Cambridge

King's College Cambridge


The other side of King's College from afield



Today my colleague and I, the other intern Ginger, went to visit someone who is actually in the FSU library program and currently lives and works in Cambridge. She is employed at one of the faculty libraries. It was nice to hang out with two other library school students in Cambridge. We visited most of the major colleges and King's College Chapel. It seems that the history of King's College is deeply rooted in the end of the war of roses and the unification of the House of York and the House of Lancaster. The magnificent chapel seen in the pictures above was largely built during the reigns of Henry VII and VIII to celebrate the Tudor dynasty.

The first college that we visited was Emmanuel. It was small but picturesque and outside was the Cam with Ducks resting by the water. We also saw many punts, or small boats going down the river. Punting is a tradition in both Oxford and Cambridge where boats are guided along the shallow river by large sticks. As I hear it is quite hard and the water is very cold. We saw a drunken student enjoying the holiday weekend, but drinking and punting don't mix as he fell in the water.


Punting on the Cam


Later we visited Trinity Collge, the wealthiest of the colleges.

At St.John's College there was a wedding party. They were taking pictures and the men were dressed in full military dress with swords drawn as you can see in the picture below.



The trip to Cambridge was overall one of my favorite days in England so far. The weather was nice, I was with good company and I ate good food all while seeing one of the world's most historic and prestigious university towns.

Monmouth

A perfect Flat White

This morning on my way to Cambridge we stopped at Monmouth Coffee for a "flat white". A flat white is an espresso drink like a Cappuccino but with less milk. It is a great way to start the day and in my opinion Monmouth is the best coffee in London. The company first began roasting select coffee beans on Monmouth street and now has a few shops in London but provides coffee to other choosy coffee shops and food lovers around the city. Later today, in Cambridge, I came across the name of Geoffrey of Monmouth who was a British clergyman and historian. I am assuming that Monmouth Street was named after him and in return Monmouth coffee was named after the street.

http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/

Dylan Photos from '66

So apparently Barry Feinstein became the official photographer for the Dylan tour that made it's way through England in 1966. I read that Dylan actually became comfortable with Feinstein and allowed him to capture the entire tour. The photo on this poster outside of The National Portrait Gallery was among the photos taken by Feinstein and it was also used as the cover for Martin Scorsese's documentary entitled No Direction Home. If you saw No Direction Home then you know that Bob could be snarky with fans, the media and the press but supposedly he was not that way with his photographer. Dylan is captured on photo in Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, London and other places in the UK.

On that tour, Dylan would open with an acoustic set and then his band would come on stage and they would break out the electric guitars and play songs like, Just like Tom Thumbs Blues and Like a Rollin' Stone. Supposedly in London someone shouted, "Judas" and Dylan replied, "You're lyin', I don't believe you" and just kept playing. There may not have been a more epic and remembered Rock n' Roll tour. Upon Dylan's return to the U.S. he was in a motorcycle crash and didn't play another show for 8 years. It was great to see the photograph prints up close.

Premiership Tropy

Today I was at work and on my lunch break I walked just down the street to a newly remodeled Barclay's Bank. They were giving away free cupcakes, ice Cream, balloons and pictures with the English Premier Football League Trophy. This is the equivalent of having your picture taken with the Super Bowl Trophy.

Brighton and the Royal Pavillion

Brighton Ocean Front Properties next to a gorgeous park on a bright sunny day!




The Royal Pavilion

Brighton is located directly south of London on the English coast. The town is about an hours journey by train. It has a vital culture and many of the English travel to Brighton during the summer months for rocky beaches, good night life and good eating and dining. The name of the town literally means Bright Town.

Brighton also happened to be the Summer home of The Prince Regent who later became George IV in the late 18th century. The Prince fell in love with Brighton after visiting for the sea air that he was told might help with his Gout. He also used Brighton as a place to get away with his Catholic mistress whom he might have married in secret. The Prince Regent was fascinated by eastern architecture, particularly that of India. That is why his summer home, known as the Royal Pavilion, somewhat resembles the Taj Mahal. The entire city has this style of architecture running through it. Blended with a theme park, boardwalk and a spectacular Victorian flats it makes for a fascinating place to visit.

The Imperial War Museum

This past Saturday afternoon I visited the Imperial War Museum on The South Bank. In general War Museums and cultural museums can be odd because of all of the strange attempts to recreate reality using mannequins, multimedia and other props. The British Museum has artifacts and the National Gallery has art hanging on the wall but The Imperial War museum, for example, has a recreation of "The Trench Experience". It was so bizarre, in a dark room one could walk through a world war I trench with English soldiers reading letters from home, a man being operated on, and a soldier advancing out of the line. An attempt was made even to recreate the smell of a World War I trench. It smelled something like a combination of Urine and Gunpowder. It really was fascinating and I really believe that Museums in London are among the best in the world and what is so amazing is that they are all free to visitors.

Hyde Park on a Lazy Saturday Afternoon

I have joined the ALA and ACRL it looks as if I have passed my summer term courses, although there is still one assignment to be graded, and I have accomplished a few things at work. That being said, I am knocking on the door of getting my library degree, learning some valuable technical skills and gaining international experience. So why not read a book for pleasure and take a nap in Hyde Park on a late summer Saturday afternoon.

The Eye

So one of the great things about the Internship that I am doing besides living in Central London, learning a lot and a tuition waver is that I get to go on all of the group excursions for free. The eye is like a big Ferris wheel that takes you high over London and allows you to observe the city from the sky. I didn't quite get the sense of satisfaction from the eye that I get from running up Primrose Hill but the view might be better and I may not have been able to afford the London Eye on my own. Above is London's famous Big Ben from the eye.

IT Intern making Videos!

A Month in London

I arrived on the morning of the 29th of June into Gatwick and obviously now one month has passed since that time. Summer courses are almost over and initially I felt like that completing the summer term was going to be one of the biggest challenges while I was here. During the summer I still have to attend class meeting and because of the time difference they meet at 1am until 3am and 11pm until 1am. This has not made life any easier as I adjusted to life in London but so far I think we are looking at a sucess. The assignments are finishing up nicely and I just need to attend class this last week.

On a career note, I finally joined the American Library Association as a student so that people will think that I am real librarian when I get my degree. I also joined the Association of College and Research Libraries as a student and I hope that this will prove to be money well spent.




This saturday I ran a 10K in gorgeous Regents Park and actually set a personal best time of 37:57. I have felt rested recently so that may have had something to do with but I have been eating lots of pastries and drinking plenty of full bodied english beer so I'm not sure where that came from but it was a blast. By the way I am not in the picture above but it was taken on the same course.

So I am finding my way around London, have found my favorite restaurants and musuems and will hopefully settle in for a sucessful time here.