Academic Tourist

Two of my close friends are in London as well. Andrew Koontz is doing a program similar to mine and is even staying in the same dorm as I am (which I pretty cool). My other friend, Sam Ogburn, is studying at the London School of Economics for the second semester in a row. We meet all meet up to catch up and talk about what's new when we began to discuss the different aspects of our programs. Sam Ogburn perfectly summed up Andrew and my programs as "academic tourism". Sure we take a few classes and occasionally have outside work but it's not the same amount of work as Wofford. In contrast Sam is working far harder than any of us ever have at Wofford. Basically, as I'm sure you already know, Andrew and I are here as tourists discussed as students. But even the touristy stuff we do is academic, like vising museums and other things like the special document exhibit at the British Library. I'm starting to dig this "academic tourism" thing.

The British Library (pictured below) is massive! Sorry dad, there are no ladies behind a desk on the left when you walk inside. I went to the special documents exhibit and saw original Beethoven and Bach scores, Shakespeare's plays, ancient sacred texts and the Gutenburg bible (also pictured below). There was also two copies of the Magna Carter, one of which had a papal decree attached to it which nullified the document. Very cool history there.

The imperial war museum was a cool to visit. I really enjoyed seeing the two world wars from the British point of view. It was a fun afternoon that was semi ruined by the last exhibit, the holocaust. But if you look past the depressing bit at the end it was fun for a history nerd like myself.

The British museum was a place some friends and I went to on a lunch break during orientation. Immediately I realized I would need lots of time to see as much as I can so on the days when I don't have class till 1:30, I'll be there in the morning.

I snagged a picture of one of my classrooms for two reasons. First it proves that I went to class (aren't you proud of me mom and dad?) and second its a pretty fancy classroom. What you can't see are the two very nice looking chandeliers. I sure hope the fire place works!



Long Live The King