Sturock, John. King’s Cross Station Square and St Pancras Chambers. Photograph. King’s
Cross. Accessed September 6, 2015. http://www.kingscross.co.uk/kings-cross-station.
This is a picture of me at Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross St. Pancras Station. King’s Cross is used by citizens of London and visitors of the city to travel via train on the East Coast main line to destinations like Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh. It opened permanently in 1852 and has been an historical landmark in the city of London ever since. It is also a Tube stop on numerous lines including the Piccadilly, Victoria, and Circle. King’s Cross also has more connections to the London Underground than any other main station and underwent a major renovation that was begun in 2007 and was revealed in 2013. After the major popularity of the Harry Potter book series, a luggage cart and sign for Platform 9 3/4 was put up to signify where Harry left to begin a new year of school at Hogwarts.
For my first artifact assignment for London Honors, I chose King’s Cross Station, not because of its relevance to London transportation, but because of its relevance in Harry Potter. Before the trip, I really did not know many famous London buildings and only knew the ones that I’ve seen or were mentioned in literature or media like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey or the London Eye. Famous London landmarks that I especially remembered were the ones mentioned in Harry Potter, like King’s Cross. Because they were mentioned in Harry Potter, I never really thought of places like King’s Cross or Tottenham Court Road (where the Ministry of Magic is) as real places. They seemed as magical as the books themselves. I also did not think that the crew that filmed Harry Potter actually used places in London and England for filming, like the storefront of Sausage World in Borough Market, or the divinity school in Oxford.
After the trip, I realized that famous landmarks mentioned in Harry Potter had a lot more purpose than just providing British authenticity to the books. King’s Cross St. Pancras Station is a majorly important railway station as well as a bustling tube stop. I never really stopped to think about what those places mentioned in Harry Potter actually did or why they were mentioned in the books to begin with. I now realize that places like King’s Cross and Tottenham Court Road tube stop are mentioned in the books because they are important to Londoners like J.K. Rowling, and as an honorary Londoner for ten days, they became important to me too. I did not expect Harry Potter to be as worshipped in Britain compared to the United States. I guess I thought that only Americans could commercialize a children’s book series to the billion-dollar name it is now, but there was actually a ton of Harry Potter merchandise available in a store right next to where this picture was taken in addition to a professional photographer and ‘scarf thrower’ working by the cart that would take your picture that you could buy framed. It was very strange to see something like that surrounded by citizens and business people just going about their travels in a major rail station.
“University of Oxford.” – Complete University Guide. Accessed January 21, 2016.
http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/oxford.
This photo was taken in the original divinity school of Christ Church College at Oxford University. Located about 100 kilometers north-west of London, Oxford the oldest university in the English speaking world with a formation date of at least 1096. Students must be at the top of their classes and get A’s on all of their A-Level exams (tests that determine a student’s efficiency in their chosen subjects) in order to gain entrance into the university. With about 40,000 students, Oxford is still very much a research university and a thriving college town. Today it is shown for tours and was also used to film various Harry Potter scenes.
When we talked about education in lecture, I was very surprised by how different it was and was even more shocked by the admissions process for universities in the U.K. The thought of choosing your career path almost before high school would be daunting for me and honestly a little unfair. Kids have no idea who they are at that young age, let alone what they want to do for the rest of their lives. The difference between the U.S. education system and the U.K. system is so different from everything to admissions to cost of attendance. Since students absolutely have to know what they want to study years before going to university, I was expecting Oxford to be very separated by school subjects and ‘majors’ only as that is sort of the system we have here at OSU. I found out, by going there, that that is not the case.
Because Oxford is such a prestigious, well known university, I expected it to be a very serious, posh, and formal area. I was surprised to find that it was pretty much just a college town, just really really old and famous. Seeing campus book stores and dive bars was strange but made the place seem more real and not this unattainable holy thing. Although seeing classrooms that are older than my country still made the university awe-inspiring. Another thing that surprised me was that students that go there don’t just attend Oxford, they go to the college that they applied to inside the university. Even weirder, the colleges are not separated by subjects of study. For a country that makes kids pick their life career before high school, not separating colleges by major seems like a missed opportunity. Hearing more and more about how strange the U.K. education system is I realized how strange the U.S. system must be to the Brits, particularly when we meet up with Justin Monte’s old friend Alastor Kennings who lives in the U.K. and attends university there. Talking to each other about how different our systems are was so strange but it really made both of us think and was one of my favorite experiences in London. Touring Oxford and talking to Alastor made me appreciate how our different views of education has impacted both of our cultures, particularly for adolescents.
“History.” – St Paul’s Cathedral. Accessed January 21, 2016. https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history
collections/history.
The first picture is one that I took from the ground of St. Paul’s Cathedral. After climbing 528 steps to the top of the dome, I took the second picture with Justin Monte overlooking the city of London. St. Paul’s Cathedral is the Mother church of the Diocese of London and is on the highest point in the City of London. An original St. Paul’s was build around 693 AD but was destroyed in a fire twice before the Old St. Paul’s Cathedral was built in the gothic style. The Old St. Paul’s which used to stand in the same spot, was built in 1087 but was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Sir Christopher Wren was in charge of the rebuild and designed it in the classical style. Construction for the present St. Paul’s was completed in the 1720’s and the dome of St. Paul’s is considered the finest in the world. The church is still very active to this day with services still offered and it is also shown for tours.
In our first lecture for London Honors, we learned a brief history of the metropolis that is London. We talked about several famous and historical buildings including the famous St. Paul’s Cathedral. I have to admit, though, that I did not know a single thing about the church before we visited it other than it had a dome and was big. Since I am American and we have such a young history, buildings we consider old are treated with a lot of reverence and are given a lot of room around them too preserve historical significance. I had seen St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome before this and remembered how beautifully it was decorated. Because St. Peter’s is Catholic and St. Paul’s is Anglican, I was expecting St. Paul’s to be a lot plainer and less extravagant. Maybe because I am Catholic, I also expected there to less reverence in St. Paul’s and for it to be more of a tourist attraction than an actual church.
When we arrived at St. Paul’s we were so hungry that we got lunch and sat on the steps of the church to eat. There’s a couple things in that sentence that baffled me as an American. We could eat on the steps?! And where did we get food so close to one of the most historical churches in the world? 100 steps away. Because everything is so old and historic in a city like London, they can’t keep up the overkill-appreciation we have for historical places in America in Europe. So there was a Starbucks right next to a 300-year-old church. I was also shocked when I walked into the Cathedral by how beautifully decorated it was. The beauty of St. Paul’s definitely rivaled that of St. Peter’s. I was expecting tourists talking loudly and not really noticing it was a church but there was actually a lot of religious reverence for the place and they even stopped everyone to say the Our Father. As a Catholic, I didn’t think Anglicans had as much appreciation for their churches as we do and was humbled to see how important the Church of England is to the Brits. Since it was the first day, I hadn’t really wrapped my head around the fact that I was in London, but standing at the top of the Cathedral overlooking the entire city, I was in awe and made me appreciate how massive London and the rest of the world is outside of the U.S.
“London Tube.” – Visit London. Accessed January 24, 2016.
https://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/london-tube.
This is a picture at the High Street Kensington tube stop right by our hotel, where we began every adventure in the great city of London from the Circle line or the District line. The High Street Kensington station has four platforms and multiple food stands, convenient stores, and restaurants inside it as many Underground stations do. The London Underground, or the Tube, is an integral part of the city and is the best way to travel around London, as the five million people who ride it everyday will say. The network of lines is divided into nine travel zones with zones six through nine located on the outskirt of the city. The tube is also very easy to use due to the tube map, devised in 1933 by Henry Beck.
We were told before the trip in recitation that we would get the hang of the tube in less than two days, no problem. Not that I didn’t trust the amazing directors of the trip, but I was not too optimistic that someone like me with an absolutely horrific sense of direction would be able to figure out the entire subway system of a massive European city in under 48 hours. I was also told that the public transportation in London has been perfected down to a science and that there are almost never any problems that the city of London’s transportation system can’t contain. As an American, where our primary form of transportation is driving and no amount of busses or subway systems will make us give up our love for our cars, I was quite skeptical of how well the Underground would work transporting five million people a day and even more on New Years Eve.
I am very glad I was wrong about my pre-trip ideas about the Underground. It was a dream of a public transportation system. I got the hang of it after the second time riding it. The tube map, which I found baffling since it’s not laid out in real distance, which would be ridiculous to Americans, turned out to be the best thing ever and is truly a feat of city planning. The very first night out on New Year’s Eve, when none of knew anything about getting around London, we did not get lost once and got to where we wanted without any problems. When the tube stop closest to us got too busy, officials simply closed it and ushered everyone to the next one and no one complained but just went with the flow. The tube pretty much ran our entire trip but I absolutely loved it. It was probably my favorite thing about London. It almost felt like an amusement park ride instead of a hassle. I wish the tube was everywhere all the time, that’s how much I loved it. The U.S. really needs to take a page out of Europe’s book and step up our public transportation. If there is one thing I miss about London, it is the Underground, hands down. For years to come, I will hear “Mind the Gap!” in my dreams.
“Chipping Away At the History of Fish and Chips.”-BBC. Accessed January 24, 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/chipping-away-at-the-history-of-fish-and-chips.
This is a picture of Sarah and I eating fish and chips (the first of many) at the Goat Tavern, located not far from our hotel in Kensington. Fish and chips is a staple of traditional English food and is a very common takeaway item. Fish and chips became a main dish of working-class Englishmen in the 19th century due to rapid developments in the fishing industry while chips, or fries as Americans call them, have been served in England for years, and are even mentioned in A Tale of Two Cities. The oldest “chippie” still in operation is said to be Rock and Sole Plaice in Covet Garden.
Before I went on this trip, I thought British food was really bland and only consisted of fish and chips, Shepard’s pie, and corned beef. Out of everything we were going to experience in London, I was definitely least excited for the food, though I was curious about what it was like. Though I was told London was a very international city, I never really thought about it as that and only thought about it as British instead. This way of thinking also extended to how I thought about food in the country. I was expecting regular restaurants like there are in America, separate from bars, except serving only English staples.
Unfortunately, I was right about the blandness. The only thing blander than British food is British television, but that is beside the point. Fish and chips are good, but they get old pretty quickly and I don’t think the British have discovered the magic that is salt. However, I did discover some dishes that I can add to what I consider traditional English food, Cornish pasties, pea soup, and sandwiches, lots of sandwiches. The lack of flavor in British food makes me think there are some products in American food that are illegal in Europe. That said, I’m sure the food I ate while abroad was healthier. Also, I was surprised to find that most restaurants are just pubs. That is very different from here where restaurants and bars are usually separated or are one then the other depending on the time of day. Lastly, I was very very surprised by the amount of international food available in London. I am used to seeing international restaurants in the melting pot that is the U.S. but I guess I was expecting only fish and chips in Britain. That said, I am very very happy that I was wrong as the Italian food and curry I ate were phenomenal.
“The Valley.” –Charlton FC. Accessed January 24, 2016. http://cafc.uk/club/the_valley/.
This is a photo taken outside of the Charlton Athletic Stadium where we watched Charlton Athletic play Nottingham Forest. We ate lunch in an area above the stadium, met a retired player, and watched the game. Meanwhile there was a huge protest going on outside against the owner of the club. The Charlton Athletic FC was formed in 1905 by a group of teenagers. The club plays in the Valley, is s 27 thousand capacity stadium that opened in 1919.
Sports here in the U.S. are quite a big deal, and that is an understatement. As an American, I consider sports a part of my culture, and when I say sports I mean multiple sports: American football, basketball, baseball, hockey; not just soccer. However, I knew enough about European sports culture to know that football, or soccer as we call it for some reason, is the one and only sport that is worth Europeans’ attention. I expected the U.K. to be no different. When I learned in recitation that not just individual players but entire teams get moved up and down between leagues I was baffled. I was also suspired to learn how most players don’t play for their home country. Though I realize now how stupid that assumption was, it is just strange to me, though I guess it is like an NBA player playing for a different team than the one in his state. But overall, I was expecting fans in England to be much more subdued and less energetic than Americans.
I was wrong. I was always told that Europeans took their football seriously and wow is it true. The chants and songs that are unique to the team lasted most if the game and there was a lot more respectful support in the form of clapping, singing, and chanting than just downright screaming like there is in the U.S. The fans are incredibly loyal to their clubs, as I saw through the protests going on outside the stadium and through the information I gathered from Jules. Apparently visiting fans will have a designated pub they go to in a visiting city so fights don’t break out between rival fans, and for that same reason, the stands are separated by team. The feel was different than an American sports game in that it definitely felt older and set in deeper tradition, and it was definitely a tenser and more violent atmosphere. Though it was really cool to see how intense the love fans have for their club, I must say that I prefer the lights, showmanship, and pure energy of American sports than the deep loyalty and seriousness of British and European sports.
This is a picture of me from when I rode the London Eye. This was taken from inside a car of the London Eye at the very top where one can see the entire city of London including Big Ben, which is in the background. The London Eye is a large Ferris wheel right off the south side of the river Thames that has become an icon of the city since its opening in the year 2000.
Everything I knew about the city of London before this trip was the stereotypical things that every outsider knows about London. I knew that Big Ben was a big clock, that Westminster Abbey was where royals got married, that Buckingham Palace was where the Queen lived, that King’s Cross is a train station, and that Londoners call the subway ‘the tube’. I learned a lot of history about the city and about England in general from the London Honors course, which I loved and found very interesting, but there is only so much one can learn from sitting in a classroom 3,800 miles away. Though I have traveled out of the country before, I was much younger and always with my family. I had never really immersed myself in a different culture before. I was expecting to be a normal American tourist and just do touristy things. I did not expect to dive into the culture, and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting the culture to be all that different from my own. As an American, I thought a lot of the things I experienced in London would be weird and the amenities to not be as good as the U.S.
This trip opened my eyes to a lot of things about the world outside of my Midwest bubble. I have never thought about moving out of the United States before this trip but now, if the opportunity was presented to me, I would definitely take the chance to explore the world more. What I thought would be a very touristy experience turned out to be an incredibly immersing experience and made me feel like a real Londoner by the end. I felt that I wasn’t just seeing the sights of the city, but was just living in London now. The culture was not better or worse than I thought but beautifully different and fascinating to experience. There were some parts of London culture I wasn’t a fan of like the food, the reserved attitude of people, and the gloomy weather, but I loved other parts like pubs, the tube, the deep-set history, and international awareness citizens seem to have. The experiences I had, like talking to the Jordanian diplomat, seeing where my favorite movies were filmed, touring a famous college, meeting an Australian girl my age in the hotel, drinking tea at the Orangey, talking for hours with an English student, eating alongside locals, and seeing the city of London from 600 feet up are irreplaceable to me and are ones that I will keep with me forever. I learned a lot about the world and about myself from this trip and I am very lucky to have been a part of this amazing experience.
