Ode to my feet...
Today was a long one. Longest one yet, aside from the one that had 25 hours in it (time-zone jokes, har har).
This
morning, we visited the British Library. Its only a few blocks from
where we're staying, so we walked. We toured the facility, but we
couldn't see any of the books. The books are all kept in a vault
underneath the library. Only certain employees are permitted to handle
the books in the vault, since part of the hiring process is a fitness
test. In case of an emergency, you have to be able to get out of the
building in under 5 minutes. Not an easy task if you have a hard time
with stairs.
The
library is a Legal Deposit library, which means that a copy of every
book published in the United Kingdom is sent to be stored in the British
Library. It is also structured differently than most libraries. Because
most of the books are stored in a vault underneath, prospective readers
must request books be brought above ground by a member of staff. The
library has a system of conveyor belts that bring the books to the
surface, preventing people from running up and down stairs all day. The
books are then brought to a reading room specified on the ticket where
they can be perused. Unfortunately, this system prevents people from
perusing the shelves themselves.
This was a lot of walking, and my feet were already sore. Its about 1 o'clock now.
After
walking around the library, we ventured to the British Museum. This
museum is far larger than I anticipated, and I saw less than 10% of the
displays in my 3 hours there. I went through part of the China exhibit,
where I found a fantastic temple model.
I
also went through some of the Southeast Asia exhibit, and went on a
tour through the Egypt one. I saw one of the Enlightenment rooms, and
found an interesting exhibit on life and death. The centerpiece of that
exhibit was a mesh that had every pill and supplement that the average
British person takes over the course of their life. There was one for
both a man and woman.
The
last exhibit I had a chance to look at was the Parthenon and Ancient
Greek exhibit. I remember in high school discussing the fight between
the Museum of Athens and the British Museum of who should get the
statues from the Parthenon. It looks like they may have compromised and
allowed each to have just a few fragments of the statues. I never found
the Rosetta Stone, unfortunately. I never found the exit we were
supposed to meet at either, for that matter. I ended up finding a few
others in my group and following them to the exit.
Now my feet hurt. This has already been a long day, and its only about 4:30.
After
the Museum, we took the subway system over to the Globe Theater, where
we were able to sit (finally!) through a “Setting the Stage” speech. The
orator spoke about the economics of Merchant of Venice, the play
we were about to see. He gave a synopsis of the plot without giving
away the ending. He also discussed what he believed to be the reasonings
of why the various characters acted the way they did. Most of us
struggled to stay awake. It was warm in the room, most of us were
hungry, and all of us were tired from walking.
After grabbing a
bite to eat at the local Starbucks (where I nearly bought a sparkling
water instead of a still water by mistake), I experienced a little bit
of what it was like for the peasants of the 17th century to
see Shakespeare's plays at the Globe Theater. We had yard tickets, which
meant we stood in front of the stage, under the stars (or clouds, in
today's case).
The
play was well-performed. It was also a great piece of work, as I
absolutely loathed all the characters (except for Shylock, of course!). I
mean it, too--this is one of the few plays that actually brought out an
emotional response from me. I take to be a highly successful play.
Either that, or I was upset that my feet hurt so much from standing. It
is by far more difficult to stand for hours than to walk around for
hours. Thus, I didn't appreciate the awesomeness of the performance
until hours later, when my feet finally felt like normal feet again.
After
the play, a few of us split off to have another bite to eat, as we had
only been eating small portions over the day. After much debate (note,
it was a consensus from the beginning), we decide to look for a pizza
shop. We found an underground station and took it to a random stop—as
luck would have it, we found desired pizza shop--that was still open,
mind you, just around the corner of the station.
I dunno what it is about Europeans being unable to split checks.
Matthew is a senior studying Computer Science
at the College of Saint
Scholastica. Not content with only working with computers, Matthew also
performs in the CSS Theater, studies business, finance, economics, the
physical sciences, and loves to go ballroom dancing. He is a voracious
reader. His hobby is to learn about as many
different fields, and about as many different topics, as he can. Matthew
also enjoys writing about himself in the third person. For more from
Matthew, visit him at matthewrandolph.com.
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