Ob-la-di, ob-la-da....

Well, well, well.... life goes on here in Cambridge.  It's very nice here, and though we have had some nasty weather lately, the sun seems to be settling in.  My classes are going quite well; however, I must set the record straight on something.  My mom tells me that many people have been joking that I'm here in Cambridge under the "guise" of studying and taking classes.  I WISH.  This is so much more work than I had expected!!  Hundreds of pages of assigned reading, ten page papers, three to four hours of class five days a week.... It's really quite a bit!

Regardless of the workload, I am really enjoying my classes.  I'm currently taking two, one on the neurobiology of drug addiction and the other on the history of Western medicine.  The neurobiology class is difficult and quite complicated, but it's very interesting.  It has also helped me learn to read scientific research effectively: at the beginning of the term, it was taking me several hours each night to get through the assigned articles, whereas now it only takes me about an hour.  I'm also really liking my history of medicine class, mostly because I love the professor.  He's INCREDIBLY English, wears horn-rimmed glasses and bright purple socks, and uses phrases like "stamping about on the River Cam" and "botanical pornography."  He told us today in our seminar that as he was walking out of Pembroke this afternoon, an Italian tourist yelled "Harry Potter!!!!" and a huge group of people basically paparazzi-photographed him.  We thought the story was hilarious, but he wasn't quite so amused by it. I personally get more of an adult Neville Longbottom vibe from him, but I wasn't about to say anything (though I mean it in a complimentary way).  Most importantly, though, he has a great sense of humor, gives very interesting lectures, and really knows his stuff.

Despite my not-inconsiderable workload, I did get to go to London this weekend, which was simultaneously awesome and disastrous.  The bus dropped us off at about 11 am on the north bank of the Thames, right across from the London Eye.  I personally really dislike the Eye- I think it's a bit tacky and disrupts the architectural tone of Westminster, but it's become somewhat of a symbol of London, so there you go.

By the way, I have no idea who those kids in the picture are.... some kind of tour group.  I just couldn't get a picture from where I was standing without them in it.  From there, we walked into Trafalgar Square for lunch, and then got on the Tube and headed to the British Museum.

I really like the British Museum, partially because of all of the awesome stuff it houses, and partially just because of the architecture.  As you can see above, the front gates are very stereotypically British, made of wrought iron with gold tips, while the exterior of the building itself is designed to look like a Greek temple.

And then the inside is another story entirely.  It's very modern, all in white marble with the leaded glass ceilings.  I just think it's quite neat the way all of the different aesthetics were incorporated together.

Now, the British Museum is enormous, and we only had a short amount of time to spend in London, so we decided to restrict ourselves to the Egyptian and Greek galleries.  We started in the Egypt wing, where the Rosetta Stone is housed.  I would have gotten a picture, but the tourist hoard crowded around the case looked completely impenetrable, so I didn't even bother (I've seen it on previous trips, so I wasn't terribly disappointed).  After Egypt, we headed to Greece.  

The last time I was at the British Museum was 2009, right after I graduated from high school.  Since then, I took a class in ancient art history at UCLA, and I was able to recognize so many works of art in the galleries.  However, my favorite came when we visited the Parthenon gallery, which houses the frieze and the pediments of the temple.  We spent a great deal of time studying the pediments of the Parthenon in my class and I was especially excited to see the sculptures of the East Pediment, depicting the birth of the goddess Athena:

Below is the right hand side of the temple pediment.  Farthest to the right, reclining on the floor, is the god Dionysus.  Next, there are two reclining goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, and the active figure closest to the camera is the goddess Artemis.

The left hand side of the pediment shows three reclining goddesses, Hestia, Dione, and Aphrodite.

In between the two sides, there would have been a sculpture of Athena springing fully formed from Zeus's head (an interesting way to be born, right?), but those sculptures are unfortunately lost to the ages.  I found these pieces to be very interesting when we talked about them in class, and even more fascinating to see in person.  The way the artists were able to convey action, fluidity, and drapery in solid stone never ceases to amaze me.

After the Parthenon galley, we went to go see the mummies.  Again, there was an impenetrable cloud of tourists surround the mummy of Cleopatra, but we got to see some other mummies as well as some really beautifully painted sarcophagi.

We started to head out after the mummy gallery, and though we didn't stop to look much, we passed through the Africa and Asia galleries.  I was completely astounded by the size of this statue of the Buddha that we passed... look at the tiny people in the bottom left corner of the photo!  This was one big Buddha!!

Our next order of business was Westminster Abbey.  I've been to London several times, so I've seen most of the major tourist attractions so I was just along for the ride with my friends who had never been, seeing everything they wanted to see.  However, I was pretty excited for Westminster Abbey... I'd only been once, and I remembered it being pretty awesome.

As we walked out of the Westminster tube station, we were greeted by a very familiar sight:

Fun fact about the clock: it's not actually called Big Ben.  It's called the Clock Tower.  Big Ben refers only to the giant bell housed inside the clock that chimes on the hour.  Interesting, huh?

We walked over to the Abbey, and the weather was beautiful.  Nice and warm and sunny, the Abbey gardens were so pretty and green, and it just made for a very beautiful atmosphere.

And then we got our first dose of reality of the day.  It was Sunday.  The Abbey is, first and foremost, a church, and so it is closed to tourists on Sundays.  It totally makes sense, but that didn't make it any less disappointing.  I mean, look how sad we are:

Disappointed but not to be deterred, we decided to cross the bridge to check out the south bank for a bit. Unfortunately, halfway across the bridge, we got reality dose number two: RAIN.  And I don't mean just any rain.  This was a torrential, windy, rain-coming-in-sideways downpour.  By the time we made it to the other side and took shelter in an alleyway, we were soaked.  Plus, I still haven't replaced my Wellies (they're so expensive here!), so I had boots full of water as well.

Luckily, the rain subsided as quickly as it came (England is so weird), so we walked along the bank as planned, though we were quite wet and a little cold.  It was a nice walk, though, and I came across the Udderbelly!!

If you don't know, the Udderbelly is a large, upside-down, inflatable purple cow that is used as a portable performance venue.  When I went to Scotland for Fringe, we saw the Tom Tom Crew at the Udderbelly.... seriously one of the coolest performances of my life.

Our walk along the Thames also provided us a great view of Parliament and the Clock Tower, and I just had to snap the quintessential London photo:

By this point, we were pretty close to Trafalgar Square again, so we just headed back.  

By the time we got there, the rain had picked up again, so we ducked inside a Pret a Manger in order to just sit down for a bit and decide what we were going to do next.  Some people wanted to go see Buckingham Palace, but my friend Liz was supposed to meet up with someone at Holborn Station in order to go to a master lecture for one of her classes.  She is really lost when it comes to navigating the Underground, though, so I told her I'd take her to Holborn Station and then meet the other girls at Buckingham Palace.  Long story short, we got to Holborn but were unable to find the person she was supposed to be meeting, so we got right back on the train and headed for Buckingham (thank goodness for all-day Tube passes).

We made it to Buckingham Palace, but of course my phone wasn't getting any signal, so we were unable to find the others.  We had a nice time walking around, though, and watching people trying to make the guards laugh (all unsuccessful).  The monument in the square is really beautiful...

And so is the palace.  It's so weird to think that someone actually lives there!

 It was starting to get late, so we headed over to Bankside to go to the Globe Theatre.  Everyone in the Cambridge program gets a ticket to a Globe show at some point during the program, and we were seeing "All's Well That Ends Well."  I was pretty excited (even though we had standing seats and our feet were a bit tired from walking all day), partially because I think the Globe is really fun and partially because I've never seen this play (I've only ever read it).

The stage is pretty neat... and exact replica of the original theatre.  For anyone who doesn't know, the real Globe theatre burned down in 1613; the theatre that stands in Bankside today is a just a replica.

The show ended up being really good, though slightly corny (as most of Shakespeare's comedies are), and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm already making plans to go back to London to see some of the other shows that are playing this summer, such as "As You Like It" and "Anne Boleyn."  As we left the theatre, I saw something that made me quite happy and quite nostalgic at the same time: the Super Soft Ice truck.

This truck is always parked outside of the Globe, and it sells a type of ice cream called Cornish Ice, which is basically really creamy soft serve.  However, the first time we saw this truck on our Fringe trip, my friends and I (and Grace Barry in particular) thought the name Super Soft Ice was really funny and a bit oxymoronic.

Before we got on the bus to head back to Cambridge, I had to take a photo of the Millenium Bridge:

It's not a great picture, but in the sixth Harry Potter film, the Death Eaters destroy the Millenium Bridge and kill a bunch of Muggles.... and all things Harry Potter must be mentioned on this blog.

And that was my day in London!  I know the day sounds like a lot went wrong, but I assure you we had a great time nonetheless.  We are thinking about possibly going back this Saturday, but a friend is going to Bath and I was really hoping to go there..... not to mention that I probably should just stay home and do my schoolwork!!!  Sigh....  I want to be a responsible student, but I also really want to take advantage of my time here in the UK!  When else will I have to opportunity to take day or weekend trips to London, Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh, and so many other places?!?!  

But I am going to try to get a head start on some work so I go on a day trip this weekend... I'll let you know where my travels take me!