Mind the Gap

Hello everyone.
What can I talk about tonight?
London, I think.

Friday was at the British Museum. The fact of the matter is that I had a hard time with the British Museum. The things there are lovely, of course, and they're displayed nicely, but its so very clear that they aren't from here, that they were, in fact, stolen from Egypt and Greece and Rome, that this totally takes away from their overall impressiveness. Our tour (given by Daphne, the ARTH prof--ARTH being Art History) was pretty excellent, and it was nice to get to see the things we've been studying about. But, I don't know. The museum just didn't give me a good feeling. It really was a very stunning museum--beautiful architecture that brought together the Greek art inside it and the more modern feel of, well, not living in ancient times.
So, worth visiting, but not as good as actually going places. Where, when you go, they will tell you that this or that particular piece of art is missing because it is in the British Museum.

In my free time on Friday I did a tour of Westminster Abbey, which was outstanding. Favorite church ever. I saw Newton's grave, and Darwin's (I love Darwin. He is on the 10L note here. Awesome. And so cool that he is buried in a church.) And Shakespeare, and Winston Churchill, and Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens... The tour was totally worth it, too. A little long, and a little more information about the church than I really needed, but the guide pointed out some important stuff that I would have missed otherwise.

On Saturday I got to go into London AGAIN! Even though it was Yom Kippur and I was tired and hungry and sick. (I passed up the opportunity to see Merchant of Venice at the Globe. I didn't feel like that would have been quite the right way to celebrate Kol Nidre.)

London on Saturday focused on the Natural History Museum, which was phenomenal, and which I have not at all as many complaints about as I have about the British Museum. We were early for our field study, so I went to look at the dinosaurs. Now, I've seen some pretty awesome dinosaur exhibits, but this one was really outstanding. They've made the dinosaurs real. Several of the skeletons are suspended from the ceiling, and a few of the dinosaurs are anamotronic, and so move. Which is awesome.
Then was the Earth Science exhibit, which was amazing. It was astoundingly well presented, and informative and actually interesting. Sad part is, now I have to write a paper on it. Basically, the exhibits showed how the Earth had changed over time, and what this meant for the species inhabiting it. My essay is arguing primarily that the current trend of global warming isn't so much man-made, or caused by human beings, as its just another oscillation in the ever-changing pendulum of Earth's climates. Yeah, I really should get on writing that essay...

After that we took the tube to King's Cross and took some pictures at platform 9 3/4, and then went to Paddington Station, where we could just see a little bear walking around with a jar of jam. It was Yom Kippur, and I was hungry, so that was about all I was up for. It was good, though.

Then I came back to Bader and ordered Paddington books (and Harry Potter) from Amazon.co.uk. I can't wait for them to get here, as I really should be more informed about small bears and jam.