Ode to Several Grecian Urns

Hello again! I've had an interesting couple of days without much photo documentation, but I'll share what I've got.

Yesterday morning I woke up early to a lovely sunrise that I don't know if I fully captured but will try to reproduce here:

Ehh, not so good. But you get the idea.

After that, I had a quick breakfast and walked to Strand Campus to be welcomed by the philosophy department. And it was not at all what I expected. We all gathered in a room, were spoken to by a woman who I'm sure is a lovely person but whose thick Italian accent was both intimidating and confusing, and then were dragged up some stairs, down some stairs, lost half the group, found them again, and were informed that not only had our classes already started but also that we had to personally e-mail our professors in order to get our timetables for seminar groups. Also, I was told that one of my classes, "Ethics, PHILOSOPHY, and Literature," is in fact a theology course. RIGHT? So that was exhausting. And then I had to go to Tesco to buy dishware so I could eat like a civilized person, and I bought some groceries but they had only ONE bowl and it was chipped, so I couldn't buy it, and a bowl was really all I needed badly.

After this frustrating day, I went out to a lovely little German pub with some people who live in Wolfson with me, and had my first real pint here - a pint of delicious German beer I might add. Called Hell or something. Actually, definitely called Hell. And then I stayed up far too late playing pool and Guitar Hero, both of which I am terrible at. I didn't go to bed until 3am and, thanks to the philosophy department, I had class this morning. So I am quite tired and do excuse me if I babble or make horrid typos.

I got up this morning, participated in my first real London commute, walking at 9am with all the crowds of people who have work and class and whatever other activities they must be on time for. I was expecting the first class to be a basic introduction, with a syllabus and an overview, but instead the professor just jumped right into class, explaining Cartesian mind body dualism and its flaws and counterarguments, and apparently we already have reading assigned. Thank goodness it's Descartes, which I've already done pretty thoroughly, and pretty recently too. Otherwise I'd be entirely lost. Also, thank goodness classes here are only an hour long; 10am-11am was just about all I could handle.

After that I had until 4pm until the theology department welcome, but I didn't feel like going back home, so I looked for someplace to eat lunch. I found a little park-like spot that was properly English-looking in the drizzly gray weather. I thought it was positively lovely. Here are a couple of shots, which betray the strangeness of my taste in outdoor spaces:

After stopping there to eat a sandwich on an only-slightly-damp bench, I went back out onto the street to find someplace else to wander toward. And upon looking at a curbside map of the area, I realized that I was about five minutes from the British Museum, so that's how, halfway by accident, I ended up wandering around this afternoon among lots of lovely objects that the British have stolen from other peoples and accumulated here. Of course, some pictures:

From the outside:

 And the immediate inside (no lines or anything - you just wander right on in):

 It really is a lovely building - it's worth the visit just for that:

 Some Egyptian things:

 Here are those Grecian urns I was talking about - I couldn't help the reference (see the title of this blog):

 And I thought this was adorable:

 Now here's some classical stuff and such:

 Seriously though, why on earth is the Parthenon in London? Explain that to me:

 (Yes I know that's not the real Parthenon - here's some of it here, STILL IN LONDON):

 Oh yes, that's why:

  And I thought this was a clever photo to take:

And then I started doing the "History of the World in 100 Objects" tour, and started here:

 But I got completely distracted when I wandered into the Enlightenment room. This is a bell jar! I was much more excited than was appropriate:

 And here are some lovely tiny globes:

 And here is a fake of the Rosetta Stone (you are allowed to touch it, though I don't know why - probably because you are so repressed from not being able to touch anything else in there):

 And I took these two pictures because I am actually a nine year old boy:

 I took this picture because it made me smile more than was appropriate:

 But can you see why I could not advance past this room for quite some time? No, I wasn't quite drooling, but I was close. Of course they're all old boring books from the king's library... but they still smelled of books, and they were still positively lining the walls:

 I sort of tried to get back to the 100 objects thing, but I got rather tired, so this is the only other object on the list that I bothered to find (neat, isn't it?):

 And this guy was just magnificently awesome:

So I pretty much just saw the ground floor. I will most definitely go back, when it rains again, which will be soon, and by soon I mean almost always.

Oh yes, then I was welcomed to the theology department, although I was pretty much falling asleep by 4pm and didn't absorb much. And then I took the bus back to Wolfson, made tea and eggs for dinner because I didn't seem to buy anything at Tesco but breakfast food, and now I have a little while to change and maybe nap before going to some American sports bar around here that my building-mates apparently like quite a lot. Funny, I go to England and I end up in Irish pubs, German pubs, American bars... Well I have plenty of time to find places that are actually English - plenty of time.

That's all for now - cheerio!