Four Days in London

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England had a football (soccer) game yesterday against Belarus. Three international friends and I decided to go to a local pub in town to see what it was all about. It was quite the cultural experience. The old pub was called Murderers and had newspaper clippings and information about the world's greatest unsolved murder mysteries such as the Kennedy assassination. Which was kind of a dangerous idea for a roomful of burly men from their 30's to 60's with pints all roaring at a single television. I didn't want them to get any ideas... There was nowhere to sit. There was hardly anywhere to stand. So we huddled in a corner without a view of the game. I don't know what it is about football, or sports in general, that does this to people, but when you can get a roomful of men to simultaneously erupt in various displays of grunting and growling and table-smashing, it is quite a phenomenon. England won that night 3-1, and shortly after the pub cleared out allowing us a chance to sit and hear each other talk. One fellow had a bet that England would win 3-1. After the game ended, I congratulated him on his victory, but he did not seem so pleased. Apparently by "winning the bet" he had to buy the next round!

London was amazing. As one of Europe's leading powerful cities, there were moments when all the layering of history was just overwhelming. An example of this would be the Tower of London. The original "tower" was built shortly after the Norman Invasion for Oliver Cromwell, but even before that there were remnants of the old Roman Wall that they used for one of the walls of the castle. Later it became a prison whose chopping block saw the necks of Anne Boleyn among other unfortunate Henry VIII wives. And Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned there after multiple upsets with the crown. When he returned from a voyage to the West Indies without gold, they finally gave him the ax. The crown jewels were just gorgeous too, and I just wanted to reach out and touch them. We spent almost all day there and when we left, I had diamonds in my eyes.

Another biggie was the British Museum that housed many artifacts and artwork from many ancient civilizations including Assyria, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Asia... basically everywhere. In these giant museums, you do get something I like to call "the louvre effect" where there is just SO much to see that you body and mental capacity cannot hold up to see it all. You could seriously spend a week in these places and not see everything. That's just how they are. We did get to see the Rosetta Stone, an Easter island statue, Tutenkamen's mummy, and some "bog people." Which were amazing.

Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip, aside from the glorious food, was seeing Billy Elliot the Musical. It was INCREDIBLE and has to be one of my favorites. It was playing at the Royal Victoria Theatre across from Victoria Station, and just around the corner from our hotel! For those of you who haven't seen the movie, it is about a little boy growing up in England during the 1980's and the miner strikes against the conservative government of PM Margaret Thatcher. In this environment, Billy grows up encouraged to take boxing and with the unspoken certainty that he will join the mining profession as his forefathers. Instead, after a boxing class, he decides to stick around and watch the "bally" or ballet class for girls afterward. He joins that class and becomes amazing... and... well, I won't spoil the rest. It's incredible tho. Go out and see it.

So London was wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that I am haveng an exceedingly difficult time getting back to schoolwork and thinking about my papers. Well, actually thinking about them is fine... writing them sucks. As far as travel plans go, I am going to buckle down here for the next two weeks and work on my presentations/papers I have due. But after those midterm things are taken care of, I am going to embark on four weekends of travel: my personal English pilgrimage (Bath, Oxford, Cotswolds, Statford-upon-Avon, and Warwick) during our "reading week", Edinburgh with ISS, Wales with Haggis Tour Group, and Amsterdam with some friends. I am so ready to get out there and travel more, but PAPERS FIRST ARRRRGHH!!! Then I will write my final papers, and come home! It's going by so fast, it's scary! Lastly, I want to thank grandma and grandpa for an amazing four days, wonderful food, wonderful company, and the chance to see some family when I am half-way across the world. You guys rock!