Mind the gap!

Sorry for the delay in updating; time seems to get away from me here!! The days always seem to go by so fast!  The past week and a half have been great, though I'm still adjusting to life here (like the sun starting to set at 4:00 every day).  Figuring out how to work the oven was a whole other story that was a lot of trial and error, but I proved victorious and only slightly burned my food the two times I've used it.

Last week was the first week of classes, and I survived.  There seems to be a lot of reading, and its a lot different than in the States. It's very independent and its up to you to teach yourself what you need to know.  My friend Deanna and I went to the Victoria & Albert museum, which was even more amazing than the British Museum (which I didn't think was possible).  They had amazing collections of European history and a great Medieval and Renaissance room that had a plaster cast of Michaelangelo's David statue.  We spent a good three hours there before we left, and even then, there was still much more to see.  The good thing is that the majority of the museums here are free!! So we can go back whenever we want.  That Friday a group of us went to the school bar, where they had a Back to School disco.  Everyone was dressed up in their school uniforms and that was a really good time.  The rest of the weekend was made up of laundry and homework.

This week was another week of classes, though for one of my classes, we had to meet at Parliament in order to see the architecture (the course is Architecture in London).  Of course half the tube was shut down that afternoon, so we had to jump a few trains in order to get there.  I only had classes on Monday and Tuesday, but Thursday and Friday afternoons were spent in the library attempting to get the books and information I needed for my courses. Last night (Friday) was particularly exciting because a few of us decided to go to a drag show in the East End.  It was a group called The Lip Sinkers at a bar called Bistrotheque.  It was a great show and so much fun.  They lip-synced to songs from each decade and had really awful costumes that were actually amazing, and it was just a great time. 

Today was really exciting to me because we went to the Tower of London.  Once again, due to tube closures, it took a bit longer to get there (and involved more walking than originally planned).  We got there in time for the Yeoman Warders's tour at 12:30 and stayed there until 4.  It was phenomenal.  We may have been there for three and a half hours, but it still feels like there was so much more to see. We followed the path of a body that had been executed (like Anne Boleyn); so we walked from where they were brought to the tower through Traitor's Gate, to where they were killed, and then their body was lain in the chapel within the fortress's walls.  It was so amazing because that structure has been there since the Norman Conquest in 1066.  That's nearly 1000 years and you can just feel the history there. We walked through several of the towers, like the White Tower, which now holds the Royal Armouries, and displays all the armor of the previous kings.  We got to see the Crown Jewels and they had a film streaming of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.  We also went to the "unofficial torture chamber" where they tortured prisoners off the books. 

I could go on for hours about the history of the Tower of London, but I'll stop for now. Hopefully this wasn't unbearably long! Since at this point I have epically failed at uploading pictures on Facebook, here are some more from the past week!

Next weekend I'll be going to Scotland, so I can talk all about Edinburgh, the Highlands and Loch Ness! :)

Megan 

My second favorite sculpture at the V&A museum.  It's by Rodin and called The Fallen Angel.  It shows a fall angel being held by a woman. Its a little hard to make the two figures out in person, and even harder in the picture.  At first I didn't like it at all, but then you just see it and then you love it.  My favorite is a little more macabre, and is the cast of Donatello's Judith and Holofernes, which is Judith slaying Holofernes in order to save her people.

This is the memorial on Tower Green, marking where Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard (both wives of Henry VIII) were beheaded in the Tower of London, along with five other British nobles.  The bottom of the memorial reads "Gentle visitor pause a while, Where you stand death cut away the light of many days.  Here, jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life. May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage,  Under these restless skies."

This is me with my strapping new iron boyfriend, one of many iron sculptures with bows and arrows and other weapons along the tower walls to illustrate its use as a defensive structure and a fortress of the city.  Of course, it is important to remember that the Tower of London is first and foremost a Royal Palace of the Queen.