JuliaWM's blog

All the stuff you're supposed to take pictures of when in London

Since this is my second trip,
here's Westminster Abbey

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and here's Big Ben

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it was a really "london-esque" day as it progressed, overcast and cloudy and all of that.
This is a memorial which is actually within the gates of Westminster Abbey. 

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Statue of Winston Churchill

and finally, Ol' Winston, nice trench buddy. Lookin' Sharp!

Oxford

Here is the Oxford University Press' Old Door, along side their new door

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This is a memorial for martyrs who "were burned at the stake just around the corner from here".  In some japanese guidebooks this is listed as the steeple of a church that was buried under the city.  An elaborate hoax who's punchline has not yet been fully realized.

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This is a 14th century bible we were able to see (and touch) at the New College library.

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This is the garden around New college.  The wall you see is the old wall of the medeival city

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along similar lines, this is the oldest part of Oxford University, I believe he said it's an old chapel, if not, that seems like a pretty good guess.

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Lastly, here are two pictures hanging at the front of the Great Hall at New College to give you an idea of the expanse of time which this school has been around

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Its really the way their each posed that gets me. 

really, I will post soon

sorry about the dealy, it turns out that wireless was terrible, now I'm tied to the internet with an ethernet cable (it really is college all over again).
Here are some pictures from my dorm, and UCL where I'm studying in the mean time.  Later I'll post on Oxford and possibly what I saw of London today!

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Seriously, exactly like college, only I shared the room with another person!

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a little garden by our classroom.

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and this is the guy (Jeremy Bentham) who donated a bunch of $$ to the school with the stipulation that they had to keep and display his body in this box.  his head was once attached (the actual, real deal head) but it became too gory looking, so they put it in a box somewhere safe and made him this nice wax one.  his bones are actually in there, held together by metal and wires . . . CRAZY!
ALSO, totally what I'm doing, only I want my bones to be cast inside a statue of Minerva! Now all I have to do is make millions to force ol' SUNYA into doing that for me . . . .

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on that note, I'm off to class.

really, the internet is important

so today I started my course on E-publishing at the University College London.  Though we're only two lectures in, I find the research going on here to be absolutely ridiculously amazing.  Firstly, did you know that our information seeking patterns are actually quite similar to those when we were using print items?  yeah, very very similar, shopping wise as well.  Also, it is recommended that you leave your user names and passwords somewhere in case you "go under a bus", so that your loved ones can access your personal "papers" (i.e. e-mail, facebook, flickr).  There's a lot more, but I'll spare those of you not up on your Information Science jargon the lecture (though, e-mail me if you want me to forward you articles etc.).
Upon arriving to my room, DORM room, I immediately felt in the mood for school.  The walls are made of cinder blocks, and the closets contain household items that have no business in them (in this case a sink, in place of the desk of my early college years) The furniture is institutional and well loved.  When I went to the supermarket today, I had the hilarious and nostalgic challenge of buying food to eat that can be prepared in a small microwave/not prepared at all. 
ALSO similar to my freshman year of college, I was told that the only way to access the internet from my dorm was to use an ETHERNET cable . . . . honestly, I have never heard anything so hilarious in my entire life.  I made several Dos Shell jokes, then several old world jokes, and then just curled into the fetal position and cried.  BECAUSE, not only did we need an ethernet cord (which I have . . . . somewhere . . . . in my apartment in Brooklyn) BUT, we also needed a voucher, the last of which they had given out three people before me.  No internet.
After 24-36 hours without the internet I started to get twitchy, things are happening, people are messaging me, I'm sure my mother thinks I'm dead.  But the honest to god truth is no one noticed.  They all assumed I wasn't online because I was off having a good time in London.  Which makes me a feel a little guilty for having spent so much time worrying instead of being out and about actually having a  good time in london.  It's a whole spiral of meta-guilt, anticipated guilt and past perfect simple guilt that I don't think we even have a term for.  
Needless to say, after some investigation, I found the proper wireless network (which I totally knew was there the whole time) and am now online, it's a little slow, but I love it. 
so photos later when I have a speedier connection with which to upload them.
also some parts of this tale might get a little nerd heavy, so I might start giving warnings and separating sections out or something . . . uncharacteristically organized I think!

Manchester

SO, after spending several days laying around "Getting work done" (i.e. Eating), Chrissy and Vita (Chrissy's 9 y/o cousin) took me on a tour of downtown Manchester. 
this is the Urbis which is an exhibition center (permanent exhibit = Urban Development)

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and here is a streetsweeper, I like the size and general shape of this, but I understand how our grandiose streets might be too much for this little guy.

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I love that these people are just hitting the street with their cleaning items:

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Chrissy tells me that Manchester is the birthplace of punk, these teens seem to be as far as it had come up to this point, though I doubt i would witness the "punk scene" in the middle of their shopping district:

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Here is the Church:

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and Rip Van Winkle

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There are public urinals in this city, up against walls to prevent people peeing against them.  you can see the gentleman on the left deciding either what they are, or whether or not to use them.  When I lifted my camera, no one was using the urinal, but as I went to take a photo, someone ran in to use on in the back, I've double checked, and don't think I caught any of him or anything.

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and finally "Grey Gardens":

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University of Edinburgh Libraries

they use modified Library of Congress classification system, though the modifications are not immediately obvious to me.  

Edinburgh ghost tour

Chrissy discovered a tourist item which was a MUST DO in Edinburgh, and while she couldn't possibly do something like that on her own while living there (I totally understand, it took college friends visiting when I was 19 to get me to the top of the Empire State Building), I provided a PERFECT excuse to engage in something so perfectly touristy. 
THE EDINBURGH GHOST TOUR!!!
Upon arrival, I realized my camera didn't work, not because it had broken, but because I had failed to put the battery back into it after charging it up . . .awesome.   Chrissy does have some pictures, which I will hopefully add later.  Our tour guide's name was Louise, and I must say, she was a FANTASTIC ghost tour guide as she presented the scary stories with the perfect combination of humor and the ghost stories. 
One of my favorites was the story of the bag piper who got lost in the tunnels underneath the city and disappeared without a trace.  sometimes, late at night, people will be walking down the street and hear a rumbling.
they'll lean down, to get closer to the street coming up from underground.
the noise gets louder
and louder
and suddenly, whamo, they get hit by a cab.
  . . . hilarious.
We went into underground chambers that were created during the old city as an attempt to make a high class shopping district, as time passed, it fell into disrepair, and it's reputation went down the tubes.  So they boarded it up, and now it's haunted, pretty intense.
What I liked about the tour was getting an interesting and alternative history of Edinburgh, including stories of several people who were hung, and didn't die!  no, I don't mean in the "undead" way, I mean, didn't die.
For one person, the hatch didn't open, so they only fell a little bit, so the Edinburgh mob cut the down and carried them away.  Another person was resuscitated by the bumping on the cart that was carrying her coffin. 
Another escaped being hung all together by giving up his friend, with whom he had committed several murders, and then they sold the bodies to the local medical school.  The guy who was stuck with the whole rap, was not only hung, but was also dissected in the town square, and pieces of his skin were sold off to the highest bidder, and it was then made into purses and wallets.  You can go to the police museum to this day and see a small disc of his skin.  Furthermore, his skeleton was donated to the medical college to be used for future generations to learn from.  To this day, it is there, and can be seen by appointment. 
The whole punishment process was a serious endeavor in Scotland, and as you can tell, one was usually punished in some very direct way to the way in which they committed a crime.
  

The Pentlands

Yesterday Chrissy and I went to the Pentlands, which is a beautiful regional park in Scotland.  On the walk in we passed Peet

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and sheep,

Here is a couple of grouse, or a couple of pheasants, or potentially some other wild bird that we had not previously conceived of (any knowledge would be appreciated):

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and then later on more sheep

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and then more of the beautiful rolling hills of the area:

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So, per Chrissy, everything is owned by the Queen, and "private land" is sometimes owned by the individual, but sometimes is actually you signing a 99 year lease with the Queen, though none of that info is actually confirmed, and her .  Because of this, much of the land is required to have a "right of way", basically a walking path through private land so that everyone can have access.  This meant not only were we walking through some beautiful hills and mountains, we were also walking through several sheep pastures.

Off to the pub

so, last evening we went to a pub which was established circa 1549 or some craziness.  The pub's name is the "Sheep's Heid" which means "Sheep's head" in Scottish.  This is a photo documentary of our trip "right around the corner to the pub".

The Burgh, Edin.

Well, Edinburgh is just plan beautiful.  The weather is a bit unpredictable, think NY March-May, hot and sunny one minute, cold and raining next, followed by winds, cold, and general lunacy.  It's fantastic!  Last night, in order to keep me awake long enough to join the UKs sleeping patterns we made sushi and fed the Queen's Swans.  These weren't swans that had been singled out for any reason as I had originally thought, but apparently all swans are the Queens.
Today, we went to the farmer's market, which was wonderful, and then walked around.  Though I didn't take a picture of the place, we went by the site of the old gallows, which has a pub across the streets named "the Last Drop" . . . meaning, the last drop you drink before you die.  Amazing.
There's a Castle here:

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With pictures of famous Scots on guarding the entrance:

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                    On our right we have Bruce and on the left ol' William "Braveheart" Wallace

These are my lovely hosts, in a garden on our walk home, that's Jamie's friend Twiggy closest to the camera, Jamie at the center, and my dear friend Chrissy on the right.

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It's beautiful here, it's green all over the place and the city seems kind of nestled in the center of some mountains.  To give you an idea of the "park" next to Chrissy and Jamie's house, I took the following photo:

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Also, basil, pronounce Bah-zle also, a boys name.

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