Well here we are. I've finished updating about my family's visit and now I'm supposed to figure out how I spent the next couple of weeks. It's funny, but I can remember every detail of their visit and then once it ended the days started to run together again. I know that starting from where I left you, after January 22nd, I had a paper edit due the 25th. I was freaking out about it, and I had a lot of work I needed to put into it.
Luckily, Valerie introduced me to a great study coffee shop just a short ten minute walk, if that, from our residence. I still don't know what the name of this place is, but they have great coffee, free WiFi, unobtrusive music, lots and lots of power outlets and comfortable sofas. What is incredible is that all the times I googled "study cafes in London" this place didn't show up at all! I'm pretty sure I spent Sunday afternoon after my parents left there studying on the same couch as Marissa and much of the next few days as well. I also owe a huge debt to my sister for forcing me to work through my paper and encouraging me to just DO WORK. It's way more work than it sounds, cheerleading.
Once that paper was turned in I felt GREAT. It was such a heavy weight off my shoulders. I celebrated by going to the local pub, the Roebuck after I turned it in. It was technically also a celebration of Burn's night, the Scottish poet who wrote Auld Lang Syne and an ode to Haggis. I met Valerie and her flatmate Ellen and my friend Hash at the pub and we had a pint and chatted for a couple of hours. It was mellow and relaxing and everything I wanted after turning in my paper. The next day my Scottish professor (who has the greatest accent ever) brought Scotch to class in honor of Burn's night. He had wanted to bring haggis but couldn't figure out a way to heat it up. So we drank Scotch and he recited some of the poetry for us. Since we had already started we figured once class was over we would just go straight to the George. I had gone the week before as well, every Thursday the LLMs have an informal get together at the pub on campus. This week I was there right after class ended with my friend Camila and some of her fellow South Americans. I stayed for quite a few hours before deciding it was time to turn in, because I wanted to be up early enough the next day for free cupcakes.
What's that? Free cupcakes? YES! Hummingbird Bakery was opening a new location in Angel and they were giving away free cupcakes. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Friday morning than in the queue for one, so that's where I was at 10:45 am.
It took about half an hour to make my way in and out and I was just in time to the LSE campus for the Holocaust Memorial Service in the Shaw Library. This reminds me, I had been there the week before when it was grey and drizzly and someone came in and sat down while I was studying and started playing concert quality piano. This time I showed up for a planned event, the Memorial. It was an Interfaith Initiative. So it was run by an Anglican Priest (the head of the Interfaith group) and they had members of each faith group read a piece of their scripture to speak to the gathering. The Sikh group started, then the Jewish representative spoke and said Kadish, and then the Muslim, the Christian and the Catholic reps all spoke their piece. It was just a little strange to me to have the Holocaust memorial service with the Jewish representative not placed either first or last. I get that it's interfaith, and that you want to make it all about "no genocide" but it is about genocide. About one very specific genocide. One that targeted in large part, Jewish people, because of their faith. Even though I thought the service was moving and the choir sang a wonderful medley and there was a long moment of silence, it rankled a tiny bit.I guess this is the price of attending an LSE Interfaith event but I think they could have at least invited a Rabbi. The rest of the day I spent at Waterloo, purchasing my 18-25 railcard which makes the train fares cheaper by a third than they would otherwise be for younger travelers.
This practically paid for itself when that weekend Marissa and I took a trip to Bath, England. It is a tiny little town a couple of hours away by train.
We got there before noon and spent some time getting our bearings.
We wandered past the Abbey, where there was a protest for peace underway
Then we explored the main shopping area
which was really cute
Everything in Bath is made of Bath stone which makes for a very clean, quaint, put-together look for the village/town (not sure exactly which Bath qualifies as - possibly even city?). We walked up a large hill to the Circus, which a Bath website describes as "the masterpiece of John Wood the Elder. The striking architecture has spawned numerous theories to explain its stark originality. Viewed from the air it forms the shape of a key, perhaps a Masonic symbol? John Wood is also thought to have taken inspiration from the ancient standing stones of nearby Stanton Drew and from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Either way, the Circus is a stupendous creative accomplishment and one of the key reasons Bath was awarded the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO."
Then we turned and walked up the street to the Royal Crescent, described by the previous site as "one of the world's best known landmarks. Built between 1767 and 1775 and designed by John Wood the Younger, the crescent contains some 30 houses, one of which is now the Royal Crescent Hotel, another is Number 1 and is open to the public." We didn't know about the open to the public house, so we just stood and took pictures from the outside.
And thought about how sometimes even historical pedigree, can't buy you class
We walked back towards town and into the Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum. The Assembly Rooms include "The Ball Room, Octagon, Tea Room and Card Room which were used in the eighteenth century for dancing, music and card playing, tea drinking and conversation and are still in use for functions." They are pretty much just empty rooms but they do have some original chandeliers
And best of all - they have a couple old modes of transport used by the high society men and ladies to get around town. This started with the regular old divan chair. Then, someone brilliant invented THIS
A stroller. That is nothing more than an adult sized baby carriage. You can see the divan chair in the background of the shot. And this was better because only one servant was needed to push you! Hahahahaha. It was the height of technological advance and fashion. Downstairs in the basement of the Assembly Rooms is the Fashion Museum. We kind of rushed through this but it is "a world-class collection of contemporary and historical dress. The displays include 150 dressed figures to illustrate the changing styles in fashionable clothes from the late 16th century to the present day, chosen from the museum's collection of 30,000 original items." We saw an exhibit about fashion and sport that is there because of the Olympics and we saw some of the only surviving dresses from the 17th century on display. We also tried on corsets and looked at the evening dresses of the past century. It was somewhere that might have even deserved more time than we gave it, but we didn't have a ton to give since we were just in Bath for the day.
We left the museum and walked back down into the town for some lunch at a fabulous Nepalese restaurant.
Then when we left we saw this
I still have no explanation for what this might have been. Somehow related to this rugby game? Maybe?
We watched the game from afar for a bit while we ate dessert, gelato for me and a shared Bath bun (which I wasn't a huge fan of). We did a little exploring after lunch finished and then ended up back at the Abbey, which this time we entered. We only had fifteen minutes before it closed for a service, but other than the fantastic ceiling there isn't that much to see there.
I did love how light and airy the place seemed because of the huge windows that run the length of the nave (is that the word?). When we left the Abbey the sun was starting to set and we turned our attention to the famous Roman Baths. They've been an attraction in Britain for literally thousands of years. And the tour and exhibit took way longer than I would have imagined. The trip through the baths starts up on the terrace overlooking the Grand Bath (Roman Bath House)
Then you walk past and overlook the sacred spring
Then you walk downstairs to see the model of the baths complex and the reconstruction of the facades of the Roman Temples that were previously on the site and a number of excavated articles. You also pass through an underground room that houses an old altar and some old steps and foundations and stairs up to Temples but it's hard to piece together since it's very little that is left. You eventually stumble back outside on the ground level of the Grand Baths.
I touched the water to see how hot it was, pleasantly warm actually, and luckily did not contract amoebic menangitis. This was a possibility I wasn't aware of until after when I saw the "water is absolutely unsafe to touch" sign. The best part of the exhibit was this really cool piece that was a computer-generated layout as though you were looking down onto the Baths complex as it had been in Roman times and it showed moving figures playing in the yard, exercising, swimming in the pools and getting massages. It really brought the complex to life in a way that was unmatched by the rest of the museum. We finished up by browsing through the giftshop and then started walking back towards the train station.
And then made our last stop in Bath at a Catholic church.
We got to the train station with plenty of time to spare, especially after our train was canceled. The next train was half an hour later and it had a mess of people waiting to get on since ours was canceled. We went all the way down to the end of the platform to try to score some seats as soon as it stopped. But we neglected to check before we rushed in and sat down and we ended up in someone elses' reserved seats. We stood for the first ten or fifteen minutes before we were able to find some open seats and because this train was stopping fewer places than our original train we were in London only about fifteen minutes behind schedule. On the way back I stopped at an off-license where they had spelled every single pastry wrong on their pastry shelf
It was so nice to spend the day outside of London and Bath was a great choice for a day trip. I felt like we saw all the important things and I loved being a tourist in the UK. I'm hoping I get a chance to do more trips like this over the year so I can see more of the actual UK while I'm here.
The only other really exciting thing that happened this weekend (the last weekend in January) was that I went out with friends to Koko's, for the "Guilty Pleasures" DJ night. It was everything it promised and more. A fun crowd, lots and lots of dancing, and every song was one where you were like "Oh, man! THIS song! I LOVE THIS SONG!" Brilliant. There was also this really great dancer up on the stage dressed in an 80s futuristic outfit
Like I said there was lots of dancing
Dave and Jardena
Sarah, Dave, Jardena and Camila
Me and Valerie. I can't explain my face in this picture, sorry. The important thing is that I'm pretty sure you can tell that everyone is having fun.
And there you have it, parts, not particularly well connected, that made up the last full week of January. I know its a bit stilted and disjointed. I'm trying to piece together all these things that happened over the last four weeks of so and the process is a bit difficult. But I'm doing my best and I hope you are all enjoying or at least appreciating the results.
I'm hoping (as always) to get through the last two weeks that I haven't covered by the end of this week before I leave for Prague and find myself with a whole 'nother adventure to write about.
Love,
Luckily, Valerie introduced me to a great study coffee shop just a short ten minute walk, if that, from our residence. I still don't know what the name of this place is, but they have great coffee, free WiFi, unobtrusive music, lots and lots of power outlets and comfortable sofas. What is incredible is that all the times I googled "study cafes in London" this place didn't show up at all! I'm pretty sure I spent Sunday afternoon after my parents left there studying on the same couch as Marissa and much of the next few days as well. I also owe a huge debt to my sister for forcing me to work through my paper and encouraging me to just DO WORK. It's way more work than it sounds, cheerleading.
Once that paper was turned in I felt GREAT. It was such a heavy weight off my shoulders. I celebrated by going to the local pub, the Roebuck after I turned it in. It was technically also a celebration of Burn's night, the Scottish poet who wrote Auld Lang Syne and an ode to Haggis. I met Valerie and her flatmate Ellen and my friend Hash at the pub and we had a pint and chatted for a couple of hours. It was mellow and relaxing and everything I wanted after turning in my paper. The next day my Scottish professor (who has the greatest accent ever) brought Scotch to class in honor of Burn's night. He had wanted to bring haggis but couldn't figure out a way to heat it up. So we drank Scotch and he recited some of the poetry for us. Since we had already started we figured once class was over we would just go straight to the George. I had gone the week before as well, every Thursday the LLMs have an informal get together at the pub on campus. This week I was there right after class ended with my friend Camila and some of her fellow South Americans. I stayed for quite a few hours before deciding it was time to turn in, because I wanted to be up early enough the next day for free cupcakes.
What's that? Free cupcakes? YES! Hummingbird Bakery was opening a new location in Angel and they were giving away free cupcakes. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Friday morning than in the queue for one, so that's where I was at 10:45 am.
This practically paid for itself when that weekend Marissa and I took a trip to Bath, England. It is a tiny little town a couple of hours away by train.
We got there before noon and spent some time getting our bearings.
Then we explored the main shopping area
Then we turned and walked up the street to the Royal Crescent, described by the previous site as "one of the world's best known landmarks. Built between 1767 and 1775 and designed by John Wood the Younger, the crescent contains some 30 houses, one of which is now the Royal Crescent Hotel, another is Number 1 and is open to the public." We didn't know about the open to the public house, so we just stood and took pictures from the outside.
And best of all - they have a couple old modes of transport used by the high society men and ladies to get around town. This started with the regular old divan chair. Then, someone brilliant invented THIS
A stroller. That is nothing more than an adult sized baby carriage. You can see the divan chair in the background of the shot. And this was better because only one servant was needed to push you! Hahahahaha. It was the height of technological advance and fashion. Downstairs in the basement of the Assembly Rooms is the Fashion Museum. We kind of rushed through this but it is "a world-class collection of contemporary and historical dress. The displays include 150 dressed figures to illustrate the changing styles in fashionable clothes from the late 16th century to the present day, chosen from the museum's collection of 30,000 original items." We saw an exhibit about fashion and sport that is there because of the Olympics and we saw some of the only surviving dresses from the 17th century on display. We also tried on corsets and looked at the evening dresses of the past century. It was somewhere that might have even deserved more time than we gave it, but we didn't have a ton to give since we were just in Bath for the day.
We left the museum and walked back down into the town for some lunch at a fabulous Nepalese restaurant.
We watched the game from afar for a bit while we ate dessert, gelato for me and a shared Bath bun (which I wasn't a huge fan of). We did a little exploring after lunch finished and then ended up back at the Abbey, which this time we entered. We only had fifteen minutes before it closed for a service, but other than the fantastic ceiling there isn't that much to see there.
Then you walk downstairs to see the model of the baths complex and the reconstruction of the facades of the Roman Temples that were previously on the site and a number of excavated articles. You also pass through an underground room that houses an old altar and some old steps and foundations and stairs up to Temples but it's hard to piece together since it's very little that is left. You eventually stumble back outside on the ground level of the Grand Baths.
And then made our last stop in Bath at a Catholic church.
It was so nice to spend the day outside of London and Bath was a great choice for a day trip. I felt like we saw all the important things and I loved being a tourist in the UK. I'm hoping I get a chance to do more trips like this over the year so I can see more of the actual UK while I'm here.
The only other really exciting thing that happened this weekend (the last weekend in January) was that I went out with friends to Koko's, for the "Guilty Pleasures" DJ night. It was everything it promised and more. A fun crowd, lots and lots of dancing, and every song was one where you were like "Oh, man! THIS song! I LOVE THIS SONG!" Brilliant. There was also this really great dancer up on the stage dressed in an 80s futuristic outfit
And there you have it, parts, not particularly well connected, that made up the last full week of January. I know its a bit stilted and disjointed. I'm trying to piece together all these things that happened over the last four weeks of so and the process is a bit difficult. But I'm doing my best and I hope you are all enjoying or at least appreciating the results.
I'm hoping (as always) to get through the last two weeks that I haven't covered by the end of this week before I leave for Prague and find myself with a whole 'nother adventure to write about.
Love,
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