Tower of London etc.

I started with pictures because I'm not sure how to put them at the end. They are all from Munich and are, in order: me and Mel being silly; a church (i have no idea which one); the bones of the patron saint of single women; a building in the main touristy square of Marienplatz (I hope that is correct); a picture of Olympic park in Munich; me with beer (don't worry, one was Mel's); and the summer palace.

So I have actually quite a bit of schoolwork to do (apparently I am taking classes, not just hanging around exploring London), so this will have to be short. In fact, I think that I'll make a list of notable things that have happened in the past few days, with only small bits of elaboration where necessary/interesting/convenient. I hope no one objects.

Tuesday

1. Wow, I really can't remember what I did yesterday. That is not a good start.

2. Oh yes, I went to class. English lit was very good, although the short stories we read were a bit disturbing. I really like this professor a lot, he seems to be very helpful and really excited to make us love London as much as he does. He also said "Not everything is always Prozac and rainbows and unicorns" which I thought was fabulous. What a quotable phrase. For this class we are all doing presentations on different literary locations in London, so I chose Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum, mainly because our professor said it would involve a lot of research into why it is a Victorian creation and how it has changed, so in an effort to keep up some facade of working on my thesis while I'm here, I decided it was for me. However, I think it is incredibly expensive to go so I'm hoping there is a student discount so I can actually see what I'm talking about.

The other professor, for our "British Cultures since 1945" class, seems very interesting but a bit scattered. She has reccomended lots of books for us to read without really thinking about how we will obtain so many when the exchange rate is so bad for us, and there are only a couple of copies of each one in the library we are using. I'm sure tomorrow will be more organized. At least I hope so. But she does seem like she has a lot of valuable information andinteresting opinions. For my presentation for this class I'm working with 6 people on the year 1963 in Great Britain, so that should be interesting. Yay Beatles!

3. After class I bought an Oyster pass for the tube, which is a discount card that I can use, but does not give me unlimited rides so it will still help me stick to my promise to myself to walk anywhere I have the time to. We'll see how well it works.

4. Yesterday night we saw our first play for our British Drama class, called "Rafta, Rafta", at the National Theater (which is subsidized by taxpayers' money...much better support for the arts here. At least for drama). It was a comedy about two Indian families whose children get married but are unable to consummate said marriage because of the awkwardness that comes from living in his parents' hosue. I really enjoyed it. Before the play, I went out with some girls to dinner at a pub-like place near the theater. I had a brie and cranberry sandwhich that was slightly disappointing because they forgot the cranberry sauce (which I did ask for) and didn't toast the bread, which was not fabulous to start with. Still, it's hard to go wrong with brie and bread.

5. The internet in my room finally started working. I am now finally reconnected.

Wednesday (Today)

1. We toured the Tower of London this morning at 10am, bright and early. Even though I have been there before, it was incredible to listen to our guide tell us about all of the crazy history that happened there. And it is so old! The White Tower, which was the first part of it to be built, was put up in the 11th century (I believe) by William the Conqueror. We also saw the crown jewels and a big armory collection, both of which were interesting but still didn't compare to hearing about all of the rulers battling it out and murdering their cousins, brothers, nephews, etc, all in very gruesome ways (although a lot of them are not necessarily confirmed stories). Still, a wonderful experience.

2. I walked with one of the girls on the trip all the way back to the Senate Library at University College of London, about an hour's walk in all. Everyone else took the tube and we were very proud of ourselves for navigating the city and braving the walk. It was really enjoyable, and we went straight through "The City," which is the part of London which used to be walled, and has always been the center of financial life. Needless to say, we looked a bit out of place in jeans (it is still quite cold) and sweatshirts but it was worth it.

3. Library orientation. Very boring. It was in the Senate House Library, which is mainly notable for being the building that George Orwell hated so much that he made it the model for the evil "Ministry of Truth" in "1984".

4. Dinner (delicious thai chicken soup from the supermarket) and Play #2, "The Pain and the Itch." We barely made it to the play on time because we had to wait for the tube for about 12 minutes, which is highly unusual here, but luckily the theater was right next door to the station. I enjoyed the play very much, and it was especially interesting because it is an American play done by British actors, some with better American accents than others. A lot of people on my trip did not like it at all. I thought it was over the top and hard to follow at times (unecessarily so) but overall funny and thought-provoking. It's hard to even summarize it...it's about a Thanksgiving dinner where lots of bizarre things happen and end up in someone dying and lots of family secrets being revealed. Also interesting is the fact that the lead actor was the same person who played Mr. Darcy in the newest version of Pride and Prejudice, with Keira Knightly. He is a bit heavier and balder now, and I couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar until someone pointed it out to me. Still, the second famous person I have seen in London, on week one (although not nearly as random as Ricky Gervais).

5. I can't stop eating the delicious German dark chocolate that Melanie sent with me. It is an addiction, but one I won't be able to feed after I finish the chocolate bar. Sad.

OK so this wasn't really a short entry. There's just so much to talk about! We'll see how much of Conrad's "The Secret Agent" I can get through before falling asleep. Goodnight all!