Well, this is it. Really and truly the home stretch. Tomorrow is my last day in London because Saturday I’m leaving for the airport at 7 am. It is kind of weird to be leaving, but exciting too. I’m so ready to be home and see people again. And to be back with my bed. The one here is killing me.

So finals are finally over, I hope I did well on them, but I’m not thinking about them for a while, at least not until grades are posted in 6-8 weeks which is absolutely rediculous, in my opinion, but there is nothing that can be done about it, so I’m not worrying about it at all. Why should I? It is nice to have them behind me, but I still feel like I have somthing to turn in because I’m not at home. Normally when finals are over, I book it back to the house. And I’m not at the house, so it all feels wrong, lol. Saturday night I’ll feel better.

I haven’t done a tremendous amount this week, because of finals. Not that I studied for them at all, but other people had to do things and so there was no one to do stuff with. I’m rereading Gone with the Wind, so that is how I’ve been filling time when everyone else has been busy. I haven’t read it since I was in high school and I forgot about how much I really enjoy it.

Today though, was a good day. Since it was one of the last days we had in London, my friend Steph and I decided to make a day of it. We went over to the Barbican this morning and saw a pantomime, which are shows that they do at Christmas for children. We saw Hansel and Gretel and it was so much fun. My favourite was the food fight that Hansel and Gretel had in the evil witch’s cottage. Then she did a little cheerleader type chant with “diet, don’t try it, or I will start a riot!” It was just a lot of fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was different than anything we had seen before, because it was not on a stage. It was like a huge set and we moved from place to place along with Hansel and Gretel on their journey. It was really cool and I really had a good time with it. Best part was that we weren’t the oldest ones there. There were two older couples- probably late 60’s- who came to see it without kids. From the pantomime we went over to Hyde Park because they had a big Christmas fair on. We had some mulled wine to warm ourselves up and just walked around. Then we walked around Hyde Park and saw the Peter Pan statue and I took some pictures of it with Monty and also with him at Kensington Palace.  Then we walked all the way back to the Res Hall and over to the Cadogan Arms for a pub supper. I had ham, eggs and chips and it was yummy! Then it was just back to the dorm for some relaxing. I finished packing and got my RA to come check out my room, so I’m cleared to leave. Hooray.

Tonight I think that Steph and I are going to watch a movie, since everyone else seems to be going clubbing and we are both too tired. So it should be a pretty relaxing evening. Tommorw is my last day in London. How weird. Time to say goodbye to all my new friends. That will be the worst part.

I’ve been a little lax about blogging the last few days. I could offer a lot of excuses, like the internet has been really slow, which it has, or that I’ve been doing other things, which I have, but the honest truth is that I just haven’t been in the mood.

I haven’t been doing too many super interesting things. On Friday I got  up early and went with a couple of my friends and went all over the city. We started out at the Tate, because the Millais Ophelia painting is finally back, and I really wanted to see it, so we did. Then we went over to St Pauls so I could take a picture of it with Monty and so that my friend Steph could buy a poster. Then it was over the Millenium Bridge, and pictures with the Tate Modern, the Gherkin, and the Globe. Finally we went to the Banqueting House, which is the only remaining part of Whitehall Palace, which burned down in 1698. Charles I was executed at the Banqueting House and its interiors were one of the last things that he saw before he died, so it was a little surreal. The paintings on the ceiling were beautiful. I really am glad that we went, because I thought about just skipping it, but it was a good plan to go. That evening we just relaxed again and watched some TV and chattered.

Saturday was more of the same. My friend Katie and I were going to go to Primrose Hill, which is supposed to have beautiful views of London, only the tube we needed was closed. Instead we ended up stopping at Kings Cross. So we went to Platform 9 3/4 and I got a couple of pictures of Monty there, and then we went to the British Library and looked through the treasure room. Which is still cool even though I’ve been 3 times. I also hunted through the gift shop there, because I thought maybe I would find something cool for my dad there. No luck. I have almost given up hope of finding something for him. Then we just fought the crowds on the tube at came home. I took a nap and finished reading Atonement. I forgot that Briony goes to the Imperial War Museum at the end, and it was talking about the cramped elevator up to the reading room, and I got very excited, because I’ve been in that cramped elevator!! Yes, I’m aware I’m a huge dork, I’ve embraced it. Later that night several of us got together and watched Will & Grace. We watched the Gay Mafia episode with Elton John. I love that episode! I also ate a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s Bohemian Raspberry and had a tummy ache so I went to be early.

Today has been super unproductive. I have a final tomorrow and I have yet to study for it. I’m just not that worried about it, and so I am lacking in motivation. Instead of studying I wrote half a dozen emails, read 70 pages in Gone with the Wind, watched an episode of Brideshead Revisited, made lunch, cleaned the kitchen up, cleaned my room, took an hour long nap, Facebook stalked, wrote an essay for something at home, walked with my friend Steph to Waitrose and Starbucks and listened to several cds worth of Christmas music. Then about 10 of us got together for a spagetti dinner and had a good time. It was a lot of fun. And now I’m blogging and running out of excuses to look over my notes for my final tomorrow. Yikes. Its 19th Century British Women Novelists. I actually know something about that topic, and lets face it, these classes are a cakewalk compared to Wofford.

I only have 6 days left here. That seems weird. I’ve already started a list of things that I will NOT miss about London, so that when I get home and start missing it, I can look at that list and remember why it is nice to be in Duncan. Plus, I am starting to get insanely excited about seeing people from home again. 3 days of finals, 2 days of final London stuff, and a day of travel and then I’ll be home for Christmas! I already have so many plans to see people, and I’m looking forward to all of them! So on that note, I’m off to find some other reason not to study.

Me in Trafalgar Square with the 90 foot tall Christmas Tree.

The past few days haven’t been terribly exciting I’m afraid. The biggest news is that I have finally finished all my classes, which means I am only 4 exams away from coming home. I’m oh so glad that classes are over, but it is so weird to have all your professors tell you to have a nice life. I mean, its the right thing to say, I don’t suppose I’ll ever see any of them again, but it is still an odd thing to hear. The worst part was, of course, those awful teacher evaluations they make you do. I know they help the teacher, if people actually take the time to fill them out and do them properly, which few seem to do, but whatever. My History of London professor had us start class half an hour early, but then she bought us all hot chocolate to make up for it and ended up letting us go 40 minutes early. It was great. She also told us about the book she is writing, it sounds terrifically interesting, I’m going to buy it when it comes out, if I remember in June. And it comes out in America.

Otherwise I haven’t really done much the past couple of days, I’ve just been taking it easy.  Tuesday I was going to go exploring with Monty and take some more London pictures, but it was cold and rainy so I bagged that and stayed at centre between classes. I watched movies all afternoon, it was great. I finally saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with Dame Maggie Smith. I’d been wanting to see it for a while, but hadn’t been able to lay my hands on a copy, and there was one at the centre. When that finished I still had 3 hours, so I sat back down and watched Mrs Brown, with Dame Judi Dench. I had seen it before, but it seems to get better every time I watch it. It was a nice way to spend a cold, wet afternoon, although it would have been better either on the couch in my living room with our big tv or curled up in bed on my tv with a cup of tea or hot chocolate. Still, I enjoyed it.

Wednesday afternoon when classes finished I did go exploring with Monty and took tons of pictures. I got him with the National Gallery, one of the Lions in Trafalgar Square, the Horse Guards Building, Clarence House, Buckingham Palace, St James Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and the Clock Tower. Tomorrow I am taking him to the Tate, St Pauls, the Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern, and perhaps other places.  After I got done taking pictures I came back to the res hall, because well, I was tired and cold. Wednesday afternoon I just goofed off, did some grocery shopping, and then a few of us watched 4 or 5 episodes of Will and Grace that someone had here. It was a nice night.

Today after classes finished up Steph and I went to Waterstones and picked up copies of the new JK Rowling book, The Tales of Beetle the Bard. I already finished it, it is pretty cute. I enjoyed it and it was a nice break from the stuff I’ve been reading here.  Then this evening we went over to Trafalgar Square for the tree lighting ceremony. Apparently every year since 1947 the people of Oslo have given a tree to London to thank the British for helping them out during WWII. It was a nice little ceremony that lasted about 20 minutes. The Mayors of Westminster, London, and Oslo were all there. A couple of choirs sung, the Salvation Army band played, the mayors gave quick speeches, and every one sang a couple of Christmas carols. It was a nice way to spend the evening. Then I just came back, had a cup of hot tea, read a little and relaxed.

I’ll be home in 9 days. Get excited.

Monday Monday, la la la la la….

Not a lot happened today. I didn’t set an alarm and slept until I was ready to get up (8.42). I was super productive this morning and filled out a bunch of forms and sent out some important e-mails etc. I made lunch and then met my friends at Piccadilly Circus to buy tickets for Mamma Mia! only they were more than we wanted to pay for really crappy seats and they didn’t have any together, so we scrapped that and instead bought tickets to Jersey Boys.

We decided to wander around again, and ended up in the big old book store and Fortnam and Masons again, even though I was just there on Friday. I took some more pictures with Flat Monty. We shopped around a bit and then came back to the res hall. I finished 2 papers and printed them out, so that I can turn them in in the morning and I’ll be all finished with school work until exams start. But that was all really I managed to do tonight.

Then Jersey Boys. Wow! It is one of the best Theatre Highs I’ve had all semester. It is a musical that tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, so I knew tons of the songs before I saw it, which made it even better. It was all I could do not to sing along, and I couldn’t always stop myself. There were all sorts of people all over the audience just bobbing their heads and doing little dances in their seats and stuff. It was also the only one of about 15 shows I saw this semester that the audience gave a standing ovation to at the end. That just doesn’t happen in Britain like it does in the States, its one of the cultural differences. But this show rocked. Even my Dad would have liked it. If it ever tours and comes to Greenville, I’ll have a Christmas/Birthday/Father’s Day present for him, whichever holiday is closest. 

But now I’m going, because I’m super exhausted.

Flat Monty with the Rosetta Stone. Ok it is a replica, but this picture turned out better than the one with the actual stone, because it is under glass.

The past two days have actually been pretty busy, I should have blogged yesterday but I was just too tired.

Friday was a good day. Steph and I met up at 11 with every intention of going to the Banqueting House, the only surviving part of a massive palace on Whitehall that burned down hundreds of years ago. It was also the site of Charles I’s execution. It was raining and windy and cold and everything and we still went out. Only it was closed for the day. Story of my life. Maybe I’ll try again on Monday.

But despite our disappointment at not getting to see the Banqueting House, we didn’t let it ruin our day. We decided to have a bit of a walk around central London and ended up going the length of Whitehall, having started at the Houses of Parliament and passing the Cenotaph and Downing Street until we came to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. We walked up past St Martin-in-the-Field Church, and into Leicester Square, to see if we could take some more hand print pictures, it seems like every time you go, at least a few of them are covered up, and of course they were this time too, but I finally got pictures of Pierce Brosnan and Stephen Fry’s hand-prints, which were the only 2 I still wanted to get.

Crazy leather dachshund at Fortnam and Mason

Then we wondered over to Piccadilly Circus and got lost in the giant Waterstone’s. We kept going and then ended up in another great bookshop, the name escapes me right now, but it has been a bookshop on that same site since 1797. Awesome. Then we went next door into Fortnam and Mason department store, which is a lot like Harrods but less crowded. They had some great stuff, including a leather dachshund which cracked me up. I think the strangest thing we saw was some vodka with a scorpion in it. The scorpion was edible, by the way. We left there and walked past the Ritz Hotel and oogled at the jewellery in the windows before parting at the Green Park tube station.

The Dog and Duck pub sign

I had to go meet my British Lit into Film class at the Goodge Street Station for a make up class. We were doing a George Orwell themed walk, which really turned into a pub crawl, because at least 6 of the stops were pubs and someone from the group had a drink in at least 4 of them. I think everyone had a drink in The Duck and the Dog because they had an Orwell Bar. As one of my classmates said, nothing says education like drinking with your professor. Actually we had a great time and we walked absolutely all over central London. It took us about 3 and a half hours to do everything, so it was good and dark by the time we split up. Instead of going back to the res hall like everyone else, I decided to walk around somemore. I wanted to find a Waterstones and buy a book I was looking at earlier in the day. I ended up walking a lot more than I had intended to, because I got a bit turned around as I’m not used to navigating that part of the city at night time. But no worries, I figured out where I was, found a Waterstones, bought my book, and made it home safe and sound. It was about 7 by the time I made it home, so I made some dinner, watched some Friends, read a bit of my new book, and went to bed!

Awesome double headed Aztec snake thing.

This morning I got up early and hoofed my way over to the British Museum. I was there when it opened at 10 and it was still crazy busy. I had been once before and done a highlights tour and seen things like the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles, but this time I went through every single one of the 90 something galleries and looked at everything. I did it kind of fast though, because at this point, I’ve seen it all before, it just wasn’t those objects. I’m an English major, not an art historian. One you’ve seen a hundred examples of ancient Roman statues or Greek urns, they all start to look the same. Add the fact that I’m just not that interested in stuff from the far east–Japan, China, Korea, India, etc. and it cuts down a lot on what I needed to really take my time with. I did enjoy the Egyptian rooms, the Aztec stuff and the bits from Europe, so that was cool.

I’ve been feeling guilty because I haven’t taken THAT many pictures (probably only 20-30) with Monty, so he went along today and I made sure to take lots of pictures with him. I got pictures of Monty with Grecian urns, the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, the Lewis Chess set, some mummies, the Crystal Skull (yes like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull only it is a 19th century forgery. Oops.), and in the museums famed central hall. Plus I took some pictures with him at Buckingham Palace the other day. I realise that these kids will probably have no idea what all these things Monty is pictured with, so I am going to offer to go and talk to them about the pictures and what I did in January if their teacher wants me to. I should probably e-mail her about that.

Then I came back to the res hall and met my friend Katie and we went grocery shopping for our Love Actually extravaganza this evening. I’m super excited about it! I had to promise not to watch it until after Thanksgiving, and it has been hard, because I usually watch it at least once a month, if not more. And I haven’t seen it since August. Tonight we watch it, and next week we are going on a tour of places they filmed it. I can’t wait.

Side note. I will be home exactly 2 weeks from today. I can’t believe it. I sort of feel like I just got here, but then I look at everything that I have done and I feel like I have lived in London my entire life. I’ll be sad to go and leave the access to the great museums and theatre and such, but I cannot even put into words how excited I am to see my family and friends again after 3 and a half months.

My favourite sign at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

For it being a major holiday that found me separated from my friends and family, today was a surprisingly good day. I was a bit bummed that I had class on Thanksgiving, but neither one turned out to be too bad. My first class had a field trip day today and we went all around central London looking at statues and memorials to World War I. It was interesting. We also happened to be passing Buck House at the right time to see the changing of the guard, something I hadn’t actually taken the time to come down and see despite having been in London for three months. It as kind of neat. And the best part was that my professor took us to a little café near the Houses of Parliament and bought us all cake and hot chocolate. I had strawberry cheesecake with my hot chocolate! It was delicious! It was a really nice thing for him to do for us. It was our last class with him and it was Thanksgiving, so he was being nice. Jen, our tutor for theatre class, let us out of class an hour early because it was Thanksgiving. After class we they had some pumpkin pie at the centre for us, which was the best part of the day. Of all the Thanksgiving food that people have, pumpkin pie is my favourite and I was most disappointed about not having any. But I got some. It wasn’t very good, but they tried. I will still require that it be served at the Sudduth Christmas Extravaganza.

Today is only the second time in my entire life that I have been away from my family on a major holiday. When I was in the 10th grade and I went to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the band I missed Thanksgiving dinner. But I was with my friends that I had known for years and years, so it wasn’t too bad. Plus we actually had a real Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the fixings. Today was a little bit different. No family. No lifelong friends. No turkey.

Elton John's Visa card

After class we decided to be real Americans and go to the Hard Rock Café. The Hard Rock in London was the first Hard Rock in the world, so it was pretty cool to go see. It was one of the things on my list and now it is done. I had a great burger and fries and a Pepsi. It was amazing. Then we got to go into the vault and see a lot of the awesome things. There were great guitars that belonged to people like Sting, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix etc. Although of course, I really enjoyed seeing Elton John’s credit card. If you know me at all you know how much I love some Elton John music. And if you don’t, let me tell you, I LOVE Elton John music.

Then we came back to the res hall and relaxed a little while. We ended up the day watching old episodes of Friends and chattering. It was a good day. Not quite sure what I’m going tomorrow, but it will be fun. Hooray!

The past two days haven’t been too exciting from a blogging point of view. I did get a paper back in one of my high classes and I got a high A on it, so that was good. I’m glad that classes are almost over, that whole 5 hour break between classes is a real pain. I spent part of it watching the movie for my Lit into Film class, but for a change it was actually exciting. The book/movie this week is The Remains of the Day, which is one of my 10 favourite movies. Anthony Hopins and Emma Thompson are absolutely brilliant in it. There are so many parts that really move me. I love the fact that it is a very intense love story, but there aren’t any scenes of romance in the whole movie. I think I watched it 11 times the first week I bought it, I was so taken with it. I had been wanting to reread the book for some time now, and it was great to have an excuse to do it. The first time I read the book, I didn’t even close it when I finished it, I just turned back to page one and started it over again. It is the only book I can remember doing that with. I don’t  know why I’m so taken with this story but I am. If you need something great to read or watch, I coudn’t recommend either of these any higher. Class in the evening was a bit blah as usual, but oh well. We have to go to to make up class on Friday, which totally sucks. They make us make up classes that the professor cancelled on our own time. I think it is total crap. He cancelled the class, it should just be done with. They shouldn’t take away from our weekend with makeups.

This morning was nice. I enjoyed my class and we talked about Mill on the Floss and then watched the BBC version of the ending, which was different from the book, and I must say, total crap. As much as I was frustrated by the real ending, it was a million times more satisfying than the BBC one. Then I made my way back to the res hall and put down my school books and picked up my shopping bag and went to the supermarket for a few essentials–bread, milk, water, ice cream (which I’m eating as I sit here blogging and it is fantastic). Then I came back to the room and was actually astoundingly productive for the afternoon. I wrote all of my History of London term paper about WWI recruting posters. It just needs a little polishing and formatting and its good to go. Hooray!

But clearly the best part of my day was going to the theatre tonight. Ryan, Steph and I all decided to go see Spamalot! I haven’t laughed so hard since I came to London, I can honestly say that. I loved, loved, loved it. I love the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so I knew the story, but the musical is an experience all its own. There are so many moments that I just dissolved into fits of giggles. My favourite part was the running joke about having to have Jews in your show to succeed in show businiess and them needing to find some Jews for the show and at the very end King Arthur’s servant Patsy admitting he is half Jewish on his mother’s side. Athur, in shock, asks why he had never mentioned it. With a straight face Patsy told him “That’s not the sort of thing you say to a heavily armed Christian.” The whole theatre was hooting and hollering at that one. Even the programme incoporateed a lot of the Monty Python humour, complete with a couple of pages of false credits involving moose.  I had always wanted to see it since it opened and with the news that it is closing in January I decided I better go and not miss my chance. I’m so glad I did. If you get a chance to go before it does and Monty Python is your type of humour, you should go! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I hope that you all will have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. If you are lucky enough to be around your family, be extra thankful. I wish I could be with mine. It’s hard being away for the holidays.  But now I go, time for bed!

The Dublin Customs House at night, from across the river.

Warning: This blog post is of epic length (but also fully illustrated with photographs).

The last several days have been some of the busiest that I have had for the entirety of my trip and also some of the most fun and rewarding. We were constantly on the move. It was awesome.

Thursday evening we went to see a play at the Almeida Theatre called In A Dark Dark House by American playwright Neil LaBute. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it, although at times I thought that it dragged on and on. It was divided into three parts and the second part was the only one that held my attention for its entirety. The play was about two brothers who had been molested by a family friend and are now having to deal with the consequences as adults. I really liked the set, which was a grassy yard that transformed from a mental hospital park, mini-golf hole, and posh backyard. There were only three actors, but they all did well. Their accents were not good though. They were trying to pull off American accents and they were terribly inconsistent. It actually took several of us a while to figure out that they were supposed to be American accents. It was the first preview night, so it was the first time that it had been performed for a paying audience. There weren’t any major problems. One light blew in the back and there were a couple of line flubs, but they recovered so well that it seemed natural, like the character was just flustered and having trouble getting out what he wanted to say. We have to buy the script for the plays that we go see every week. When you buy a play script of a modern play it normally will tell you something along the lines of This play was first performed at the —– Theatre on ——– and then gives you the cast list. It was neat that this play says “In A Dark Dark Housewas first performed in Europe at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 20 November 2008.” And we saw it at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 20 November 2008. Then it was head home and get to bed because there would be an early day in the morning.

Only my roommate was being loud and I couldn’t get to sleep until sometime after 1 am. Normally not a big deal, but when you’ve gone to bed at 1 in the morning 3.45 am comes quickly. So when my alarm went off I had to hit the snooze button once and so at 3.51 I popped out of bed and hopped in the shower and then got dressed for a long day. I met the gang downstairs at 4.30. We went to Ireland as a rather large group actually. There was Me (Craig), Ryan, Stephanie, and then the “K” girls- Kristen, Katelyn, Kaitlen, Kinsey, and Kyle. Someone was running a bit late so we missed the 4.32 bus to Victoria Station and had to stand out in the cold until the 5.02 bus came. We hopped on it and rode to the station and made a frantic dash through London Victoria to catch the 5.15 Gatwick Express to Gatwick Airport. We got there and checked in with Easy Jet and went through security. Security wasn’t as crazy as it is in the States, but it was still pretty intense. I did get randomally picked to have my shoes scanned for bombs and of course I was wearing big bulky Timberlands that are a pain to lace up and tie, so the group had to wait on me. But we got on the plane and everything was fine. We actually took off at 7.00 which was on time, so hooray. I slept most of the flight over to Belfast International Airport.

When we got to Belfast the first thing that I did while we were waiting on people to collect their checked bags was to listen to the Elton John song “Belfast” from his Made in England album. It is all about “The Troubles” and was a perfect listen for what we did next. We had decided to try to see a little of Belfast before we headed down to Dublin for the rest of the weekend. Someone had had heard about a cab tour of Belfast, so we decided to do that. It was actually really neat. Two cabs came and picked us up and showed us all around Belfast, concentrating on what would have been the most dangerous parts of the city during “The Troubles” although our guide told us that since the ceasefire had been reached that Belfast has actually become the safest city in Europe.

The General Post Office in Dublin, one of the most important sites for the 1916 Easter Rising.

Ok, a little bit of background on “The Troubles” and this is by no means exhaustive nor does it really get into the nuances of the problems. Plus I can’t really understand it, I think you have to be someone who has lived in Ireland for many many years to understand that kind of hatred. So as you know many hundreds of years ago the British colonised Ireland, a heavily Roman Catholic island off the western coast of Wales. The British treated the Catholic Irish inhumanely. It is a terrible stain on British history, much like slavery is for America.  Cromwell in particular was awful to the Catholics. After several hundred years of being maltreated the Irish began agitating for independence. Who wouldn’t? So in 1916 there was the Easter Rising in which the Irish Republican Brotherhood took over several buildings, such as Dublin Castle and the General Post Office and fought the British troops. As is often the case with rebellions, this one didn’t end well and the British response was incredibly harsh. Many, many were executed and many more imprisoned. Then there was a campagin of violence masterminded by Michael Collins in which what would become the IRA killed British G-Men wherever they could find them. Finally, in 1921 an Irish Free State was declared, which consisted of the whole of Ireland except for the northernmost 6 counties of the province of Ulster. All of this is dramatised in a great movie called Michael Collins with Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman and Julia Roberts. I love it.

The six counties of Northern Ireland were kept under British rule as part of the United Kingdom because the majority of Protestants in Ireland were in those six counties. But not everyone there was Protestant, there were still a goodly number of Catholics, who believed that all of Ireland should be united. Things were uneasy until the mid to late 1960’s when full scale violence and mayhem broke out. So now to Belfast specifically.

The mural for Bobby Sands in the Catholic side of Belfast.

Belfast was divided into Catholic and Protestant parts with a HUGE fence dividing them and gates that let you from one side to another. To this day the gates still open and close every day. Most open at 6 am and close at 9 pm. We saw the apartment building that the British troops used as an observation point on the Catholic side. They took over the top three floors of the apartment building and used the Catholic tenants underneath as human shields to protect themselves. Catholic tenants only moved back into the top three floors of that building 14 months ago. Our cabbie, Patrick, told us about how the troops had once put the entire Catholic side on curfew until further notice. That meant ANYONE, man woman child who was seen leaving a house was to be shot dead. No questions asked. It lasted for 3 days when some women who were’t under curfew told the troops to go home and they would handle it. Arming themselves to the teeth with bread and milk they went from house to house delivering supplies to the people who had been under house arrest for days because they knew that even British troops wouldn’t shoot women taking food to people. We saw rememberance gardens for people who had been killed in the violence. There were people from the age of 4 up to their 80’s. We saw houses that backed up to the wall and saw how they had been built with giant metal screens on the backs of the houses to shield them from anything that was thrown over the wall. Our cabbie told us how both sides kept score, and for every Protestant that the IRA killed, the Protestants would kill a Catholic and vice versa. We saw some beautiful murals that commemorated various people who had died during the struggle, including Bobby Sands, a Catholic who was elected an MP while he was in prison. He died on hunger strike. Our cabbie told us all about the struggles of Catholics who had been arrested by the British government and their fight to be recognised as political prisoners, not as criminals. If you want to see another fantastic movie that dramatises some struggles faced by the Irish Catholics in prison, check out In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson.

The Sinn Fein headquarters.

We went past the headquarters of Sinn Fein (which means we, ourselves) and is the political arm of the Irish Republican Army. He told us about the struggles to get into government and getting the British to recognise them and sit in government with them. It has been recent, in the last 10 years. We talked about how the IRA decided to fight with guns as well as with the ballot boxes (it was when they realised that Catholics, who as part of their religious views don’t use birth control, were having families with 10 or 12 children and the Protestants were having one or two and so the Catholic popoulation had very nearly caught or surpassed the Protestant population). It was fascinating.

Murals and the wall dividing the Catholic and Protestant areas of Belfast. This is the Protestant side of the wall.

Then we went over to the Protestant side of the city and saw some more sights. The most moving were the murals on the Protestant side of the wall. We also went to a park and saw some Protestant murals and the tops of one of the prisons that used to house Catholic prisoners. There was one mural of a gunman, and it was painted so that no matter where you were standing in the park, the gun was pointed at you. It was so weird and more than a little unsettling.

I’m glad that they have reached an agreement. As I have already said, I don’t understand the whole hatred of people based on their religion. I don’t understand why the Catholics and Protestants hated each other, just like I can’t understand why many Muslims hate Christians and vice versa, or why some Christians hate Jews. It doesn’t make sense to me. But especially not Catholics and Protestants. Its the same God people. Maybe it is because when my parents got married my mum was Catholic and so was her whole family and my dad was Protestant and so was his whole family. Maybe it is because I was baptised Catholic and later baptised as a Protestant. Maybe it is because my best friend is Catholic. Maybe it is because I find the Catholic mass to be very beautiful. I don’t know why, but I just can’t understand hating someone enough to kill them just because they are Catholic or Protestant. And I never will.

I realise it sounds like all this was terribly depressing, but we had a good time. Our cabbie had a great sense of humour. The best part was when Kenzie was smoking and he walked up and took her half smoked cigarette and walked off and finished it. He told some fun stories. He even showed us a picture of him with Vince Vaughn when Vince Vaughn had taken his cab tour. He even recommended a great lunch place for us to try. We did and it was awesome.

Stepping on the crown at The Crown pub in Belfast.

We had lunch at a pub called The Crown. It was built by a couple that was called a “mixed marriage” in 1849. He was Catholic and she was Protestant. She wanted to call it The Crown and he wanted to call it The Shamrock. Of course his wife won, because wives almost always do, but he had one condition. They had to put a crown on the step so that everyone who entered and exited the pub would step on it. And it is still there. We took pictures stepping on it. We got inside and got seated in a snug (or snuggie as the cabbie called it). Basically it is a giant booth with a door and seats on all 4 sides. It was so cool. We loved it. Everyone had big heaping bowls of Irish stew and it was fantastic, heavy and really filling. Almost no one could finish theirs because of how much we got and how filling it was.

So from the crown we went back to the bus station and bought tickets and hopped on a bus for Dublin. It took about 3 hours to get down to Dublin but we went through some really beautiful countryside. It is really, seriously green. I did use the time to take a nice nap, which wasn’t hard with some music and a full tummy. Once we got to Dublin we went and found the hostel. Only there had been a mixup with our bookings and we had been shunted next door to the hotel part, which was really nice. Instead of being in a room fro 20 people with no privacy and such we were in 2 rooms each with its own bathroom, which was so nice. So it was me, Ryan, Stephanie, Kristen, and Kyle in one room and Kaitlyn, Katelyn, and Kinsey in the other. Basically we stayed in the hotel room long enough to drop off stuff and then went exploring.

With the statue of James Joyce.

We went down by the Customs House which was really pretty and wandered about looking for something to eat. We got onto O’Connell Street which is one of the main streets in Dublin. We got waylaid by Carrol’s Irish Gifts and everyone but me bought something for friends or family and we all had a ball looking at all the crazy stuff they had. We saw a great statue of James Joyce near the Dublin Spire (a huge spire hundreds of feet high, that has no discernable purpose as far as we could tell, other than being pretty) and all took pictures with the Joyce statue.

Down the street we went again, still searching for food. Finally we settled on O’Shays which was a halfway decent sitdown place and we all had traditional Irish food. I had Shepherd’s Pie and it was the best Shepherd’s Pie ever. Yum yum yum! From there we went out exploring again. One of the girls collects Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts so we hunted down the Hard Rock Cafe so she could get her shirt and then we went back to O’Connell St because several people wanted dessert. We actually ended up at a little 50’s themed diner called Eddie Rockets, which was amazingly similar to Johnny Rockets in the States. I was still too full to eat again, but everyone else managed some sort of dessert and we had a good time chattering and listening to the music. Then it was back to the hotel. We were in bed, lights out by 10 pm and it was glorious.

An unknown, but awesome building at Trinity College Dublin.

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning and downstairs for breakfast at 8. By 9 we were out the door and on our way over to Trinity College so that we could see the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is one of the most beautiful examples of a medieval illuminated manuscript. It has the 4 Gospels and is very incredible. It took something like 185 calf skins to make the vellum for the book. It is still in very good condition to have been made in 800. It was really neat. I was pretty excited to get to see it, since I’ve read about it. Then we went upstairs in the library at Trinity College to The Long Room. It is a very beautiful and very impressive library containing some 200,000 of the libraries oldest volumes. It also has a lot of busts of famous writers. I loved that room. I had seen tons of pictures of it in the many coffee table books about Ireland that I have acquired over the years. It was beautiful. Maybe the coolest thing in there was the actual harp that the little Guinness harp is based on. I didn’t know that at the time I saw the harp, but I found that out when we went to the Guinness factory later. We were all really impressed with the library and Book of Kells and so that was great fun.

Then we seperated because people wanted to do their own thing for a couple of hours. A few of us headed over to Nassau Street because we knew that there was some shopping there and there were several good stores that had the luxurious thick Irish wool sweaters and Irish tweed stuff. There were many scarves and hats purchased by various group members. I myself purchased a tweed hat that I’m rather fond of. There are pictures, but I’m sure you’ll see me wearing it when I get home. I also ended up buying a pair of absolutely gorgeous Waterford crystal wine glasses. They are so pretty. I love them. Then we grabbed some lunch at a little bagel shop and went exploring some more.

In front of Dublin Castle

We went in the direction of Christ Church Cathedral. On the way we stopped to take pictures outside of Dublin Castle and to get some snacks at The Queen of Tarts. Finally we got to Christ Church and saw the outside of it and took pictures. We didn’t have time to to go in, but we’ve seen enough churches that it is ok. From there we made our way down to St Patricks, which we couldn’t have gone in even if we wanted to because it was closed for some graduation. It is another cathedral with a good literary connection. Jonathan Swift, author of “A Modest Proposal” and Gulliver’s Travels was dean of St Patricks for a while. There was a nice little park next to the cathedral and we played there for a bit. They had a marker where the well that St Patrick used to baptise people in the 5th century supposedly was. We also looked at the memorial to major Irish writers that is in the park, so that was cool. From there we made our way over to St Stephen’s Green, which is a beautiful park in the middle of the city. I think it may be my favourite park ever, even moreso than the London parks that I love like Hyde Park and St James’ Park. We ran into some hoodlem kids, who were smoking and cursing and causing mayhem. They couldn’t have been more than 12 years old. It was funny, but also a little bit worrying at the same time.

My first ever taste of Guinness, with my friend Steph.

We met back up with the whole group at about 2.20 at Trinity and began the trek over to the Guinness factory. We got there and got right in, thankfully there was no line. The Guinness factory is a self guided tour, so you can go at your own pace and see everything. It starts out with a copy of the original lease that they signed– for 9000 years. Then you go see displays about the barley, hops, yeast, and water that is used to make Guinness. There are also displays about all sorts of other things. My favourite was the section about advertising that showed some of the old advertising campagins. I love the old “My goodness, my Guinness” on with all the animals best. They had some great ones. There was a tasting station where you got to try the Guinness and I had my first ever taste of Guinness. I even allowed it to be documented, and I don’t ever let anyone photograph me holding the least bit of alcohol. The tour ended on the 7th floor with the gravity bar. The bar offers a 360 degree view of Dublin and it is amazingly beautiful. We got up there at twilight and it was magnificent. With your entry fee you get a complimentary beverage of choice in the Gravity Bar, and of course we all had a pint. I actually finished mine. It’s definitely not my favourite, but it surely isn’t the worst thing that I’ve ever had. Then of course we went downstairs to the massive shop of all things Guinness and I bought a couple of things for a couple of friends.

We left and had a cheap dinner at a little pizza joint and then attempted to go on a Literary Pub Crawl, except it was full so we couldn’t go. I was actually a little relieved, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go. Instead we went back to the hotel and dropped off all our purchases and then went back out to a bar called Doyle’s. I didn’t have anything to drink there, because one pint was more alcohol that I normally drink in 2 or 3 weeks. Especially since I’m just a social drinker getting pissed at a bar just didn’t sound like much fun to me. So Steph and I just watched everyone else drink for a while. But watching people drink is only entertaining for a little while, so we left and went back to the hotel to go to bed. We stopped off for some dessert on the way, but I was in the bed asleep by 11. The rest of the group scraggled in at about 2.15 in the morning.

At the Remembrance Park for all those who lost their lives for the cause of Irish freedom.

Sunday morning we slept in a little, and didn’t go down to have breakfast until 8.40. Then we all packed and checked out of the hotel and made our way up to the Dublin Writer’s Museum. We missed our turn and so we walked a lot past where we wanted to, but it was cool because we got to see more of the city and we were really early anyway. When we did get back to the Museum we were still about 40 minutes early because they didn’t open until 11.  There is a really beautiful Remembrance Park across the street that is dedicated to all those who lost their lives for the cause of Irish freedom. We went over there and took several pictures and such and then went to a little store and found some snacks.

The Dublin Writers Museum

The Dublin Writers Museum was pretty neat. It took about 40 minutes to get through and they had a lot of interesting things there. I was disappointed that you couldn’t take pictures, I wanted to take some for Dr Wilson, but oh well. My favourite things were seeing the first edition Dracula, first edition Ulysses, an autographed copy of Ulysses, James Joyce’s piano and Samuel Becket’s telephone. Some of the less Englishy people in the group weren’t that impressed with the museum, but I really enjoyed it.

We hiked back through the city and caught a bus back to Belfast. The border controls were non existant. I was shocked. No one checked our passports as we went into Ireland and no one checked them as we went back into Northern Ireland. Once we got back to Belfast we caught another bus back to the airport. We hung out in the airport for a while and ended up playing an interesting version of charades to kill time. Going through security was a real pain because I forgot to take my phone out of my pocket and of course it beeped. So they had to do the whole pat down thing and check all my stuff. They even tested my shampoo to make sure it was actually shampoo. Oh well. It didn’t take that long and it didn’t really bother me. Finally we got on the plane and flew back to London. Then it was on the train back to London Victoria and then another bus back to the res hall. We made it back to the res hall a little before 10, which was nice, because we were all exhausted. I slept well last night.

This morning I didn’t turn on an alarm and slept until I was ready to get up, at the shockingly late hour of 9.20. I got up and made a cup of tea and then read the news and such. I started this post and worked on it for a while and then made lunch. After lunch I headed over to the Imperial War Museum to do more research. I hope that it was for the last time. I got a ton of stuff today, so I should be finished there. I’ll know more tomorrow when I actually start the paper. I was going to do it today, but I’m too tired of typing things to actually start a paper that needs to be good.  But now I’m going to go and finally end this epically long blog post.

Today was not a bad day at all. I started out on a field trip to the site of my recent disappointment, the Imperial War Museum. But I had some help from my professor and I think I have some really solid leads for this paper. I have another appointment at the archives on Monday afternoon, so I’m going. And this time I will win. So we had some fun poking around the museum this morning and then went back to the centre. We ate at our favourite lunch place, a little sandwich shop right across the road called Sticklers.

Class this afternoon was pretty boring, so much so that I was actually struggling to stay awake, although that was partly because it was really warm in the room and if I’m really warm like that I just get sleepy. Finished that up and then made my way back to the res hall to pack. Oh that’s right, DUBLIN TOMORROW! Hooray. I don’t even mind that I have to get up at 3.45 to shower and such to catch the 4.30 bus. I’m really excited about going. I’m sure you couldn’t tell. So of course, there won’t be any blogs for a couple of days. Definitely not until Sunday, maybe not till Monday. It depends on how wiped out I am on Sunday night when we get back.

This evening we are going to the theatre to see our last production for class, called In A Dark Dark House. It is the first night of previews so it hasn’t really even openend yet. We are the first paying audience to see this show in London, so hopefully it won’t be a complete disaster. It is really far away, so we are leaving earlier than normal, but it’s all cool. I’m looking forward to it. And on that note, it is nearly time to go. Have a great weekend all!

St Pancras Old Church

Today started out on a positive note. Alas it did not stay that way.

I really enjoyed my Women Novelists class this morning. We had a good discussion about the early bit of The Mill on the Floss and then went on a field trip. I love this whole, ok there is something that is related to what we’ve been reading, lets go see it attitude that so many of my professors here have. That is something I’ll miss when I go back to the States. Today we went to St Pancras Old Church which is said to be the oldest site of Christian worship in the British Isles. At any rate it has been a place of prayer and meditation since 314. Which face it, is impressive whether or not you’re Christian. Just to consider that people have been coming to that place with the same purpose for almost 1700 years is for me awe-inspiring. I mean granted the building that is there now isn’t that old, but bits of it are still around from the 11th or 12th century and most of the rest is late Victorian. Its a really tiny church, but I really liked it.  There was a funeral going on when we got there and my professor was worried we might not get to go in the church, but it finished up while we were still in the graveyard, so that worked well for us. Not so much for the poor chap in the wooden box.

The marker where Mary Wollstonecraft used to be buried. It is where Mary and Percy met in secret.

Clearly though, we didn’t go to see it because it is the oldest known place of Christian worship. It also has connections with the 19th century literary world. William Godwin is buried there now and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft was at the time. He was a novelist and man of letters in his own right, but for purposes he is the father of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Mary Wollstonecraft was a noted essayest and feminist and was Mary’s mother. Apparently Mary used to come to the cemetary in secret with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley while they were courting (and by courting I mean carrying on a scandalous adulterous affair because he was married to someone else at the time) and he would bring his pen and paper and he would write and she would paint there at her mother’s grave. Personally its a bit of a morbid spot to pick for a date, but to each his own.

The Hardy Tree

Late in the 19th century as the railways were really coming into London they decided to build the route of the Midland Railway right near the church and through some of the church land. So near it in fact that much of the cemetary had to be moved. The bodies had to be exhumed and moved elsewhere. Since it was a Christian burial site the Bishop of London insisted that the graves and remains be taken care of properly and appointed Arthur Blomfield to supervise it. Only Blomfield didn’t want to do it, so he made his assistant do it. That assistant was none other than the great novelist Thomas Hardy who wrote Tess of the D’urbevilles, Return of the Native, and others. He insisteed that many of the tombstones be stacked around a tree. Lots of them are still stacked around that tree and over the years the roots of the tree have grown up around them. Its neat. The tree is now known as the “Hardy Tree.”

As an added bonus the churchyard is also mentioned in my favourite Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. There were also some photographs of The Beatles there too and that was neat to see. All in all that was a great part of the day. I really enjoyed it.

For the not so exciting part of the day. I had to go to the Imperial War Museum this afternoon to do some research for my History of London term paper. It took me ages to get there, which I expected and then when I did get there I had a nice lunch in the park. So I was in a pretty good mood when I got there. I was a bit early for my appointment so I spent about 25 minutes looking around the museum. Then I went to the desk so I could be escorted up to the room to do my research. Like all good academic research facilities they take themselves very seriously. No bookbags, no phones, pencils only etc.

So I get there and they have already pulled a nice selection of books for me to look at that are related to the topic I’m studying: Major themes in recruting posters in 1914 and 1915.  So I look through my books, there aren’t many and they aren’t too helpful. I was pretty much expecting that, but I only need one secondary source. So I go to make my appointment with the Art Department so I can look at the original posters. It is closed. For the next several months. You can’t see anything. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m going to have to go to my tutor and beg for some help. I’m so glad that I started this paper a couple of weeks in advance. Hopefully my professor will have some suggestions when I talk to her tomorrow. But it was an incredibly frustrating experience. And of course they only have postcards of 3 posters, so that isn’t too helpful. Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

So I came back to the res hall, made some dinner, read a little bit and have been relaxing. I’ll just finish my book tonight and call it an evening I think. Its been a frustrating day, I can use a bit of a break, and reading The Remains of the Day will be like a break for me. Tomorrow I’m going to watch the movie. I’m excited, it is one of my absolute favourites. Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins are fantastic in it. So now I go to make a cup of tea and read my book.