Seeing British History

Britain, because it is such an old country, is home to a lot of history. Because of all this history, it is hard to go anywhere in London that is not absolutely entrenched in history. For two days straight, I spent the day surrounded by British history, visiting Shakespeare's Globe one day and the British Museum the next.

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Wednesday was a bit of a slow day. I didn’t do much in the morning aside from laundry (I got so

caught up in everything London has to offer that I was down to only one outfit). However, after class, our Auburn group headed down to the Thames, where we went to the Globe to see Shakespeare’s Henry V. Seeing the play in the Globe was a different experience. Normally, when I see a play, I get dressed up, go into a fancy theater, sit down in a comfortable, warm seat, and settle down for the next three hours. But the Globe doesn’t work that way. Instead of putting on a dress, I bundled up, wearing layer upon layer and a scarf and thick socks so as not to be cold during the play. And it was a good thing too. The Globe is not an enclosed theater – when Shakespeare used the Globe, there was obviously no electricity, so the top was left open, so as to use the sun to light the stage. As a result, the Globe is exposed to the weather, and we went, it was quite chilly, so it was a good thing I dressed warmly. Also, the Globe is shaped differently than normal theaters. Instead of having rows extending backward from the edge of the stage, the Globe’s seats wrap around the stage. Our seats were on the side of the stage, so I didn’t really get to see the actors’ faces, but I was able to see their backs. Despite all this, the production was absolutely phenomenal. Shakespeare’s history plays aren’t my favorite, but this production of Henry V was absolutely engrossing. I really like Shakespeare, so getting to see one of his plays performed in his theater was the experience of a lifetime.

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Thursday after class, I took the day to myself and went to the British Museum to explore and have some quiet time. I had no idea that the museum was so large – one of the pamphlets I read said that the museum had over 8 million items on display. I ended up spending over three hours there and I still didn’t get to see everything. Because the museum closed at 5:30, I was forced to skip the African and Middle Eastern exhibits. However, I was still able to see all of the big things and the things I wanted to see. The big attraction at the museum is the Rosetta Stone. The stone is a lot bigger in person than I thought it was, which made it all the more impressive. In addition to the real stone, the museum also had a replica of the stone which was on display so that people can touch it and feel what the writing feels like. Another big thing at the museum is one of the Easter Island statues. I knew that the statues were quite large, but standing next to it, I felt quite dwarfed. Like Stonehenge, there is something mystical about the Easter Island statues, and despite the fact that there was only one statue on display, the aura of mystery was still quite present. The third big thing at the British Museum was the large display of mummies and sarcophagi in the Egyptian exhibit. It was really neat to see different stages of mummification, including mummies with and without wrappings as well as those inside their sarcophagus.