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Again I should point out that today’s title uses “and” to connect to separate ideas, not to imply causation. Though maybe these puns would work better and be funnier if I weren’t so quick to explain them. So I’ll explain the day instead.

I woke up for breakfast (chocolate croissant day!) and found out that Katie, Stephanie, and Tom had gone to Wimbledon very late last night/early this morning to try to get tickets. Meanwhile the rest of us planned to go into London to see the British Museum, the Pride Parade and do some shopping on Oxford Street.  We took a train in, and went up to the British Museum, and ending up splitting into a few different groups. I walked around with Adam, Alexis, and Ahren (just noticed I’m the odd one out of the group – messing up that assonance). The Museum entrance was big grand and looked a bit like the Supreme Court.  Inside was a huge glass atrium with a circular reading room in the middle (I didn’t get to go in but really wish we had time to go into the reading room – it looks stunning from the pictures.).

The first thing we did was go on a quick guided tour of some of the exhibit of England under Roman rule, and the guide talked about the culture, mainly the cross between Roman’s polytheism beliefs and the English Pagan beliefs and how they intermingled before eventually monotheism became the state religion.  We saw some little votive offerings, and silver plates amongst other things. Even though we could take pictures, many glass cases had a lot of light reflection - maybe to discourage you from pictures we joked - but this entry will probably be more picture heavy than other posts.

Next we went downstairs through the library like setting exhibit for the Enlightenment – there were lots of cross cultural items in the area depicting trade, as well as some early telescopes and models of the solar system which I thought were especially interesting (and again wish I had more time to see!).

We made our way into the African Art exhibit, which consisted of both modern and older art. There were masks, some in the shape of fish which I thought were very cool, some bronze work in tile like forms that came from Nigeria I believe. But I was most impressed by the “Tree of Life” which was commissioned for the museum. But it was from a part of Africa ravaged by war, and there wasn’t enough money to melt down the metal from guns, so guns were traded for goods and ways that families could support themselves, and the guns were put together into a sculpture called the “Tree of Life,” representing just that.  I thought it was a beautiful piece. 

After that, we walked and saw the Rosetta Stone! Which was amazing. I’ve seen pictures in books, but my 5 seconds with the real thing was well worth it – even though it was one of the most crowded rooms in the museum. 

After that we went to the Greek area, which was stunning and amazing. We walked in and saw this huge temple raised up in one of the rooms – the Nereid Monument, which by itself in its reconstructed form was breathtaking upon sight.  We walked through and saw many Greek statues and carvings, including parts from the Mausoleum, one of the 7 Wonders of the World! Lions, and Gods and Godesses, and Chariots and Horses. We also got to see statues from the Parthenon! And read a little about the debate that Greece wants the artifacts back.  But it was amazing to see them. And I got my Dr. Seuss on:

Horses and horses, of course it’s the horses,
The men and the horses it’s moreses of horses.

But the museum was amazing – such a huge breadth of history is covered, I could have spent months there – I was in awe of the history, and how much of our history as a race was collected together under one roof – it was astounding. 

We ate lunch in the atrium area, with the sack lunches from school, then we went on a quick whirlwind tour of the museum as we each picked one thing. Two things we wanted to see based on the highlights section of the museum map were Australia and a gold llama – so we went to find Australia and the gold llama. Gold llama first (Ahren’s) – which turned out to be a very small llama. About a few inches big – we were expecting like a gold Trojan horse sized llama! They were from the Incas, and were part of offerings to their Gods. My choice were burial statues from the Tang dynasty in China, which were pretty cool to look at.  We walked through the jade collection on the way to another exhibit, and I wish I had known about that before, so I could have spent more time there! There were beautiful pieces I saw as we whisked by, but I would’ve loved to stay longer. Adam’s choice was the mummies, which were really fun to see. And Alexis was the Australian garden out front, which we used to end our tour at the British Museum.

We missed the Pride parade, but that was alright – we had a new mission – time to find Sophia at Oxford street, as her phone had died. Oxford Street is full of huge clothing stores and other shops. We went into the Topshop where she was inside, and it didn’t look too bad. A lot of girls, an escalator up and down – so I went on the down escalator, thinking it’d be relatively easy to find her. The ground floor went out of sight, and the -1 floor came into view – it blew my mind, it was insanely huge, like a clothing Costco for girls – the room wasn’t tall like Costco, but the width, length, and enormous crowds of people made me think of that! Could totally see this as a scene in a comedy film – the men go into the store thinking “how hard could this be” only to get that reveal. And there was a -2 floor which was just as big. (Floors 1 and 2 above – entry is the ground floor, the next floor up is 1 in most buildings here – were for men.) Eventually we did find her, and we split up for shopping. Walked through the Nikeworld, Topman area in Topshop and H&M, and I found a British sweater (or jumper? Not sure on terminology) that I rather liked and bought.

We met up later, and Katie came out into the city too. We did a little souvenir shopping and passed by a National Geographic store (no time to go in unfortunately) before going to Wagamama in Leicester Square to eat with some of Ahren’s college friends in London. Wagamama is like a Japanese fusion type of restaurant – I had yakisoba which was quite good.  We had to wait a while, and the restaurant was downstairs, but it was a good meal – and no potatoes for a nice change! It was cool that we can navigate the Tube system pretty well – I’m even starting to know some of my lines – Northern line will take you from Leicester Square to Waterloo, and you can catch the Piccadilly line from Leicester Square as well.  We came back by the way of the co-op so we could by some snacks and ice cream, before coming back to work on blogs and get some downtime. I wanted to do laundry, but there were some other people (older people, and French? Asian people doing laundry too) so I waited until late at night when there were cats prowling near the door – scary experience, but I’m getting through it! Time to go start folding.

Note that the and is denoted 2 separate topics, and not 2 parts of one whole - just so you know!

Today’s academic session started at 10, so I took the much needed opportunity to sleep in and get a little extra sleep. Today’s session focused on inclusion and exclusion in regards to citizenship, specifically in regards to children’s rights and disabled persons (or people with disabilities in America – we had a whole discussion on the use of language in describing disabled persons). It was interesting, we talked about things like facilitators, what it means to be a citizen, stigmas and preconceptions people have with disabled persons, disability acts and accessibility, and probably most importantly the social model of disability, which states that society disables persons, not the individual incapacity. We also saw a video clip of an institution for people with learning disabilities subjected to horrible and I’d go as far to say inhumane treatment – it was pretty horrifying to watch.

But perhaps on a lighter note, author Lois Keith, herself disabled, came and spoke to us a little bit. We read an excerpt and she read an excerpt from her (fiction) book Out of Place, which takes place during and after the Holocaust, following a Jewish girl and a disabled girl (both who would have been persecuted), who escape to England, and try to overcome the struggles in their lives. The little I heard was very touching and I would definitely like to read the whole book – I’d suggest it too!

On a side note, I think I’m getting used to little things here in London – writing 1/7/11 for the date, “recognizes,” and “favours.” It’s pretty cool actually – now if I could just get working on that accent! In the afternoon, we had a little 2 week (I can’t believe we’re there already!) talk with Dave about what we liked/thought could be improved about the program. 

We also got our Oyster cards (transport cards) topped off (or it might be unlimited now actually), so more freedom moving about the city! That’ll be fun. Today was fish and chips day – both lunch and dinner. But since I had them for lunch (didn’t want to wait for stir fry today), I had the vegetable option at dinner, which was some fried eggplant cheese and other vegetables – but it was surprisingly very good – probably better than the fish, and was one of the better vegetarian dishes they’ve had here. They also had pineapple tonight which I took advantage of.

And tonight was our night to go watch Wicked in the West End! It was so much fun! Talah and Emma went with us, and we got our seats just in time. I’ve heard some of the songs, and heard good things about the musical, but it blew my mind away! It was very very good! Makes you look at the classic movie in a whole new (and not so innocent) light – almost like a Shakespearian tragedy now. With music. Speaking of music, there was a live orchestra pit! I couldn’t see it, but I could see the conductor, so that was really cool! And the set pieces were very technical, I enjoyed the visual complexity of the scenes.  A big thanks to Emma and Talah for coming with us, and to Roehampton for arranging this for us!

Afterwards, we went on very crowded tubes – most of us went to Leicester Square which was even more crowded (to me at least!) – a lot of people there for the party scene, though we were there for ice cream. We got turned around a little, so Adam and I had to find a map before we ended up in Chinatown! We were planning to go to a Haagen Daz, but Ahren spotted a Ben & Jerry’s (Hello Vermont!) a few stores before, so we stopped there. I had some kind of chocolate and swirl with something with chocolate covered peanuts – they didn’t have the flavors listed! But it was quite good! We got back on a not quite as crowded tube, then a train from Waterloo – which was very slow, and delayed, stopping at several stations for a long time (but I got in a little nap!). We ended up walking back from Barnes, missed a couple busses – misjudged how often they ran. But Katie and I did some fun (if you can call it that) 20 second bursts to walk and try to catch up with the main group. But overall today was very fun and enjoyable – even got a little work done on some of my academic blogs!

Today was the day of the protests! The teachers’ unions, and other public sector unions went on strike today to protest pension cuts, and had a march and rally in London, and we were able to go and observe this citizenship in action.

But first, we covered a little about our planned (and now changed) session of security and terror, a little about the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005.  We went to a memorial outside a tube station, where an innocent man who was suspected as being part of the terrorist plot was shot while running down the tube with a backpack. It was a horrible day, though the reception to it may not have been quite as shocking as our 9/11 attacks, as there is a little more history here of bombings (IRA, etc) – but comparing the two events and the response and reaction by government made for an interesting discussion. 

We then followed the J30 rally toward Westminster. There was a large police presence, as well as several police helicopters flying overhead throughout the ordeal.  There were a lot of signs, some people tried to do chants as they were walking down the street. Many of the signs were regarding pension cuts and teachers, but there were also signs from socialist parties demanding a general workers’ strike and a few signs calling for other things like David Cameron’s resignation, LGBT rights, and cutting war spending.

But overall, the rally was very peaceful – it will be interesting to see how the media portrays it. Though most media coverage in my opinion has seemed to be less sympathetic toward the protesters. There’s a statistic about only 32% of people support the strike (I forgot what the Wisconsin support numbers were this spring, but I feel like more people supported public union rights in Wisconsin. Though I may be mistaken.) Also, most newspaper coverage (from what I’ve been able to read on the tube) mostly covers the mom who is burdened by the strike because her child cannot go to school, confusion caused by closed schools and long lines at customs at airports, and not so much about the issue at the heart of the strike. Though I think I need to look at a wider variety of sources to see if this represents the wider media portrayal. 

We left before the speeches started, and went over to the Tower of London. We ate lunch outside before going in. We had the yeoman tour, which was quite entertaining (think Jungle Cruise tour guides, but less bad jokes, and more entertaining, like jokes about the French…and Americans.), talking about some of the history and grandeur and prisoners and ravens and death and executions at the Tower. The area was quite big – a castle or palace I suppose – it was very big, much bigger than I thought.  It was fun, though I was very tired! After the tour, we went to see the Crown Jewels – which was much like a Disneyland ride (in fact, there was a moving walkway to stand on to see the crowns). There were long lines, and not a whole lot of attraction – though while we were in winding Disneyland like lines, we snaked through some rooms with videos showing the Royal Jewelry, before being able to actually see some of it – crowns, maces, dishes, and more, after passing through some mighty looking steel doors into the “most secure place in London.”  It was nice to see, though short – and it started raining when we came out! Afterwards, we split up into groups. Ahren and I went to the torture place, which was short, and only one room, but had a few torture devices. After that, we went onto the walls, going through the towers, over the ramparts, past exhibits about animals in the Tower, weaponry, and other things – Kelsey and Nicole joined us for a bit. After that, we went to White Tower for a whirlwind tour, going past royal armour, wooden horses, a dragon, cannons, guns, and more. And at the end, we went up into one final tower about murders at the Tower.

We came back and I took a rather long nap, headed out to the bar in Putney that Ahren and Tom went to last week out by the water, which was nice, and now time to work – 86 pages of reading!s

This morning I woke up earlier around 7 something, so that I could go to breakfast. Today’s academic session was on human rights.  Darren lead our morning session, which was a lot more of the theoretical ideas of human rights. Human rights as a language, the political usage of human rights, the differences between human rights and citizen rights, legal and social rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and some theories about the Hobbesian and Lockean (liberal as hands off!) views of the state.  It was pretty interesting, and I could tell Darren had a lot of enthusiasm for what he was lecturing about. We also got to watch a clip of “24” which was pretty fun, talking about the portrayal of human rights, and how the show mixed up human and citizenship rights, as well as finding situations when opposing sides can both claim they are standing up for human rights. 

We had our lunch break, where I had a Thai curry, again cooked in front of me – the chef was quite nice and affable, and the curry was delicious! I think Katie would have liked it spicier, but it was alright – it was Thai so it had coconut and was a little on the sweet side. 

After lunch, we did some group work on finding cases with conflicts using articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I paired up with Brendan, and we did some research in the library. After that, Nicola led us through a lesson on free speech, using the examples of comedians, controversial books, and the pope – and using iclickers, which was fun! America as a whole seems to have less limitations on free speech than the UK, which seems to have many in comparison. Though we raised questions, asking things like if free speech is always good, what are its limits, etc.

Dinner we arrived early (because we had a trip tonight) and they weren’t ready yet – eventually we got sausages and mash, with peas and carrots. After dinner, we met up with Kriss, who took us to the London Eye. To be honest, I was a little nervous – I’m not a huge fan of heights – and that wheel is tall – taller than any of the nearby buildings. 13 of us (12 plus Kriss) were able to get our own car/pod, and went around in the circle. It was a little strange jumping onto it (it didn’t stop – almost like walking sideways onto a moving walkway) It was pretty fun actually, and I enjoyed it, heights and all! It would have been nice to do it at night and see all the lights, but night doesn’t fall here until after 9pm, and since the sun was setting, we got some nice pictures but could still see everything. I could see Parliament, Waterloo, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and more! There was a lot of picture taking (not much jumping, thankfully), and there was a helicopter flying and diving around for a bit which caused some excitement. The 30 minute ride felt much shorter than 30 minutes, and I’d love to do it again sometime! Afterwards, we walked on the Southbank a little and stopped in a bookstore – and I saw the British versions of Harry Potter! And the Philosopher’s Stone!

Afterwards, we stopped in Putney with Kriss for a while. We were over by the bridge – some of us went down closer to the water, since there’s an access ramp going down there, and some people went to the pub on the little river walkway area, and we all convened on a patio looking out over the river, which had a really nice atmosphere. I wish we had a place like this at Cornell – it was beautiful, and it was great conversing about lookalikes, college stories, and more.

Short entry for today (no pics) – tonight's a late night, and a lot of work to do tomorrow morning! Today was our first day of volunteering – I’m writing an academic blog on the topic, so I will keep this brief, and when I finish my academic blog, I may link it so I can share that experience in more detail in a more academic context.

Our group, consisting of Kelsey, Alexis, Tom, and myself, were to volunteer at Oasis Academy Shirley Park, in Croyden.  We had a little bit of a late start – the bus we took didn’t stop at our stop, and we ended up walking to the train station quite a bit. Also our directions took us to the primary school instead of the secondary school.

However, the day was wonderful. Our host Ms. Oliver was exceptionally gracious to us.  The school used to be one of the worst performing schools in the area, but Oasis came in a few years ago, and in their first 1 or 2 years, doubled their exam performance.  It was interesting – almost like being in a school with an urban type environment, but at the same time it wasn’t – it’s hard to explain. The facilities are new, and many of the faculty are fairly new and young as well – you can see their enthusiasm for the kids, and how much they care about them. The first thing we did was sit in an English class with year 7 students, reading about a pseduoscorpion. One of the boys, helped guide us to the canteen and to our next room afterwards, a history class. Interestingly enough, it was a US history class. We talked a little bit to the class, about college life in the US(is it like how it is on tv?). Most of the academic part of the class was going over grading rubrics, but when we go back, I’m really interested to see how they approach the course material, and the see the similarities and differences with the US. Afterwards, we had sandwiches in the school cafeteria (not bad actually!), and the same year 7 boy came to talk to us some more – he was very well spoken, and really wanted to engage with us and talk about his life, and school, and much more – it was a very nice surprise! I know that I would have been quite nervous to just approach new 19 and 20 year old foreign students, let alone sustaining long conversations, when I was in 7th grade.

After our lunch, we were taken to the library, where we got to sit at a table and talk with year 11 students who had just graduated, but were returning to work. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day. Our discussion covered so many topics – sports, school and education in the US and UK, ideas of citizenship, classes, political participation, college applications, volunteer and charity work, changes to the school and community, ethnic groups, politics, the Big Society, and much more. It was a very engaging and captivating conversation, and I’m looking forward to going back there!

On the bus back, I was talking to another student from the same school, who imagined America as a place full of big cities, and a lot of traffic and taxis. I suppose that’s a fairly good image of America if most of what you know about it is from the TV and movies (which I’m sure describes many children here). So I was telling her about America – how large it is, and especially the great swaths of countryside we have, and our farms and forests – I could see her jaw drop in amazement. It’s wonderful to be able to introduce another viewpoint into someone’s worldview. Before she got off, she said that we were the highlight of her day – and she was going to go tell her mum that she met Americans today! Also on the bus back, I spotted a Chinese take out restaurant – which also had fish and chips…pretty sure it’d be…interesting to try that there.

We did some of our reading on the trains home, to be greeted by Katie, Stephanie, and Adam, who had baked cookies and probably went crazy in the dorms, as their volunteering session had been cancelled – I personally thought they acted like they hadn’t seen humans in years when we came in! (I’m sure I would have missed them just as much if our roles were reversed) – on the other hand, the cookies were delicious!

Talah came by after work and showed us a pub in Putney, which made for an enjoyable afternoon, and we were all able to sit and chat and catch up on some things, as well as half play a board game involving putting things in order (by date, size, etc – whatever it said on the cards). No potatoes at dinner tonight! Well it was rice or chips, with beef stew, so I took the rice. And the bread was good tonight – fresh! We played a new board game – Tension - a board game, which was quite fun to play – and quite loud, with much shouting going on between the groups! But it’s something fun to do in the dorm, and we had fun playing it! It's sort of like family feud according to Ahren - there are cards with categories and 10 objects in the category, and you have to name things in those categories, hoping that you get as many out of the 10 as possible - it sounds strange (Ahren's reading of the box was qutie funny), but it was so

Need to sleep now so that I can write my academic blog(s) in the morning, and get ready for another long day!

Today I woke up a little late – but it was alright, since we had a 10am start! I had a muffin and nectarine for breakfast before going to class, which was led by Stephen again.  Today’s session was on markets, and we had quite a lively discussion. I thought it was very interesting, talking about our view on the role of markets in society, and the role of the public sphere. We also discussed the role of markets in spheres like education and drugs, and how it may or may not contribute to ideas of citizenship.  We had a long discussion, and I wish we were able to have a longer discussion, but we had to go to lunch.

Lunch was quite good today! Ahren, Tom, and I had the kung po chicken with rice and prawn crackers, which was cooked right in front of us! We talked to the chef a little bit, who talked about how he really enjoyed doing the live cooking, and while he didn’t get to over the school year, he got to do it now since there were less people working.

After lunch, we met Stephen at the Barnes Station and went into the city, to the bank district, where the Bank of England was, since we were talking about markets. He compared it to Wall Street as a financial district, and spoke of how the bank sent monetary policy.  We walked around a bit, seeing the neoclassical architecture – you could practically be in Rome as Stephen said. We spent the afternoon in the City of London – the original square city.  They have a “wall street” as well, London Wall, where the original wall of the city used to be hundreds of years ago; the city obviously has spread out beyond that border.  However, there was a piece of the original wall remains, and you can see it in brick – it looks quite ancient! The original wall dates back to the Romans.

It was very hot today! We spent most of the afternoon in the Museum of London (there was AC too!) – looking at London from before there was London, with ancient animals and early humans, to the rule of the Romans, Normans, Anglos, and the various monarchs, through the middle ages and the Renaissance, the Victorian ages and up to today. There was a lot in the museum, I felt like we had to go through pretty fast to get through – it would have been wonderful to spend more time! The museum had a nice set up in regards to making you go through an order corresponding with a timeline (though you could go your own way too if you wanted) – sort of like an Ikea. I loved looking at all the little dioramas – of the Roman city, of the Globe, and more. The museum had a lot of fun interactives – touch panels using projectors, as well as films. It’s interesting to note that the city has gone through quite a few fires and plagues – but somehow has always been able to recover and regrow. At the end, we sat and had some tea, before Stephen had to go.

We ended going to Hyde Park as it was a nice day – it is enormous! Probably as large as the City of London! I went with Alexis, Adam, Katie, Kevin, and Sophia, while Brendan, Stephanie, Ahren and Tom played football (soccer!), and Kelsey and Nicole explored too. We went by a lake, and found a statue of Peter Pan (which Alexis really wanted to see), and ran into some Americans from Tennessee.  They also had a lot of tall grass! I love tall grass – I took the opportunity to run through it, feeling like something out of a movie! If only I had a camera crane for a nice pan of me running through it…I took some interesting footage running my camera through the grass though.  I love the feeling of long grass though – Sophia and Kevin skipped through it too! They did have plenty of mowed grass as well, for people to sit. One thing we’ve noticed is that PDA seems to happen a lot more often in London, and that people don’t seem to mind to much – there have been a lot of things we’ve seen that would probably elicit some stares if done in America, but people walk right past here – interesting to see how some of the cultural norms differ. On the way out, we passed the Princess Diana Playground – which looked like a playground fit for royalty! There was a large pirate ship and I’m sure there was more, but you couldn’t get in without a child! It certainly surpassed any playground I’d ever been to!

Getting back was a bit crowded (evening rush hour), and we missed the first train by about 30 seconds (I guess we could have made it if we all ran, but we elected to take the second one), but everything worked out in the end! On the train I was reading the Evening Standard (it’s a free paper in the evenings – there’s a free morning paper too – I’ve heard that they’re not super great, but they have a huge readership – they’re handed out at train stations (and maybe other places too) every morning and evening). Anyways, I read an editorial about stem cell food - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23964563-test-tube-food-is-not-as-bad-as-it-sounds.do – which also poked fun at Americans. Interesting to read it from that point of view – I wonder if this view (for better or worse) is representative of how Americans are viewed on the world stage. 

Today was our big trip to Brighton! In the morning, Adam picked up our sandwiches, and we took a bus down to Barnes – except we had the wrong line, and it made a turn before the bridge, so we had to get off and walk a block, but it was alright. We got to Clapham Junction and collected our pre-bought tickets.  We got on the train to Brighton – and it was CROWDED!! It would have been nice if there weren’t so many people – there were tables and chairs in groups of 4, but most of our group ended up standing most of the way. It was very crowded for about an hour’s journey (though I suppose Japan’s transportation is more crowded!)

At the stop before the last one, one man got up, and I was in the position (literally) to take his seat. I sat with a group of people – the man I sat next to was from the East End – his wife (I think they were married) had just come back from New York. I talked with him for a little bit – Roehampton, school, us being in the UK for the Fulbright Summer Programme, and he talked a little about food to try out over by Brick Lane, and fish and chips (in newspaper!). We finally got off the train in Brighton – a very nice seaside town, if not a bit touristy, but very built up as well (London by the sea as some say). We walked down the road (past a BBC office, with Doctor Who cardboard cutouts in the window!) and were able to see the water!

We eventually stopped at a place for fish and chips (not in paper, but it was still pretty good). At last, fish and chips! I think it was cod. Though I realize I probably should have put more salt and vinegar on mine.  After that, we headed up to Brighton Pier. It didn’t look that big, but it was huge, and very long! The sun came out, and it was really cool - I could literally see the wind blowing the fog away!There were shops, restaurants, arcades, gambling, and rides all on the pier. We all bought matching bracelets, and walked around. I tried my luck at gambling/arcade games (in the end the arcade games are just gambling) – the thing where you put in the coin and it tries to push other coins off the edge. Though I was using my 2 pence coins – much cheaper than America, where they usually use quarters! I won a big one, about 12-14 pence, but lost it all in the end. So I was out 20 pence by the time I left – could’ve been worse I suppose. I had an ice cream cone, and we walked off the pier.

We walked further out (east) for a while, before heading back west along a street one street back from the beachfront. We stopped in a Starbucks for a while before moving on. We went by the Royal Pavilion area, which looks like it might have had architectural influence from the middle east. We went through a park, where there was a live band (I’d say jazz band, but there were no saxes. But similar) playing, which was quite nice. We walked by a lot of shops – didn’t have much time as we were trying to catch the train.

The train back was much nicer – we were early enough to each get a seat all the way back to Clapham Junction, and most of us used the opportunity to sleep. Today was a great day – even though we all got a bit sunburned! But it was fun to plan something on our own and go out there to the beach – but thanks to Stephen for the recommendation, and the Roehampton people giving us tips on our journey.

We got back, and tonight was everyone’s laundry night, after the exciting exploration of the room last night. It’s good to have clothes! Also tonight’s dinner was a repeat of last week – hamburger, corn, potato, etc. But paper plates and plastic utensils – no more real dishes! Speaking of food, our refrigerator is quite cold – frozen almost – frozen nectarines, strawberries, and underwear…for some people at least.  Worked on my first academic blog entry – some editing, and hopefully it’s ready to go soon!

Today was our Windsor Castle trip! In the morning, I got up a little bit later, and didn’t eat breakfast, but went over to the cafeteria to meet a couple of people who got there earlier to eat so that I could grab a cup of coffee. We met Kriss up at the Medfield stop by the co-op.  We took the bus to the Putney station, then over to Clapham Junction, where we transferred to a train to Windsor.

On the train, there was a really cool toilet! I guess half of the bathroom was curved with a circular wall, and there was a sliding door along the curve! With a button to open and close it! It seemed so much more modern than the bathroom technology on American trains! Important to note was the lock lever inside – which according to Kriss, and  some of the people we saw today – sometimes people forget to lock it. There were also some people who seemed to have been drinking a bit, and had some fun with the door and the forgetting of using a lock – seemed like something college boys might do, but interesting acts for 30 something year olds.

But we got to Windsor – it was quite crowded, with many tourists. But after we passed through security, we saw the castle – it was beautiful! The history was amazing, as was the mere size and scale of the castle! The gothic architecture was beautiful too. Mostly, we were restricted to seeing the outside. Though you could see the turrets and slits where arrows could be shot through. But we also got to go inside St. George’s Chapel – which was breathtaking. The gothic architecture was very detailed – I have no idea how they were able to build it so high, and put the gold plating on the ceiling. It was very humbling to be in the presence of tombs, of people like the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, and much more of British Royalty. We also were able to see the banners of different knights – the experience was very humbling.

Afterwards, we ate lunch on a sidewalk within the castle, and got to see a guard. There was also a point when some guards came and changed one of the outposts. And a scary moment when a tourist tried to wrap her arm around the guard for a picture (you’re not supposed to touch them!!!), and he violently stomped to get her away (I guess they’re not supposed to talk either). But it was amazing!

We walked around Windsor as well – seeing some shop areas – there’s a mall that also looks like a train station – it seems to be a common theme! We also went down to the riverfront for a while, before making it back (running once again!) to the train to Clapham Junction. Kriss left, but we walked around for a while. Most of the kids stopped to eat a little bit and get some drinks at a tex-mex restaurant (with hats included!), but Adam, Nicole, and I elected to walk and go out around the town.

We found a street market nearby, where there was fresh fruit being sold – they were selling them by the bowlful! We got 15 nectarines for 2 pounds (pretty good deal I think!), and wanted to get cherries too, but didn’t have a way of carrying them. We went a little off the tourist path, and walked through a playground, seeing some of the ethnic diversity, as well as the cool abstract playground – the see saw was made of springs and spun around! We wanted to play, but there were little children and their mothers, so we decided not to. We passed a library, and a glass building which looked amazing.  After that, we made our way to the Town Centre of Clapham Junction, and to an Asda (like a supermarket + some clothes, toys, electronics – like a smaller Target or Wal Mart) and bought a few things there before making our way back to Roehampton.

Dinner was quite good tonight! There was a pizza that seemed deep dish (the bread was thick – maybe Italian bread – maybe it’s closer to the real thing?), as well as cheesecake! Tonight, I stayed in doing some reading and uploading pictures to Facebook – and we had quite an adventure looking for the laundry room. The door from the basement was locked, but Adam and Stephanie found a door around the corner on the outside, down some steps, in the dark, past a shopping cart. It was quite scary!! I went out again with Kevin and Adam, as Kevin was going to open the door. Adam was ready to take a fire extinguisher with him (presumably as a weapon…just in case. We were all scared except for Kevin – this is the Jack the Ripper country after all), but elected to use a water bottle. In the end, Kevin just opened the door and turned on the light. But it was quite a fun experience (except for Stephanie shouting out the window and scaring me!)

We’re looking forward to our own planned trip down to the seaside tomorrow, Brighton, and be able to go into the English Channel!

I feel as if I have said this almost every day, but it today was a long day! But full of much fun as well! Didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night – 4 hours? Maybe 5? It’s alright though – gave myself some coffee this morning at breakfast, and we picked up bag lunches again. Chocolate croissants today! Though I had to use 2 coffee packs, because one in the large cup does not have enough flavor!

We met Dave, Yasmin, and Michal at the bus stop, and took the train into London, then took the tube and an overground train running underground over to Whitechapel.  Today’s session was called “Strangers, settlers, citizens – London and its migrants.” From the reading last night, I thought it was quite interesting – the idea of super diversity – describing diversity in a multitude of dimensions beyond race/ethnicity, such as class, location, citizen status, gender, access to services, etc. Some of these dimensions I had never thought of before. Also, the idea that integration is not a zero sum game, that people immigrating to new countries can be integrated, while still having a strong connection to their homeland (transnataionalism), and I really think that today’s talks have helped me see immigration from some new viewpoints. We were in Whitechapel, which is primarily a Bengali community, and stated off the day at a London Citizens office, running the “Strangers into Citizens” campaign. They are a grassroots group, and the campaign advocates British citizenship for long term undocumented migrants. We talked about the idea of multiculturalism, as well as the changing ideas (or lack of) the British identity, and compared these ideas to those of the United States. 

We ate our doggy bag lunches at the office, before heading off. We stopped at a post office to get some pounds and stamps – they were Thomas the Tank Engine stamps! I was given a page of Daisy stamps. Which led me to my little Thomas the Tank Engine rant, and how it has been dumbed down and Americanized through the TV show, even though it is something that should be quintessentially British.  I think the others thought my main problem was with the new female characters (it’s not that they’re female, it’s that I’m a purist with the original series characters – I’m alright up through the George Carlin narrated stories; the ones that come Alec Baldwin and later is where it really began to jump the shark) – the argument is that it does not really describe railroads – which in the original series is what it is – a celebration of railroads, because it is portrayed as a real railroad – with regulations, controllers, drivers, firemen, signals, tracks that do not run through forests (Henry’s Forest episode) – the seriousness can be seen in the History of Sodor that the Awdrys wrote – and while there were crashes, it’s not realistic that trains crash every episode, or that problems are about doing good deeds and being friends (maybe on top, but not the real story) – problems in the series are based on real railroads (mostly) – double headers, a steam engine with malfunctioning brakes saving diesels – the original series seemed to be like hearing old railroad stories from old timers, and adding some personality to the trains to enhance the stories for children, but not use the personalities for their own sake necessarily, like the American show does. And it just mixes up American locomotives and British – and what the heck is with that wavy bridge thing from the misty island video – all I saw was a clip and I couldn’t believe it. The thing about Thomas (for me) is that it wasn’t just another kids world – especially the books, almost everything (sans the faces) could actually happen on a real railway, and that made all the difference. The television show, especially in the newer seasons is completely unrealistic, and that’s what gets me irked. I suppose I could have done a whole blog entry, and it seems that it has taken me quite a while to make my main argument, so I’ll leave it at that.

Anyways, so after the Post Office, Professor John Eade met up with us and gave us a tour around Whitechapel and Brick Lane – both with large Bengali populations (street signs are in Bengali too). The area is traditionally home to migrants – a long time ago, the Irish Catholics, later the Jews, and more recently Bengalis. He talked about the history as we walked, how many buildings were from the Victorian era, and how the area is shaped by these immigrations today. We passed outdoor markets, and the East London Mosque, where we heard the call to prayers as we walked by. The Brick Lane area was amazing as well, with brick Victorian houses, and cobblestone streets – get rid of the cars and street paint, it could have been 150 years ago! That classic London feel from the era.

While we were there, we stopped in at a pub, and had some beverages and talked for a while. A lot of pubs in the area have closed (as Islam does not allow for alcohol), though there are still some in the area. There were many shops in Brick Lane catering to the Islamic community as well. We had dinner at a curry house in Brick Lane, and had a curry buffet, which was quite good!

After dinner, we went to the Southbank, to the Festival of Britain area. There was a Festival of Britain in 1951, and so this is coming up on the anniversary – some of the original buildings, like the Royal Festival Hall are still there, next to the riverside. At first, we went into the little museum area to learn a little more about the 1951 Festival, after World War II, and their celebration of their culture, and then split into groups to work on our films. Tom and I talked to a few people who had some interesting things to say on citizenship, what British means, and the EU. 

Tonight, we went to a lecture by historian Simon Schama. He talked a lot about British Festivals, but the part that related to us was closer to the end, about how to define the British culture, if it can be defined, and if it can be celebrated, which are interesting questions to ask. I don’t think the idea of “British” is as clear as what people think “American” means – but it’s an interesting dynamic. 

We came back on the train with Yasmin – saying bye to Michal at Waterloo, we almost missed the train – and had to run as the conductor was blowing his whistle (they really do that here! I learned that in the Thomas books/early tv episodes!) to get on as the doors were closing. It really felt like the Amazing Race. As we were on the train, there was a girl (or young woman) in the carriage on her mobile speaking very loudly, with many choice words, to what I suspect was her boyfriend and his answering machine (probably soon to be ex boyfriend) – but it was quite an entertaining ride. Yasmin told us about how people can really get crazy on the trains in wintertime, and the entertainment value of people on the train!

I should comment that besides the weather being crazy, so is the sunlight! The past few days around the solstice, the sun doesn’t fully set until after 9pm, and at 10, you can still see the sky as dark blue – and I know for a fact that it is already well risen and visible by 6am – it probably rises closer to 4am. However, Yasmin said that in the winter, sun can set by 3 or 4pm, as parents are picking up the schoolchildren. Their hours of sunlight are crazy! Though I suspect this is because they are at a high latitude than most of the United States, so their hours of day and night are more extreme. Yasmin gave us our reading packets, we spent some time at the University bar until they closed at 11, and came back to get some rest!

I’ll apologise in advance for the lack of pictures – short on time for today’s post.  (You’ll be able to see them on Facebook in the next couple days though). Today was Katie’s birthday, so last night we sung to her at midnight! And gave her her gift after breakfast this morning. Today’s breakfast was a croissant – I got there late and ended up getting one that was a bit cold! Oh well though. But we did meet the University President and Vice Chancellor this morning for coffee, and Emma brought us all Roehampton University (or I suppose it’s going to be University of Roehampton now) notebooks for us to use in class!

We had our second academic session (our first in the classroom), with Dave and David Woodman. Today’s topic was politics and the media. We learned about the idea of the political science as the study of power, and the birth and growth of early media, into today’s media, as well as some of the problems and biases of media. We also had to analyze newspapers. Stephanie and I looked at the Daily Mirror – and its tabloid like (and some left leaning) articles – apparently the most important news today was of a child killing his ex-girlfriend on a dare. It was interesting overall to note the differences between American and UK newspapers – most of the UK newspapers were in full color on every page, as opposed to our colored front pages and ads, and our classic black and white. Also, the size was different – instead of American broadsheets, the UK papers were magazine size (not like Time size, but that newspaper size that is smaller than American papers – I think sometimes there are special insert sections in the LA
Times that are that size. And speaking of inserts, most UK papers didn’t have inserts like the US, but rather mixed up the news sections within the paper. Interesting observations).

Lunch today was rather good! It was roast day, I believe Emma told us that this morning – there was roast pork, roasted potatoes, glazed carrots, and broccoli – to me, a very satisfying meal! After lunch, we met Dave at the bus stop to go to Putney to St. Mary’s Church, the site of the Putney Debates in 1647, after the Civil War, where members of the army and the group called Levellers debated on making a new constitution for England, raising many of the same political questions pertinent to today – the role of the monarch and other seats of power, who should be able to vote (property holders), and more – one of the birthplaces of modern democratic ideals. 

After St. Mary’s church, Dave talked to us about our film making, and some of the ethics and strategies for interviewing people, and set us off. We split into our film groups – me, Tom, Alexis, and Kelsey. We practiced a bit and came up with some questions before heading out into the streets! We split into groups of two, so Tom and I went to start interviewing people on the street – many declined (we even had one person give us the “I’m late for a meeting” slip!), but some of the people who talked to us on camera had amazing things to say!

We came back and had dinner – more roasted food! Roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, broccoli. And the mystery juice. So this week at dinner, there’s been a green pitcher on the tables next to the water pitcher, which had some kind of juice. We had been wondering what was in it – we had been drinking it, but no one knew what it was. It tasted kind of fruity, and sugary. For a while we thought it might be tang. But it wasn’t. It was the mystery juice. Until today, Ahren asked. And it is…orange squash juice. Orange squash juice. I got hysterical – I couldn’t stop laughing! I suppose I found the whole situation overly bizarre – as Nicole commented, “I never thought I’d see culture shock come from juice!” So for the next while, I would crack up and laugh uncontrollably every time someone said “orange squash juice” – to a point where I’m sure the others thought I had gone mad! (cough Stephanie cough – who at the bus stop, I tried to make fun of her Baltimore accent – then she proceeded to find out I’m ticklish. Oh well, can’t win them all)

Tonight, Dave took us back to St. Mary’s Church to witness a local debate hosted by the Putney Society, about David Cameron’s new “Big Society” plan – which basically in simplistic terms promotes volunteerism in local communities, and giving local communities more control, while balancing the budget, and reducing government spending.  There was a moderator, Justine Greening MP, who we met yesterday, as well as a member representing labour, and a third (I suppose it’s possible he represented the liberal democrats’ position). There was “debate” when they went back and forth – I suppose I expected the whole conversation to be more specific about policies, but it seemed to be more about the big ideas of the Big Society, and volunteerism. Volunteering is not the same here in the UK as it is in the US, it’s not as large, it’s not as common for people, especially young people, to be volunteering the same way they do in the US. I suppose it’s quite institutionalized in the US, since many of us have to do it in high school (or earlier), and thus it is almost expected to be on college applications, there is incentive (beyond personal growth), at least at first, institutionalized in our system. But anyways, during the Q&A, one woman wanted to know what we thought, as she thought we were interested young people of Putney. Stephanie stood up and said “Hello. We’re Americans” and proceeded to explain about our program, and Katie and Ahren further talked a little about the role of volunteerism in the US. I think the audience liked it, bringing a little break and new point of view into the conversation – I should say they mostly consisted of elder folk, which seems in line with a lot of local community groups in the US as well.  After the debate was over, some of the audience members came over to talk with us Americans (it was funny, some people in their Q’s referenced us as the Americans, or “the American students” – which is quite correct, but I just thought it was interesting like that), to talk about their views and our views on volunteering, as well as sharing some of their stories about travel to the US, and invited us back to another meeting! Maybe we’ll be able to go! We had a nice long debriefing talk with David afterwards as well.

And tonight was Katie’s birthday, so most of us went to a club in Putney (recommended to us by several people in the office), and did some dancing and whatnot for a few hours to celebrate, which was a lot of fun (and also quite tiring for the feet!) I’m getting to know the bus system around here quite well now – knowing which are the best routes to take, and alternate routes, etc etc.

Mailbag! ---

Kevin writes: I was watching "The Social Network" at Kurt's house the other day, but we didn't finish! I must know how it ends >=O

Response: Did you finish it yet? You should go watch it!! Or rent/borrow it!! Or find some other (legal!) way of watching!  I’m not spoiling it here on the blog! But I just wasn’t really satisfied with the ending…it didn’t feel like an ending to me. Which somewhat makes sense, because even now, there have been developments since the movie came out, so it’s not like the story has “ended” yet persay. Interesting to watch overall though.