10.24.2008

Gardening in York

Just a quick blog--
I just got back from York last weekend where I spent some time in the city getting to know the people, and then I went and helped at an organization that provides services for people in need. That particular weekend we were gardening in a home for a single mother.
The yard was a jungle!
Here is my wonderful team!
...That guy on the right who I am sitting on sure looked familiar....I couldn't quite place him...

10.22.2008

Getting Smart.

I can't believe how long it has been since I last updated my blog! It's been a busy couple of weeks, folks. Before I get into this blog, I want to share briefly what I have been up to in the last three weeks.
My main goal has been to research England, and immerse myself into the culture.
A few things to note:
- Pants = Underwear
- Ta = Thank-You
- AM/PM? Forget about it. Everything is the 24 hour clock here. And if you go to buy a ticket at the train station, and the clerk says "14.25" Clarify if he means 14:25 (2:25PM) or $14.25. I've had some angry words from train station attendants for that one.
- Pedestrians have the right-of-way? Doesn't seem so. In fact, more often than not, cars have sped up when I try to cross the road at a cross walk. Maybe they are just racist against Sock Monkeys.
- Tipping isn't mandatory at pubs.
- Everything (except for the Pubs) closes at 8:00. Or if you are in a smaller town, it's 6:00. Oy.

So I felt that if I were to really discover what the Brits were all about, I should start with their history. First stop, British Museum. (side note: British Museum = Free) Just the building alone is worth seeing: it's quite the mammoth. The Great Court is dizzying, with a tessellated glass roof (lots of glass triangles, making up a pattern) surrounding the "Reading Room" (apparently you have to be world famous, or a historical genius to get in. They denied me. Strange.)
The Great Court, nor the Reading Room however, were the subject of my visit. I was there to find out about British History.

But I was about to be royally confused.

The first room I wandered into was fantastic. Huge Egyptian stone statues of Ramses II. A smattering of sarcophagi. Walls and walls of Egyptian stone hieroglyphs. The Rosetta Stone.
Wait.
Heiroglyphs? Sarcophagi? And since when was Ramses II the king of England?
These British people... they've got some research to do on their own history. Last I checked, it was the Ancient Egyptians who wrote in hieroglyphs.
I continued on my search for British History, in the British Museum.
The second room was staggering. There were these colossal winged human headed horse statues that in Ancient Sumeria, were known as Shedu. And if you know anything about me, you'll know that I'm wild about--
Ancient Sumeria??
At the British Museum?
I was really starting to wonder at this point, what the British people thought was their history.
On with my search for British History at the British Museum.
At this point I was starting to doubt whether or not the British Museum actually held true to it's name. My quandary was continued, as I entered the next room which housed more Parthenon sculptures than the Parthenon.
Now why, I asked myself, would the British be boasting substantial Ancient Grecian sculpture in their British Museum? How do their histories link?
And how is it that the British Museum has come to house the most Egyptian Antiquities outside of Cairo itself? How is it that it's the British Museum that displays the Rosetta Stone, one of the most important pieces of Egyptian History?
All of these questions, I've found, point to a man named Sir Hans Sloane. To make a long story short, (and I know you'd love to read the long story, so go ahead and look him up on Wikipedia) he fancied himself a collector of curiosities. And apparently in those days, valuable pieces of Ancient Civilizations were considered curios. And upon his death, at the ripe old age of 92, he bequeathed his entire collection to Britain. To this day, the ownership of many pieces in the collection are wildly contested by the original countries.

But that wasn't what I came to the British Museum to learn! I came to seek some proper British History. It turns out, though, that I can't just go to one place. In London alone, there are over 240 museums. And then there's the rest of Britiain....(side note: if you ask me, the British Museum should be more descriptive in it's name. I find it to be misleading, don't you? I think it should be called "The World Museum of Britain" or "The Museum of stuff collected from all around the world from some old dead rich guy who bequeathed it to Britain")

Well ladies and gentlemen, I feel as though the search for British History has just begun. It's a good thing I'm here for a while.

On another note: While I was at the museum my bag got stolen. I think it was this guy to the right of my in this photograph. Look how close his hand is to me.
It's questionable...