Museum Day

Today was just a museum fest with an attempt to give brief introductions to three different museums--The British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and The Victoria Albert, otherwise known as the VA or the V&A.

Our lodgings are right around the corner from the British Museum, and since there was nothing specific for any of the courses, I just allotted an hour visit.  I can already hear the booing and the hissing.  The British Museum is considered by many to be "the" museum with the Rosetta Stone and Elgins Marbles (http://www.britishmuseum.org/), and it has too many things in it for anyone to actually have a decent visit unless he/she is prepared to spend the whole day.  However, I thought it was also a place that, with our free day tomorrow and the close vicinity to our apartments, that anyone from the group could actually go back later in the day or anytime tomorrow.

Because we were starting off so close by, we actually had a fairly leisurely morning. I went to my favorite patisserie and got croissants for breakfast.

I will definitely be going back tomorrow night to get my favorite cakes for my last night dessert.  We are planning to go back to that pub to get another one of those pies for our farewell to London dinner.  It is on the same block, so I took a picture of the outside of the pub this morning.

And because I was starting to feel nostalgic because we have only one more day in London, I took pictures of the outside of our apartment building as well.

After I finished breakfast--otherwise known as "what is the difference between a chocolate croissant and a pain au chocolate--eating both to see" or "how much clotted cream can Jane put on one croissant?"--we met and walked over to the British Museum.  Another magnificent building, but despite its beauty and the fact that I have been seeing lots of impressive buildings lately, I was not expecting the open expanse of the inside.

So here is the outside . . .

And then here is the inside in what is called the Great Court (with my students and Jane looking at maps) . . .

 . . . and more of the gleaming, white inside 

Because this visit was not connected with a class, the group split up, finding individual interests.  I wanted to see the room sponsored by the Korea Foundation. I also went to the clock and watches exhibit.

I actually met two students here.  I was surprised; I'd thought they'd all be off for the Parthenon rooms.

We then met out front for a group picture.

And then we were off to the National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.org.uk/about/history.php)  The National Gallery is the bigger, fancier sister, but I think the Portrait Gallery is nearer my heart.  I love looking at the portraits; I wish they had more postcards of more of my favorites in the store, so I can take them home to pass around to students. Despite companies like Norton having online companion sites to their textbooks, most students don't utilize authors, which I think important as well as the kinds of clothes they wear.  Also, it is kind of nice having the pictures right in class to show people even if they have looked at them before (without having to spend time to bring them up on screen in class).

I had decided to have my students do two theme "tours": The Victorians and the one on family ( http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/explore/tours.php), but this was actually much more complicated even if it was a good way to force people to explore the museum more.  The "themes" are just groups of 12 portraits put together according to some theme or period.  When I come again, I will just have students go into the rooms that are covered by the British Literature survey course I teach.  My Brit Lit II students would have been really interested because the "Portrait of the Day" was the one of Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: 

The Portrait of the Day includes a lecture about the person in the portrait, so I listened to a great half hour lecture on the Earl of Rochester. I teach my students some of his background in the survey course and about how often he was banished from court for licentious behavior (really if Charles II is "schooling" you on behavior, you must be a bad lot), but I did not know about his inclination to push disabled people into the river for a laugh, for example.  I took lots of notes to add to my lecture notes later.

I spent so much time in the National Portrait gallery that I did not have time to get lunch before we were to meet in front of one of the lions in Trafalgar Square to take the tube to the V&A.  However, remember that I had both a chocolate croissant AND a pain au chocolate for breakfast, so I was all set :)

Cathy was nice enough to take a picture of me in front of the V&A.  That's little me with the blue National Portrait Gallery bag in front of the entrance.

The museum was initially called the Museum of Manufactures, and I think that is an important thing to remember because the focus is really on applied art and design.  It is the world's largest collection of decorative art, and one walk through the jewelry exhibit is proof of that.  

At the V&A, a group of us went through the Arts and Crafts exhibit (http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/a/arts-and-crafts/).   I really love this movement and William Morris especially, so I really enjoyed the section.  It was also the section right next to rooms on the Victorian period.

The following is a scale model of the Crystal Palace. The original was built of plate glass and cast iron for the Great Exhibition of 1851 to showcase the latest technology.

After we finished with this section, some of the remaining group went to the Natural History Museum while Jane and I stayed to go through the fashion exhibit and to do the theatre and design exhibit--both reason enough to put this on the trip itinerary for when I come back in 2018 with my students and students from the Fashion department.

After we finished at the V&A, Jane and I headed back to the apartment.  I made dinner (tortellini, spinach, cream sauce, chicken satay, and parmesan). Each, except for the cheese, was only pound, so I thought we did really well for the both of us. I then attempted to rest since this was also the night of Matilda.

Part two:

I will try to post about Matilda tomorrow or this weekend, and that will be the last post.  I am now finishing this up on Thursday, January 15---our last day.  It was a free day and I forgot my camera, so I do not have any pictures. We met with people from the study abroad office in the London School of Fashion Design and went to Oxford Street and Bond Street to go shopping (I bought shoes at Clarkes!) and to Selfridges where we had lunch.

We did go to the pub for dinner, but the bakery was out of my favorite cake for dessert.  Wise Jane reminded me that we did were not leaving until 1:30, so I would have time to go tomorrow and have that cake for lunch.  Really, this is the kind of person with whom everyone should travel.

I am feeling very tired but also very sad about leaving here.  I know much of it is because I am so behind on work I need to do for school and for my TEFL and for my upcoming presentations.  However, much of it is because I really love London.  I think this is the place I would live if I won the lottery.  I'd live here and spend four months year in South Korea. Powerball, make it happen!

Oxford and two seconds in Stratford-on-Avon: a Lesson in Flexibility

So, this was the plan:

8:30--meet in front of Bedford Place (where the students are living)
Take Coach bus to bus to Stratford-on-Avon--take some group pictures in front of the Shakespeare's birthplace and then head back south to Oxford for
11:00--presentation at Story Museum
12:30--lunch reservation at The Bear Inn, the oldest pub in Oxford, established in 1242
afterwards go over to the Bodleian Library
3:30-4:00--leave Oxford, arriving in plenty of time for students to go see the plays they had arranged to see.

However, there was a planned bus driver strike in London.  The strike was planned for 4 PM through rush hour tomorrow morning, so all the people who usually take the bus decided to drive to work today.

The bus driver told us our plan was not going to work before we even got out of London. It was already taking too long, and there was no way were going to get to Shakespeare's birthplace and make our 11:00.  He suggested that we just go straight to Oxford and then go to Stratford-on-Avon last, so we did.  I knew how to get from our different venues, but I had no idea where the bus was going to drop us off, so I could not look up directions before leaving the apartment like I did for everything else.  We have a handy group because they have phones to look things up and lead the way.

 This new plan actually worked very well because it allowed time for students to look around Oxford for almost and hour while it was still sunny, and it gave me time to find the The Bear Inn and the Bodleian to see if we could get a group tour even though you are supposed to book two weeks in advance.  This was the BEST thing because I think I would have missed the small street where The Bear Inn was, and we did miss Catte ST, where the visitor entrance to the Bodleian is, because we were on the other side, and it looks like a cobbled walkway not a regular street the way it is showed in Google maps.

The Story Museum (http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/about-us/) was a great place where they do all sorts of work with the public schools to help with literacy, reading, and writing skills.  We had someone talk to us about the work they do with schools and some of the challenges teachers face in England, and we got to go through the 26 Authors Exhibition, where famous authors dressed up like their favorite characters from books they read as children and whole exhibits are built up around them. For example, the above picture is of Phillip Pullman dressed up as Long John Silver.  We even got to walk through a wardrobe (through fur coats) to get into Narnia! I don't have many pictures because my favorite places were way too dark.   I think it was good for our students, so many of whom plan to be teachers, to see the kinds of similar challenges that teachers of elementary school kids have in other places.

We then walked over to The Bear Inn (http://www.bearoxford.co.uk/)and had a private little room.

Because we had a big group and they aren't used to getting so many at once, we did a preorder with three different options to choose from: a mushroom pie, steak and ale pie, and fish and chips.  I took pictures of the fish and chips when they started coming in because they were giant, and I didn't get a picture of the dish when I had it.

By the time my steak and ale pie came out, I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture until I had nearly eaten it all.

Thankfully, Jane sent me a picture of hers, so I can add it here.  This was another delicious pie.

I could have easily ate this for hours.  I really do not understand the people who told me the food in England was not good.  How can you go wrong with pie crust, gravy, succulent meat, and mashed potatoes? You can't.  I really wanted to lie down and take a nap.  And perhaps this food euphoria was the reason why I was not paying attention to details. I should have been paying attention, but I wasn't. If I had, I would have remembered to heed Lee's warning: remind students that there is no bathroom in the Bodleian and make sure to go to the bathroom in the pub.  We had plenty of time, but I was seduced into a gravy coma and blithely got up and went out the door to take pictures of the other happy and extremely full-bellied people.

Next, we were off to the Bodleian Library, which has got to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.  And that is not my English major-geek speaking.  

We first stopped to allow people to buy souvenirs because we were early for our time (which means I still had time to remind people about the bathroom, but I still forgot); Jane also wanted to go to Barbour Store and look at the waxed coat that she has really been wanting. Look up Barbour (http://www.barbour.com/barbour-history); the queen wears these coats (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2212561/Impeccable-British-pedigree-Why-Barbour-jacket-Queens-wardrobe-staples.html). 

With over 14 millions volumes, the Bodleian Library (http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/) has something for everyone.  I do not have many pictures because you cannot take pictures of many of the places during the tour; they even take your purses and bags and phones and cameras and lock them up to make sure.  It is a working library, so you have to be quiet, and you get a amplifier/speaker thingy so that you can hear the tour guide as they practically whisper all the information.  When we went up to one of the reading rooms, some students at the other end (blocked off) looked up bored and annoyed at this crowd trooping through.  I don't blame them because we found that some are sitting for exams this week.

One of favorite tidbits about the library is that to become a reader, someone who can actually use the library, you have to recite a declaration about how you won't steal or deface any of the holdings as well as not to bring in any flame.

To get to the library, you first have to walk by the Radcliffe Camera:

Doesn't this make you want to read, read, read?

Wait, there is more.  Here is what it looks like when you first walk through the visitors' entrance (almost all these people are my students trying to get pictures):

And this is what it looks like when you look back from where you enter.

We were split into two groups because they do not allow more than thirteen at a time for the standard tour in the Divinity School.  Many of students were really excited about this because the room in the school we sat in was used as the infirmary for the Harry Potter films.

But remember what I had forgotten and how we had such a huge meal with free Pepsi? The first thing students asked me was about bathrooms and that is when I remembered: "No bathrooms for visitors at the Bodleian!"  You should have seen the look on their faces. It would have been funny if it hadn't been frightening :).  They did well; no one followed the Globe practice of just urinating where you stand, and we all had a great discussion about the use of urine led by the students who had went to the exhibition at the Globe for the students who did not, so it was still a learning experience.  I will use every teachable moment I can get! 

Below is a picture of the ceiling of the reception room in the Divinity School.  They raised money to do this room by promising donors to add their coat of arms to the ceiling--smart fund raising technique.

These are the last pictures from this day, partly because of the picture ban and partly because this is when the anxiety starts. 

Once the tour was finished and we had all gathered together, we asked the guide about bathrooms and several people also wanted to go to the museum store.  [Sidenote: I have fallen in love with museum stores. I think I want to take just one trip where all I buy are things from museum stores.] Immediately, people dispersed--after all many of them had had to go to the bathroom for over an hour, but we really had very little time.  We were supposed to be back at the bus stop by 3:30, and we finished the tour at 3:15.  

Right now, you should be humming the theme music to Mission Impossible while you read the rest.  In case you do not know the theme, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxN0A

I went into the bookstore (in my magnet obsession) and then I went to gather people (Jane rushed off on her own to buy that coat!). I got everyone out of book store, but then those people also had to go the bathroom! Some went to bathroom in the Kings Arm pub and others went to bathroom in Blackwell's bookstore. I stood on the steps outside the library showing the group on my map where they were supposed to go--down on Broad st, left on Magdalen st, look for bus on St. Giles, but we were still missing two students! I sent students ahead. Then I waited for the ladies to come out of the Kings Arm. Rachel volunteered to wait for them because she had a map on her phone, and her husband Dan, who is my student, and I started off to look for the two students. I started calling and Dan went in to look for them. Of course, my student did not have her phone on, but Dan found them in the book store; they were still waiting for the other students to come out of the bathroom!

In any case we rushed over to the bus. We were fifteen minutes late and went on our whirlwind trek to Stratford-on-Avon.  We didn't get there until a bit after twilight and nothing was open by that time.  I thought it was a good thing because I did not want to lose anyone in shops when we really needed to get on the bus soon.  I did get people to go to the public bathrooms (for 20p) because I warned them we were NOT stopping for a bathroom break on the way back.  We needed to get to London as quickly as possible--people had theater tickets for 7:30.  It was  fairly anxious ride, even our bus driver was worried. I actually talked to him for a bit while we were in Stratford-on-Avon about how to reschedule the trip next time, and he said to definitely leave by 7:30 or 7:15 if we are going to try to do it this way. Frankly, I would have rather just spent a whole day in Oxford; no offence Dr. Beilin!

We didn't get back until 7:00, and I made everyone wait to allow the theater people to get off first. I have never seen my students move so fast (okay maybe when they were running off to the bathroom in Blackwells).  I hope they made it.

The New Globe Theater with a side of Dickens

Today we visited the new Globe theater.  We had a successful journey on the tube, something Jane had every reason to be worried about; trying to make sure 18 people got to the same place at the same time in rush hour with two different stops and riding three different lines can be a bit nerve wracking, but we did it!

We walked from the Blackfriars tube stop over the Millennium Bridge to Bankside in Southwark to the new Globe theater.  Even though it was cloudy, the walk still provided many good views.

Yes, in this last picture that is St. Paul's Cathedral in the background. Once you get almost over the bridge, you can see the reconstructed Globe Theater.  It probably is only about a ten minute walk (if that) from the Blackfriars tube station, which I duly noted for the next time it's my turn to take to students to London in 2018.

Here we are in our obligatory (they are all "obliging" me) group picture outside . . .

 . . .and one later inside.

We had an excellent tour guide who clearly was an actor himself but also someone who understood the importance of people understanding the popularity of Shakespeare and the necessity of seeing his plays live to really understand why they are so lasting. We also learned all about the recreation/reconstruction project, which was fascinating.  It is really beautiful inside.

This last picture is of the ceiling of the stage.  What I found most fascinating about the tour and then going to the exhibition afterwards was the excavation done by the Museum of London (I think I may want to add that to the trip the next time) and the artifacts found for different theaters that were along that side of the Thames as well as the dedication of Sam Wanamaker in trying to get the Globe rebuilt (see http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/about-us/history-of-the-globe/rebuilding-the-globe).  I have to say though that the most interesting thing that I learned was that they used to use urine to clean clothes during Shakespeare's time, especially the urine of pregnant women.  Apparently, the extra estrogen in the urine made an excellent stain remover.

After the tour, some of the group went to St. Paul's cathedral (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hJzhVRjv48) with Jane.  They did a tour and had lunch in the cafe ( I would not have thought that the cathedral would have had a cafe). Some other students went right next door to the Tate Museum, which holds art collections from the 1500s to the contemporary period (http://www.tate.org.uk/about).  I retraced our subway journey with another group of students back to Russell Square station to walk over to the Dickens Museum (http://www.dickensmuseum.com/), which is located in the house he lived in during the time he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.  My students read the former in my 19th-century British Novel course this past fall.

I have been here before over twenty years ago, so it was good to come again and see everything.  It is really worth the visit, even if you are not a fan of Dickens, just to see what life was life behind the facade of one of the beautiful Victorian row houses we always see. I did not take pictures outside because we were trying to finish eating before we went in (crazy. slovenly Americans eating while walking--Jane told me after I saw her this evening that eating while walking is "just not done" in England and marks us as foreigners--oh well). However, I did try to get some group shots inside--a difficult task because they were trying to recreate the lighting of the time, which meant it was pretty dark with no sunlight outside.

I thought this was an interesting picture of each one of my students (and Dan's wife) looking at different items in the drawing room.  They also included the copy of Household Words that included a personal essay by Dickens addressing the "wicked" rumors surrounding his troubling domestic situation (when he decided to separate from his wife).

After that I went back to the flat to check messages and to see where I was going to meet my friend, Maeve, for dinner.  I met Maeve when I was studying in Seoul. Actually, she was the first person I met. I was walking to the corner looking at the signs trying to figure out where to catch the bus, and she said to me, "Are you going to SNU to the language school?"  I remember thinking, "How did she know that?" and then immediately realizing that I was obviously a foreigner (just not that many Black women at the SNU subway station stop) and the only person looking up at the signs as if I didn't know where I was going.  I have not seen her since we all left Seoul in 2013.  She is French, but has been working at the Shangri La Hotel in the Shard since January (you can see it in the second picture in this blog post).  When I knew I was coming, I immediately contacted her to see if she would have any time with her crazy hours; of course we went to have Korean food.  I felt like such a world traveler (like I said in my facebook page) eating Korean food with my French friend in London.

We had mandu, kimchi pancakes, bulgogi, and dwaeji bulgogi.  For my students who may not know what you see in the picture above is the grill that is in the middle of our table surrounded by bowls of sauces and side dishes.  The bulgogi (marinated beef) is grilling on it and in the far upright corner is the marinated pork waiting for its turn.  We had rice and lovely fresh butter leaf lettuce to wrap the meat in.  I was in heaven. 

Tomorrow, we are off for a quick peak at the birthplace of Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon and to Oxford where we will visit the Story Museum and the Bodleian Library.

Warner Brothers Studio Tour--London: The Making of Harry Potter (Day six)

Well, today was the day that I think most of my students were looking forward to the most.  As much as many of them were trying or trying to pretend they were these mature literary critics, they all grew up with the Harry Potter phenomena.  I know that my kids loved the books, and I i also know that there are many people who don't like them for various reasons--some of them have to do with being snobby because they cannot actual like something that is popular, but anyone who is going to say they know anything about children's literature or publishing should know something about these books.  These are students who grew up with Harry Potter, both the books and the movies.  I am not going to lie and say that I was above it all because i was really excited as well.

I'll share here a story I shared with my Children's Literature students last semester when we covered the first Potter book and the the surrounding shift in children's lit it started. On the day that the last book was coming out, my older daughter who had used birthday money to pre-order it, sat on the front steps of our porch waiting for the mailman.  Her sister waited inside (because she was not going to be able to read it until her sister finished--and we live in a spoiler free zone).  The mailman came and handed her the package, which she took as if it were the crown jewels.  He said to me he hadn't seen anything like it.  He showed up for work, and his truck was full of these white boxes.  On his entire route in Worcester, there were kids waiting for him to show up. He said the kids ranged in age and were really not anything a like with the exception of the quiet with which they waited.  They all thanked him as if he had did something really special, but barely looked at him and only at the plain white box.

When I was planning the trip, I knew we should come here because I was teaching the first Harry Potter book in my Literature for Children course, and I knew that it would be a good seller for the trip.  It is an expensive undertaking at £33 a piece and requiring a coach bus, and our tour company contact advised me against it because it was one of the most expensive items on the trip.  When I asked students during the info-session last spring about items to cut to save money, they were all adamant about keeping this tour.  They were right.  I think this would not only be a great place to go for children's literature people but also for anyone interested in film, film production, art, graphic design, theater, costuming, textiles, museum studies, and marketing.

I am only going to briefly describe it and post some pictures because nothing I could say could do it justice. I recommend going to the official site (since their pictures are better than mine) and to get better information. http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/  You could also ask some of students to share their pictures with you because most of them took far more pictures than I did.

We got to the studios really early.  I think that might have been because we had originally planned on going on a weekday and the traffic would have probably been worse than on a Sunday.  We sat on the bus for a bit and people slept (we met at the bus at 8)

As you can see from the big Christmas tree in the foyer, we are still in time for the winter at Hogwarts session. I splurged and bought a guided tour headset, which I thought was worth the £5 because it gave all sorts of extra information.

I got two of my students to try on sorting hats in the gift shop while we waited.

While waiting in line, you get to see the actual bedroom under the stairs used in the first film.

And so it went.  We got to see so many of the actual sets or parts of sets that I would be up half the night posting them here. I will post some and let you guess what they are.  There were props galore, but what was most impressive to me and to even the people who are not Harry Potter crazies was the meticulous attention to detail in the building of the sets, set model, and the art work, and the props.  For example, all of the paintings were actual oil paintings.  

The second guide that set us up for the brief introduction video (before another short video in an auditorium) warned us all not to use up all our batteries/film because we would want to save something for the very end.  And he was right.  They have the full scale Hogwarts on display, and it was more beautiful than I could have predicted.  They showed a bunch of the drawings and the architecture designs for many of the sets before you get to the room with the full model, so it was also set up very dramatically.

I took the picture specifically for my daughter Mattea who knows how hard it is to make stairs.

And then you come into a large room with a ramp that goes around the outer edge and this is in the middle.

We entered at ten, I told the students that we needs to meet back on the bus at 1 PM.  However, if you are a fan or if you are particular interested in set design or art, you could easily spend much longer than that there.  I didn't really look at as many things or listen to all of the items on the audio tour because I felt pressed for time.  They have two places to eat here--one before you get in and one in the middle . I was hungry by the time I got to the cafeteria in the middle, but I was too worried about not having enough time to see everything, so I got a cup (not the souvenir glass of mug) of butterbeer (very good, surprisingly--but too sweet to drink too much--and I think it would be even more delicious warm) and kept going through. You cold practice using wands and even get a video of yourself (or a photo) of you riding a broom over Hogwarts and through London.  Again, I didn't do any of those things and still felt rushed in the gift shop (handily placed through the exit when a visitor is most likely at the most Harry Potter rabid--I applauded Warner Brothers' marketing sense).

We then took the bus back to London for a free afternoon for everyone.  I went with the Ladies to Harrods. 

I bought a sandwich there which was all I could afford even with the "big" sales, but still my delicious take out sandwich, which I ate for dinner, was only £6.  

I took the picture below to show my mother, so she could see how expensive some of the food really is there.  The story goes that you can buy anything at all in Harrods, and I believe it.  There were more people wearing fur in this store than I have seen my entire time in London.  

We then went to the Queen's Grocer, Fortnum and Mason (http://www.fortnumandmason.com/c-358-our-history-fortnum-and-mason.aspx),  where I bought my Kiana and Korean teacher some Royal Tea, which was first blended for King Edward VII.  We then went to a grocery store and stocked up on supplies for breakfast and dinners until we leave.  I completely forgot that I planned to eat with one of my friends tomorrow night, so I may have way too much food.  I was hungry; wrong time to go grocery shopping.

This was it for today. Tomorrow, we are going to the Globe Theatre and then my Victorian lit students and I are going to go to the Dickens Museum.