England | Day of Museums

BY SAVANNAH SHAPIRO

LONDON

It’s already week 2 for us here in London and we only have 11 more days left in England. On Monday, we had our first classroom session which was on the campus on the University of Westminster. It felt like a normal day of class at UCLA, but felt different as Professor Makdisi talked about the streets on London while in London. I started making the connections to our readings we did and the streets we already roamed in London.  

Tuesday was a day for museums. We started our morning off bright and early and took some time before class to visit The British Museum. It was also the first day where we encountered rain. We were lucky enough to have clear and sunny skies for our first week here, but the rain came at last. Luckily, we were indoors which made it the perfect day to tour some museums.   

The British Museum is so large that you can spend hours and hours wandering through all the rooms in the building. There are over 90 rooms that are dedicated to Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome and Greece, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Not to mention, the museum is free! We spent most of our time in the Ancient Greece and Rome rooms, as well as the Egyptian room. My favorite room was the gallery that contained the Elgin Marbles. The marbles that were from the Parthenon in Athens Greece seemed so remarkable that my mind couldn’t fully comprehend what I was seeing.   

In addition to the Elgin Marbles, we saw the Rosetta Stone which was swarmed with hoards of people. The Rosetta Stone was the key for scholars to understand and decode the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The cluster of ancient hieroglyphics clutter the surface of the stone from top to bottom. Although it was crowded around the Rosetta Stone, it was something definitely worth seeing.   

After The British Museum, it was time for class and we had to meet Professor Makdisi at the Tate Britain. The Tate Britain is the National Collection of British Art and is much less busy than The British Museum. At the Tate, we looked at artwork by Turner and Blake connecting the concepts of our walking tours to the pieces of artwork. We looked at how 18th century was captured both the good and the bad and compared this to the writing of Blake, Hannah Moore and Hazlitt.   

After we finished walking the Tate and finished class for the day, we went back to the dorms and relaxed. We called it an early night and made plans for the next day in Hamstead Heath.  

Savannah Shapiro studied abroad in England on the 2017 Summer Travel Study program “London and the Age of Revolution:” https://ieo.ucla.edu/travelstudy/English-London/

England | London Eye, Monmouth Street and the Seven Dials

BY SAVANNAH SHAPIRO

LONDON

Before I came on this study abroad trip, I knew I wanted to do everything I could possibly do within the time I would be spending in London. Our class doesn’t start in the mid-afternoons and varies day-to-day so I try to do as much as I possibly can during the morning.

Our class didn’t start until 2:00PM on our third day in London so five of us, myself included, decided to explore London and go see the London Eye, Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We started our morning at 9:00 and took the Underground straight to the London Eye. We purchased tickets which cost £25 to take the 30 minute loop on the ferris wheel. I am not the biggest fan of ferris wheels, but this was one ferris wheel that I did like. You could see the entire city of London and get an entire aerial and panoramic view of the city. Our pod was air-conditioned (which as you know, is something I really appreciate when it’s so rare to come by here) and it inches along so slowly that it gives you just enough time to see everything. I would highly recommend to leave early in the morning to go to the London Eye to avoid long lines and a congested area. Later in the evening the line grows longer and longer as opposed to the morinngs where the lines aren’t as bad.  

After we got off the eye, we walked along Westminster Bridge looking up at Big Ben which was surreal. The area was busy, but because we went in the morning, it wasn’t as bad as it normally gets in the afternoon. We walked to Westminster Abbey and looked upon the intricate details of the front of the church.  

During our walking tour for class, we walked down Monmouth Street and to Seven Dials. We were able to see one of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Churches which was featured in one of Hogarth’s print. I remember looking at the same print in class at UCLA and I was able to see the same church that was in the picture. We walked down further all the way down to Saffron Hill to conclude our day. There is a pub down the way called “The One Ton” which was mentioned in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist as “The Three Cripples.”  

It was a long day in London for us, but one of the best days! We were very tired but excited for the next day of adventures.  

Savannah Shapiro studied abroad in England on the 2017 Summer Travel Study program “London and the Age of Revolution:” https://ieo.ucla.edu/travelstudy/English-London/