Submitted by Abagail Scout on the 2012 fall semester program in London, England…
This past week was actually fairly slow. I think that has something to do with the fact that I’m finally settling into the London lifestyle, as contradictory as “slow” and “London lifestyle” sound together. For the most part, I’ve just been going out to pubs with a friend or two and mingling with the locals around Ealing. Much to my surprise, nightlife around Ealing exists although it obviously isn’t as popular as neighborhoods like Notting Hill, Vauxhall, or Camden.
The highlight of my week, as boring as this may sound to some of you, was visiting the Victoria and Albert museum in Kensington. I was required to go there to complete an assignment for my history class and did not have very high expectations for it (i.e: small, unknown museum). Boy, was I wrong! The V&A is huge and it was impossible to visit all of the exhibits during the four hours I was there. One of the most moving parts of my tour was walking into a room and seeing Raphael’s Cartoons on display. The moment when I realized that the United States has almost no “history” compared to Europe was while I was casually viewing these 500 year old tapestries… nowhere in the United States can you find such a significant piece of history that is that old. Moving along from there, I wandered into a jewelry exhibit that contained pieces from all over the old Empire (there were even some turquoise, coral, and gold pieces all the way from South America). Never in my life have I seen so many necklaces, tiaras, crowns, bracelets, and whatever else you can fashion out of valuable minerals! To put it into perspective, I walked past a necklace from the Russian Empire that had a ruby the size of a robin’s egg surrounded by other, smaller rubies and that was hardly the most extravagant, imperialistically gaudy piece.
This weekend I’m going to Prague with a few other people from my building, so we’ll see what kind of stories I’ll have to tell when I return!