Teatime at the V&A--Day 46

As I had hoped, today was a much more laid back day than yesterday. Thank goodness! It turns out that my professor isn't such a crazy lady after all. She relented after receiving a few frantic e-mails and extended the deadline of the paper until a week from Tuesday. Hooray! That means that I can take my time on the paper and really do a good job on it. I'm glad that I was so proactive because now I basically have the whole paper written (minus about two pages), and I can spend the rest of the time revising and perfecting it (or as close to perfecting it as I can come). Needless to say, this change of heart really made my day. I'm feeling much more confident and calm now.

I have some potentially exciting news, as well. As you may know, I was not able to reserve a bed during Fall Term for financial reasons, so I was told that I would essentially have to trust my luck as far as housing for the rest of the year goes. I got an e-mail telling me that I would know my housing assignment by the beginning of Fall Break (the beginning of November, just as I am about to leave London). I was worried because I was afraid I would end up in a regular dorm, which I really do not want. Well, I heard from my very good friend Hannah today saying that she is taking Winter Term off. Now, I am pretty sad about this because we are very close, and I haven't seen her since May. I am sure that our eventual reunion in March will be a joyous occasion! However, she says she needs it and that she hopes it will be a time of self-reflection and personal growth (as well as spiritual growth). Yet there is a silver lining in this, which is that Hannah currently lives in a three-person house with her own room, and she cannot reserve her bed until Spring Term. That means that I could potentially move into her old room! Her roommates seem like nice people (in fact, I have been acquainted with one of her roommates since Fall Term of our freshman year, since she is also Pre-Vet). I am just concerned that she will end up with a not-so-nice place to live in the spring (she tells me that the house she lives in now is really nice and has actual adults for neighbors instead of other students!). So, I hope that everything works out for both of us.

Now, on to the business of the day! I spent most of the morning working on my paper and doing some reading for history. Just before lunch, I talked with my parents on Skype, which went well as always. After lunch, I decided to make a return trip to both the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was so happy to get back to the Science Museum because I finally saw the Veterinary History exhibit! It was so cool to see all of the old-time medical instruments, including mouth clamps, forceps, clippers for docking tails, syringes, medicine bottles and administration devices, and others. I also learned about tracheotomies (inserting a trachea tube), neurotomies (cutting the nerve by the navicular bone in an ungulate's hoof), and periosteotomies (cutting tumors from bones in the leg). The latter two are used to relieve lameness in horses. An interesting technique that I learned about was "counterirritation," in which a source of inflammation is introduced to relieve an already-inflamed part of the body. Veterinarians don't use this technique anymore, but it was interesting to learn about early veterinary knowledge and practices. Did you know that the first surgery using anesthesia was performed on a horse at the University of London just weeks after the discovery of the technique? The exhibit was mostly about equine medicine because much of veterinary education and knowledge through the 19th century (when veterinary medicine was first starting up) centered on horses because they were so important to modern life. However, there was also information about bovine, porcine, and ovine medicine (cows, pigs, and sheep, respectively). I would have loved a section about small animal medicine, but I was still very pleased with the exhibit in general. What surprised me most was how small the room was. It was really easy to miss, especially because there is a much larger human medicine exhibit on the opposite side of the floor. In fact, most visitors spent about a minute in the room and then walked out. I wandered through the human medicine sections for a little bit, but they didn't really catch my attention the way the Veterinary History section did. I did see a really interesting video about a dome with a two-way mirror in it that was used during the 1920s-1960s to study child development. It was cute to watch the behavior of children from infancy to age three as they interacted with objects placed in front of them. I also liked the part of the human medicine exhibit that contained dioramas of medical practices throughout the ages. For instance, one diorama was actually a walk-in model of an old pharmacy, and another diorama showed a dentist appointment from the 1890s.

While I was at the Science Museum, I went back to the Who Am I? section to see if I could try playing anymore games, but those game-pods are really popular! I did manage to find one game that allows visitors to check how rare or common their last names are in different parts of the UK. I think it would have been more interesting to show the whole world, but it was still cool. I obviously searched my own last name, and it has always been very popular in the counties just outside of London. I don't know why that is, but there you have it. It doesn't have information for very rare last names (like "Cavallaro"), so it is best suited for native British people. Maybe I will go back to the Science Museum at another time (earlier in the day) so that I can have a better chance at using the game-pods. Before I left the museum, I was amazed to see a giant steam engine running right in the middle of the museum on the ground floor. I think that Sundays are special days at the museum when scientists explain some of the more interesting exhibits to curious visitors. On normal days, the steam engines are quiet, but an engineer was standing in the exhibit and talking about its function to a group of enthralled onlookers as a jet of steam rose and the giant wheel spun slowly but mightily behind him.

When I was finished at the Science Museum, I jogged across the plaza to the Victoria and Albert Museum--I wanted to see the jewelry I missed the last time. Luckily, the vault was open, and I went right inside. I do not need to tell you how cool all of the jewelry was. It was everything you would expect--dazzling, beautiful, amazing. It was interesting, though, to see more modern jewelry on display. I'm talking about jewelry from the 1980s through today. I wasn't a huge fan of the items they had on display, but there were enough other items--antique necklaces, tiaras, swords with decorated hilts, pill and snuff boxes, rings, and carved stone animals--that I didn't mind their presence. My real reason for visiting the V&A was to grab a bite to eat and some tea so that I could sit in one of the richly decorated William Morris tearooms and relax. After fighting my way through Sunday afternoon crowds for an hour and a half, it was quite welcome. I bought myself a pot of Darjeeling tea and a chocolate pastry (they call it "pain au chocolat"--bread with chocolate) and settled into this lovely room to enjoy my high tea.

Because two days is too long to go without some good English tea.

The beautifully tiled room with intricate stained glass windows in which I had my tea.

The chandelier of the tearoom.

One of the stained-glass (and painted-glass) windows in the tearoom. I think this one is meant represent the Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Raven."

After that delicious afternoon snack, I made my way home, utterly satisfied with my little excursion. Tomorrow I will get to drink more lovely tea with delicious cakes, scones, and pastries in a much fancier setting (the Gore Hotel). I am eager to tell you how wonderful it is (and I am looking forward to dressing up and seeing everyone else dressed up, too). I feel like I should practice that little pinkie-out trick before I go! I want to be civilized, after all. (For some reason, I keep getting images of Eliza Doolittle trying to say "cup of tea" in My Fair Lady.)

In other news, Haley has just uploaded more pictures from her camera, so I thought I would share them with you.

Posing for a photo after lunch at the Turf Tavern in Oxford.

In case you can't tell, Sarah is sneaking up on me so she can growl in my ear. Silly girl. :)

Surprise! It's the whole London group!

Have a great afternoon and evening, everyone!