London Day 5 and 6: Class and British Museum

This one will be a little quick and cover a couple days that didn't have as much exciting stuff. I've also had a long day so I'm tired and kinda want to get this post done. But hopefully I can get through and catch up to today.

Monday was the first day of classes for us. Our class schedule consisted of two classes, Anti-Social Behavior Disorders and Child Development across Cultures. Classes ran Monday through Thursday, with each class on Mon/Wed or Tue/Thur. Today began with Anti-Social Disorders.

Our class building was on the top floor of our buildings. Although the climb up the stairs was brutal, at least it had A/C; recently the days had become quite warm from a heat wave.

Our teacher was a attractive young blonde woman, who worked with diagnosing disorders, and referring them for treatment. One of the first things we did was go over our syllabus. Normally college classes are pretty much straight lectures, but we were here not only for classes, but for fun, and our teachers wanted to have fun as well. Thus, half of our classes would consist of field trips throughout London, including the London Dungeons, Old Bailey, and Sigmund Freud's London house. Most weeks would consist of two lectures a week and two field trips a week.

Lectures themselves were difficult to get through though. My longest class before had been an hour and fifteen minutes, not including labs. Each lecture here lasted three and a half hours, with a small break in-between. The material was interesting, but difficult to follow after two hours. But around one we finished and left to get lunch.

I decided to hit up the British museum for the rest of the afternoon. This time I explored some relics from different native cultures across North and South America. In particular, there was some really fantastic artifacts made of jade from some Meso-American cultures, such as double-headed snakes and monkey masks.

There was even a small section on the Seminole Indians that made me smile. Sadly, no flash-mob choirs visited me today.

That night our program took us to a local play. Our location borders a huge theater district; within walking distance there are all sorts of shows. There are plays for pretty much anyone; from dramas written by Shakespeare, to a Freddie Mercury show that apparently would break out into Queen songs, and even a Shrek musical. This particular play was called Blood Brothers.

The story began with a poor young mother, whose husband left her with seven children to feed. While working as a maid for a rich woman, she finds out that she is expecting twins. Unable to provide for both these new mouths, she gives one child to her barren boss. However, they must never let their sons know that they had another twin. According to superstition, twins separated at birth must never know of their sibling, or they will end up killing each other. It was an interesting musical which followed kind of a Prince and Pauper theme, but lasted for about three hours, which felt too long in the end. That and the soundtracks could be awful; some of it reminded me of an 80's electric band. One bit seemed to be taken from the beginning of the Rickroll video. If you don't know what a Rickroll is, don't look it up. Deciphering each actor's accent proved to be a sort of enjoyable challenge during songs. Some of the kids found it difficult to sit through the show though, and helped themselves to the theater bar to get through it.

The next day we had our Child Psych class. The teacher was a cheerful brown haired man, who insisted we called him by his first name. After showing us the excursions we would take in his class, we began our lecture of a basic overview of child psychology. This was pretty mind-blowingly boring for me, but I suffered through it.

I went to the British Museum to chip away at more of it's halls and rooms. I started in an area that held relics and treasure from different regions of Greece, including some beautifully kept vases.

One vase was actually so big, it was apparently used in funerals as the person's last resting place.

One piece that interested me was some bronze-work from Minoa. It depicted one of their rituals called Bull Leaping. And yes, it's just what it sounds like.

Bronze sculpture of acrobat leaping over a bull. And you thought bull riding was tough.

An acrobat could grab the horns of a charging bulls. As it instinctively jerked it's neck back, it gives the unnecessary moment to fling the acrobat over the bulls back. As insane as it sounds, it's still practiced in some variation in several countries today.

Fresco of bull leaping.

I also saw some of the relics from the Parthenon. Originally a Athenian temple dedicated to their god, Athena, it was later converted into a Christain church, and later mosque by the Ottoman turks. However, the Parthenon actually exploded after bombardment by the Venetians ignited some ammunition stored inside the building. These ruins were then bought by an British Earl by the Ottomans (who technically did not own the ruins), who transported them back to England, which were later purchased by the Museum. Although they are one of the most treasured pieces of the Museum, the Greek government has demanded that they return to their original country, which the English so far have refused to do.

One of the most intriguing piece here was the metopes, stone slabs around the outside of the Parthenon which depict several mythical stories. One of these was a battle of centaurs against the Lapiths. Apparently the centaurs, creatures who are half man and half horse, drank a little too much wine, and decided to steal their host's women. These tablets depict the story of the Lapith soldiers fighting off the centaurs. Each piece shows a little bit of the battle; of soldiers dodging the blows of centaurs and fighting to survive. It's a very interesting story to  watch unfold.

As a centaur knocks a Lapith warrior to the grund, you can see him reaching for a stone with his left hand in an attempt to  save himself.

A centaur and Lapith locked in eternal combat.

That night we had an info meeting about planning travel trips. Right now I have an Ireland trip planned, and I'm working on a trip to Scotland, and maybe Normandy. But I'll tell you more about that later. I promise I'll have a bulkier story later on tomorrow, I know today wasn't as good as I usually want it to be.