Jane Myrick

Here Comes The Sun

After pulling an all-nighter on Friday night, I was already up bright – or rather, dark, since it was 4:30 and the sun doesn’t rise in London until about 6 – and early yesterday morning to catch a cab with a friend to Heathrow Airport. We weren’t on the same flight, but since he left at around the same time, we got to share a ride, which was a lot of fun! We also got to see the sun rise on the way there; the sky was streaked with gorgeous pink and golden hues, a phenomenon of which, thanks to my Isaac Newton class, I now understand the physics.

The odd thing about traveling home when compared with the flight to London is the nature of the time change. Despite traveling for over

I actually enjoyed the lengthy plane ride; it was full of interesting people!

12 hours, I arrived in Portland only four hours (local time) after departing from Heathrow… I effectively chased the sun for most of Saturday. The plane I was on had a fascinating feature built into their TV screens that essentially served as a digital map of the route we took across the globe, including live measurements of things like altitude, speed, distance traveled, sun position, etc. It was very interesting to follow our progress live! Also unlike the way to London, I

Descending — On our way down into Portland…

wasn’t able to get any sleep because it was daytime for the entirety of my flight. Instead, I used the time to write down more memories from the past weeks, and go through all of the pictures I took (over 1,000!). After a brief layover in Vancouver, BC, where I cleared US customs, I flew the short distance to PDX (it felt very odd to be surrounded by American accents again!) and was greeted by my parents with big hugs and smiles. Actual face-to-face time with them is far superior to the Facetiming we’d been doing! By the time we were home, after swapping many stories, I was pretty tired, and as I got ready for bed, I realized I had been awake for 45 consecutive hours… Needless to say, I was out like a light a bit before 8 o’clock!

I slept for 17 hours and was woken up after 1 pm. This afternoon, I did several loads of laundry and unpacked, slightly delirious from the time change. I kept noticing little details that reminded me of where I was, or

Sleepy Jane — Taken during the 17th hour of sleep, just before I woke up.

rather, where I wasn’t. For example: the air. The wind blowing off the ocean still smells like the ocean, but the air in my house doesn’t smell like home. It’s like visiting a stranger’s house and being very aware that the scent is different. Even though I slept in the same bed last night as I have for years, it didn’t feel like my bed. At present, ‘home’ is still the fourth floor of Scape, with its unique smell and bed framed with windows on two sides. I was talking with a friend who flew back a few hours after I did, and we marveled at how quickly our definition of home adjusted to fit where we were. He thinks it will be similar when we move into our dorms next week, particularly since all but three first-years who went to London will be living in the same dorm!

The extensive gratitude that I feel for this program continues to reach me in waves. I’ve talked with a bunch of the others these past few days about what the last three weeks would’ve been like with a different group of people and social dynamic, if so-and-so hadn’t been able to come, etc. I feel (as most of my classmates do) so lucky to have shared this experience with so many outstanding people, all of whom I’m looking forward to seeing again next week at OSU! I’d like to send out a big thank-you to everyone involved in the organization of this study-abroad, as well as the other students; this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I’m so glad to have been involved with such a great group of friends!

I’d also like to thank everyone who has been reading these entries – I loved sitting down at the end of each day to think about what to write and pick out pictures to share with you all. Merely creating this blog was a great learning experience, and I’m happy that other people enjoyed checking it out as much as I enjoyed updating it!

Jumbled Joyful Jamboree

Today was unusual in that it was the first day wrought with finality. Prior to waking up this morning, I think a lot of us took our time and the possibilities available to us here for granted, myself included. It wasn’t until my alarm went off this morning and the first rocking chords of “Rory And The Hurricanes” by Ringo Starr reverberated through my flat that the realization hit me: in a matter of hours, I wouldn’t be in the city that I’ve grown to love. I also realized that my To See/Do List of places around London was not nearly completed, so that just means I’ll have to come back! My Oyster card (ie tube pass) can always be reloaded, after all…

One of the works we read in preparation for this course epitomizes this odd awareness of time, or lack thereof: “Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run for it.” (Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress). Even though we can’t stop time, we can sure make it fly with fun! We spent our last English literature class discussing the last few poems we read, delivered our Capstone (in essence, a final project) presentations to the class and took several surveys for Scape, INTO London City University (our hosting campus) and the OSU Honors College.

We had our tea and scones with clotted cream, just this once... — We had our tea and scones with clotted cream, just this once…

From the classroom, we proceeded on foot to the Perkin Reveller (the name is also conveniently a reference to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales), a very nice restaurant almost directly under the Tower Bridge and next to the Tower of London along the Thames. We all got afternoon tea, which was a lot of fun! I tried Earl Grey for the first time, and despite my orthodox avoidance of tea, I was thoroughly impressed with this one. The tea was accompanied by a variety of little sandwiches and cakes on elegant miniature trays. I truly felt right proper! Plus, most of us dressed up for the occasion, and that really made it special.

After tea, we headed briefly to the

Our last time 'pubbing' together. — Our last time ‘pubbing’ together.

Victoria and Albert Museum. I would’ve loved to have spent more time there, but unfortunately I felt fairly museumed-out after the past few days. Also, I needed to finish packing between our officially planned excursions and our own, late-night adventures.

For dinner, we found a new pub not far from the one we visited a few nights ago, except this one featured an amazing live blues/jazz/swing

The entrance to Jamboree, tucked away in a small courtyard.

musician and singer. He even serenaded one of my friends! After that, we returned very quickly to Scape to pick up some more people to go to a fantastic club called Jamboree. Tonight’s featured music act was called Des Was A Bowie Fan, and it was yet another outstanding music venue. It was nestled into a courtyard, and the interior looked like a cross between the quirkiness of décor of Central Perk (from the T.V. show, Friends) and the grungy din of a typical sports bar. The focal point of the

This was the advert that Jamboree used for tonight's ensemble... Spectacular dancing music! — This was the advert that Jamboree used for tonight’s ensemble… Spectacular dancing music!

room was a short wooden stage, upon which stood a piano off to one side. Below the stage, a large dance floor connected the musician’s quarters to the bar and seating area. We danced on the stage, elevated above the crowd, for several hours to tunes by everyone from the Beatles to the Smiths to the Beach Boys, and even the B52’s and the Temptations, until the heat inside was overwhelming and we were forced into the cool air amidst a crowd of only locals. It was easily one of my favorite parts of the trip!

A Midterms and Finals Burrito

Catch us at Hogwarts for the winter term... Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff! — Catch us at Hogwarts for the winter term… Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff!

This evening’s entry is going to be on the short side; since this study abroad is essentially a condensed, three-week version of the orthodox 11-week courses offered at OSU, the past few days have essentially been wave after wave of coursework. It’s midterms and finals rolled like a burrito into a series of intense days, but I don’t mind the work, since the assignments are all interesting and allow for some creative freedom. It just means that I’ve been spending more time studying and less time going on adventures outside of the group activities.

On Wednesday, we went to the Millennium Bridge to investigate the retrofitting they did after some instability issues that began on opening day (when people walked in step, the bridge wavered from side to side, despite being designed as a very solid structure). As part of the excursion activity, I got to dust off Ye Olde Calculus skills from math last year, and it felt very good to get back into the swing of math!

Yesterday, we visited Westminster Abbey. It’s a gorgeous building, and is

The architecture here never ceases to amaze me... — The architecture here never ceases to amaze me…

the final resting place of many influential people. Everyone from Queen Elizabeth I to Charles Darwin is buried there! I really hoped to get a picture of me with Elizabeth’s grave and post it here, captioned with “Queen Elizabeth and Jane Elizabeth”, but alas, photography isn’t allowed inside out of respect, which I completely understand.

This morning was my morning off, so I went with several friends to an adorable café for breakfast, which was surrounded by lots of very cool graffiti. Another thing I’ve noticed about London: graffiti is rare, and when it is present, it’s typically only constructive and

We went to Cafe 338 for breakfast; it was adorable and cozy, plus the food was very good!

artistic. Then I went back to Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross to get a picture with the Harry Potter trolley, since the queue was too long the last time we were there. I

Mind-blowing mind exhibit at the Science Museum!

also went shopping on Oxford Street, a very trendy area of town, which was a lot of fun! In the afternoon, I had my last physics class here. It’s odd to type those words! We essentially wrapped up and went over our departure schedule and the plan for tomorrow’s activities after English lit class in the morning. Before returning to Scape, I stopped at the Science Museum and went through a bunch of fascinating interactive exhibits about psychology, engineering and data farming – yet another place to add to my list of recommended spots in London!

As the program winds down, I keep feeling so glad to have this experience. Not only is the opportunity great (who wouldn’t want to study abroad in London?), but so are the professors and my fellow participants. We’ve all become such good friends in a very short time, and I’m so happy to share all of these memories with awesome people. More tomorrow!

Burn, Baby, Burn

I began my Sunday with a morning trip to Costa’s (the UK equivalent of

View from the charging station at Costa's. Best. Cappuccinos. Ever. — View from the charging station at Costa’s. Best. Cappuccinos. Ever.

Starbucks, except less commercial) to work on several assignments for my English lit class – including one highly entertaining essay justifying my use of a completely random photo of one of my friends as the cover for Spencer’s The Fairy Queene – while

This is the picture I defended as the perfect cover image for The Fairy Queene; it was a very fun assignment!

enjoying some smooth jazz. There’s a Costa’s just up the road from Scape, across the street from Mile End (the nearest tube station). It was a lot of fun getting to appreciate the local atmosphere and people-watch while being productive!

In the afternoon, I met up with a group of friends to go wander through Chinatown and Soho before an event in the evening… More on that later. Chinatown is very ornately decorated, and polycultural despite it’s specific faction-oriented name. It is because of this synthesis of cultures that we happened upon a delicious (and inexpensive) lasagna restaurant sandwiched between bubble tea shops and Asian markets. From Soho, we wandered south toward the Thames.

The model of London calmly bobbing on a barge in the Thames.

Yesterday marked the 350th anniversary of the end (roughly) of the Great Fire, and in celebration, a giant fire was started. Except, unlike the original, last night’s fire was on a barge in the middle of the Thames, and instead of acres of land or logs, a scale model of the affected portion of the city in 1666 was consumed by the flames. The riverfront was absolutely packed; an estimated 200,000 people lined the streets to watch, and from where we were standing, that

The fire begins... The actual fire began in a bakery, after someone accidently left a pie in the oven too long. — The fire begins… The actual fire began in a bakery, after someone accidently left a pie in the oven too long.

seemed very accurate! The crackling of the flames engulfing the model resonated over the water, and the heat could be felt even from several hundred feet away. It really made me understand the scale of the Great Fire; while I felt surprised at the effects of a relatively small inferno, it

The ending blaze! — The last of the blaze!

was nearly impossible to imagine two-thirds of the city awash in fire. The constant glow alone would be enough to set people on edge, not to mention the added stress of protecting one’s livelihood and family.

Today was slightly more structured, with the addition of a pseudo English lit class in the morning. Rather than hosting class in our usual classroom at Into London City University, we met in front of the Globe theatre to take a tour and learn about Shakespearean-era history. This was made a more interesting experience due to some delays on the tube, which rendered it necessary for my friend and me to sprint from Blackfriars Station, down through the financial district and across Millennium Bridge toward the Globe in order to make our appointed meeting time. Even though it was a bit stressful, it was a gorgeous route!

After touring the Globe, several of us headed over to a large covered

Yum! Great lunch! — Yum! It was called a saab pie-neer.

pavilion that houses the Borough Market to find lunch. It was packed with people, and the stalls ranged in types of wares from French cheeses to local flora. I tried an English vegetarian pot pie with spinach, paneer cheese, potato, mango and peas… Yum!

This mural graced the window of a very cute card shop in Soho.

We then went back to Soho to do a bit of shopping (mostly of the window variety), stopping in any places that suited our fancy. We also happened upon the Bag O’ Nails club, which is where Paul McCartney first met Linda Eastman in 1967, in addition to where The Jimi Hendrix Experience first played in 1966! Very cool!

The world-renowned club! — The world-renowned club

I’m currently hanging out in the common lounge area at Scape with a bunch of friends watching Casino Royale; hence… 007, out.

C.H.A.M.P.S

Crepes, Hemispheres, Art, a Marketplace, a Palace and Schoolwork. These are what have dominated the past few days, primarily the latter.

One of the most astounding facets of this study abroad experience is that I can earn six credits in only three weeks (for those of you readers who are

Late-night, post-study session crepe run! — Late-night, post-study session crepe run on Thursday! I also tried Nutella for the first time…

unfamiliar with how OSU’s credit system works, a full-time student takes between 12 and 15 credits in 11 weeks during the fall, winter and spring terms), however, this also means that there is a significant amount of schoolwork that takes up my time outside of class. I’m really enjoying all that we’re studying, though, so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Thanks to everyone who checks this blog frequently, even when I don’t post for a few days!

Straddling the two hemispheres at Greenwich!

Thursday morning was spent doing miscellaneous chores around my flat followed by a coffee date with several of my friends, and then in the afternoon, my Isaac Newton class traveled to Greenwich to visit the Greenwich observatory. While there, I saw a series of clocks that revolutionized navigation at sea and calculated my longitude using calculus, a sextant, and Greenwich Hour Angle charts. I also stood in both hemispheres of the globe, straddling the Prime Meridian! Now I can check that off my list! It was also very interesting to watch the clock that dictates what time it is across the globe, which is accurate to fractions of a second.

Yesterday morning, my English lit class met, and we talked about

Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene, the Tudor dynasty – more specifically, Henry VIII’s terrible treatment of his wives and country, the rise of Bloody Mary (not the alcoholic beverage), and how utterly awesome Elizabeth I was as a monarch – and scansion (analysis of syllables) of poetry. We spent the afternoon perusing the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, both outstanding collections! I was most excited to see the Vermeer, Van Gogh, Monet, Michelangelo and Turner pieces, and they certainly exceeded my expectations!

This is now one of my new favorite of Van Gogh's! — This is now one of my new favorite of Van Gogh’s!

I adore the atmosphere of museums, particularly art galleries; there’s something about the hushed appreciation for subtle techniques and the unthinkable amount of hours spent hunched over a canvas perfecting a piece that permeates the crisp moldings, the calm and collected attendants, even the demeanors of easily upset infants are affected by the awe-inspiring masterpieces.

Today we took a train to Hampton Court Palace, one of Henry VIII’s places

King Arthur (Steven) and his Knights of the Round Table (Hexagonal Fountain).

of residence and spent nearly five hours exploring the grounds. Most of the rooms remain in their original condition, complete with massive tapestries and stained glass, and the gardens were immaculately cared for, including the maze that we navigated. We were also given cloaks to wear while walking around the grounds, and they really contributed

May I present, their Royal Highnesses, Queen Amira and Queen Jane!

to the ambiance… I was able to appreciate the palace more, since I felt tied to it via the period article of clothing. This was another place where I could have easily spent several days, yet I am so glad to have experienced it for the time that I did! Later this afternoon, I went with some friends to Portobello Market, which was an adorable one-way road that was chock full of vendors in stands and shops, showing their wares and socializing with the neighbors.

Bedtime! Good night from London!

These past few days have been packed with travel! This is somewhat fitting, seeing as it’s (roughly) my one week anniversary with London!

After my first writing assessment in English Lit on Friday, I journeyed across the ancient world, through Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy, Japan, Egypt and China. How? At the world renowned British Museum! Between adoring the frequent trips to the Newport Public Library as a kid and acquiring a love of museums as a teen (thanks Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Tom!), I grew up with a close relationship to many fields, particularly history and art. And the British Museum certainly satisfied both! It’s an expansive building, with an intricate maze of rooms to meander through and absorb knowledge of the past. Although I could have spent days there, I only had about five hours, so I focused on the Egyptian, Japanese, Grecian, Roman and Mesopotamian sections. Perhaps the most

The Rosetta Stone in one word: incredible!

famous artifact in the museum’s collection is the Rosetta Stone, a slab of rock that allowed archaeologists to decipher the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs, because it bore the same inscription in three different languages: Greek (known), Demotic (somewhat understood) and Hieroglyphics (previously incomprehensible). In short, this is one very important slab of rock. In addition to the Rosetta Stone, I also saw many statues, limestone reliefs, sarcophagi, mummies and jewelry in the Egyptian gallery, some of which – as I discovered when I realized how familiar they looked – I had seen

This poster was designed to reflect traditional Japanese art while also incorporating the psychedelic color scheme of the 1970s.

previously when they were on loan to the King Tut exhibit that was in Seattle a few years ago. Cool! Another highlight of the museum was the Japanese gallery, on the uppermost floor, wherein I saw everything from ancient wooden Buddha statues to the kimonos of geisha to modern pop art. Then, on the ground floor, I admired the Elgin marbles that so moved the poet John Keats. The Elgin marbles are the collection of marble statues and sculptures ‘legally

Shout-out to Ms. Murphy: I saw Keat's inspiration! — Shout-out to Ms. Murphy: I saw Keats’ inspiration!

acquired’ (or, if you agree with Lord Byron and modern Greeks, ‘looted’ or ‘vandalized’) by Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, from the Parthenon in Greece. They are absolutely awe-inspiring in their intricacies, size and resilience. I didn’t fully comprehend the history imbued in those pieces until long after I’d left the museum; they had lasted thousands of years atop the acropolis, maintaining their beauty despite the degradation of the sands of time and even Venetian cannon fire.

I did a different kind of traveling yesterday, and it was yet another first for me! Prior to this study abroad, I had never been on a train before, and

The entrance to Trinity College. If you look closely at the statue of Henry VIII, you'll notice that he's holding a chair leg in his right hand, the remnants of a prank put on by the student group called The Night Climbers. — The entrance to Trinity College. If you look closely at the statue of Henry VIII, you’ll notice that he’s holding a chair leg in his right hand, the remnants of a prank put on by the student group called The Night Climbers.

yesterday, everyone boarded the one to Cambridge. Once in the famous town, we took a tour of Trinity College, Isaac Newton’s alma mater, guided by a very engaging and entertaining woman named Jackie. She told us that Cambridge is actually composed of over 30 colleges, and when you apply to Cambridge, you only apply to a specific college. That college then is your home base, which supplies students with, in the case of Trinity College, what King Henry VIII, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I believed to be the four essentials: a dining hall, living quarters, a library and a chapel (the latter being heavily emphasized by Mary). The colleges are dispersed throughout the town of Cambridge, and hence, the lecture halls and classrooms are fully integrated into the town, so no formal university campus exists. While on the tour, we saw Isaac Newton’s rooms (or at least the window into what used to be his room), an apple tree cut from the one that so famously catalyzed Newton’s revelations about gravity, the Royal Chair Leg and many locations around town used in the movie “The Theory of Everything” starring Eddie Redmayne, who, like his character Stephen Hawking, attended Cambridge.

A brief interlude for lunch followed the tour, and while we ate, we watched the punters go by on the river Cam. Punting is a type of boating similar in technique to that of the canals in Venice, with the driver standing and using a long pole to propel the boat forward by digging into the riverbed. Punters at Cambridge stand at the back of the wide, shallow

The punter guys wearing white shirts (left and middle) are members of the Cambridge Crew Team and act as docents along the river.

boat, while at their rival institution, Oxford, punters work from the front of the boat. After we finished our food, we headed to the Fitzwilliam Museum to see their exhibit on illuminated (similar to illustrated) manuscripts and color, which tied the curriculum of my two classes together seamlessly; we studied medieval manuscript making in English Lit, and the science behind color perception and light in my physics class. Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed due to the fragile nature of the texts, so I don’t get to share that experience with you, however, it was very interesting and the illuminations were gorgeous! Most of them included some sort of gold or silver leaf on their pages, thus reflecting the light incredibly beautifully (hence the term ‘illumination’). The Fitzwilliam also has an extensive art gallery, which I spent several hours looking through. They even had a few by Monet! The Fitzwilliam is easily my fourth favorite museum, behind the British Museum back in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

Now I’m off to see the Queen! Well, to visit Buckingham Palace, anyway.