Monday was yet another extremely long day. After our history of London class at 11, which Liz and I ran into last minute thanks to a late alarm, we all headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral to tour Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. We underestimated travel time and yet again were late. We weren’t the last people there and we still made our tour, so no shame. St. Paul’s was absolutely breath taking. I didn’t expect to be that impressed after Westminster Abbey, but St. Paul’s has a completely different feel. Westminster Abbey feels more like a museum than a church, despite the extremely religious experience I had when I visited the Abbey. St. Paul’s feels more like a Church, and impresses you as just that. The dome, the ceiling, the high alter, the baptismal faunt- all blew my mind. I was in awe of the scale and beauty of the place.
St. Paul's Cathedral
We were given an official tour and then proceeded to a private tour that Professor Coyle arranged where a curator of the Cathedral took us to the back rooms. They are currently working on a project where they are cataloging ruins they have found on the grounds of St. Paul’s from the original Norman Church and the first St. Paul’s that was destroyed in 1666 in the great fire. I really enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes work. The anglophile that I am, seeing history in action, the discovery and study of new parts of history, was thrilling. If I had more free time, I would try to volunteer to help with this project. Between classes and travel plans, I just don’t have time to add a research project! We were also shown one of the original wooden models of St. Paul’s. In Wren’s time architect’s commissioned elaborate wooden models of their buildings in order to pitch them. The one we saw was of the plan Wren presented before his final one, so it isn’t accurate to the current St. Paul’s. The model was placed upon a wooden dais, which had a trap door at the side. If they had allowed us to, we could have entered the trap door and walk through the model. The model was beautiful, made of a rich dark wood and extremely detailed. I wish we could have gone inside, but I understand why it is closed off- apparently the last time it was open to the public it sustained considerable damage.
Model of St. Paul's
Looking through the Model
Another Angle of the Model
We were able to climb up the Dome, extremely tiring, but worth it. We unfortunately only got to the level where you can walk around the bottom of the Dome. I wish we could have gone all the way to the top, but it was closed off that day. My Professor offered to pay for us to come back again and go to the top if we are interested… I may take him up on that.
Looking down from the Dome
Looking over London from the Dome
We headed down to the crypt underneath the Cathedral after descending what seemed like an endless amount of spiral stairs. There are some incredibly famous people buried at St. Paul’s, though not nearly as many as at Westminster Abbey. St. Paul’s functions as the national cathedral and has been the site for many Royal events, including Diana and Charles’s wedding. Overall, I got the impression that St. Paul’s was more of a church of the state instead of one of the Royal family. The Abbey is the final resting place for countless monarchs and nobles, we well as literary figures who were favorites of the monarchy. St. Paul’s holds famous statesmen and military figures. Christopher Wren is buried there, within his masterpiece, but in a very disappointing grave- he only has a small plaque. The Duke of Wellington is buried in an extremely elaborate tomb in the Crypt and also has an extremely impressive memorial on the main floor of the Cathedral. The most interesting part of the tour for me, aside from the breathtaking Baroque Roman Catholic style artwork (a little out of place in an Anglican Cathedral, but incredible all the same), was seeing Admiral Nelson’s tomb. It seems wherever we go, I run into something about Admiral Nelson. I’ve always known of his fame as a military hero, but never realized just how popular he is over here. Seeing him around every corner makes me feel more connected to England, and also has heightened my interest in my famous ancestor. Despite my relation, I can’t say I know any more about him than any other American, and I definitely know less than the average British schoolboy. I digress. St. Paul’s was inspiring and I really enjoyed our tour, despite the sore legs I had to deal with for two days after the seemingly endless stairs.
One of the many spiral staircases
That night we went to see Anna Nicole: The Opera. I was very excited for this show. It was written and produced by a group that also created a very successful Opera about Jerry Springer. The comedic aspect coupled with the opportunity to go to Her Majesty’s Royal Opera House had me very excited. I was incredibly disappointed. All of the show’s potential was squashed by the flat characters and the heavily reliance on crude language and sex jokes. By time we reached the climax of the show, in which Anna’s son dies of an overdose and she shortly follows, I felt no sympathy for any of the characters. The show gave you no room to empathize or connect to the characters and, even for a comedy, was extremely shallow. I honestly felt it to be waste of time. I wasn’t alone. Many people didn’t return after intermission and even more left before curtain call. It was definitely an experience, but I would not recommend this show to anyone. I am, however, interested in seeing the Jerry Springer Opera, if only just for comparison. That one is supposed to be very good, but then again, so was Anna Nicole.
The Stage at the Royal Opera House
Tuesday was fairly uneventful. We had our usual London Novel and Museum Theory classes. We discussed the Imperial War Museum, after using up almost all of our London Novel period discussing how disappointed we all were by Anna Nicole. My griddle that I ordered last week arrived, which was the highlight of the day.
That night a big group of us headed over to Piccadilly to go to Sports bar. Sports Bar is yet another attempt by the British to imitate American Collegiate nightlife. Yet again, they have failed, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. The building was two floors. The top floor was a bar with plastic covered rectangular tables for playing drinking games. They host weekly beer pong tournaments, which they have advertised around the building as a true American college past time. I’m not going to say they are wrong, but it is just yet another American stereotype that is over exaggerated here. The top floor overlooks the ground floor, which is a dance floor complete with strobe lights, disco balls and crazy lighting. I had a lot of fun, and even got an opportunity to show off my skill at doing my favorite classic dance move: the worm. I really liked Sports bar because it combines the pub and club. On the top floor you can hang out and talk with your friends, and if you want to dance you can head downstairs to the much louder and club-like area. I would be very surprised if we didn’t end up back at the Sports Bar at least once.
Emma, Myself and Corey at Sports Bar
Kevin,n, Corey, Liz and Dan
Emma, Emily, Myself and Corey
The next day Liz and I woke up relatively early (for us on a Wednesday, which means about 10, as she has class at 1:30 and I have class at 3:00). We went to café called the Forum, which we had tried before and been a little disappointed by. Our professor raves about the place, so we figured we would give it a second chance. This was a mistake. I ordered eggs benedict, my favorite meal, and was given soggy toast, uncooked deli cuts of ham, Fried eggs and a pile of mustard on the side. Not exactly what I was expecting. I can decidedly say that I will not be ordering anything besides coffee from the Forum from now on, and only that because its on the way to class.
In our Theatre class we discussed Anna Nicole. Not a single person enjoyed the show, not even Professor Punter. We all agreed it was basically a drawn out depiction of American stereotypes that was meant to shock you with its crude language. I personally think the idea of Anna Nicole Smith’s life as an Opera would make a great SNL skit, or possibly even a musical, but as a 3 hour Opera, it got old very quickly and was disappointing. We spent a pretty tame night at home. We tested out our griddle and made burgers with John. Liz made the patties and John did the cooking, denying me the opportunity to burn another meal, for which I was pretty grateful. I will redeem my cooking skills soon, as I am starting to get used to our British stovetop and over. The acquisition of the griddle will also make a big difference, as I cook a lot on griddles back in the USA and will be back in my comfort zone.
I am still running behind on getting the blog up to date! I am also working on getting a picture sharing site up for everyone who doesn't have a facebook and can't see my albums there. At this point there is so much to upload it may take a few days to get all my pictures up! When I get it all sorted out I will put a link up on the blog for the albums.
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