Stonehenge, Bath, and Beyond

After a full day on Friday, Saturday began with an early morning bus ride across the rolling English countryside, which led me to conclude that an eight-hour bus ride accelerating and decelerating up and down hills and through turns between London and Edinburgh would be a thoroughly un-enjoyable experience. Therefore, in the event that I take a trip to Edinburgh, I will fly or take the train, but that is beside the point.

As you might expect, Stonehenge consists of a collection of rocks arranged in an intricate circle on the top of a grassy hill. Parking is available downhill from the stones, and the current visitor center is no more than one hundred yards downhill from them. After entering through the visitor center, we walked up a short paved path to the closest point to the stones, which remain approximately twenty yards away. Not surprisingly, most of the visitors to the site stop to take pictures at this point. I thought it might be a good idea to join them.

Me at Stonehenge

Once I had participated in the picture-taking melee, I continued to follow the path around the monument through the cold and wind, taking pictures and observing the stones from different angles as I went along. I joined a couple of group photos and paused to look at the stones a few times. Once I had completed the path around the stones, I exited and returned to the warm bus, where the group slowly grew larger and larger as people waited for the Archeology class to complete their studies.

I realize that the tone of this post may seem down on Stonehenge as a site, but I am certainly glad that I visited. However, although it is a very unique site, it does not necessarily warrant the amount of time that we allocated for our visit, and I believe that there are a few reasons that this is the case. The first that, simply put, Stonehenge is very much what you expect: a collection of rocks arranged in a manner that is amazing when considered within the context of the era of its construction. This means, though, that there is very little that surprises you during your visit. Really, the only unexpected things about my visit were the sheep, which everybody in our group talked about because they did not expect to see them, and the picture that a couple of my friends took with a group of Asian tourists. Also, unlike in decades past, the ropes and path prevent you from approaching the stones themselves, which means that you can only see angled glimpses of the stones and that there is no opportunity to really explore the site. Nevertheless, as I said above, I did enjoy the opportunity to see the site.

Stonehenge

When the Archeology class finally finished the guided portion of their visit, the bus departed for the city of Bath. Founded by the Romans, Bath sits atop the only natural hot spring in Great Britain. It was on this spring where the Romans built a bathhouse and temple complex that outlasted their stay in Britain and went on to serve future kings and aristocrats. In more recent centuries, the city spent a time as a major resort town among the British aristocracy, who built a number of large, stone buildings in the Georgian style. Today, these once luxurious buildings still stand and the bathhouse is the best-preserved Roman bathhouse in Northern Europe. The city itself draws visitors to both of these historical elements in addition to a lively shopping and dining district near the bathhouse.

The bus dropped us in the city, and after establishing a time to meet at the Roman Bath for our tour, a group of us set out on our own in search of lunch. We went a few blocks away from the main shopping area and stopped at a pub called The Trinity, where I had a fantastic Dinner Jacket Potato with Chili, which consisted of a baked potato covered in chili. Sufficiently refueled, we ventured up to the north end of town to see the Bath Circus and the Royal Crescent. Rather than tents and elephants, the circus consisted of a ring of three story apartment buildings surrounding a circular street with a green space in the middle. One information guide compared the appearance of the buildings to the Coliseum in Roman turned inside out. The former potential architecture student in me particularly liked the fact that the columns carved on the buildings increased in order – Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian – from ground to roof.

The Circus in Bath

Next we continued up to the Royal Crescent, a street that is Architecturally similar to the circus, but that opens up onto a green area overlooking the valley below.

The Royal Crescent in Bath

Pictured from Left to Right:

JR, Hal, Lauren, Justin, Tim, Kyla, Joel

Our free time nearly finished, we walked back into town and down to the bathhouse, where we rejoined the rest of the Notre Dame group, which entered the bath and adjoining museum together. Inside, we received handsets that allowed us to type in the numbers listed on placards throughout the complex to hear various portions of a narration about historical information. The tour took us through the remains of the larger complex, offered insights into the historical methods of engineering that used to move water throughout the building, and culminated in the opportunity to explore the main bathhouse itself, which has more than five large bathing rooms, each of which housed a swimming pool sized bath. Water still flows from the natural spring into the collecting pool and from there into the central bath, and the steam hanging in the cold air over this bath indicated that the water is, indeed, hot.

Me in the Roman Bathhouse

In the Background: Bath Abbey

A long trip home followed the completion of this tour. The trip back, though, was much easier on the stomach than the trip to Stonehenge, as this trip consisted of mostly freeway driving. Back in London, we tried out Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a favorite of Mark Twain’s, on Fleet Street for Nick Reaves’ twenty-first birthday. One of the oldest pubs in London, the last time that it needed rebuilding was in 1667 following the Great Fire; a placard outside the door lists all of the monarchs who have reigned in that time. When you first enter, it seems very dark and cramped, as you can only see dark wood paneling and the small bar area, but, after buying your drinks, there is more room in the basement, which consists of the complex old cellar of a medieval monastery. Although the ceilings, particularly on the stairwell and in the bathroom, are very low for those of us who are extremely tall, there are many nooks and crannies available for groups big and small to congregate. I look forward to exploring more of the basement and, at only two pounds for their decent quality cask ale, I can say that I will certainly be back.

Sunday and Monday were relatively quiet days, including reading, a trip to church, a short stop in the National Gallery, some time in class, and work during the evening planning travel for spring break. Tuesday, though, once again brought more excitement.

On Tuesday morning, I walked up to the British Library, which is across the street from King’s Cross Railway Station, to register for a reader pass. My fifth class this semester is an independent study on the expatriate work of F. Scoot Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and a major component of that project will consist of research at the British Library that will inform a semester long research paper. Hopefully, the work from this semester will also support my work on an English department Honors Thesis next year during my senior year. The British Library, though, like The Library of Congress, is a copyright library, meaning that it contains a copy of every book published in Britain. Registration for a reader pass, then, requires documentation confirming your identity and a well-defined need to use the library. Fortunately, the registration office had no issue with my application and approved me for a pass, allowing me to begin doing research by the end of the week.

In the afternoon, then, I went to the London Centre for my London as Theatre Centre course, which ended early because the class was attending a show in the evening. Normally, ending early would not cause any issues. However, today I had made plans to meet Brandon Downs outside of the London Centre immediately after class. Brandon will be spending the semester studying at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and spent today in London between flights. To make the story short, I waited around for forty-five minutes before meeting Brandon and rushing to the flats and back to the London Centre in just over an hour.

Once again at the London Centre, Brandon and I met with Michelle, Hal, Anna, and Nick Brandt. As we were standing in the lobby making plans to go to dinner, the director who went to a pub with us last week stopped to talk with us on his way out the door for the day. After a short conversation, we invited him to join us at a pub, and, at his recommendation, we went to The Red Lion off of Piccadilly Circus, near our theatre. We stopped for a drink and another fantastic conversation, but left after only forty-five minutes or so, which gave Hal and Brandon time to purchase rush tickets for the show.

After stopping for sandwiches at a nearby café, we entered The Criterion Theatre to see The 39 Steps. The theatre dates to the late nineteenth century and initially catered to the new middle class that grew significantly following the industrial revolution. Decorated in a manner resembling a French palace of that era, the interior of the theater has a very antique aesthetic, particularly due to the preservation of the original footlight fixtures on the stage and the chandeliers to light the audience, although the form are no longer in use and the later now use light bulbs instead of candles. The most remarkable aspect of the theater, though, is the fact that it sits entirely underground, as the original site included restaurants and ballrooms above for people to congregate before show. This placement underground required a system for moving fresh air in during performances and, consequently, the theater was one of the first air-conditioned buildings in London.

The 39 Steps caricatured the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, which I had the opportunity watch at some point in the past week, and tells the story of a man fleeing from the authorities across Scotland while attempting to disprove the false accusation that he committed a murder. The production is a comedy, using only four actors to play all of the roles and, as a result, self-consciously using costume and set changes to create some of the humor. Overall, it was an entertaining show, although it was short, the audience seemed a bit restless, and, at times, the humor came across as blunt and one-dimensional.

Well, that brings you up to speed on me. If you have been following the blog and found this post at the top of the page, be sure to read the “Parliament” post below this one, if you missed it. I am glad to say that I am finally at the point of including pictures with posts; that is a trend that I hope to continue. To see full size images, just click directly on the pictures in the posts, and, for the collected album, visit the link on the right side of this page. I will write more when I have had more adventures.

Until then,

Joel

Parliament

Since my post last Thursday, I have had a full weekend’s worth of adventures, including a thorough tour of the Houses of Parliament, a cold visit to Stonehenge, and an enjoyable, if too quick, trip to the city of Bath. Although this post began life as a description of all three, I have written so much about Parliament alone that it can stand as it’s own post. The rest of the weekend will follow shortly (hopefully tonight).

On Friday afternoon, I met Michelle, Cat, Lauren, Kyla, and Nick Reaves at the London Center to walk over to the Houses of Parliament. Lauren is interning with a member of parliament this semester and invited us for a tour with her office manager in the afternoon. Parliament is, usually, not in session on Fridays, so the building is slightly more accessible than during the rest of the week.

We entered through an ultra-modern office building across the street with tight security. Even after going through the checkpoint, we needed somebody inside to let us in as guests. Inside, we learned that the building is one of the most expensive office buildings in the world, and the price shows in the central courtyard encased in glass that features imported American trees, the elegant steal suspension cables supporting the building, the detailed wood and stonework, and the thorough, if subtle, security system. The central courtyard featured two different restaurants, one in a sit down style, the other with more a cafeteria feel, and we had purposely arrived early for our two o’clock to eat lunch at the later. They had a wide variety of quality options – I had a baked potato with a chicken and onion sauce, others had beef and rice with what seemed like Indian spicing – and their prices were very low compared to what I have paid in non-security-protected areas of London thus far.

After lunch, we made our way into the Parliament building itself (the expensive building where we ate lunch was only a parliamentary office building). We walked down and escalator from the courtyard and immediately entered a stone passage, which we followed into an exterior courtyard enclosed by the building and a fence on two side each, with Big Ben anchoring the corner from which we entered. From the courtyard, we entered Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster complex. Completed in 1097 (only thirty years after the Norman Conquest!), it is a large stone room, the walls of which support a remarkable ornate wooden roof that spans the room without support from additional columns. The room has served a wide variety of purposes over the centuries, and plaques in the floor note where particular events – such as the gold and silver jubilee addresses of Queen Elizabeth II or the condemnations of death for William Wallace and Saint Thomas Moore, to name a few of the more memorable ones – took place. The first picture below shows our group in the hall and the second, taken while standing at the plaque indicating where Winston Churchill laid in state, shows a close up of the intricate stained glass window covering the far wall.

Our tour group in Westminster Hall

Pictured from Left to Right:

Nick, Lauren, Kyla, Michelle, Cat, Joel

The Stained Glass in Westminster Hall 

Moving on from Westminster Hall, we entered a room once used for the predecessor of parliament. Perhaps on a quarter the size of Westminster Hall, it featured benches on opposite walls on which the supporters and “opponents” of the King, who sat between them, once sat while debating policies. Today, although historic, the hall serves as a passage between Westminster Hall and the modern Houses of Parliament while also housing the gift shop.

Next we entered the Lobby of the Houses of Parliament, an octagonal stone room with a high ceiling decorated by a gold mosaic. Imitation columns run up the vertices of the octagon and house statues of many of the monarchs who served up to, approximately, the nineteenth century. The Houses of Commons and Lords were on our left and right, respectively, as we entered the lobby. Individual constituents can register and wait for hours and days in the lobby for the opportunity to speak with their Member of Parliament (MP). After a short wait in the lobby for Lauren’s office manager, our tour commenced and we returned to Westminster Hall and the intermediate hall before moving on the House of Lords.

With a history as the meeting place of the British aristocracy, the House of Lords, like the lobby, featured very ornate decorations, everything from gold leaf and marble fixtures to dark wood and red, regal carpeting. We first walked through one of the two hallways on either side of the chamber. Peers congregate in the hallways to discuss business and also line up single file to pass through these hallways and into the chamber when voting. At the end of the hallway and beyond the chamber, we entered a small sitting room with a fireplace and then a grand receiving hall – once again decorated with gold and marble in addition to large (and famous) portraits of sovereigns dating back multiple centuries – in which members of both houses often assemble to receive foreign dignitaries, such as presidents and prime ministers. Large murals and opposite walls depict major English victories over French opponents, so, apparently, representative of the French government prefer not to appear in this particular room.

The final room in the Lords wing of the building is the Sovereign’s receiving room, where the Queen arrives and puts on her formal royal attire when opening each session of Parliament. All of the carpet in the room is blue, the color of the sovereign in England, and the only color of carpeting in the building on which the Queen has permission to walk. Painted on insets around the top of the wooden walls in the room are depictions of five of the seven courtly virtues (they ran out of money for the other two). Removable portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hang on the other two panels above the small, very worn throne that dates to the time of Queen Victoria. House of Lords policy holds that they cannot repair anything, such as a worn throne, unless it has fallen into a state of disrepair, so this chair will likely receive restoration work within a monarch or two. Also notable in the room is a large clock that once belonged to Marie Antoinette. Although the French contend that a British noble stole the clock during the French Revolution, the British instead claim that a noble merely agreed to take care of the clock for her during the revolution until such time that the British government can return it to an appropriate French government. Clearly, no such French government has yet come to power.

Unfortunately, an ornery security guard did not allow us onto the floor of the House of Lords itself, so we returned to the lobby and waited for a short time before entering the House of Commons. Built as a gathering place for commoners, rather than the aristocracy, the House of Commons features much simpler decorations than the House of Lords across the lobby – stone rather than marble, lighter wood, and green, common carpet. During World War II, Germany bombed the building, but only destroyed the House of Commons, rather than the older Westminster Hall or the much more expensive House of Lords, much to the relief of the British. We walked along similar voting hallways to the back of the chamber and then entered the floor; there were no rooms for the sovereign at the back of this house.

The floor itself is actually rather small. Featuring the same green and light wood color scheme, the room provides padded benches on opposing sides facing each other, allowing for the traditional confrontational debates. Bright lights and microphones make clear the fact that the local equivalent of C-SPAN televises these proceedings, and a large glass barrier on one quarter of gallery keeps the proceedings open to the public while preventing public interjections. Apparently, somebody once threw something at Tony Blair.

Well I hope that this constitutes a sufficiently thorough description of the Houses of Parliament. As I said about, I wrote much more than I expected to about Parliament, but I wanted to be sure to have a record of the experience. I hope to have a post about Stonehenge and Bath, in addition to the days since, up soon, but, for now, I will close with this picture of Big Ben.

Big Ben

Until next time,

Joel

First Week of Classes

It has been a few days since I posted anything, and I have a little bit of time in the flat this afternoon before I eat dinner and head out for the evening, so I thought that it would be a good time to share a little bit about the classes that I’m taking and about my past few days in the city. Before I get into those stories, though, I would like to say that, at this point, my plan is write about one to two posts each week, which should allow me to strike a pretty good balance between full, interesting posts and regular, consistent updates.

Also, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has given me positive feedback over the past few days. I may not have responded to you individually, but please know that I do really appreciate knowing that you are reading and that you enjoy and appreciate the posts. It makes it much easier for me to write them.
           
On Sunday afternoon, the whole program gathered for an opening mass in the Newman Center at a college about fifteen minutes north of the flats. After mass, the group walked down to the Knights Templar Pub, where the program provided us with a free dinner, a luxury that no London Program student can ever turn down. Although my group received our food last out of everyone in the program, we did have seats on a balcony overlooking the whole pup, the majority of which is in a large room with support beams disguised as grand columns and imitation gold leaf paint on all of the moldings. The centerpiece of the room was a large, backlit bar that looked very much like the wooden casing of a grand pipe organ.

The Knights Templar Pub

Monday brought yet another rainy day, and my first trip in to the London Center for class in the afternoon. My first class of the semester was “The UK Economy and Financial System”, which began with a review of basic concepts, such as calculation of and uses for GDP, and should ultimately provide a thorough analysis of the economy in Britain since World War II while also, ideally, teaching us methods for independently initiating comparable analysis about a particular country in the future. Highlights of the course will include class trips to The Bank of England and Lloyds of London, among others, in the future. That night, I also had my first dinner with my flat mates, one of whom started us out with a very basic pasta and iceberg lettuce meal. The meal was so civilized that we almost took the lettuce out of the bag.

On Tuesday afternoon, I brought my camera with me to class and snapped the picture of Big Ben that you now see as the background. The picture shows the view looking south down Whitehall towards the Houses of Parliament from Trafalgar Square, and the lions, which I found particularly appropriate as a traditionally representative animal for Great Britain, surround Nelson’s column in the center of the square. This photo, as well as the photo of the Knights Templar Pub, is available in the Picasa album available on the right side of this page.

My Tuesday afternoon class was “London as Theatre Centre of the World”. The professor is an experienced actor and director who has worked in the London theater community for decades. We introduced ourselves in class, and he asked us say a little bit about our experience with theater and the arts, and he was impressed when I mentioned my experiences with theater at The Guthrie, in Minneapolis. As a side note, it also amazed me to hear how many students had little to no experience with theatre and the arts, both of which are such a central part of my cultural life that I cannot imagine having such limited experience with them.

Over the course of the class, we will go to see ten different shows, five of which are already on our schedule. All of them sound like great experiences, particularly the staging of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at the National Theatre under the direction of Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire. We will also do two backstage tours of theaters in the area, including the National Theatre.

After class, Nick Brandt and I made plans to walk back to the flats with Michelle, who needed to stop in the library before we left, so Nick and I went exploring the fourth floor of the building in search of the chapel. Although we eventually found the chapel, the highlight of the journey came with a stop in the office of one of the program’s professors, who invited us in to talk for a while and, eventually, invited us out to a pub, so we found Michelle and joined him at Waxy O’Connor’s, an Irish pub just north of the London Center that serves fantastically smooth Guinness, where we had a couple of drinks and a great conversation before heading home for dinner.

Class on Wednesday brought “Philosophy of Law”, which seems like it should provide an opportunity for thoughtful discussions about the nature of law. On Wednesday night, then, I cooked dinner for my flat for the first time. I made microwave chili, which turned out alright, if not great. I added far too much chili powder, so it was a little bit too spicy, and they didn’t seem to have tomato sauce available, so I used tomato puree, which made the chili a bit too thick. Oh well, it still tasted right, for the most part.

Today we all had “Global London”, our required class, in the morning, so I woke up early and went in for the lecture and the discussion. Although our professor is fairly quiet, he does seem very knowledgeable on the topic, which is the sociological development of London into the global city that it is today. Some of the things we’re going to discuss in the class seem rather…obvious, but some of the history aspects of the course should alright. We also have required walks around the city to do, which will be good ways to explore parts of the city that we might not see otherwise.

Well, I am about to head out for the evening. This weekend I will be exploring the city more, I may see the Parliament Building tomorrow, and I will definitely be going to Stonehenge and Bath on Saturday, so there will be plenty of (better) pictures and stories for my next post.

Until then,

Joel

London Program Orientation Weekend, or Pre-Semester Vacation

When we last left our heroes, the group flight had just boarded buses to the flats from the airport in London.


The flats themselves are fairly simple. My flat, which I share with four other guys, consists of a small kitchen/dining/living room, an oddly angled hallway to the door, a bathroom, two doubles, and a single. By the time that I arrived, two of my flat mates had already claimed the double with an extra, partial bathroom and two others had tentatively agreed to room together, leaving the single for me. I’ve heard some warnings about living in the singles in the flats, but having a room where I can close a door for relative quiet seems to allow me a good mixture of privacy and social opportunities, so far.


My only real complaint about the flat has to do with the bathroom, and my issue is non traditional. The top of the doorframe falls to full inch below the top of my head, and dangerous split between the top of my head and my eyes. I regularly graze my head on the way through the door, and I have banged my head significantly on at least one occasion. At the end of the semester, I hope to discourage the rectors from placing tall people in this flat in the future.


After a short break to drop our bags in our flats, students began making our way across town to the Notre Dame London Center. I believe that a few groups left with the rectors, but I did not make it to the courtyard between our two buildings of flats in time to follow this guided walk, so I joined another group of students leaving shortly after. Although I forgot to bring my map, a couple of better prepared students had their sets of directions, and our small group – although jet lagged and in a city with unfamiliar traffic customs – arrived at the London Center without any problems.


The London Center is a phenomenal building. In it’s first incarnation, the building served as a London Gentlemen’s Club for graduates of Cambridge and Oxford Universities. After the club moved to another location, the building changed hands between a variety of business and educational organizations before Notre Dame acquired the building in the late 1990’s. Upon taking possession of the building, Notre Dame organized an extensive renovation that restored many aspects of the building to the form that they took when the building served as a club, taking care to allow for such details as marble fireplaces in classrooms, a grand staircase, and intricate designs on the interior and exterior moldings. When standing in Trafalgar Square, the London Center – with its blue and gold monogram flag on the roof – literally looks like a Notre Dame embassy.


At the London Center, we assembled in the building’s small auditorium for two and a half hours of talks on key policies for the program and in the flats. Not surprisingly, staying awake proved quite challenging for those of us experiencing jet lag, although the rectors used enough energy during their presentation that we were much more alert after they spoke than before. We also picked up our rental textbooks, cell phones, and public transportation cards before leaving the London Center for the day.


On the trip back to the flats, I joined a different group of people. We walked up to Piccadilly Circus and found shops to convert some currency and to purchase electronic adapters. From there, we returned to the provided directions to the flats for the remainder of our journey, stopping for Thai food on the way. Back at the flats, I unpacked the few dry clothes that I had and promptly fell asleep (remember, chronologically, the last time that I really slept was at the beginning of my previous post).


Friday morning featured more orientation at the London Center, this time in greater detail and with regard to more specific aspects of the program, such as the building’s library and the program’s travel policies, to name a few. In the afternoon, we had time for a short lunch at a sandwich shop around the corner from the building before an hour of additional presentations, after which one of the rectors led us back to the flats by a much faster and more direct route than the one listed on the provided directions. He also showed us the closest large grocery store (think small grocery store in the United States, for a size comparison), named Sainsbury’s, where prices are much better than at convenience markets.


On Friday night, a few of us went looking for a pub for dinner, hoping to find hearty, meat, potato, and vegetable type dishes. By the time that we ventured out, though, all of the pubs seemed too full to really serve dinner, so we stopped at an Indian restaurant, which served rich, saucy dishes that at least fulfilled our desire for a hearty meal. Later in the evening, I also ventured to a pub just down the street from the flats, The City Pride, and socialized with a number of students from the program while also trying Guinness on tap for the first time, an important experience. Although I think I prefer a lighter beer, I certainly found it smoother on tap than when poured from a can or a bottle. When I finally returned from the pub – I stayed a while to watch some students sing karaoke – I began the much needed laundry adventure that precipitated my last post. Yes, I did laundry on a Friday night in London, but I feel justified because I only did so after going out for most of the evening.


Saturday brought the most enjoyable day yet. I began the day walking across town to the London Center and throughout the surrounding neighborhood in the early afternoon as an assignment for our required class, Global London, which requires seven self-guided walking tours of the city throughout the semester. Highlights of the tour include the St. James Palace constructed by Henry VIII and Fortnum & Mason, and upscale department store that predates the United States. After a short stop at the London Center to check email and to rest, the group returned to the flats.


In the evening, I made a trip up to Sainsbury’s with Tim Kao to buy groceries for dinner, and then cooked spaghetti with meat sauce for Cat Samson, Michelle Letorneau, Kyla Wargol, Hal Melia, Lauren Morehouse, Tim, and myself. We did very well for ourselves, splitting the cost of the meal and spending significantly less money than we had the previous two nights. I really like staying in to cook; we need to do that a lot this semester.


The highlight of the evening, though, came after dinner, when the seven of us, as well as a few others, walked across town to see Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre. We arrived just early enough yet close enough to show time to purchase rush, standing room tickets for only ten pounds per ticket. Although an overhang obstructed the view sporadically throughout the show, the location of the tickets nevertheless afforded an excellent view of the performance. Having never seen the show before, I found it absolutely enthralling. From the operatic nature of the singing, to the well used turntable set, and the carefully constructed plot, I enjoyed every part of the show, which more than lived up to my expectations.


Rather than bore you with any more useless rehashing of my first few days, I will end this post on the high note of my fantastically fun, yet frugal, Saturday night.


I promise that there will be pictures…eventually.


Until then,


Joel

Always Bring a Towel

Originally Written January 14, 2011

It’s two in the morning, local time, on my first Friday night (now Saturday morning) in London and I’m doing laundry…I’ll explain myself as I go.

***Editor’s Note: As I reread the next four paragraphs, I realize that they describe a trip to the airport and the subsequent flight without offering too many insightful details, particularly in relation my unique experience on the trip to London. Although I have chosen to retain the paragraphs, you can read a truncated version of this post by simply skipping to “Reasons I’m Glad That I Brought a Towel”.***

On Wednesday morning, I woke up in the morning and, characteristically, arrived at the airport much earlier than I really needed to be there. A different plane actually left for Chicago from my gate before my plane arrived for the flight to O’Hare, which eventually occurred without a problem and left me with plenty of time to cross the airport to meet the group flight. I even had time to buy a surprisingly good tasting, filling pizza for dinner.

The group boarded the plane – a Boeing 767 featuring a large quantity of high quality first class seats and a two-three-two seating arrangement in coach – in a chaotic fashion and buckled into our seats. As the pilot welcomed us to the aircraft, he casually informed us of a leak in the hydraulic line that needed repair, so we waited on the plane, at the gate, for the hour needed for the expected repair. By the time that an hour had passed, the mechanical crew had determined that they needed much more than an hour, so we deplaned – in a much more orderly fashion than when we boarded – and moved one gate down the concourse, where, after another hour, we received a replacement plane, which we boarded and used for our flight. Fortunately, we had a safe plane in working order, but it’s always annoying when you deal with three hours worth of delays.

Once we were finally in the air, the flight went smoothly. Due to the evening time of our flight, we received dinner at no cost, a surprise, to me, considering the reputation for poor service that some airlines have earned in recent years. During dinner, I watched an edited version of The Social Network, and, after I dinner, I attempted to sleep. I managed to do so for a grand total of twenty minutes before a combination of turbulence and other noises awakened me, so I spent the rest of the flight, approximately five and a half hours, listening to music, staring in to space, regularly checking the convenient GPS flight map installed in the seat in front of me, watching an edited version of The Expendables, and eating the continental breakfast that they served to threw at us just before landing.

After circling the airport for twenty minutes, we arrived at Heathrow and walked all the way through a surprisingly empty terminal, although the large deal of construction that we saw outside of most of the gates probably explains the barrenness in our corner of the airport. At immigration, I gained admittance as a “Student Visitor” without any issues, and, after baggage claim, I proceeded through customs and into the gift shop duty free store. I didn’t realize that Disney owned Heathrow. The duty free store led to the arrivals area, where we met the program director and the coach buses to take us to our flats.

It is at this time that I come to the first item in what will be an ongoing list for all of the other Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans out there:

Reasons I’m Glad That I Brought a Towel

1.     When I retrieved my one piece of checked luggage at baggage claim, I found it soaking wet on one side of the bag. A quick check revealed that the water had penetrated the outer lining of the bag, and further inspection upon arrival in my flat revealed that the vast majority of clothes in my bag were either damp or, in the case of my socks, soaking wet. Fortunately, it did not perceive any stains on the clothes, so washing them this evening has returned them to an acceptable condition. However, the articles of clothing most susceptible to even basic water damage – my ties – escaped unscathed, despite their position in the bag, because I wrapped them in the extra towel that I brought with me.

At this time, I have written far more than I need to about the flight while still only managing to recount my flight to London. However, it is time for me to go to bed, so I will leave you here with this cliffhanger before I describe my first few days of adventures in the city. Perhaps, in a way, this can communicate the anticipation that I experienced while not sleeping during the international flight. Before I go, though, I will leave you with the second item on my list:

2.     The mattress in my room in my flight is very hard with obvious springs, which creates a stressful and, really, painful sleeping experience for those of us who sleep on our sides. However, by simply folding my towel and placing it under my hip, I slept very comfortably during my first night in the room, thus helping me to quickly recover from the exhaustion following my flight.

Well I just wrote a whole lot about not very much. Today I am going out exploring the city, so by my next post I should have stories about orientation, exploration, and our first weekend in town. There should also finally be some pictures, maybe even some good ones. I am very glad to be here, and I hope that you can stick with me through this procedural, boring post into my (ideally) more interesting posts in the future.

Until then,

Joel

First Post

Well, after months of planning and preparation, I leave for London tomorrow.

I'm struggling with how to go about writing this blog. Most of the writing that I do these days consists of long, thesis driven essays that I write after hours of deliberation, and I can't imagine that I will want to spend that kind of time writing a blog while I'm living in London (sorry). On the other hand, I could quickly let this blog devolve in a series of long, rambling explosions of thought featuring page upon page of short sentences and line breaks. However, since I'd prefer to write a relatively coherent blog, I promise to do my very best to prevent that from happening.

Over the past few years, I feel as though I have become 'quieter' in the sense that I share less over the internet than I once did. Part of me has learned to recognize both the importance of discretion and the limits of the Internet as a tool for communication, and other parts just wonder if anybody really wants to read what I have to write. Therefore, I thank those of you who read these posts; it's good to know that you're out there. At the same time, though, a few years of perspective on my trip to Costa Rica during my junior year of high school has taught me that I will appreciate having specific, written recounts of my experiences to amplify the memories created by photographs and a hazy, ever decreasing recollection of place names.

With this long term usefulness in mind, I'll be sure to fill you in on classes, adventures, friends, travel, and everything in between as the semester progresses. I also hope to supply you with a variety of quality photographs, all of which will appear in the individual posts in which I first include them and in a collection accessible by the link on the right side of the page -- London Stories Photo Album. Hopefully, I will also take a picture worthy of use as the background of this blog (the one that's there is very nice and rather appropriate, but I'd prefer to use one of my own).

Please let me know if you have any issues reading the posts, I'm always looking for ways to improve the display settings (font size and color, background color and opacity, etc.)

In any case, thank you for allowing me to pontificate in this first post. I promise that my posts will be significantly more interesting (and photo heavy) once I have actually arrived in London.

I can't wait.

Until then,

Joel