After a week of just going to classes and coming straight back to my room, I finally decided to wake up early this morning (9:30am!) to explore. My reclusion this week partly has to due with a sudden case of homesickness, which really confused me since it hit me three weeks after getting here. I don’t know what brought it on (watching the State of the Union definitely added to it) but I understand it’s a natural reaction, no matter how delayed. However, being a hermit is not the way to spend my brief semester in London so I decided to go on a walking tour this morning. Before I get into the details of the tour, I booked a trip to Paris and Brussels for my “reading week” in the middle of February. I don’t have any assignments due until the end of March so I figured reading week will be travelling week. This entire trip will be by rail and then I’ll be back in London for the weekend to do some more sightseeing and some actual schoolwork. I’m pretty excited, especially for Brussels since that will be a gastronomic experience (aka chocolate!) I won’t forget.
Back to the walking tour—It was called Royal London and Westminster Abbey and it was lead by a knowledgeable and funny tour guide named Tom. We met at Green Park, which was originally owned by the Catholic Church and then “acquired” by King Henry VIII after the creation of the Church of England. The creepy thing about the park is that it became a massive burial pit after a plague hit England in the 1500’s; as Tom the tour guide eloquently said, “In the summer, people sunbathe on top of a burial ground with some of the most fertile soil in London”.
Afterwards, we walked toward Buckingham Palace and unfortunately there was no changing of the guard due to the rain. Speaking of the weather, today was some of the most bizarre weather I’ve ever witnessed. In fact, it rained, then it was sunny, then it either hailed or snowed, then it was sunny again, and now it’s very windy and cold. Anyway, after getting the history of the palace and learning that the Queen actually doesn’t live there most of the time since it’s the “official” residence and she prefers her private residence (Windsor Castle), we walked through St. James Park and saw some amazing wildlife for a city park/royal garden. There were pelicans, and as Tom liked to say “not your scrawny, gray pelicans you find in Florida”, but massive white pelicans with beaks that have been known to swallow pigeons whole. There were also black swans and big brown ducks, all either walking around outside of the gated area or swimming in a tributary of the Thames.
Leaving the park, we walked onto Queen Anne’s Gate, which is one of the richest areas in London. In fact we saw one of Sting’s many houses but according to Tom he doesn’t actually live there; it’s a part of his “collection” of houses. On our way to Westminster Abbey, we saw a bunch of protesters denouncing Tony Blair (who was being questioned by the Iraq Inquiry, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/world/europe/30britain.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global-home) as a war criminal for dragging Britain into war in Iraq without the backing of the UN or any evidence of WMDs (I was tempted to join but I figured I don’t want to do anything to get in trouble/have to deal with the US embassy).
Finally, Westminster Abbey. It was so cool. I felt a little awkward at times, being the only visible Muslim in this historic church, but overall it was a great experience for a total nerd like me. There are over 3,300 bodies buried in the Abbey and I saw all of the extravagant memorials that were set up. Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth, or as Tom liked to call her, the Virgin *hiccup* Queen, are both buried there and there was a huge sculpture of Queen Elizabeth that was the only accurate portrayal of her because she liked to “alter” all her portraits to make her look more attractive. This sculpture was based on a wax cast; the wax was poured on her face after she died and the memorial sculpture was subsequently made. The Poet’s Corner was my favorite, where we saw the actual graves of Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Rudyard Kipling. The sad thing was that Mary Anne Evans, aka George Eliot, had a huge memorial compared to Jane Austen, who had this tiny little plaque; I guess it truly paid for female writers to write under a male pen name. Even with all the success Jane Austen had, she still wasn’t recognized compared to the other men in the Poet’s Corner.
That’s it for my adventures today, but hopefully I’ll be going out tomorrow to check out some more sights. A total success today, especially due to the fact that the rain has ruined my plans several times before. In London, you just have to carry on, rain or shine.
