Bath the Wales

Alright so we just spent four days in Bath, which we went to right as I was beginning to adjust to Cambridge, but fortunately it was well worth it.

For me the biggest highlight was getting to see the Roman baths (hence the name of the town, literalists remember?) which were also a temple to Sulis Minerva, Sulis being the Celtic goddess of the local spring and Minerva being the Roman name of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, battle, and heroic glory. When the Romans occupied Britain they took Sulis and blended her with Minerva/Athena (further proof that the Romans never had an original thought).

These are the statues of various emporers (Julius Ceaser, Hadrian, etc) standing over the original Roman pool.


Inside was the frieze that hung over the temple doorway as people walked in...notice the resemblance....?

The face in the center is either Neptune/Poseidon, god of the sea (ironic considering his rivalry with Minerva/Athena) or the face of the Gorgon, the emblem emblazoned on Athena's shield to terrify her enemies. Take your pick.

Here's the goddess herself...


Next was the main altar. The images on the sides are of various gods related to Minerva/Athena. These two are Jupiter (Greek name Zeus) Athena's father, and her favorite half-brother
Hercules.


This is Bacchus (Dionysus), god of wine, another of Athena's half-brothers.

Next was an image of Luna (Selene) the moon goddess which would have sat across from a similar image of her brother Sol (Helios) the sun god to express balance and catch the attention of the siblings as they crossed the sky.
And what do you know, the Greeks had my portrait!
Here's me in front of the actual bath (and it was tempting to not jump in because it was really cold).

Our next sojourn was Wales, land of a thousand consonants per word. We first stopped by an old gladiatorial arena the Romans built, though I couldn't exactly imagine Russel Crowe duking it out here.

The best part about Wales was this castle called Dell, once a medieval laptop factory that was destroyed due to bad customer support. I kid. I think it's called Chepstow or Capstow or Somethingstow but one of the signs said Castle Dell so I don't know.

I felt like a school kid again exploring the castle (which was strange since their were some local kids there on field trip). I ran through the corridors imagining the castle during a battle. "To arms! To arms! The Americans are upon us!" ;p




Also since I love goofy pictures (and because I'm a huge fan of that old cartoon show Gargoyles)...



...stone by day, warriors by night...

Okay, okay childhood nostalgic moment over. Sheesh, it's getting so a twenty-one year old can't watch cartoons anymore...

Alright, that's all for now, my batteries almost dead and I only have a few minutes of Internet in our new hostel. See you next post when this blog will become Something About...Oxford???

Still So Much To See: Cambridge Days...I have no idea

Okay, whew, what a week. Not sure where to even begin. The nice thing about a visual learner taking pictures is they help you remember what the heck you've done, especially when you feel like it's been weeks instead of days.

Thursday and Friday we had class (mostly about Shakespeare). On one of those nights we attended Evensong in the Trinity college chapel, where we got to hear their famous boys choir. It was a beautiful service, great acoustics, they even sang the Bible passages.


On Saturday, we went to Stratford upon Avon, the home of Shakespeare himself. Our guide was Janet Jeacock, whom Andy described as "your favorite grandmother on esctacy." That turned out to be an accurate description; she was full of endless snappy comebacks and she knew pretty much every fact about Stratford and pointed us in the direction of all the best sites.

This was our main stop, Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is allegedly buried. Interestingly, he is said to have died on his birthday, April 23. Just goes to show writers have the weirdest luck.


This is the actual grave itself with a likeness of its occupant above it. Shakespeare's apparently buried seventeen feet down (as opposed to the usual six) and left a warning to ensure no one would disturb his grave. Guess he wanted to make sure his skull didn't end up being used in Hamlet, hehe....read a book people.


Afterwards we wandered Stratford for a while. In an appropiate point of symmetry, we stopped by Shakespeare's birth place, called, well...

...catchy ain't it?


We also came upon the statue of a jester, which Shakespeare play it's from I'm not sure, maybe King Lear, don't quote me on that. Anyway, I decided to have some fun with it, though I'm not sure I pulled it off. Ah, well.


The others decided to have some fun with the British telephone system.


I can hear it now...

"Hey, mate, we got some Americans stuck in the telephone booth?"

"Again?"

Hehehehe.

That afternoon we attended the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Romeo and Juliet, which they had set in the 1940s and used knives instead of swords, so it was kind of like Shakespeare meets West Side Story, minus the singing and the snapping. It was good, but it would have been better if there wasn't a pole directly blocking my line of sight. I had to lean side to side to see what was going on onstage. "Who the heck is speaking, the guy on the left or the guy skinnier than the pole."

The next morning we went to the American World War II Cemetery, the only one for American soldiers in Britain.

It was a little weird seeing an American flag flying high in England, but the fact that it was dedicated to American soldiers made it seem appropriate.


This is me in front of one of the statues next to the wall of names, for the soldiers originally interred here. There are four statues, one for the Army, the Navy/Marines, the Air Force and the Coast Guard.

Just to give you some idea of how big the wall is...
Here's what it says along the top:

The Americans whose names here appear were part of the price that free men for a second time this century have been forced to pay to defend human liberty and rights - All who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that to these and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and with the high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live eternally.


We next went to Ely Cathedral one of the oldest cathedrals in Britain. We split into two groups, one group went up to the Octagon Tower while the other toured the main hall with Janet.


This ceiling (which was painted for free) depicts the story of Scripture from Creation to the glorification of Christ. Reaaaaaaally cool...


This is me with a statue of Jesus called "Christus" in the foyer of the cathedral.


This is a stained glass window featuring Christ surrounded by saints, unique because it's one of the few places in iconography where Christ is depicted without a beard. The artist said "Well we have no idea what Christ looked like so why give him a beard." Unique idea, even for the middle ages (although it makes him look like he hasn't even hit puberty yet).


Our group's journey up the Octagon Tower was...unforgettable in good and bad ways. First we had to climb up this narrow winding staircase (which gave me a whole new appreciation of the "camel through the eye of the needle" phrase). Next we had to cross a part of the roof that was about eighty feet up. Now my worst fear is falling to my death (actually it's falling to my death, with poisonous snakes coiled around my limbs while being forced to take a math test). The fact that I was three feet taller than the guard rail didn't help. After going up an even smaller staircase we came to the top of the Octagon Tower, 120 feet up. Now to prove I was actually there...


Now I know I look calm and collected up there, but once the picture was done, I turned back into a scared puppy dog who whimpers in the corner.

Today we went to Avenbury, the site of the most famous stone circle in Britain aside from Stonehenge (which we won't have time to see, blast you Lee budget cuts!!!)




Eat your heart out Sisyphus...

This is the Kenneth Long Barrow where the ruling family of the clan who ruled this land was buried. It smelled funny, I wonder why...


Anyway, now we're in the town of Bath, named because of the ancient Roman baths located here (again with the literalism). It's almost time for dinner so I'd better wrap this up. See you next post (and yes I can feel your envy even from across the pond).

Greeting From the UK: Cambridge Days 1-3

Chinese proverb: The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Bishop's corollary: And a heckuva long plane ride.

Alright, I know it's been a while, but I have officially arrived at Cambridge. Haven't been able to post until now due to severely limited Internet access. As such I'll update when I can, but it may take a while, days maybe weeks at a time.

First off: the plane ride over. Good. Lord. I thought it would be cold traveling at 37000 feet, but it wasn't. I came off that plane feeling like a camel who had just crossed the Gobi desert. It also made it rather difficult to sleep (that and the fact that The Incredible Hulk was playing on my entertainment center, not exactly a film that puts you in a sleepy mood). All that said, we arrived at Gatwick at around 7 am their time and after the swiftest check through customs I've ever seen (guess they figured "Heh, American students, what harm can they do?") our UK adventure began.

We met Andy Sinclair, our chief UK guide/human resource center outside the airport. Andy's been with almost every Lee-Cambridge group since the program began. We rode his bus north to Cambridge (during which time I had to fight to keep my eyes open, if I fell asleep it would have made the jetlag even worse). We arrived about two hours later and checked into our home away from home the Hamilton Hotel.

Myself and the rest of the guys got put in the annex in the hotel back lot. It's cozy but rather cold in the mornings. Good thing they give us extra thick blankets.

After we'd unpacked and had lunch, Andy took us out back and gave us our bikes, the main form of transportation for students in the city of Cambridge. I was both excited and terrified about this: on the one hand it was nice to have a bike again, on the other hand we were told we had to ride in the street with the cars, not on the sidewalks.



We rode around Jesus Green (the nearest park) to get a feel for our bikes, then hit the streets (not literally hit...you know what I mean). I found myself with a group of eight, which quickly became a group of four, then three as we lost sight of Anna R. who flew threw the streets like Little Red Riding Hood on speed.

After a couple of near misses with some red mechanical titans (ie double decker buses) I broke off with Mel and we rode a path we found along the river Cam. Here's something I bet you didn't know: the name Cambridge came about because when the town was first settled, someone built a bridge over the river and the name stuck. Ah British literalism, gotta love it.

The next day we went on a walking tour, trading our sore bums riding for sore feet from walking. We split into two groups and explored several of Cambridge's main colleges (Cambridge has dozens of colleges but apparently they all make up one "university"). Our guide was kindly old Irishman (at that's what he said) who took us first through Magdeline (pronounced Maudlin) College, where C.S. Lewis was educated and and later in his life taught as a professor of literature.




After Mageline, we toured St. John's and Trinity colleges (seeing a theme with names here?). Unfortunately, before we got to Trinity my camera was down to one picture (memory card's not as big as I thought). I'll have to go back and get pictures of some of the cooler stuff later, like the statue of Henry VIII holding a chair leg (he's supposed to be holding a scepter but one year a student stole it. Now as a prank they put something new in his hand every once in a while, like a bike pump or coca-cola can).

Here are some pictures of St. John's (as least I think they are, they all kinda look the same at first).




This I think is the Bridge of Sange, where prisoners were led across to be executed. Nowadays it's the bridge students cross on their way to take their finals.



When the walking tour was done, Adam and I decided to go around town ourselves for a while. We each had a pasty for lunch (meat wrapped inside a crust) which were good but extremely hot. Our tour guide ran into us and told us a story about engineering students who hoisted a car on the roof of St. John's. They did it at night, and to distract passers-by they had their girlfriends stand outside the buildings and hike up their skirts so no one noticed the vehicle suspended in midair. Apparently they got a certificate from the college for creativity.

Adam and I spent the rest of the day exploring Cambridge's museums. We went to three in all: the Whipple Museum of Science, the Zoology Museum (aka the Temple of Charles Darwin), and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where I took my last picture of the day: an altar of Hercules left behind by the Romans when they abandoned Britain.


Today was our first day of overseas class. We followed Andy on a rather perilous journey on our bikes to St. Paul's Cathedral, where all our classes in Cambridge will be held.



Our lecturer was Dr. Raby, who spoke to us about Romeo and Juliet, and he seems to be quite the Shakespeare expert (which will hopefully will make the class interesting since R + J is in my opinion one of Shakespeare's most boring plays). Here's something I bet you didn't know. Shakespeare borrowed the majority of the story of Romeo and Juliet from a man named Arthur Brooke and his play Romeus and Juliet, although he changed the theme from the condemnation of forbidden love to the beauty of it.

Alright, that's all for now. My battery's dying and the Internet is acting like a hyperactive prarie dog, up down up down up down up down. See you next post, which will be soon, Lord (and WiFi) willing.