Culture Overload

I can't do my reading for class while I'm listening to the (frustrating so far) Bills game, but I can do a blog update and actually be somewhat useful. So I shall.

We started Friday by heading over to the IES Center and doing orientation there which was followed by lunch (yay, free lunch). Following that, there was a bus waiting for us to do a sightseeing tour. We hit all the major landmarks including St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (although, we didn't stop there) and ended up at the British Museum. At the British Museum, we split up into two groups for "highlights" tours. Unfortunately, our tour guide didn't really move at a fast pace. The British Museum has a huge collection and all sorts of impressive things but she really dwelt on each item she showed us. You really don't need to tell University of Chicago students about the Choice of Paris or about what the Rosetta Stone is. Nonetheless, we had to listen to her tell us in excruciating detail. We ended up seeing the Rosetta Stone, sculptures from the Parthenon, "Ginger" the natural mummy, the Portland Vase, and artifacts from the Sutton Hoo burial. It was all interesting, but it something that we'll have to come back to and investigate at our own leisure.

Friday night, Dan and I chose to stay up until 4 AM local time to watch the debate, which meant we got up late on Saturday. However, we got up plenty early to me with the gang in the lobby and go to Timon of Athens at the Globe Theatre. The Globe is definitely a great environment to see a play in and they really use the space well by having actors come through the crowd, which, by the way, is mostly standing. Unfortunately, standing for 3 hours isn't really agreeable to one's back and it certainly wasn't agreeable to mine. I was in serious pain by the end of the play. Still, I can't say anything bad about the play. It was highly entertaining.

Very near to the Globe (like, next door) is the Tate Modern art museum. After the play, we headed for lunch at the Tate Modern's cafe, which is rather ritzy. Thankfully, Emily, our course assistant has an expense account for use on group outings and she put the whole thing on her expense card. After this, we went into the Tate itself. This presented a problem. I was tired at this point (still suffering a bit from jet lag, probably) and my back was still bothering me. So, while I enjoyed the Tate somewhat, I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I might have. I'm really not a big fan of modern art, but I want to gain a greater appreciation for it, so I'll probably go back to the Tate sometime when I have a chance. The nice thing about both the Tate and the British Museum are that they are free except for special exhibitions.

Heading home, I managed to catch up with Katie, Emily, and Dmitri as we were crossing the Millennium Bridge aka "The Wibbly-Wobbly Bridge". This proved to be very fortuitous, as we couldn't go back the way we came because the tube line was closed. Emily had a map and led us to Leicester Square where we caught the Piccadilly line back home. I would have really been up a creek without a paddle had I not run into them.

All of this goes to prove the point that when it comes down to it, it's hard to imagine a more culturally rich city. You can see Shakespeare at the Globe for only 5 pounds. You can go to the Tate and British Museum for free. There are all kinds of statues all over the city. It's just unbelievable the cultural riches this city contains.