I had what I would deem a rather good and productive day by and large and it is only serving to become more productive as time goes on. As to the day itself, I started early by getting up and after dressing (actually I was already because I slept in my clothes), I went to the kitchen and got a few things together, put my bag on and was out the door by about 08:10 to the tube station. At Ladbroke Grove, there did not seem to be all that many people, but going further, after switching to the Piccadilly line at King’s Cross, I was amazed to see the platform so full that there was barely room to walk upon it... so I waited for the next line, but the unfortunate thing is that the trains coming in were so full also that I barely had room to stand even having waited. When I did get off, the lift to go up was mobbed also, so I decided to do the stupid task of taking the stairs instead, and it had a warning right at the beginning that suggested to only use the stairs if absolutely necessary as there were 175 or so stairs... being already fairly late for class I said screw it and went up them anyway, and was fairly tired by the end, having stupidly rushed up them. Once out of the station at Russell Square, I rushed the way I thought my school was, and discovered myself nearer to ULU than to Faraday house, much closer in fact, so I had to turn back and ended up being nearly twelve minutes late. My class was actually quite entertaining and I learned a great deal more about advertising and something that was slightly more fascinating to me the British psyche through the means of advertisers knowing their audiences. At the end of class my Professor asked me a question, knowing I was a linguist, he seemed intrigued to know why in French qualitative adjectives such as good and bad and also things like big and small, preceeded their compliments but not other adjectives, I told him I was not certain, but I thought it may show emphasis in their language. He proffered that it may have something to do with the attributive quality, and I thought he was most likely right
Following class, I decided to take a brief tour to the Dickens’ house just down the road, and found it rather enchanting to be standing next to the actual furniture that Dickens really used about 150 years ago. It was so cool to be linked to one of my favourite and best known authors of all time, being rivalled in the English speaking world only by Shakespear (and I had already been to Stratford upon Avon, though not the Globe yet, but that is coming). Anyway, I wandered all throughout his house, and saw his drawing room, his study and everything else, but unfortunately I did not have much time as I had to meet my architecture class at the British Museum at 13:00 and my class before had ended at 12:00, leaving me with not a lot of time. I took pictures of all sorts of things there, including the actual Golden Arm described in a Tale of Two Cities, as well as the little wooden statue from Dombey and Son, which I think the only other person I know who may appreciate that is Timberly, but who knows? Also they played a little video, which I stayed for as long as I could but had to leave for too early in it, and head for the British Museum.
The British Museum was really neat to be at with my Professor, because he was very well educated in all of his subject matter there, in fact he said they were either going to build it where they did in Bloomsbury, or they were going to build it where Buckingham Palace is today, strange eh? After we first went inside the museum, we entered the reading room, which I think is definitely the best architectural thing of the whole place, bearing a great resemblance to the Pantheon in many ways. While there, our professor proceeded to tell us that Karl Marx wrote Das Kapitol in it, and Lenin studied and wrote there much as well... but the funnier thing was one of the librarians (A young female one, for what that is worth) came out and said they did not allow guiding in the reading room, at which point he took her hands in his, in a very quaint charming old English way, and looked her in the eyes saying “my dear, I was not guiding them in the library, I was trying to teach them how to use it” I was much bemused to bear such close witness to this, and really respected his tact in such a matter, but it seemed to come to no avail because she smiled back at him and asked us still to leave. After having exited the reading room, he then said, well there is always the belief that a smile can get you almost anywhere, and then he somewhat muttered to himself that she was charming and so was he...” Anyway, we looked at the Egyptian stuff, (including the Rosetta Stone) afterward and I found it interesting again, and we then proceeded to what I deem to be a very great part of the museum, and that being the Greek section.
In the Greek section, we saw all the awesome statues that I had found the week prior, and I learned some about them, but of course the true prize of the day (especially for an architecture course) was the Parthenon room, and we looked at the scenes of the Centaurs crashing the human wedding (I forget which tribe), which Dr. Reuter said was symbolic of the Greeks with the Persians, and after all, the Persian wars were the reasons the Athenians decided to build the temple in the first place (in praise to Athena for saving their city). We also looked at the pediments that would have been on the face of the building and it was marvellous to see that, more than the rest of the frieze statues. It starts and ends with the horses of Helios driving across the sky, at dawn they are rowdy and rearing to go, and at dusk they are tired and ready to rest, it is a capitol design. I guess it is so that no one really knows what the rest of the figures represent on the pediment. Following this we then went to the oldest part of the museum, the enlightenment room, which is were the private library of George III was housed. It was spectacular to see, and was awe-inspiring from me, because it was so well composed of what I would call my third favourite historical period, the Age of Reason, especially under George III, who I shall maintain was a good king, and very intelligent.
After everyone left, I sat in the Enlightenment room and Dr. Reuter came by and sat next to me, and talked to me a good deal about many subjects, including my classical music course, and the fact that coming to London must have been very overwhelming for someone so desperate to discover everything culturally stimulating. I told him it was, and I talked to him about the Proms concert I attended, and he said it apparently received bad reviews and it was in fact the Viennese Philharmonic playing the night we were there (which gave me insight on why it was so predominantly male looking back on it). He left shortly thereafter, and I proceeded to look a bit more around and left myself, stopping at a sandwich shop getting the most bland chicken sandwich of my life, and proceeding to class, for which I was nearly half an hour early, but that professor was already in the classroom setting up the CDs and such for the day’s lecture... I talked to him too, and apparently Dr. Reuter had been in to see him as well, because he told me that they had talked about my and his conversation concerning the Proms. When class did start, I was happy to learn that my professor, Dr. Mould actually sang professionally about a score of years ago, up to about eight years ago. He also apparently studied at the London Academy of Music (I think), and it was somewhat exciting to learn that, though I am not sure why. We talked about the Magic Flute, and I am so stoked to see that next week.
When class ended, I took it upon myself to go and see Holland Park finally, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be, because I got confused at the tube station I came up at, and went the wrong way, but found myself closer to Portobello Road, than Holland Park Road, so I decided to return home, taking special notice of all the places I had seen in Notting Hill the night before. When I did arrive home, I did not do much, save to look slightly at some travel places and such... I also looked at the internet for a little while, but the problems became so great that I could not for the life of me get on again, but I did not feel so bad, none of my roommates could actually get on again either, although we all get the signal and everything. So, I am hoping that clears up soon. In other good news, I did finally get my Oyster card, so I now feel all the more involved in London life. In fact I was trying to put money in it when the internet went down ultimately. Following all of this, I tried to get things set up to go on holiday and if I play my cards right, I may be taking some really exotic tour, maybe even a two month one to Africa (but not likely). That is where I am at now, save to say that my big and cool discovery of the day is that H. G. Wells lived very near to me on Portobello, I swear that if you just lift your head a little in this city, you will discover so many blue plaques (placed by the Historical society) everywhere that you’ll be totally amazed at their frequency. So, other than that, I wrote this entry and in theory again, retired to bed.