August 2009
9 posts
eight weeks in retrospect
So this is it. We made it through two weeks of frantic travels through foreign lands, where we made new friends, tasted new foods, tried to conquer language barriers in our most broken German/Dutch/French/Italian, learned that showers are overrated and jeans don’t need washing, discovered what a three hour hike straight up a mountain feels like, and had a generally amazing time. We made it...
DONE!
We are both essentially finished with our papers! It’s our last day in London, so I plan to go and see everything important that I missed (Big Ben, Parliament, etc). I’ll post pictures and thoughts on the trip being over (!) when I get back this afternoon.
Only a week till home!
Our time here in London is winding down. Everyone in the program is working frantically on their projects, due Wednesday and Friday. Sadly, these two “free” weeks turned out to be a lot less free and a lot less fun than I thought they’d be, taken up mostly by research in the library and worrying about papers and projects. But, on the bright side, this time next week I will be...
July 2009
55 posts
Our Day of Culture
Today, we met with our professors in the morning to talk about our project proposals. My meeting with John went fine, and he seemed to like my topic and think I was on the right track. Anne, on the other hand, did not seem so pleased about my project topic for her part of the class, although I still have no idea why.
After the meetings, Krystal and I headed over to the Tate Modern Museum. We...
A pretty boring week in review
I’m pretty sure that me saying I’ll post more often is a guarantee that I will NOT post more often. I am very sorry for my silence all week; although Grandpa insinuated via Skype last night that my absence was due to “all the bars and pubs you’ve been going to,” it’s acutally just because we were crazily busy with finishing up classes. We had to read a ton each...
Bristol, Bath, and Banksy
This weekend, we took a trip to Bristol, which is about a two hour train ride due West of London. We have been studying the work of Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (what a name, right?) and a lot of his work took place in Bristol. We arrived in rainy Bristol Thursday afternoon, and took a horrible bus ride to our accommodations which took 45 minutes longer than it should have due to...
Bedlam, Wellcome Library, and off to Bristol!
On Monday, instead of giving us the day off that we definitely earned over the weekend, we took a day trip out to Bethlem Royal Hospital. Bethlem, better known by its 18th and 19th century nickname “Bedlam,” is the oldest mental hospital in England. It was built in something like the 1200’s (clearly I paid attention), and moved three times till it landed on its current spot,...
Edinburgh: Day 3
On Saturday, we awoke bright and early for what was billed to us as a “short walk” to the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh. However, short walk this indeed was not. It took us close to an hour to get there, which means that we most likely walked upwards of two miles. To make matters worse, the whole walk was down huge, San Fransisco-style hills, and the thought of making the trek...
I'll continue updating soon!! I promise!!
I’ll hit you with day three of Scotland and more London updates soon. Right now I’ve got another blog to work on: <http://samsvictorianblog.blogspot.com/>. In case you missed it last time, this is the blog I have to keep for my classes. It’s basically comprised of my musings on what we’ve seen/read/talked about in the class over the past week. I’m horribly...
A Weekend In Edinburgh: Day 2
We woke up bright and early on Friday to go on a medical walking tour of Edinburgh. The city is famous for being on the cutting edge of medicine during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the famous physicians and surgeons of the time were educated in Edinburgh, either at University of Edinburgh or the Royal College of Surgeons or the Royal College of Physicians. We visited all these sites, plus...
A Weekend In Edinburgh: Day 1
As confusing as it may seem, Edinburgh, Scotland, is acutally pronounced “Edinborough,” or “Edinburah,” as the locals say. We had a great time there this past weekend! It was an extremely busy and tiring weekend, but we got to see a lot and enjoy some of the sights. I’ll update you in installments, one for each day, and then post pictures from that day.
We took the...
We're off to Scotland!
We’ll be in Edinburgh starting tomorrow until Sunday. We won’t have internet access there, so we will update with posts and pictures when we return!
Three Things I Have Learned So Far In London
Cars here show no mercy. This place is nothing like Cambridge, where you can essentially run out in the road and know that cars will stop for you. Sometimes they even stop when you’re just waiting on the sidewalk to cross! In London, though, don’t count on it. They give you evil stares for even thinking about crossing. Add that to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the...
