Church and State--Day Seven

Hello again! Once more, I apologize for the late post. Yesterday was another fun-filled, busy day. My roommate wanted to explore a little bit in the morning, so I agreed to walk with her. Shortly before we left, she announced that our little "exploration" would take us all the way to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey! Let me tell you, it is no small walk from Chelsea to Parliament Square. Suffice it to say that it took us an hour to complete our journey, and I will not be attempting such an adventure again (at least not with the help of the Tube). However, it was worth it because we arrived at Parliament Square early enough in the morning to avoid large crowds. I had class at 2 PM, so we didn't stay long to tour the inside of the buildings. I did get some very nice pictures, but they are unfortunately locked up in my phone, so I cannot access them until I return home. One of these days, I'm going to make a trip to the local Jacobs photo shop to pick up an inexpensive digital camera so you can experience all of this with me! Up close, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey are even more impressive and beautiful. As we learned in our British Art History class, the Houses of Parliament were constructed in the Gothic Revival style, being very ornate and intricate. There is a large tower near the Sovereign's Entrance with gilding and a regal British flag that cannot accurately be depicted by mere photography; it must be seen in person to be fully appreciated. My roommate and I then took a walk through Victoria Tower Gardens (not really gardens but a park) and sat on benches near the Thames. That stretch of river offers great views of the London Eye as well as boat traffic.

We rode back to Chelsea using the Tube, which doesn't take long to get used to. We had to walk quite a bit from the Tube station on King's Road, but it was worth it because we picked up a copy of Time Out, a valuable magazine detailing the many things to see and do in London during a given week. This weekend, my roommate and I want to visit the Thames Festival, a celebration of all that London has to offer. It's free, which is a huge draw for a poor college student like myself. A lot of our classmates are going on a tour of Camden and Little Venice, which I wanted to do pretty badly, but all the spots were taken by the time I signed up. I guess we'll just have to go on our own sometime.

One thing I love about this term is that I always have someone to walk to class with. One of my friends and I have our History of London class together, so we set out about an hour before class started so we could meet up with another friend along the way at Starbucks. It turns out that there are two Starbucks in our route, and we ended up stopping at the wrong one. Actually, it was okay because I got a nice little pick-me-up (a mocha frappuccino with soy milk) before class. As with my other classes, the history class is going to be really great, I can tell. We are going on some pretty exciting field trips, including St. Paul's Cathedral (where we get to climb to the top and get what our professor calls "a better view than the London Eye" of this city), the Tower of London, and the inside of Parliament. I find my British professors extremely engaging people who really seem to care about their subjects. Obviously, this helps to make their subjects more interesting to us students. I've noticed that they tend to frame history as a series of exciting stories rather than boring facts to be learned and that they are very good at drawing other disciplines into their lectures to make those lectures more vibrant and dynamic.

After class, my friends and I basically hung out for the rest of the evening; we talked pretty late into the night, but it was totally okay with me because I really feel like I want to make connections with other students on this trip. Since we're all here together, we might as well spend time getting to know each other. We can remind each other of home so we don't get too sad, and I have found that when you have someone to share your experiences with, those experiences tend to be more enjoyable. What I love most is getting to know people that I otherwise would (probably) never have been friends with. I've even discovered that my roommate knows one of my best friends from Augustana pretty well!

Hopefully the post for today will be very exciting. I'm not going to tell you anything more in case nothing happens, but if it does, expect a very exuberant narrative. :)

Westminster Abbey! Photo courtesy of icecapltd.com.

A side view of the Houses of Parliament (notice the tall tower with the British flag). Photo courtesy of Dan Miehe at flickr.com.