15 JANUARY 2010
Ugh, rainy London day. Within a few blocks of walking, my sneakers were already drenched. Nido is, however, conveniently close to the British Library so we hit our first sightseeing site quickly. The "Treasures of the British Library" gallery was really fascinating! We saw manuscripts of Handel's Messiah, one of only 180 remaining Gutenberg bibles, and even the Magna Carta! Good thing I'm a history buff. Also, I saw those things that Rick Steves was talking about - for those of you not in the know, in his London episode, he showed the digital kiosks where you can flip through actual manuscript images and zoom in and look at, for example, illuminated bible texts. So cool! Actually, some of my favorite things were the Arabic/Persian manuscripts because the script is just so beautiful.
After the Library, we hit the British Museum, the site I've been waiting to see since the sixth grade. Background story: in Humanities, my assigned monument was the Parthenon on which to write a research report. I loved learning about ancient Greece, so the project was actually interesting for me. When I first heard about the fellow named Elgin who took many marble ruins from the Acropolis, I thought, "Huh, what a crook!" Plus, the Greek government is still fighting to get them back in their own museums, even 300 years later. However, I was glad Elgin put the marbles in the British Museum, because I got to see them yesterday!! I've seen plenty of Greek and Roman sculpture at the Met, but these were so fascinating because they made up such a famous temple, one about which I pride myself to be knowledgeable. Anyway, after I forced my travel buddies to spend about an hour in that one room, we left. On the way out, I glimpsed a beautiful statue of Aphrodite that I am really fond of; and the Rosetta Stone! So spiffy.
That night, NYUL hosted an event at Smithy's Bar. Yes, bar! I am proud to admit that I purchased a bottle of Coca Cola for £2.20. No, I did not buy alcohol. Yes, I did sip some from other people.... We danced a bit and screamed the lyrics to the American songs the DJ played. Let's just say...alcohol is indeed liquid courage. All in all, a fun night!! My first time "out", save for Art Bar in Florence...but that doesn't count, right? After Smithy's, a bunch of us stayed in Nido's lounge to play foosball and pool until 1:30 in the morning. I was sitting at one of the benches and happened to strike up a conversation with a visiting Spaniard, also! My Spanish is embarrassingly rusty, but it was fun!
15 JANUARY 2010
Today was our first sunny-blue-skies day in London!! You have no idea how excited I was when I woke up! And I'm not even a morning person! Plus, it was perfect for our "panoramic coach tour" of London today. We saw some random sites and were allowed to stop for pictures. We saw: the Prince Albert memorial, Harrod's, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Parliament/Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral. It was good to see so many sites all in one shot, but it was kind of boring sitting in the bus the whole time...ehh. I think everyone on the bus was dead tired/hungry, so we all ran to our kitchen afterwards; we cooked a quickie dinner of ramen and salad. Yum!
Tomorrow, classes start! I have organic chemistry II at 1:30 pm, so no worries about waking up too early. I probably will though, I promised myself to not sleep away the hours. Thoughts: I am worried about orgo, since I didn't do too well in orgo I, but I also committed myself to studying even harder. I am also worried about my other classes. NYUL doesn't fail to remind us that classes are still classes, and it's not just easier because we're in London. Hard work, it's going to be, trying to juggle classes + fun....
...LET'S DO THIS. Cheerio, loves! ♥
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