British Studies: Day 1

This is Harry, pre-flight, in protest of my packing.(He's right, it was too hot to pack!)

Coming to London is like falling down a rabbit hole, likely where Lewis Carroll got the idea for his writing actually.  In one day I did more than I could have imagined.

In the morning, we met in the courtyard for orientation.  From there we made our first venture into King's College.(Mum and Paul, if you're reading this, I am going to try really hard to get your shirts you asked for, but the shoppe is only open Mon-Fri. 10-4:30.)  We sat in our class and the tour schedule was discussed.  I am very happy to be going to St. Paul's for mass tomorrow, not because I am overly religious but because I am curious how the English do mass.  Monday will be great too because we are having a reception for the BSP students.  Wednesday will be too because I am uber stoked for Oxford, the Bodleian, and the Alice shoppe.  Amongst everything else, of which is also great.  Anyways, here we also discussed our blogs(tada!) and research projects, of which I pondered all day and may have come up with an idea by the evening.

My flat, in the middle of the street.

After we met an amazing man, named Dr. Doug Mackaman, and some others in charge/involved with BSP we snagged lunch and broke into our tour groups.  Initially, I didn't  have one because the online site said it was closed, but it had space.  So, we did a historic pub tour.  When it ended, we were way down on Fleet Street and given the right to wander.  So six of us(myself included) did just that.  We started backwards, beginning at a pub near where the tour ended(I forgot the name of this one).  The half pints are wonderful, for about 2 pounds you can purchase a half pint- considering our target goal of a taste testing, this was perfect.  So we drank here, chatted and got to know one another, and took in the new feeling.  Our group was comprised of five women and one man, whom we librarians-to-be borrowed from the finance group.  I won't list their names because right now I just know firsts- so it'd be A, C, D, M, & TWH(who I know from becoming Facebook friends).  Anyways...

Next was perhaps the best pub of the bunch: Ye Olde Chesire Cheese.  If you enter the building, there is a bar to the right, a dinner area ahead, and stairs to the below.  "Mind Your Head", they say, and you should.  Unless you are short like me and this doesn't apply.  At the bottom, we were waiting for one of our members at the restroom and got a chuckle out of the men who were way  too tall for the stairs.  When one of their group exited the restroom, he too bopped his head and, well, you really had to be there.  Overall there was a joke exchanged about looking for a horse, directed at a man dressed like a jockey( which later, as it turned out, was a friend of his party) and a hearty "welcome to England." Entering the cellar, we found the pub part.  While waiting at the bar, we asked some locals what they preferred and they pointed us to a delicious cider.  As we sat and drank, we not only took a group photo but we got another chuckle at the group- members of a stag party.  

The next pub was The Black Friar, which I recognized the name from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  It was an oddly shaped place, with tons of outside seating(all taken due to the unusually gorgeous weather).  We sat inside and this time I had some chips and sampled a Golden Summer, I think was the name.  My waiter asked about my visit upon hearing my accent in ordering at the counter.  This is becoming a little funny  joke: when I tell someone I am from Maine, they look puzzled and shake their head no, and I then tell them it is on the East Coast and almost Canada.  This works.  I kind of like it.  I discovered a lot today about varying mentalities of Americans, of which are not all pleasant, but our group has not personally had any bad situations.  We were a curious and friendly bunch and struck up many good conversations on our way.

After Black Friar, we wandered over to Trafalgar Square for Pride in London.  While it made me cringe to see Trafalgar so littered with plastic and beer bottles, the energetic vibes of the attendees was electric.  We danced here for a while, received awesome stickers with readings such as "Some Guys Marry Guys, Get Over it!" and "Some People Are Gay, Get Over It!"  Here we learned an important terminology: equal.  Rather than Gay Pride, they say Equal Pride and that's fantastic, preferable.  So, our group decided to adopt it and spread it on elsewhere.  

Our trip ended (almost) at the Sherlock Holmes Pub.  I decided I would go back there because this is where I got my idea to look into research.  They had several documents from the Arthur Conan Doyle books and several scripts of the films behind protective glass(of which I want to photography when it is not as busy) and contemplate how the libraries , pubs, and museum come together to reserve and promote these works- of which I imagine have some amount of funding for upkeep- and provide such joy to fans.  The men's room hallway had a picture of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock.  It was wonderful.  I intend to keep an ear out and actively seek Sherlock Holmes pieces to try to figure out a research question and thesis statement- my big assignment for this class.  Right now it might be c=something about how his works fueled a genre that keeps Public Libraries burning.  In the libraries I have worked at in the past, of the Public ones, mystery novels and action types were the most checked out; Sherlock Holmes fits into both.  It's a rough theory, but Lewis Carroll and J.K. Rowling may have plenty of people talking about them already.


Tomorrow is a busy day again, and I will share it in the evening, for now I think I will gain some sleep- I didn't realize how much there was to take in within 8 hours.