All Work and No Play

Today marked the day of the second Jane Austen field trip. We were not going very far from campus. We took a bus to Golders Green (about a mile away), and then another bus to Kenwood (another mile or so) to see Kenwood House. Kenwood House is an historic mansion dating back to the 1600s. It originally belonged to a Murray, who adopted the name Lord Mansfield. In 1922, it was bought by a descendant of Guinness, the guy who invented the Irish beer. The house has been historically preserved, and is the home of a Rembrandt and Vermeer painting, as well as several Gainsborough and Reynolds paintings. The architecture and interior designing is magnificent- very over the top, which is exactly what they were trying to achieve. The grounds are fantastic, needless to say, and it was very easy to picture any Austen mansion as being like Kenwood House. Most famously, Kenwood House was used for the filming of scenes from the 1999 movie version of Mansfield Park as well as Notting Hill, the movie starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. We got an excellent tour with a very knowledgable guide, and learned a lot about the running of a mansion in the 18th century, as well as customs and scandals. It was definitely eye-opening. We were done by around 1pm, so I left to finish all the work that I had waiting for me. I stopped by the Golders Green Post Office to buy stamps (62p for one- so expensive!) and saw where the Hindu temple for the area is, so I'll definitely be planning a visit there soon.
I got back, took a shower, sat down to read Mansfield Park, and promptly fell asleep 30 minutes later. Upon waking up, I did laundry and read extensively to make up for lost time. A not-so-nice dinner of spaghetti and runny sauce later, I did some more reading, cleaned my room (it looks great now) and went over to a friend's room in the attempt of doing homework. Obviously no homework was done, but we talked extensively about American television, which only made me realize how much I missed watching TV. There is a television here, but it only delivers 3 channels, all 3 BBC, none of them with good programming.
I have yet to finish my homework, but sleep is beckoning, so I plan to wake relatively early and finish it (I have to go through a few chapters in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park and look for any or all of 12 different narrative techniques that Jane Austen employs). Here are some pictures from today's field trip. I'm proud of the flowers, if I may say so myself. They didn't have signs for their names, so I don't know what they're called.


Kenwood House.


The English take their landscaping very seriously.



This side is particularly what was used in the movies I mentioned.


View from one of the trails around the house.

Pub Crawls

Second week of classes began today, with theatre in the morning. We really did nothing in there but talk about our individual reflections on Warhorse from last week. No new material or anything. It was a waste of three hours. A quick lunch later, a friend and I went in search of a post office to get stamps. We walked about a mile and found nothing, and decided to head back to class in the afternoon. My second class was extremely productive. We finished the movie version of Sense and Sensibility, discussed the book further and got into all sorts of narrative techniques that Austen employs.
After class, I read a little bit of Mansfield Park for the next class period, had dinner, and a few friends and I decided to go pub crawling through the Dick Whittington Ale Trail. Pub crawling is just going from one pub to another through the night. Dick Whittington is a legendary character who apparently came to London looking for streets paved with gold. During his search, he stopped at many pubs throughout the city, and these pubs are featured on the Ale Trail. The appeal is when you visit 5 of these pubs in any one neighborhood, and buy something to eat or drink in those places, you will get a t-shirt at the end of the night. We picked the Westminster to Piccadilly areas since they had the least number of pubs on their trail. We began with The Old Shades, right down the road from Westminster Abbey, then walked past the Abbey to The Marquis of Granby up the street to The Feather, and then took a tube to The Clarence before ending at The King's Head. It was a really fun night. I got asked to show my ID once, but being over the legal drinking age here, everything went smoothly. I made some good friends in the process, and experience London at night for under £15. I also got the t-shirt that says I walked the Ale Trail from Westminster to Piccadilly. We got back to campus right at around midnight, at which point I was too exhausted to blog, which is why I postponed it to this morning.
In another 20 minutes, I will be going on a field trip with the Jane Austen class to nearby Kenwood House, which was used as a filming location for some of the movies. The field trip shouldn't take long, which is good, because I have a long list of things to get done, mostly homework and laundry.

Portraits and Paintings

Today was not that much of a lazy Sunday. I woke up with every intention of meeting a friend for breakfast at 9.30. Opened my eyes at 9.35, made myself presentable and rushed to a breakfast of toast, banana and orange juice. After breakfast, we headed to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square- the Square was still very crowded, but not as much as it normally is during the week. Admission to the Gallery is free, so we went in eager to find familiar faces and names. There is no photography allowed in the Gallery, so all I can do is describe to the best of my ability the works found within. The current exhibition is Corot to Monet, and as the name suggests covers the time from Corot (early 1800s) to Monet and Impressionism. There weren't any famous Monet works that I could recognize, but the landscape paintings were amazing nonetheless. The rest of the Gallery was divided based on time period and it was possible to see the distinctions in history and style depending on the time period. The most impressive paintings, in my opinion, was done by the Italians. Seeing Guardi's paintings of Venetian landscapes made me realize how much actually goes into a painting. A lot of his scenes involve hundreds of people, and while the scene calls for some people to be in better view than the others, not one face was imperfect. If you focused in on a far-off face, you could still see that the person it represented had their own personality and do that a hundred times, and make each unique is quite amazing. Even non-landscape paitings, for example, the Marriage a la Mode Series by Hogarth, have something extraordinary. Apart from being amusing paintings with stories of a dysfunctional marriage, there is so much emphasis given to detail not only to the main characters, but also to the background. Now, I know all this is essential, but only when I looked at hundreds of paintings, was I able to come to this realization on my own. It was quite an enlightening moment.
After the National Gallery, we went around the corner to the National Portrait Gallery. I made a note of every person I recognized whose portrait I saw. Bear in mind, these are not just photographs of famous people or even paintings of famous people. There are famous people, and each one is represented in a different way. There was a photograph of Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their wedding day, but there were also paintings of the two separately. The paintings were in every style imaginable. There was an abstract picture of Michael Caine and a bust of Sir Alec Guinness. The Portrait Gallery too was divided based on the time periods, and most of the names I wrote down were between the Romantic and Victorian ages, and that too mostly writers. I'm not sure if they are the original portraits or replicas, but it was exciting nonetheless.
A quick lunch from Pret-A-Manger (a chain of sandwich shops- I had a falafel sandwich with tomatoes, red peppers, spinach and red onions) eaten on the steps of St.Martin-In-The-Fields Church later, I was ready to go spend the afternoon with a friend of my mother's. Having never met her before, it was awkward to start off with, but the ice melted and things were fine for the rest of the afternoon. A little shopping in consignment stores, a quick meal at a South Indian restaurant and a walk down High Street Kensington took up the evening. Now I'm back on campus, attempting to write a critique of Warhorse from last week. Classes, and a busy week, resume in the morning.

A Wee Taste of Scotland

So a few friends of mine and I planned a whirlwind trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. We had booked a hostel for £12 a night and had a short list of things to see before we headed back. We left early yesterday morning to catch the 8 am train out of King's Cross. Unfortunately, it was raining all the way to Scotland, so my pictures weren't the best.

We were headed north, along the East coast. I was amazed that the tracks were almost right by the sea for part of the way. Again, I apologize for the poor picture quality. We reached Edinburgh at around 12.30 pm, and our first order of business, having had no breakfast, was lunch. We ate at The World's End, a pub right next to our hostel.

Our hostel was called Brodie's Backpackers Hostel after Deacon Brodie, who apparently led a double life- Deacon by day and burglar by night. Supposedly Robert Louis Stephenson based Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on him. We then checked into our hostel, which was really spectacular for the low price we were paying. The 5 of us were sharing a room with 11 other people, and there were 8 bunk beds set up in the room for this purpose. After checking in, my friend and I went to see the Edinburgh Castle, while the other 3 went on a walking tour. The hostel is very centrally located on the Royal Mile, which is just a mile long road with many attractions and even more shops.

It was cold and rainy, and while the views from the castle were fantastic, they couldn't quite be captured by my camera.


Top and below are outside the castle. Right above is view from the top.

After the castle, we walked down the Royal Mile looking for souvenirs, wasting time until we were supposed to meet the other 3 at The Elephant House.

The Elephant House is where JK Rowling began writing Harry Potter. It was completely packed during the time we were there, but I can understand the appeal of the place when it is quiet. There are elephants everywhere, and that's where it gets its name. Elephant statues, painting, pictures, tiny models and the like. We waited there for them for about 30 minutes, and headed out to go back to the hostel. Our feet and jeans were wet and we were exhausted from the day. The next day, which is today, we were up by 7.30 and checked out because we planned on taking the 2 pm train back to London and still had things to accomplish. It was the most trying day. It involved tremendous amounts of physical work and patience. First, we climbed up Calton Hill to see some of the monuments to War veterans and also get views of the city.


Top left is the view of Edinburgh Castle from Calton Hill. Middle two are random views. Bottom is what we went to next. We climbed up the side of the mountain in front and then to the peak of the mountain at the back all to see Arthur's Seat. There is a tiny monument at the top of the taller monument and it is called Arthur's seat after the legendary King Arthur.

It was the most challenging thing I have ever done. The path was very rocky and incredibly steep at places. I had my backpack with me and although it only had clothes and a book or two, it managed to weigh a lot more during the climb. I'm still trying to figure out if the views from the top were worth the effort that went into getting there.



The top two pictures are relatively early during the climb. The bottom two are from the very tippy top. That's my friend Miranda contemplating the climb up the next mountain. An equally challenging climb down later (because it was starting to rain and the ground was slippery), we were back on level ground, incredibly sore and hungry. We ate at an Italian cafe, souvenir-shopped and then ran to catch the 1.30 train back to King's Cross. When we finally got back to campus, we took overdue showers, glad to be done for the day. So here's something to end the Scotland journal with. He was just playing on the street.

Previously....

Here are the pictures associated with the last post.

Here are our Harry Potter tickets!


English countryside from the train.

Jane Austen's House.

One of the many beautiful gardens at the house.

Where all the magic took place. It's her writing desk. We were allowed to touch other things, but not this.

Where she slept at night.

This is Chawton House. It belonged to her brother Edward, and is now a library. It is the inspiration for her novel Mansfield Park.


St. Nicholas' Church. Probably where Jane Austen went to church. The graves of her mother and sister, both named Cassandra.

Winchester Cathedral.

This is the house where Jane Austen died. No. 8, College Street, Winchester.

Jane Austen's grave (bottom) and memorial plaque (top) inside the Cathedral.

Inside the Cathedral.

The Best 24-Hours Yet

Harry Potter was amazing. My friend Sarah and I started the line for the 8pm showing of the movie and were consequently the first ones in the theatre, grabbing spectacular seats. The atmosphere, needless to say, was electric, and the experience of watching a movie in a British theatre was fantastic. They show a lot more trailers than they do in America, but other than that nothing was different. Everyone laughed and cheered and cried at the appropriate parts so it felt like I had not one, but at least 200 other friends with me.
After getting done with the movie at around 10.30, we made it back to campus. I decided to keep an account of my expenditure thus far and I am pleased to report that my spending has been minimal. If I continue at this rate, I will have saved about $800.
I had to be up by 6 am this morning for our much awaited trip to Hampshire, which is Jane Austen Country. We took the tube to the Waterloo Station, boarded the train to Alton and alighted at Alton. The English countryside, needless to say, is breathtaking. The villages that we passed were quaint and charming. Alton is about an hour outside of London, so the train ride was rather short. At Alton, two taxis took us to Jane Austen's house. It is supposedly a cottage, but it would more than do for a house, in my opinion.We watched a brief video about Jane Austen's life, and then we were free to explore the house. The gardens that surrounded the house are magnificent. They impressed me marginally more than the house itself.I mean, look at that. And it was like that all over. It was amazing. They had spice bushes growing too.
The house is ancient. The floorboards creaked terribly and I was afraid of falling through them. The experience of being in the same rooms where Jane Austen wrote most of her books was...exceptional. Everything in the house is set like it would have been during Austen's time. It has displays with information cards; however, they were pertinent to the rooms. I even got to see a lock of Jane's hair! Although it was faded to a blonde from the original auburn. This is the most famous writing desk, where all the magic happened.I had seen it many times on television but to see it in front of me was mind-blowing. This is where she sat and wrote. If she were alive, and there, I would have given her no elbow room. That's how close I was. Anyway, there were several family heirlooms on display, the bedrooms were done up as if it were back in the day.
After the house, we walked to Chawton House, which belonged to Jane's brother, Edward Knight. Edward also owned the cottage in which Jane lived, but upon the death of Reverend Austen, Edward let Jane, her sister Cassandra and her mother live in the cottage for free. Chawton House is claimed to be the inspiration of Austen's novel, Mansfield Park. The grounds are expansive and very beautiful. We then had lunch in the gardens (a cheese and tomato sandwich with pink lemonade). A friend and I went across the street to the Greyfriar's Pub to kill time, and I tried a real ale (London Pride) upon the suggestion of a professor back home. It was...nasty. If I never have to have beer/ale in my life, I will be happy. After lunch, we headed to Winchester to see the Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried. It was a true Gothic cathedral and it was phenomenal. We saw where Jane Austen is buried. There's a gold-plated plaque on the wall commemorating the spot. That was the last thing we did for the field trip. The train ride back to Waterloo was very crowded owing the evening rush. A quick errand to Marks & Spencer on Oxford Steet later, I was back on campus. The computers are working again, thankfully, and so a friend and I were able to research hostels in Scotland. After about 30 minutes of searching, we are booked at a Brodie's Backpackers Hostel for £12 a night along with 3 other friends. We leave to Scotland at 7 am tomorrow and we plan to be back in London by 6 pm on Saturday. I am very, very excited and I doubt I can get much sleep tonight. The hostel is supposed to have an internet cafe, so I may be able to update things from there.
I was planning on having pictures along with this post, but the image uploader is malfunctioning, and I will have to postpone displaying all my beautiful pictures until a later time.

Technical Issues

This may be the last daily post. Of the 12 computers that have been provided in the computer lab, only 2 work right now. Everyone is anxious to use the computers and the lines get pretty long. The problem has been reported; however, it may take up to two days to fix. I will be sure to chronicle everything if there is a lapse in between posts.
It was the second day of classes today. I had the Jane Austen class first thing in the morning, and was struggling to stay awake because it was cold and rainy outside. We briefly discussed Lady Susan and even more briefly discussed Sense and Sensibility, before going to the TV room to watch the movie version (with Emma Thompson & Kate Winslet) of the same. I don't think making the movies such a priority of the class time is a very good idea. There is so much to discuss in just one book that even a month would not be sufficient for it. We have been dedicating just over an hour to them thus far. I will try and talk to my professor about arranging optional times for the movies. A quick lunch later, it was time for the theatre class. It is very difficult to get through anything in there. Everyone seems determined to interrupt and go on tangents every 10 seconds; however, the professor is okay with it. He understands that going on theatre lingo and background material is boring and he insists that as long as our tangents pertain to theatre, he doesn't have a problem.
With classes over now, a significant number of students are the orientation for the Scotland trip this weekend. I didn't sign up to go with the group, but I am planning to go up with a couple of other girls on Friday. We are looking into making it an overnight trip to give us more time, but the plan right now remains to go up on Friday and be back later that night. That would be another reason why I am anticipating being out of touch on here until Saturday afternoon or so.
My plans for the rest of the night include getting dinner, and heading over to the O2 centre for the showing of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince. I am very excited since most people on Facebook have informed me of its being a very good movie.
The rain is still coming down, but that's how I like the weather. Tomorrow, our field trip for the Jane Austen course will take us an hour or so south of London to Chawton, where there is a Jane Austen House, where her brother Edward Knight lived, and where her mother & sister, both named Cassandra, are buried. After Chawton, we are heading to Winchester, which is where Jane Austen spent her last days and is buried at the cathedral there. It will be my first time on the BritRail system, and I will be sure to be very observant.
Now to let others in line use the computer.