British Museum

'Ello, dearies!

Guess where I went now: the British Museum. Egypt exhibit. Oh yeah!

The Egypt exhibit is always my favorite part of history museums, probably because my dad used to read me National Geographic Egypt books when I was little. So here I got to see some mummies, look at some mummy skulls, and use my anthropology skills to look at the dentition and post-mortem skull fractures. I was completely geeking out. I even determined the sex of the mummy skulls that didn't have it labelled on their info signs. Thank you, Professor Hawks!

Mummy crania

In the Egypt rooms, there were a ton of little British school kids in uniforms on their field trips, and they all had adorable accents and were telling their friends about canopic jars. I also ran into some German-speaking college students in the Japanese art room.

Shabti tomb statuettes

Before we all left, we went in the Greek sculpture room and the large Egyptian sculpture room. We got to see the Rosetta Stone, Lely's Venus, and even some sphinx-type heads that were absolutely enormous.

Lely's Venus (Aphrodite)

On the way out, while I was waiting for our group to collect in the food court area, I saw on the museum map that they have an Easter Island statue! Easter Island and Stonehenge are my two favorite mysterious monuments, so I'll have to go back to check that out.

In the food court area

In all, it was a very cool museum, and like most museums in London, it was free!

Camden Market

What's up, America-type people?

First of all, I should tell you that over the last 5 days, we have walked a crazy amount. Like imagine medieval peasants walking around between villages with heavy sacks over their shoulders. I've been trudging about in the misty rain with a heavy messenger bag for the last few days, and I'm getting really strong. I'm halfway to a neck like Daniel Radcliffe.

So to alleviate this problem, I bought a small black leather purse in Camden when we went to the Camden Market. I bartered for it! Camden Market is actually very sketchy and not particularly fun. It's all the same super chintzy dresses over and over and harassing-type salesmen, but that's to be expected.

However, the town around the market is crazy-weird-cool. It seems the main economy comes from selling piercings and tattoos. Imagine this: the whole street, both sides, is lined with goth clothing shops and men hold signs advertising piercings and tattoos outside the stores. One girl from our group got her ear pierced in the basement of one of the shops. It seemed clean enough, and she hasn't died yet, so... heh.

Anyway, this goes on down the entire street as far as the eye can see. Then, inside the shops, there are some other things like London souvenir bags, smoking and hookah paraphernalia, and bags of--seriously--shrooms and Super Skunk. What a place.

(Here's an article about the history of Camden Market.)

Arrival

Hey Americans!

I arrived today in London after surviving a wicked 8 hour plane ride. It started out looking down on the city lights of Chicago and the moon shining down on a foggy lake, but it ended more like a trip through what I would describe as the devil's womb. It was dimly lit and rumbling with turbulence for countless hours and many of us were seconds from puking by the time we got off. I know I was sleepless, migraned, and pretty much miserable. To add to the excitement, sometime just after I had finally fallen asleep around 5 am (London time), a guy behind us had a nightmare and screamed in his sleep during a bout of turbulence. All I can say is that I've never been as glad as when I set two feet solidly in the airport.

In the airport we did the money exchange, a lot of waiting for all of us to get our things together, and went through customs. Turns out, despite my worries of packing too heavy, I was actually the lightest at 20 lbs compared to everyone else's 45-50. Woot!

Due to the delays in the airport, we missed our reserved bus into the city and had to wait for 45 minutes in the airport for the driver to come back. The drive in was pretty cool. It was all blue skies all day! There were so many little brick houses smushed together so that the rooftops looked like a shot from Sweeney Todd. It actually just really reminded me of a quaint, brick Milwaukee. I don't feel out of place (yet?). Just remember to look right first when crossing the street.

The first animal I saw here was a pigeon. Heh. Also, most of the plants look normal except there are some strange trees that are all knobby and twiggy on the ends like mini Whomping Willows. I'll find out what they're called.

During the day we got lunch in the cafeteria here and had a meeting with the housing director. Then some of us walked around the neighborhood and checked out the stuff nearby, but surprisingly, a lot of places here are closed on Sundays. We did go in a few convenience stores--all the candy bars are different except Kit Kat and Reese's! They have descriptions that sound like some sort of extravagance like would come out of Willy Wonka's factory.

In the evening we went to the bar and got some Strongbow cider (so smooth!) and played cards. Now we're all watching the Packer game. I am so ready to crash...haven't slept or changed clothes in a day and a half (blech). The internet is a hassle here so far (None in my room for some reason, but the lack of internet is made up for with the presence of mice traps. My room is in the basement.).

I'll post more interesting things (with pictures!) as I collect them, but right now I'm too tired to think! Classes tomorrow and I'll write anything new I find interesting. We're also getting cell phones and Oyster passes, so the adventures will begin shortly. This is all so surreal that nothing seems unusual.

-Red