Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral

On Sunday (Sept 25), after Stonehenge, we took the half-hour trip to the nearby town of Salisbury. One of Salisbury's major claims to fame is the gorgeous Salisbury Cathedral, which dates from 1258. It was absolutely massive- no one picture I have of it encompasses the whole thing. Beautiful architecture, and so many details covering every inch of the outside surface!

Cathedral cloisters

The Chapter House at the Cathedral is home to the best-preserved copy of the Magna Carta! There are only 4 copies existing in the world today. Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside but I did get to see it, as well as the exhibit explaining the history and significance of the document. The Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215 and somewhat re-balanced power between the English monarch and the English nobles. It's considered the basis of modern English laws protecting the rights of the individual, and the constitutions of many Commonwealth countries have drawn from its basic principles. 

Cathedral cloisters 

inside Salisbury Cathedral

inside Salisbury Cathedral

inside Salisbury Cathedral

At 404 feet high, the Cathedral's spire is the tallest medieval structure in the world:

After the cathedral, I went to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. I really liked it! It had pretty good displays about Stonehenge, as well as paleolithic archaeology, finds from local excavations, ceramics, history of local fashion, and a feature on a famous burial found in the area called the Amesbury Archer. 

The museum was just across from the cathedral.

Margaret! I know you'll know who this is :)
I wish you had been there with me!

Walking near the cathedral I took a few pictures of nearby buildings:

entrance to private historic residence 

Lord of the Flies author!

Stonehenge!

On Sunday (Sept 25) I went on a trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury offered by student services. Almost 100 students went! Stonehenge is quite isolated, and it would have been difficult to go there on my own, so I'm really glad I got this opportunity.

Stonehenge is thousands of years old- the original Stonehenge consisted of a circular ditch and bank, and was made c. 3000 BCE. The stone structure visible today was in place by c. 2300 BCE, and consists of two types of stones: sarsen stones (hard sandstone), which are sourced from 30km north of the site; and the smaller bluestones, which are from Wales. Modern experiments have shown that the sarsen stones could have been dragged from their site of origin to Stonehenge using a wooden sledge and rail system, but it would have taken a team of 200 people 12 days to do it! How the bluestones arrived from Wales is even more of a mystery.

Some of the hundreds of people at Stonehenge. There's no way
to get close to the monument itself; everyone walks around a circular
track that skirts widely around the stones themselves.

Illustration of what Stonehenge looked like thousands of years ago.

[PS: scroll down for another, shorter post from a few hours ago, if you missed it because of this post being at the top].

Misty Morning at the Castle

These shots are from Sunday morning, looking back beyond Bader Hall as I walked to the castle for breakfast before leaving for Stonehenge. A beautiful way to start the day!

Stonehenge post coming in a few hours, once I get back from class :)

London Adventures

Yesterday (Saturday Sept 24) I had an Art History field study trip to the British Museum. However, the class is so big that we were divided into groups; and my group didn't have to be at the museum until 2:45, even though we were dropped off in London at 10:30 am. So four of us spent the morning exploring London- so much fun!

First we took the tube into central London- at the beginning, we picked a station at random to get off at. Along the way though, construction interrupted the line, and so we had to get off, ride a red double-decker bus, and then get back on the tube at a different station.

Once we reached our station, we got off and decided to walk around, the rule being that we couldn't consult any maps. We soon reached the Museum of London, and spent quite a bit of the morning in there! It was really interesting, well laid out, good interactive exhibits. We didn't even have time to get through it all properly.

Interesting exhibit about the MOLA [Museum
of London Archaeology] Team and its work in the city

After the museum, we started the 40-minute walk to the British Museum (using maps this time). We walked along Fleet Street for part of the way, and also stopped along the way to see several different buildings, although we didn't go inside any:

St. Paul's Cathedral

Famous tea brand; this store was opened 300+ years ago!

Huge building, couldn't get it all in one picture-
settled for just the sign instead!

The interior was the set of Gringotts Bank
in the Harry Potter films! We couldn't go
inside though, since it's closed on weekends.

London School of Economics. This is for you Eunice! <3

Another building down the street from the main LSE campus.

We reached the British Museum a bit early so waited by the front entrance to meet up with the rest of our group. Here's what the sign said:

But was anyone obeying? It appeared not:

Here's some shots of the outside of the museum:

We had a two-hour tour led by our Art History professor, which definitely gave me much more insight than I would have gotten on my own. We spent the whole time in the different Greek sculpture galleries (Parthenon, and Archaic to Hellenistic sculpture), because that's what we're focusing on in class right now. I'm writing a paper for this class on Early Classical Greek sculpture, so I took extra photos of the Early Classical examples that we saw in the museum! 

The Chatsworth Head, one of the Early
Classical works I'm focusing on

Victoria and Albert Museum and Back to the Globe (Edited Again)

Entrance to one of the V&A galleries

Today we left the castle at 8am for a day of field studies in London. We started the day off at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is mainly devoted to style and design: of furniture, fashion, architecture, textiles, household goods, etc. I was there with my England Since 1851 history class, so we mainly only saw the large gallery that focused on the Victorian era, which is what we're studying right now. Our prof walked through it with all 9 of us students, and then we had free time to choose and research an object for our in-class presentation next week. There was a research room adjoining the gallery where we could look up information about our chosen object and its place within the V&A collection.

My object- plate c.1875-1885

Above is the object I chose for my history presentation next week. It's an earthenware plate produced in Britain, influenced by Japanese design and the Aestheticism movement (neither of which I really know anything about, so much research is in order before this Thursday!).

Middle of the research room at V&A

Ok, there's been several questions about this photo! It's a huge circular display set into the floor of the Victorian gallery research room that I was in, looking down into another research room. The trumpets are hanging suspended from the ceiling. Here's another angle, taken from below the trumpets in the lower research room: (yes, Aunt Bella, the trumpets are all flat!)

Then we left the museum around 12:30 to be at the Globe theatre for 1:30. The Globe was for a different class- Elizabethan Shakespeare- so only me and one other student were in both classes, and therefore had to get from the museum to the theatre. One of the student services staff also wanted to see the play, so the three of us took the tube to reach the theatre.

I bought an Oyster card to use in London on the tube-
it's pay-as-you-go, so it's more convenient than buying
single tickets every time I go. 

This time at the Globe, we were there to see Much Ado About Nothing- one of my absolute favourite Shakespeare plays. It was much easier to stand through the 3-hour running time compared to Dr. Faustus last week, because a) I'm already familiar with the play so can anticipate what's coming; b) it's a comedy, so it's more fun; c) due to the more lighthearted nature the actors were able to make the play much more engaging for the audience (in my opinion); I was more entertained and caught up in the action that during Dr. Faustus.

Anyways, I thought it was incredible and absolutely loved it! I feel very privileged to have been able to go back again to the Globe. It was also neat being able to watch standing next to my classmates and prof, who had no qualms about sitting right down on the ground with us during intermission to talk to us about the play! This class is the one that only has 4 students, total, which I still can hardly believe.  

This time I was standing more to the side,
but right next to the stage! I could lean
my elbows on it during the play. 

View from my spot in the "groundlings" standing area.

Some of the covered seats in the balcony; stage in foreground.

After the play, we met up with castle students who had been on different field studies in London today, and we all took our bus back to the castle (watching Pirates of the Caribbean along the way, by unanimous vote!). We got back, had a late dinner in the dining hall, and now I'm going to post this, do some readings and go to bed! Back to London tomorrow for my Art History field study to the British Museum. 

Answers to Questions

I thought what I'd do for this post is answer the questions that have cropped up in comments on various previous posts. I've paraphrased the questions in bold, and then my answers are in regular font.

Where is Bader Hall (Residence) in relation to the castle? Here's a shot from Google Earth to explain:

Do you get a chance to bake or cook anything there? Unfortunately not! As some of you know, baking is a favourite activity of mine at home, but here the kitchenettes don't have ovens. The student services staff have ovens in their personal living areas which we are allowed to use on occasion, but it would also require a lengthy roundtrip by minibus to buy ingredients. So, no baking for now! I'll make up for it when I get home at Christmas time!

How do you get to London? Any time I go to London with school, I go on a bus they've hired to take us there. They call them "coaches" here (think Greyhound-type buses, not public transportation type buses). The trip takes 2-3 hrs depending on traffic and where in London we're going. On my own, I would take a 25-min taxi ride to Polegate, the nearest train station, and catch a train to London.

Why is there a Dalhousie flag in the dining hall but not one from Acadia? Sorry Grammy Mary! We don't have any students here representing Acadia! I've only heard of 1 person from eastern Canada at all, and that's the 1 student who goes to Dalhousie.

Can we see pictures of Bader Hall from the outside? Yes: here's one. Sorry it's not very good, though.

Is there a drawbridge over the moat? No. The moat only surrounds part of the castle; 2 sides are accessed over dry land, one side has no access, and one side has a stone bridge over the moat (you can see it in my picture that I use as a banner at the top of the page).

Are things more expensive in England than in BC? I don't think so, but I haven't worked it out precisely. I haven't bought very much; just tourist stuff (which is of course a bit overpriced) and cheap staple items from Tesco and Asda (Safeway and Walmart-like).

Can we see more pictures of your room? Well, it's not as perfect as the pristine, new room you saw in my photo from Day 1, so I think the answer's no for now!

Where are you dancing, and with who? I practice by myself in the gym next to Bader Hall. There's a row of weight machines but also a basketball court, so I dance on the court. It seems to be empty if I go early in the morning or later at night. I have all my dance music on my ipod so I just bring that and my headphones. I do have my softshoes here too! There is one other Irish dancer here from Ontario, but she recently had knee surgery and hasn't asked to practice together. Here's a picture of the outside of the gym:

How is the food? Really good!! I've been happily surprised. Lots of vegetarian options- there is actually too much to choose from at every meal. Pretty typical stuff: cereal, eggs, toast, etc for breakfast, and then lunch and dinner are pretty much interchangeable and have things like pasta, pizza, rice, spring rolls, omelette, vegetables (always including potatoes), make-your-own-salad bar, fruit, bread, dessert.

When is choir, how many members are there, and what do you sing? Choir is every Monday night in the castle ballroom (best acoustics, large space) from 7-8pm. There are about 45 of us, roughly 8 guys and the rest girls, and a fairly even split between alto and soprano voices. It's run by one of the musicians in residence here. We've just starting working on Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, which we'll perform at the end of term. We also learn little bits of other songs for fun: at this week's practice we learned part of the gospel song "Deep River" in 4-part harmony, which made everyone really happy. I haven't done any singing since I ended 5 years of musical theatre after Grade 9, when the rehearsal time switched and conflicted with dance. I can't read music, I just like singing for fun, so this choir is a perfect fit for me right now. No experience is required, and you don't need to read music (there's a separate, smaller Chamber Choir starting up soon for the pros among us).

If I've missed anything or you have more questions just let me know! Thanks for the comments :)

Sunday in London

walking across Tower Bridge

Yesterday was my first trip to London with school! It wasn't related to a specific class, but a "cultural studies" trip where everyone goes. We got on our buses around noon for the 2.5-hr drive into London, and watched Grease on the way there :)

We started by the Tower Bridge, and did a 2-hour walking tour of London. We didn't actually see that many famous tourist sites like I was expecting (eg Westminster Abbey); here's a bit of what we did see!

St. Olave's Church. See how the door into the church
is set lower into the ground than the land around it?
During an outbreak of the plague in the 1600s,
so many people (325) were buried in the (small) churchyard
that it raised the overall level of the churchyard by
several feet.

When our tour guide was talking about St. Olave's, she mentioned that the building was hit during the Blitz of London during WWII; however, she then went on to use the terms "Blitz" and "Blitzkrieg/Lightning War" interchangeably. Sorry to digress, but quick history sidetrack for the day :)

The Blitz was 1940-1941, when the German air force bombed London almost every night.

Blitzkrieg means "lightning war" in German, and was a tactic used by the Germans during WWII on the continent (not in Britain) in which they concentrated their forces (soldiers, artillery, air power) in one area, attacking so fast and moving so quickly that their enemies couldn't adequately respond in time.

the "Gherkin" office building behind a church

Leadenmall Market. Apparently this was Diagon
Alley in Harry Potter?!

I have no idea who this is!

Monument to the Great Fire of London

Near the end of the walking tour, we were walking back across the river, this time across London Bridge, so that we got a view of Tower Bridge:

Tower Bridge! That's the HMS Belfast on the right, a ship
that's now a museum, and which I visited with Vimy
in 2008. 

We also saw a door that's apparently famous as the place where Bridget Jones lives
in the "Bridget Jones' Diary" movie (haven't seen it):

After the walking tour, we sat eating our dinner next to the Thames, and could see St. Paul's Cathedral across the river:

Then it was time for the play Dr. Faustus at the Globe! This play was actually written by Marlowe, one of Shakespeare's rivals. The Globe theatre is a reconstruction of the theatre Shakespeare's plays were performed in; lots of research was done, and the building was made with period-appropriate materials, but some of it is still guesswork.

the outside of the Globe

All the students had "groundling" tickets, which meant that we were part of the 500-person crowd standing between the stage and the seats, which form the outside of the circular building. It's surprisingly tiring to stand as still as possible for 3 hours! The play was interesting, but pretty dark, plus I was unfamiliar with it; I'll be on more familiar ground when I'm back here on Friday to see Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Seats around the outside of the theatre; at the
bottom you can see the beginning of the groundling
area, where I was standing. Some people were
resting their arms right on the stage; I was
slightly off-centre from the front of the stage,
leaning against the wall dividing us from
the seats, like the people in this photo.
I had a great view; I got quite lucky!
(And it helps being six feet tall)

My view of the stage. We weren't allowed to take
pictures during the play itself. It was amazing being
so close to the actors, and it was more interactive than
you think of plays being normally: some audience members got wet,
tennis balls were hit into the audience, and actors often came
and went through the audience using the ramp that you can barely
see at the front of the picture. 

After the play, it was a 2-hr trip back to Herstmonceux (shorter than the trip there due to less traffic). We got back around midnight. Definitely a good day!

[PS: thanks for the comments! I'll try to post soon with answers to the questions some of you have been asking].