Madison Across the Pond: Day 18-23: Procrastination pt. II

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?