I Saw Time

Yesterday was our day trip to Greenwich, a small town just down the Thames River from London.  It was, all in all, a bit of a downer, starting from the very beginning:

I was required to go on the trip for my Seeing London's Architecture class, but that wasn't too bad; I was planning to go anyway.  My fellow classmate and I met up very early to take the Underground down to Westminster Pier.  The Tube is awesome, to say the least.  I tend to make comparisons of everything to everything else in New York, so the Tube system is - from what I saw - far superior to the MTA.  The stations are wide-open, spacious, and clean.  People are alerted to stand on the right side of escalators and walk on the left side, so even individual behaviors are kept in check.  The trains themselves are a bit small compared to the subway.  But, they come every 1-2 minutes during rush hour!  I can't tell you how many times I've just missed the closing doors and had to wait 10 to 20 minutes for the next arriving D train.  Yesterday, we missed one train on the Victoria Line at Kings Cross/St. Pancras...and another one literally followed behind.

When we arrived at Westminster, we discovered we were 45 minutes early.  We walked around the immediate neighborhood, surveying Big Ben/Parliament and Westminster.  Then, we popped back to the pier to see our NYUL staff...who informed us that the early boat was broken and we would have to wait another 30 minutes.

Finally, when we got on the boat, my intrepid classmate and I stood on the deck the entire time so we could observe London's cityscape...though it was windy, cold, and rainy!  We got to know our professor a bit (but more about that character later).  London along the Thames is a very interesting sight.  We saw the typical structures along the banks, like St. Paul's Cathedral, the Globe Theater, the Gherkin, and various bridges.  I, like an idiot, was taking notes and trying to make sketches during the boat ride, which resulted in extremely frozen extremities.  Not a good way to start off.

When we docked in Greenwich, my class was herded into a walking tour in the rainy town.  Greenwich is quite lovely - it has a lot of royal and naval history, and things like the Queen's House, the National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Observatory.  Haven't heard of Greenwich?  Well, it's the same Greenwich of Greenwich Mean Time!  The Prime Meridian runs through the Observatory, splitting the world into theoretical east and west hemispheres, and it is the "zero" time zone, I suppose.  Greenwich is also the place where Queens Mary and Elizabeth (daughters of Henry VIII) were born.  Yay famous.

We ate lunch at The King's Arms, a cute little tavern/pub thing.  I had a yummy scampi and chips (fried bits of shrimp - they look like...shrimp nuggets?) and Earl Grey tea (SO GOOD, especially since the weather was awfully cold and wet).  Then, we met our professor for our actual required class.  The day got less and less fun...

We walked around Greenwich Market and observed...trusses in the roofing. So much fun.  The smells from the market were very distracting: a mixture of Middle Eastern food (falafel) and Ethiopian food...mmm!  Then, we observed bits of houses and the church of St. Alfege.  Finally, we trekked to the Queen's House.  We saw an architectural model of the house itself, and I pointed at the window trying to signal my friend, "Look at those cool balustrades in the window!" but the professor called me out in front of the entire class (he somehow creepily learned my name when we were on the boat, though I never introduced myself...CREEPER), "Best not to touch the model, Sandra!"  What does he think I am, five years old?!  I've been to museums before.  Frustrating point number one.  Then, we had to sit in a room and sketch for two hours.  What the what?!  (Frustrating point number two)  I am not an artist.  I took this class because I thought my head would explode from too many sciences.  I love history, art, and architecture...but I have to manage a sketchbook for all the things we see.  I also apparently have to have a lot of patience to sit in a room and draw and shade lines.  I admit, it is quite relaxing and fun to draw or just doodle, but our professor had us in there until closing time!  My friend and I bolted from the Queen's House in an attempt to see the Royal Observatory and straddle the Prime Meridian...but alas, it was closed by the time we hiked up the hill.  We had no choice but to stand behind a gate, gazing longingly at a damn line in the ground, but were not able to stand upon it.  That was the most frustrating point, number three!  We did, however, manage to see the laser-beam version of the Prime Meridian, but that was nowhere near as fun as standing in both halves of the world would have been.

Indian buffet tonight, and hopefully some studying.  Ta!