And thus
begins my final week in England. I think our group is beginning to fall into a
bit of a panic because when we first arrived in England, there was a vast
amount of things each of us wanted to do, but we assumed we had all the time in
the world to experience everything. Now that we have only have a week left,
we're all starting to worry that we might miss something. Therefore, the past
few days have been overflowing with things we've done just to make sure we've
covered all our bases.
On
Wednesday, we visited the Imperial War Museum. Personally, I think I made a
mistake by visiting the Holocaust exhibit first. Even though this was just an
exhibition in the overall museum, it was a massive space complete with photos,
interviews of Holocaust survivors, and scale replicas of concentration camps.
My favorite and equally least favorite part was watching the interviews of Holocaust
survivors. Whenever I learned about the Holocaust in school or maybe read a
book about it, I always wanted to believe that the events were fictitious. Not
because I wanted to belittle what happened, but because the events of the
Holocaust were so horrific, it's hard to believe that humanity is capable of
something like that. Therefore, when I sat down to listen to survivors describe
the kinds of things that happened to them, it was jarring to realize that these
were actual events that happened to actual people. Once I made my way out of the
exhibition, I found a couple people from my group and we decided that we were all
a little emotionally drained and headed back to the flats. So, logistically
speaking, I guess I should have saved the Holocaust exhibit for last.
Most
people reading this probably know that The
Phantom of the Opera is my
favorite musical of all time. So, it probably comes as no surprise when I say
that I bought tickets to see it in London (I am very aware of the fact that I
have a problem, but I clearly do not care). On Wednesday evening, myself and a
couple other people from my group ventured to Her Majesty's Theatre.
Surprisingly enough, this was not my favorite performance of Phantom I've seen. After
seeing this show a total of four times live (don't judge me), I think I have
grown fond of particular ways actors speak, sing, or act in this show and this
specific performance didn't exactly line up with my preferences. Don't get me
wrong, it was a great show and I loved being able to see it here of all places,
but I guess I'm biased toward the American portrayals.
The next
day, we did not have class because we were taking a day trip to Cambridge. I
enjoyed being able to tour a university and observe the differences between
American and English higher education. One thing I didn't know about Cambridge
is the fact that it is not one school, but many campuses put together. For
example, Cambridge in comprised of 31 autonomous colleges including King's
College, Trinity College, and Corpus Christi among many others. In addition,
one of the coolest things about our tour of Cambridge was learning about the
incredible people who attended Cambridge, for example, Christopher Marlowe,
Charles Darwin, and Stephen Hawking. I was even able to see the hallway where
Isaac Newton discovered the speed of sound. I was also able to see the tree
that is most likely the great-great-grandchild of the apple tree that Isaac
Newton sat under when he discovered gravity. What was most amazing to me is the
fact that all these rooms that were once occupied by great writers, scientists,
actors, politicians, etc. are still used today by students currently attending
Cambridge (talk about the need to succeed...). After our walking tour we had
another group meal at the pub where Watson and Crick announced their discovery
of the double helix structure that makes up DNA. It astounded me the amount of
influential people that have come from Cambridge. (Meanwhile, Ohio State has
John Kasich and Jeffery Dahmer…).
On Friday,
some of my roommates woke up early and went to London’s resident “cat cafe”.
For those of you who have never heard of such an establishment, you pay for a
reservation where you can hang out and drink coffee in a cafe complete with about
17 free-roaming cats. I did not attend this particular excursion because I am definitely
a dog person (Speaking of, I have heard that dog cafes are indeed a
thing. Note to self: research those later). Once they returned, our entire
apartment went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A Museum is famous
for their art and design and was one of the more interesting museums we’ve
visited since being in England. For example, their resident exhibition was
titled Undressed: A Brief History of
Underwear (You wouldn’t guess it, but the English love puns).
We woke up to a day of exploration
on Saturday we began our morning with an official high tea at a nearby
restaurant. We booked a reservation for seven earlier that day and spent the
morning sipping tea and devouring finger sandwiches/mini pastries. After tea,
one of my roommates knew of a park called St Dunstan-in-the-East which was a
church that was largely destroyed in World War II, but now serves as a public
garden. It was extremely beautiful and very “Once Upon a Time” meets “Lord of
the Rings”. When we finished perusing our secret garden, we trekked to
Chinatown, purchased some delicious Chinese take-out, and headed home for the
night.
Sunday was probably one of my top
favorite days during our overall program because we took a day trip to Brighton.
I know England is technically an island, but it really doesn’t feel like one
when you’re in the center of it. However, Brighton is on the coast near the
English Channel, so it took a little over an hour to get to by train, but it is
literally a beach town. I haven’t been to an actual beach in a very long time
(because I don’t count the banks of the Ohio River, Olentangy River, or any of
the Great Lakes as legitimate beaches…) However, instead of a sandy beach,
Brighton is entirely covered in rocks. I’ve got to say, it was very strange sitting
on giant piles of what looks like decorative rocks you would buy at the Home
Depot instead of sand. Regardless, the weather was beautiful and we spent all
day walking through their seaside shops and lounging on the rock beach (not as
uncomfortable as you would think). Although I would consider myself a city person,
it was nice to see an entirely different part of the country.
When Monday came, we had class in
the morning and took a 45 minute train ride to Hampton Court Palace in the
afternoon. Once we arrived, we had an hour and a half walking tour of the
palace and learned all about King Henry VIII and his time at Hampton. I was
very interested in this tour because, in my opinion, I find Henry VIII to be one
of the most ridiculous kings ever. For those of you who don’t know his history,
first off, Hampton Court was not his only palace, nor was it his favorite.
Apparently he had a total of about 61 palaces, Hampton Court being
approximately fourth on the list. Continuing with the pattern of being over the
top, Henry VIII was obsessed with producing a male heir, so he had a total of
six wives. Eventually, two of the wives were divorced, two were beheaded, one
simply died, and the last was the only one able to outlive him. Speaking of
divorce, Henry was a Roman Catholic and therefore fell under the religious
authority of the Pope. The Pope and the rest of the Catholic Church did not
believe in divorce and denied Henry’s multiple requests to annul his marriage
with Catherine of Aragon who was not able to produce a male heir. Eventually,
Henry was fed up and required that the Archbishop of Canterbury annul his
marriage. Henry was eventually excommunicated from the Catholic Church and went
on to establish the Church of England where he placed himself as head of the
church (no surprise there). In the end, Henry only ended up with one son who
died when he was about 16. As irony would have it, despite his obsession with
producing a male heir, Henry fathered Elizabeth I who turned out to be one of
the most influential monarchs in all of English history, despite being a
female. Funny how life works sometimes, isn’t it?
View of King's College
The hallway where Newton discovered the speed of sound
A tree that belongs to the same family of apple trees where Newton discovered gravity
Victoria and Albert Museum
We've decided to transfer
St Dunstan-in-the-East
Brighton Beach
Hampton Court Palace
William and Mary's section of Hampton Court Palace
