Submarines and stone circles.

So I've definitely gotta say, I think that this week of classes has been one of the most interesting so far.  Saw and learned about lots of really cool things, and went to some pretty interesting places.

First, on Monday, Prof. Mike took us to the Imperial War Museum to supplement our discussion on wars in British history.  The museum's main focus is on WWI and WWII, and they combine a lot of different elements to make it a truly interesting experience.  On the main floor, they have on display old military vehicles and supplies from WWI and WWII, such as old cars, tanks, guns, and even bombs.  They also even had the remains of a car that was blown up in Baghdad in 2005.  They had submarines, and even a larger recreation of a submarine that you could walk into and see what it would have been like to actually be inside a submarine during that time period.  As one could imagine, it was very small and cramped, and the beds that the men had to sleep on seemed more like coffins than anything.  A little creepy.

One of the coolest things in the museum is what they call the WWI Trench Experience, where you walk through an actual recreation of a trench, complete with the sights, sounds, and even smells that a soldier would have experienced in the trenches.  It was definitely pretty eerie to walk through, partially because I kept thinking people were gonna jump out at us as we walked through the narrow trench, but it was also crazy to think that soldiers had to spend days or weeks at a time in these cramped, dirty conditions.

The museum also had a really interesting Holocaust exhibit.  Of course, the exhibit was very sad and emotional, but it was extremely well done.  Instead of the main focus being on the concentration camps, as some Holocaust exhibits are, this one was more organized in chronological order, first talking about Hitler and the Nazi party's rise to power, then about restrictions that were put in place, then about the Polish ghettos, all the way up to the concentration camps.  One of the things that made this exhibit so moving was its use of actual video and media footage from the time, including one video of a mass killing that the Nazis did... very hard and emotional to watch.

Overall, a very interesting museum.  I highly recommend it to visitors to London, especially if you're interested in history.

On Wednesday, Peter took our class on another weekly field trip.  We caught our charter bus at 8:15 AM at Kings Cross Station (still have to go there and get a picture at Platform 9 3/4, by the way).  Our first stop on the field trip was Stonehenge!  To be honest, it was interesting to see, but pretty underwhelming and disappointing, mainly because the actual rocks are roped off, and you can't get very close to them at all.  The reason Stonehenge is so unique and such a big deal?  While there are many stone circles throughout England, Stonehenge is the ONLY one that has horizontal stones spanning the vertical ones!  Wonder how they got them up there....

This is about as close as they let you get... notice the NO ADMITTANCE sign on the grass behind me.

Our second stop was Stourhead Manor, as Peter wanted to show us a good example of an 18th century manor and gardens.  We didn't get to go inside the manor, but he took us on a walk around the gardens, which were absolutely beautiful!  All completely manmade, these gardens were, as Peter said, "constructed to look like nature did it".  Bit of an oxymoron, really.

Stourhead Manor house. I'd live there.

Lake in the garden. I'd say this place puts The Secret Garden to shame.

Apparently, portions of the Kiera Knightly version of 'Pride and Prejudice' were filmed in the gardens.  I wouldn't know, as I haven't actually seen the movie, so I'll just take the words of the other girls in my group.

The gardens!

Our third and final stop on the trip was the Avebury Stone Circle, basically a much larger version of Stonehenge.  Apparently, Avebury was once used for sacrificial ceremonies, and, according to Peter, as many as 20,000 people would crowd into the circle to watch these sacrifices... he compared it to the early 17th century, when people would travel from far and wide to watch hangings for "good fun" (his words, not mine).

Across the middle of the picture, you can see the Inner Circle of Avebury.

By this point, most of us were tired, cold, wet, and ready to hop back on the bus to head back to London.  At least we had some cuteness to entertain us...

This is as close as I was able to get to petting these little guys.

Friday, I spent the day in Richmond, exploring the area for a project in my writing class.  Richmond is also an area I highly recommend.  It's just south of the river, and is the only London borough to straddle the Thames.  Points of interest include Richmond Hill, which gives a beautiful vantage point of the Thames and surrounding area...

View from Richmond Hill.

... and Richmond Park, which we didn't have time to visit, but I definitely need to get to.  The park used to be the private hunting grounds for Henry VIII, so there are still lots of deer that roam the park.  Apparently, it's also the largest park in London.  It was a very cool feeling, to feel like I was in the middle of the countryside, when in reality I was just across the river from central London!

Got some more fun stuff going on this week, so I'll definitely try to throw a post up before I head off to Barcelona for spring break on Sunday.  Lots of love to everyone back home!

~Chani