireworks down on the Thames and we went early to enjoy a bit more of the festival and to have a wine picnic. We had loads of fun, and we even found a burrito booth that was incredibly similar to Chipotle. Personally, I thought it was closer in taste to Qudoba though. It was pretty delish. By the time the fireworks were ready to start we had made it up to a really sweet spot on a bridge right next to where they would be shooting off the fireworks from the Thames. And boy, they were pretty awesome. The show was rather short by American standards, but there was plenty of quality. I got a lot of it on video with my camera, but the batteries died just before the finale unfortunately so I'm afraid you won't be able to see the best part.

Monday morning I had history class and we took a field trip to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Me being silly me didn't bring my camera because I forgot about the field trip, so I don't have any pictures. Which is incredibly disappointing. But we went because the naval history of Britain is essential to their existence. We saw the Lord Nelson exhibit which was incredibly interesting because he was the commander of the entire navy at the Battle of Trafalgar, where the British defeated Napoleon and the French. This was a pivotal battle, and led to the eventual defeat of the French at Waterloo. Lord Nelson died at Trafalgar, he was shot by a sniper and the bullet went through his shoulder and kinda ricocheted around his body for a bit eventually lodging itself in his spine. He died on the ship, but had asked to be taken back for a proper funeral, instead of being buried at sea. So they dumped him headfirst into a barrel of brandy to preserve his body. The outcome of the battle was that 18 of the 34 French ships were either captured or destroyed and this battle would be the starting point for British naval dominance for the next 100 years (1805-1914) only ending because of World War I (which changed everything for most countries). After the Lord Nelson/Trafalgar exhibit we were supposed to see the Imperialism exhibit, which would of course be how the navy helped the Brits colonize a majority of the world. However, it was closed for one reason or another, so we couldn't see it. At this point much of the class had to leave anyhow, because they needed to be back for their next class, but I didn't have to go because my class for the afternoon was canceled (because we were meeting on Tuesday instead). So I got to carry on with about 6 other students and the professor. Also at Greenwich (what its famous for) is the Royal Observatory and the international time line and prime meridian. Ok, so the prime meridian is actually a long line that is basically everywhere, but it was established by the Brits because of their influence over the world. King Henry VIII who is most famous for his large number of wives, many of whom he had beheaded, was also very learned and intelligent and supported cartography (the making of maps). This helped with the establishment of the navy as a power and also lead to many discoveries about time, cameras, and longitude and latitude. So we trekked up an incredibly steep hill and saw the date line, which I of course stood on, so i was in two time zones at once, and completely defied the laws of time and space. We also had a look at the first (I think) camera obscura, which is basically a dark room with a hole in ceiling and a series of mirrors that shows the outside world, in real time. Now, we all know that it is clearly real time, but this was a major discovery back in the 1800's. There were plenty of time experiments and such, and in the end the camera obscura was a very early forerunner to the camera (see the link between the names?).

After all that running around I was tired and so when we got back in the afternoon I took a 4 hour nap and then woke up in the evening for dinner, and sat around with the rest of the flat and hung out, made fun of each other, watched incredibly bad British tv, and then called it a night.

Tuesday was also a busy day, because my British Life and Culture Class had a tour of parliment! You aren't allowed to take pictures of the inside (very disappointing), but I did remember my camera...though I didn't change the batteries, so it wouldn't have worked in the end...haha. Our tour guide was really cool, and we learned loads about the building and traditions that surround it. We talked about the ceremony of the official opening of Parliament, and what the Queen does. We learned that the color of the House of Lords is red, and all the seats and everything is done up in red, while the House of Commons is green, so everything in their room is green. We also thought it was interesting that the House of Commons was destroyed during WWII and the bombing of London (a bomb landed right on it unfortunatly, but the rest of the building was relatively undisturbed). Churchill had it rebuilt in almost the exact dimensions as the old room....even though it wasn't big enough at the time...and now it still isn't big enough for every MP to have a seat. This was done because of tradition. Very odd if you ask me. Also nearly every single house of representatives in the world (or whatever they're called in each country) is roughly modeled on the original set up of the British parliament. For 300 years the parliament met in a rather small room that was long and thin, and so the speaker sat on a chair at one end, that was actually on a set of stairs because of the lack of room. And ever since the speaker in GB, and elsewhere in the world has sat above the rest of the floor. Also the similarities between even what the chairs look like is astonishing. The speaker's chair here is almost exactly the same as the chair in the HoR in the US. We're all just a bunch of copycats!

After the tour it was back to the flat and another nap for me, and then politics class. After class I went grocery shopping (meh) and then back to the flat for food, goofing off, and then bed.

Today I have politics again, and then some sort of reception because we have some AU professors or representatives here to see us...woo? Tomorrow is Thursday, which means no class, so I suppose we'll prolly head out somewhere tonight. I think I shall continue to be boring though, because even though I'm much better and no longer ill, I keep getting headaches, so no alchie for me. Kinda sad, but kinda not, cause I can still have fun without it, and then I can watch all the antics of the drunkies in my flat. Haha.

Oh, one last thing....I did the webshots thing, for those of you who love pictures, but its actually very hard to use...either that or I'm just dumb. And I tend to put up way more pictures on facebook. Now here's something great about facebook, they now have a link I can give all you non-facebook users where you can go and see the pictures even though you're not on it! So I'll just post links to it when I upload new pictures. Here is what there is so far:

Album 1 "Please Mind the Gap Between the Train and the Platform"


Album 2 "Alight Here for Buckingham Palace"


Album 3 "Real World, London"


So yeah, yet another change on the picture front, and I apologize, but I think I've got it for real now!

Cheers!