Photo Book: European Adventures

Photobook up! I'm pretty happy with it. I used Picasa which wasn't too difficult. I used picture pile on a few of the collages which is very creative for me. Woo hoo!
I'm officially back in Madison and off to work this afternoon. Though currently I'm sitting on the phone to my health insurance company. Super fun. I love REAL LIFE.
Putting together the Photobook was a nice way to remind myself, that yes, it was real. I was just in England as of four days. And now I'm going to work. It's a bit of a 180 but I'm dealing with it. Reverse cultural shock always does me because it sneaks up on me. Ah well, I don't really have time to be time-spatial confused.
Also, this year is Mexico's Bicentennial of their independence, if you didn't get a chance to see the "Viva La Libertad!" exhibit at the British Library. I'm mentioning this because lots of places are going to be having exhibits and events surrounding the Bicentennial. In 1810, Mexico and many other Latin American countries started their quest for independence from the Spanish. HEre is Exploradno Mexico's article as well as the Bicentennial website for Meixco. I mention this because I'm helping my boss prepare for an exhibit on this now that I'm back. Its going to be really fun. I can't wait!
Back to holding... I'm pretty sure I'm on my third repetition of "Hotel California."
Cheers!

We're small army

Back of Buckingham Palace

Really, we are. For the last three weeks we've been wandering around London, blocking stairs, taking up multiple tables and walking single-file down the stairs to the tube. Three long weeks the fourteen of us have traveled together, eaten together and gotten lost together (well technically in parts, but it was still a group experience). This was the first time I was part of a group all of the time. The previous times I have traveled abroad, Mexico in 2005 and Spain in 2007, I was part of a group but we did smaller trips together and class. But that was it. With this FSU program we got to know each other quickly because we spent so much time together. It is hard to be part of the group for so long, but it is a nice experience. This year I moved into a single apartment because I moved from Indy to Madison. When I first moved, I really missed my old roommates. It was nice to come Indy have a group of people in a flat and in a class that were always around. I did miss time/space to myself at times, but that's to be expected. On the whole, I liked having roommates. Also, I've never known as much about my classmates in a traditional class as I've learned about these people that I've traveled with all over London.
Therefore, its almost appropriately ironic that today we had a very individual day. We visited Buckingham Palace, which is only open for two months at the end of the summer when the Queen is in Scotland, so it was a rare and fun opportunity to see inside the palace. Most of us got audio tours and we individually made our way through the Palace. For a group that has spent more time together than some families do on vacation, it was a very solitary tour.
Unfortunately I have no pictures whatsoever as we cannot take pictures inside the Palace. Today was a really good for a Palace tour, actually, as we had our first typical English weather: rainy and chilly with random spots of sun.
Maybe this is London's way of sending us off?

Instead we're going to talk about Diana

I had every intention this evening to write a moving blog about the Oliver Stone's documentary, South of the Border, that I saw at the British Library. However, as its been a very long day full of hopeful developments for Latin America and shoe shopping, instead we're going to talk about Diana because Latin American deserves all my attention. Diana, Princess of Wales that is. Contrary to what many may think because of my age, I actually remember the day Diana died. I was riding in the car with my dad to school (middle school at the time) and we were listening to NPR. It was Morning Edition and I remember clearly that announcers reporting that Diana, Princess of Wales had died in a tunnel crash. Even at my tender age of 11ish, I understood this was a great lost. I don't remember her marriage but I remember hearing about it.
Hyde Park is full of memorials to this woman, who, by all accounts, was not very popular with the Royal family. She had divorced her husband, Charles, Prince of Wales, and seemed to be pretty independent and feisty. The royal family could have definitely made a fuss about a memorial playground, walk and fountain going up in the name of the this woman, but did not and these three exist for the enjoyment of everyone today. Queen Elizabeth II obviously understands when public opinion and love topples personal pain. Not to mention, it must be very comforting for her sons to see their mother memorialized and loved so much.
I really enjoyed these memorials. The playground was beautiful, lots of fun and very safe. I mention the safety because adults are not allowed into the playground (which is gated) without an adult. It may seem a bit restricting, but it is nice that it creates a safe and comforting environment for children and their parents/guardians/nannies. I definitely wish I had a playground like that when I was a child.

From 2010-08-03

But I truly loved the fountain. It was mentioned that there was some controversy when it was first built since its more of a lazy river type of fountain rather than a large upstanding one. It's made for people and children to go sit by the water and put their feet in on a hot day. Most of us gave it a try and the water was freezing. Too bad it wasn't warmer out. It would've been so comforting on hot feet during the winter. If you've ever been in Lake Michigan, it felt kind of like that. Chilly and will make your feet turn blue after awhile.

From 2010-08-03

From 2010-08-03

What a better way to wind down our trip than a walk through a park that has so well blended the worlds of royals with that of the people.

Oxford Misleading

I have an odd relationship with Oxford. I'm familiar with the schools and dynamics from Lewis and Dorothy L Sayer's Gaudy Night . I don't know the history but I feel like I know the people and atmosphere. Oxford shows up in books that are set in all different time periods; I think I most recently read a mystery where one of the suspects was an Oxford student and it's set in the mid-1800s. Oxford reminds me a bit of Madison actually; the University is an large but somewhat separate part of the town. University society definitely affects town life but they aren't necessarily the same. On top of that, Oxford is a huge draw for tourists. A ridiculous draw for tourists. So far the only place I've seen match lines for Christ Church is Disneyworld and the Tower of London.


There is something impressive and awesome about touring a university that has been around since 1215. We were walking on ground that millions of scholars have walked through before and that makes it seem a bit sacred, even though that isn't the appropriate term for it. I liked walking through the gardens of Christ Church that has a view Magdaline College (which is actually older than Christ Church) and it makes me feel like a scholar. I would love to study in their libraries because there is so much history of study there. That's not saying that they have always been progressive or amazing; scholars often live up to the rumor of being stuffy. Nonetheless, it does feel different, almost encouraging to be able to study in a place thats been devouted to studying for at least 800 years.

That feeling, for me, is somewhat temporary. Its awesome but not permanent. Oxford will always been connected with an idea that is rather contrary to what I've just described. Dorothy Sayers observes, via her characters Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane while punting on the Thames, that you can't hide within hallowed University halls forever. College or University, particularly when you're young, is a short and blissful time span that is rarely regained. Even if you return for post-graduate education, its never quite the same. Those halls that seemed so impenetrable when you were 20 are actually very permeable and I came to find, like Sayers' characters, that the real world seeps in regardless. For me, in Wisconsin, it comes in the form of healthcare insurance and part-time work. For Sayers' characters, it displays itself in hatred and ignorance of a system that the criminal has. THere was something about going to Oxford and seeing it truly as a tourist attraction, very few students, that stuck this point home. THere are tours for future students at my University, but there are never thousands of people trying to get in to see a College. Oxford is a beautiful and special place but I'm not sure if its as hallowed and protected as maybe once thought.
But I did enjoy myself. The history was enthralling, the town was relaxing and everyone was very nice. Even the tour guide who teased me about my umbrella and my questions... but it wouldn't be a true trip to England without dry British humor.

Je voudrais...

That's how my friend Adam from undergrad taught me to order dinner in french. At least I think that's how it spelled. This crash course in french was courtesy of my whirlwind weekend in Paris. It was amazing. Great food, great friends, great city. The highlight of my weekend was seeing aforementioned friend Adam. We had been great friends in undergrad back at Butler University in Indianapolis, and I was so excited about that chance to spend the day with him and catch up. The internet is a wonderful invention but nothing beats chatting in a plaza about the present, the future, the past, and wondering why, oh why, won't American men be convinced to dress like French men?! It was a fabulous day since we didn't really don anything very intense or touristy. We sat in a plaza, we walked among the shops, we stopped by Notre Dame and he took me to the Jardine du Luxeburg which were so pretty. They were very relaxing and I really wished I could've gone back with a book but it just didn't work out that way. It was wonderful to have that peaceful day since we had done most of the major sightseeing the day as the FSU group. Saturday was complete relaxation and meandering day.

Dinner that evening was very illuminating. First of all the drinks before dinner/lunch that have wine and syrup are called Kirs. They're delicious; I got mine with raspberry but Adam's peach one was very delicious as well. Second, the french version of a salad includes lots of meat and/or an open faced sandwhich. But its the most delicious salad you've ever had. Third, you must get desert. Preferably something with lots and lots of chocolate!

For dinner, Adam and I were joined by a mutual friend Ben. He was an exchange student to Butler a few years ago and he and Adam hang out lot since Adam has arrived in France, not surprisingly. Ben made it some type of random mission to show all the famous and slightly touristy spots I didn't see yet. He dragged Adam and I up to the Basilica, which was absolutely beautiful at night... but was surrounded by super drunk and rambunctious college students. That was not so fun.

Then Ben dragged me down to the Moulin Rouge.. I think he thought it was funny. I've never seen the movie and I don't really understand what the big deal was, so it was anti-climatic to say the least. However, he did make up for by showing me the Opera house. And it an amazingly beautiful building, truly it is. Its not very large but it just feels so grand and brimming with creativity. It was splendid.
I really couldn't ask for a better weekend. I loved seeing my friends and seeing the city that they called home. I loved being able to feel part of the city instead of just a tourist. And I loved being able to reconnect and feel at home with my old friends again.. home is anywhere you feel comfortable, really. And of course, I loved the food. :)

These wonderful experiences did not make the weekend easy. Traveling in any country that's not your own is a struggle to adapt the culture, food and language if its not your own. Language was a particularly difficult one for me. I can read a good portion of french because I'm pretty fluent in Spanish but speaking always trips me up. I've also traveled enough to realize that you have to at least try to speak their language, even if its just "hello." Adam and I discussed this over lunch; Parisians are, on the whole, more than willing to speak English with Americans/British/Candians/etc as long as we try at the French language. I spent the entire weekend wandering saying "bonjour" and "merci" in my horrible french accent and trying desperately to learn the sounds of french. I'm happy I did; I've come back with a better of understanding of French and a feeling of satisfaction since I extended a proverbial olive branch. It's very difficult because its exhausting to think about saying something correctly all the time.

But the Parisians are not nearly as haughty as they are rumored to be. If you try, they will do their best to meet you halfway. Language gaps is one of the most difficult things about traveling because we're all so used to being able to communicate. Its difficult to realize that you are the disadvantaged in a place like Paris because more French people learn at least one other language while Americans often do not learn anything. But the communication goes both way; you can't be expected to fluently speak every language of every country you visit. But they can expect you to try and know the niceities. We do expect something similar from our visitors and even the immigrants who come to live in our country. France was difficult for me because I was embarrassed that I was stumbled over my words and I couldn't communicate. But possibly it was that embarrassment that helped me get along.

Clocking it: Video Assignment

I have a definite obsession with clocks, one I wasn't really aware of until I arrived at the clock exhibition at the British Museum and they continued to pop up in all their glory throughout my trip.
I learned about the relationship between time, navigation and astronomy in the Time Galleries at Greenwhich (much cooler than the arbitrary prime meridian). In Salisbury, the church still has an ancient clock that used to chime every hour to let the town know the time.

So my video become about my interest in clocks because of all the awesome footage I got at the British Museum.

The British Library Is Not A Lending Library

As a patron, you cannot take a book out of the British Library, you can only read the books in their collection in one of their 11 reading rooms. The British Library is huge; it has eight floors and thousands, maybe millions, of books on site. It has a basement storage area of four floors, each that two floor height. It's an absolutely amazing facility and anything in the library is available for view if you have a reader's card, even the items in the Treasures Collection.

But to get access to anything, you have to have a reader's card. Unlike a public library card, a reader's card is more than just access to the stacks -- its access with a purpose. When you register, you are asked to explain why you want to use the collection and which areas specifically you want to use. This creates a very specific patron pool that divides up into three groups, according to our tour guide: academic, personal and business. Academic is the largest, which is not surprising. Once you have a reader's card you find the book you need, ask the librarian and the librarian brings it to you. This is not a browse-able collection due to the unusual and variety of collection materials. So you get your book, sit there with your pen and paper or computer, read your book and then leave without the book. For most librarians, I think, this must seem like a good way to cut down on circulation -- isn't the point to get the information to the patrons? Well yes, but, the British Library isn't just a public library for people to find information but it also keeps and stores information. It only has one copy of every new book published. It is not a lending library, but it still gets the necessary information. But back to the circulation question, wouldn't the confines of the library decrease the usage. Surprisingly not; according to our tour guide, most rooms are filled between 96%-98% every single day the library is open. I can't imagine many libraries that have circulation statistics like that.

As a reader, you can get just about any book. You can even get the books on display in the Treasures Collection, selected fromTreasures in Full, which includes hand-written letters and stories of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, first print editions of Shakespeare's works, original scores by the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Handel. It is a truly amazing collection. While these items require very special clearance, a reader can check them out and study them if necessary. This is a working library.

All these books come from the stacks below the British Library or their storage facility out in Yorkshire. I was actually lucky enough to see the basement collections. Back at UW I work for the Iberoamerican Studies Bibliographer, Paloma, who was kind enough to put me in touch with a colleague at the British Library. I was given a tour of the storage collection, concentrating on Latin American Colonial and Spanish materials, by Aquiles Alencar Braynar. I was really surprised to see the stacks but it was amazing and completely overwhelming. Even when you see the model, its hard to imagine just how big and expansive the storage area really is. Also, you can definitely hear the tube. Dr. Alencar Braynar showed me the manuscripts area, the large collection of Don Quixote editions gifted to the library and part of the library of Maximillion. Maximillion was once put in power as the "Emperor of Mexico" but was executed in the late 19th century when the Mexican people revolted. One of his aids gave most of his library to the British Library around the start of the 20th century and most of the books are focused on the colonization and revolution in Mexico. A few of these books are being used in the Viva la Libertad! exhibit celebrating the independence of most of Latin America. Mexico's Bicentennial is coming up this fall, which is super exciting.

I'm not doing a very good job at explaining the stacks but it was amazing to see their stacking system which does not follow any specific standard system. They stack them according to size, collection owner, language and maybe, if you're lucky, subject. There are huge horizontal book sections where there are huge books, some of them maps, piled in there own cubbie hole type sections. While it doesn't make sense to the patron, it does make sense for the library and librarians. Since the librarians are the only ones retrieving books, the system doesn't have to be organized LCC or Dewey. This is a very flexible system to allow for all the new books that the British Library receives every year, like the Library of Congress does in the U.S.

Basically, this was the best afternoon ever. :D