BIG DAY POST

Alright, right now it is 12:36 AM and I’ve got a REALLY big day to talk about, so this’ll probably take awhile. By the way, this is going to come out underlined because the internet's acting goofy again. Just ignore it. So. Let me tell you how today started. Our first plenary (a lecture given by one of two Houghton professors to the entire group) was this morning at 9:15 AM. We had to take the tube (Underground subway) because the LICC (the building where the plenary takes place) was deep in the city. We were going to leave as a group at 8:15 so we’d make it on time. Breakfast started at 7:45, so I decided to set the alarm for 7:30 AM to give us plenty of time. Got that all right? Ok. So here’s how things went down.

Well first of all, my day started at about 4 in the morning because I had a weird dream and woke up. I lay in bed for over two hours (Adam’s watch beeps on the hour) thinking about everything. I mean everything. I couldn’t turn my mind off. Then I fell back asleep for a bit and woke up with the alarm. Adam and I got up with the alarm right at 7:30 and started getting dressed and getting our backpacks ready. And then Adam stopped and just stared at the clock.

“Dan,” he said. “It’s 8:40.”

“That’s impossible,” I said. Of course it was impossible. I had set the alarm for 7:30 just last night. “You’re reading the clock wrong.” I walked over and took the clock from him. 8:40. I shook my head in denial. “The clock’s broken.” Adam looked at his watch.

“Dan. It’s 8:40.” We looked at each other in horror and threw our stuff together as fast as we could. But we were still in denial. It couldn’t be 8:40, because that would mean that we were over one hour late. And we couldn’t be over one hour late because that would mean that everyone else would’ve left. And everyone couldn’t have left, because then how could we possibly get to the LICC on time by ourselves? Besides, if we were over one hour late, we’d never make it to plenary on time in the first place! We ran downstairs. No one was there. They had left without us.

Now, I will say this. Our only shining ray of hope lay in the fact that we were given directions to where the plenary was in the event that someone would get left behind, and I just happened to write them on a post-it note the night before. So we grabbed the note and ran. We ran and ran and ran until we got to the Underground station at Highbury & Islington that would take us to the LICC via the Victoria line, just like our post-it told us to. We got there only to find that the train wasn’t moving. Apparently, the entire Victoria line was down due to a signal failure. Great. The only way we knew to get to the LICC was done. We wandered the station in a dazed stupor for a few minutes and then consulted the Underground map. Here’s where we were fantastic. In about 3-4 minutes we deciphered the map and figured out how to use the tube to find an alternate route. This will probably confuse you, but I’m going to type it anyways because it was confusing for us and we figured it out and were proud. I included a map for you to attempt to follow along with. If you can't see it, go to this link for a bigger version: http://subway.umka.org/maps/london.gif Here goes.



We knew that we had wanted to take the Victoria line (light blue) to the station at Oxford Circus and walk to the LICC from there. But the Victoria line was down. We found a nearby station at Holloway Road that used the Piccadilly line, and we saw that we could take the Piccadilly line (dark blue) to the station at Holborn, where we could then transfer to the Central line (red), which we could then take to Oxford Circus. Then we could run as fast as we could to the LICC. That would work. Now, all we had to do was find the station at Holloway Road. We left the Highbury & Islington and asked around until we found the street. We found it pretty easily and took the tube to Holborn where we switched to the Central line (Note: it was on the way from Holloway to Holborn when it officially became 9:15 and we were officially late to our first plenary session). We made the switch just fine and made it to Oxford! Yay!

We ran two blocks down one street, one block down another street, and two blocks down another street, almost getting run over by a double-decker bus in the process, and finally, finally, FINALLY made it to the LICC at 9:38. We rushed into the building, signed in and slunk into the two seats closest to the door. But to our astonishment, the lecture STARTED about two minutes later! For the entire time we were gone, Prof. Stewart had given a long-winded introduction to the entire course, and we made it in time for the actual lecture itself!

Now I’m going to interrupt myself and brag about how awesome Adam and I were. We woke up an hour late. But we made it to the plenary only 23 minutes after it started! And we didn’t even miss anything (other than breakfast)! And, we navigated the streets of London all by ourselves (despite a close shave with a bus)! AND, we figured out one of the most confusing aspects of London, the Underground, all by ourselves and found an alternate route! Even now, we don’t know how we pulled it off. But we did. And now we’ve got a really funny story and a really great memory.

Now for the rest of the day. The plenary was about ancient Greco-Roman civilization and lasted until 1:00 PM. Then we were given our first museum assignment, and then we went out as a group and got really cheap cell phones. Then everyone split up. Adam, Steve Corell (yes, that’s his name!), Zeke, and I decided to go to the first museum together. We took the tube back to the Highbury Centre (of course, the Victoria line was back up and running at this time) and got some food and our cameras. Oh, and we dressed up in blazers, just because. We kept the jeans though. Then we took the tube to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Our assignment was to study the Trajan's Column, from Rome. We also had to check out Michelangelo's "David" and Raphael's "School of Athens". Of course, we got distracted by a crapload of awesome stuff on the way. Here are some things we saw.

A naked dude struggling with a snake. There were lots of naked statues. We counted over 10 penises (peni?) in one hall. We didn't even bother with the breasts, because we'd have to multiply the count by 2, AND include males because males have breasts too.

Japanese samurai armor complete with fake beard.

Japanese dish that looks like a big, blue, contact lens.

Japanese pottery with dragons that pop out of the pot.

Not quite sure what this is supposed to be, but it's Japanese and cool looking.

Left to right: Adam, Steve, and Zeke looking at the weird Japanese thing.

This is called a "screen", but Adam says it looks more like a gate. That's Jesus in the middle and a couple other guys too.



This is an awesome glass chandelier type thingy! Again, try clicking on the picture. It might enlarge so you can see more detail.

Vertical panorama picture of the glass thing with domed ceiling.

Ok, so all that stuff was pretty cool. In fact, it was really cool. But it has absolutely NOTHING on the Trajan's Column itself. When we saw it, we all said "DUDE!" in the loudest, most obnoxious, most American way possible. This is what it looks like...

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(I'm building suspense because it's awesome)

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Ok, here it is!

Look at that! It's huge! It's massive! And that's not even it's full height! See, both of those columns are the same column! The one on the left is the top half, and the one on the right is the bottom half with the base! See the two black statues in front of it? Each one is about double my height. Spiraling all the way around the column are details describing Roman history that I'm not even going to begin explaining. But we read all about it this past Sunday. Here are more shots of it:



Adam is standing in the middle, and Steve is off to the right.

This is from the second floor. Note the tiny guy in front of the top half of the column. Also note how you can't even SEE where that column ends because it's so big.

The base from the second floor.
Zeke and Steve.
Steve, me, and Adam

"David" and "School of Athens" from the second floor. This was like the bazillionth statue-penis we saw that day.Panoramic view of "David" and "School of Athens" with some other stuff.

"School of Athens" by Raphael. The old dude wearing pink in the middle of the painting is Plato. The younger guy in the blue next to him is Aristotle.

We finished up and made it back in time for dinner. After dinner, a bunch of us took a double-decker bus to Sanisbury's, a fairly decent grocery store. I made out like a freaking bandit. I got 6 rolls with bacon and cheese baked in for only 39 pence. Not 39 pence EACH, mind you. 39 pence for all 6. Then I got 10 slices of cheese for £1.84 and 10 slices of turkey for £1.99. So I've got sandwiches for the rest of the week. I got a six-pack of yogurt (2 cherry, 2 strawberry, 2 raspberry) for £1.05 and 7-bag pack of crisps (potato chips) for £1.17. The best part was when I found 6-packs of Dr. Pepper and Sprite on sale. The price was half-off, so I got a six-pack of each for £1.27 each. Basically, I've got full lunches for the rest of the week as well as drinks for the next week and a half all for £8.98. That's awesome.

Naturally, the guys finished before the girls, so Adam, Zeke, Steve, Dan, Brad, Dave, and I took the bus back to the Highbury Centre. Adam and I holed up in our rooms and finished our reading for today: "Antigone", a play I had read last year, so I just skimmed it this time, a couple poems by Sappho, who might be one of the first lesbians ever and the history of the Peloponnesian War which was long, boring, and confusing. We also looked at pictures of people we missed from Houghton. Then I typed this. Now, it's 1:53 AM, and I'm still going to watch a Looney Tune after this. Colloquy, or small group discussions, start tomorrow. And luckily, I'm in the 10:15 group! (Adam's in the 8:30 group. Ha!) But both of us want breakfast, so we're getting up at 7:45. Not 8:45. 7:45. 7. That's all for now. Love you guys. Miss you guys. Bye.