Day Trip to Exeter

Pictures: 1) Part of the castle connected to the old wall, 2) me on the trail walking up to the castle, 3) my little robin, 4) the Exeter River, 5) Swans swimming, 6) Exeter Cathedral, 7) the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in Europe, 8) St. Martain's Church from pre-1050 (the brick building on left), 9) me inside the tunnels

~ remember, you can double click to see the pics big, then use the back arrow to return to the blog


On Saturday I woke up at 8 am and packed a lunch and fruit, then headed to the Paddington train station. I was worried that I'd have to wait in a long line to get my BritRail pass validated, but I walked up to a customer service desk that had no line and got it validated in about 10 seconds. I was so glad I didn't have to buy an actual ticket since the lines were atrocious! Even though I got out of the flat later than I wanted to, I still had to wait around for about 25 minutes at the station for the 10:06 train to Exeter to arrive. I decided to go to Exeter because on my way home from Hampton Court Palace the other day the man sitting across from me suggested it as a good place to go for a day trip.

With my BritRail I can use the train as much as I want for any 15 days within a 2 month period. This was day one. The train ride to Exeter took about 2 hrs 15 mins, although I wish I'd known about the "quiet coach" before I boarded because all the children in my train car were quite loud. However, I had a window seat and the views were spectacular. I passed fields still covered in snow, and green grass with grazing sheep, and meandering rivers - all under a blue sky with white clouds. However, the closer we got to our destination, the more the cloud cover increased.

It was cloudy all day in Exeter and fairly cold, however I didn't mind as long as it wasn't raining! When I got to the train station at "Exeter St. David's" I had to hop on another train (about 1 min ride) to Exeter Central. From there I just started walking toward what I gathered to be the city center. Luckily there were information boards all over the place with maps on them so I walked up to one and realized there was a park not to far from where I stood, so I started to walk in that direction.

Everything was very green (I guess that's what happens when a country has nonstop rain), and I walked up this path that followed beside part of the City Wall and up to Rougemont Castle. The City Wall was built between 58 and 200 AD when the Romans invaded and the Celts were pushed out and into Wales. 3/4 of the wall is still standing and while parts have since been rebuilt, a good chunk is still the original Roman workmanship. You can look at the wall and tell which is which (if your tour guide is really cool and explains it to you ;)). Anyway, the castle is less like a castle now and more like the shell of a castle that really only has some towers left. I believe that was built around 1077 for William the Conqueror. The view from the top of the path (you couldn't actually go up into the towers) was very pretty.

Exeter is on a ridge between two valleys which makes it a natural place to build a fortress since it is easily defensible. As I walked the path I could hear birds everywhere and all of a sudden this little robin landed on a branch right next to me and started singing at the top of his lungs. I was so close I could have reached out and touched him, and I stood, mesmerized, as I watched his orange breast flutter and heave in joyful song. I have a thing for robins (blame it on watching The Secret Garden a few too many times), but really it was quite amazing. I took pictures of it, with and without the flash, and it never moved. These animals are seriously something out of a storybook! At Hyde Park the other day I watched several people feeding squirrels by hand.

Anyway, from there I took the path back down and into the Rougemont & Northernhay Gardens. They were pretty as well, and another robin did the same as the first. In spring the gardens will be absolutely lovely for I could see the beginnings of tulips and daffodils everywhere.

From there I walked to the Quayside (which is the riverside). The Exeter River runs through one of the valleys and alongside it former warehouses have been converted into antique and craft shops. They are build into what is basically the side of the hill, on top of which is the edge of the city wall. The area was very quaint and I wished I had more time to explore it. There were, again, dozens of swans and I got some amazing pictures of the beautiful birds.

I thought that Exeter was on the seaside, but it is actually 10 or 12 miles away. However, there were seagulls flying overhead all day long, squawking. I know they are rather annoying birds, but I can't help but like to hear them for they remind me of Miami.

I walked back up the steep hill to the city's center and to the Exeter Cathedral. I walked through (warming up a bit) and listened to choir practice, which was just lovely. The inside of the cathedral was quite impressive and according to the tour guide (will tell you about that in a minute) it has the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in Europe. The founding of the cathedral at Exeter, dedicated to Saint Peter, dates from 1050, when the seat of the bishop of Devon and Cornwall was transferred from Crediton because of a fear of sea-raids (i.e. - pirates). The cathedral wasn't actually started until 1133, but part of that original structure still stands (though part was destroyed in WWII by the Germans).

During WWII the RAF (Royal Air Force) bombed a town in Germany (Lubeck) that had no industry or war supplies - it was just a quaint little town and apparently very beautiful. To this day we still don't know why the RAF bombed them, but it really pissed Hitler off so in retaliation he had some of his men do research and find five comparable towns in Britain. In mid 1942 the Baedeker Blitz targeted five historic cities with no military or strategic importance: Bath, Canterbury, Exeter, Norwich, and York.

In the church yard I met up with a free tour guide for a 2pm tour of the "Cathedral Close" - this is the area immediately surrounding the cathedral. There were about 10 of us on the tour, and I was by far the youngest. The tour guide was a volunteer in his 60s who totally impressed me with the amount of information he remembered! Exeter is the first place in the UK to call a hotel a "hotel." Before this, all hotels were called inns or boarding houses or something. The man who built the hotel didn't want it to seem like a low-class place, so he found the word hotel (from French perhaps?) and called it the Royal Clarence Hotel. Many famous people have stayed there including queens, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and more.

On the corner near the Clarence Hotel was St. Martin's Church, the building of which has been dated to before 1050. This is probably the oldest standing building in Exeter. At one point in history it was a pub and it was famous for giving drinks to beggars and poor people, so it had an outdoor tap which is still there today. Underneath the ground in the Cathedral Close there are ancient Roman Baths. They are apparently amazing and huge, but the church owns the property and has declined public access to view the baths, which is quite a shame. The baths weren't even discovered until the 1960s when something else was being build and they had to dig down to make foundations for it.

After that tour I walked around the new shopping area (which is really strange because it is right behind the Close which is so old). I bought a dark chocolate-raspberry chocolate bar from a place called Hotel Chocolate. It is amazing. After I looked around a bit I went to the entrance to the Underground Tunnels which I had booked a tour for earlier. It was only £3.90 for students, so I was happy with that. My tour started at 4:30 pm, and it takes you into the tunnels that were built to house the lead pipes that would ship water from a fresh spring to the Cathedral Close for the clergy to have fresh drinking water. Lead poisoning wouldn't have been a problem because if you didn't die from the plague first, the average life span was still only 35, and it would take longer than that to build up enough lead in your system from the drinking water to die from lead poisoning. The tunnels were build so the men could fix the pipes when they leaked without having to dig up the roads. The original tunnels were built by the stonemasons who worked on the sculptures for the front of the Cathedral in the 1300s. Thus, the original parts of the tunnels are from that time period. Interestingly enough, these parts are much sturdier and need much less upkeep than the tunnels built in the 1500s which they started when the upper class business men also demanded clean water.

The tunnels were really small - not much wider than the width of my shoulders and usually shorter than me. In one section you have to crawl through the tunnels since the highest part is only 1 meter high. Clearly, if you had problems with claustrophobia you could not go on this tour. It was pretty cool though. Interestingly enough, during the Baedeker Blitz I mentioned earlier, hundreds of people went into these tunnels for shelter from the bombs and would have to stay in these cramped little tunnels, huddled together for hours at a time.

In one section we could hear the traffic overhead, even though we were 7 meters below ground. All the tunnels are between 3 and 7 meters underground. The tour guide reminded us that though it sounded loud, we were actually very safe. She then said "Imagine how the people in the tunnels would feel as they heard the bombs overhead." That would have been scary.

By the time that was over it was 5:15 so I ran to the train station since my train back to Paddington left at 6 pm from Exeter St. David's. I didn't need to rush however since I made it to Exeter St. David's by 5:30. lol Exeter is a very small town and easily walkable, so I wasn't far from the central station when I left the Underground Tunnels.

I found the "quiet coach" on the way back and sat at a table (there are a few parts of the coach that have tables with 4 seats around them). Across from me a little boy and his dad sat down. The little boy was playing his game boy and I asked him how old he was (to be able to play that by himself so well) and he said four. He and his dad were going to meet his mom and older brother in Reading (pronounced Redding) and then going to London for a couple days to see Big Ben and the Tower of London (at least those were the things the boy told me he most wanted to see). This kid, let me tell you, was amazing! He was so smart and well-mannered. When his dad gave him a bag of some sort of snack I said to him "What are those?" and he said "Chocolates - you want one?" then he handed me the bag and let me pick (with my own fingers) the first one. So I tried the animal cracker dipped in chocolate and it was good, of course. Later his dad gave him a little tub of Cadbury mini chocolate eggs and the little boy said "Would you like one?" and again let me choose first before he had any. I said to him, "Are you supposed to suck on them or bite them?" and he said "Both, but I like to suck on mine to make the flavor last longer." Then he was asking me about where I lived and about London and my trips etc. He started saying "So we're going North right now, then we'll be going East and then on the way home we'll be going South.." and I'm thinking "What freaking four year old knows nautical directions!!??" I asked the dad what age school became mandatory and he said 4, but preschool is from 2 to 4. I think we should do this in the US because our country would be better if our kids were all that smart.

From there I took the tube back to my flat and that was the end of my journey. It was so lovely and I'm so glad I went - even if I was alone on Valentines Day. lol

Hyde Park and V&A Museum

Pictures: 1) Me on rock in Hyde Park, 2) with the Serpentine, 3) in the gilded room in the V&A, 4) the Prince Albert Memorial, 5) picture I drew in art class




Thursday we met our art teacher in Hyde Park at the Serpentine Museum. They currently have an exhibition of Indian art (art from artists from the country of India). Most of the art dealt with the way India is handling the transition from a mostly rural, poor country to an industrialized, largely urban country. The globalization of India is hard on many people who are not sure where they belong and how to handle customs and a way of life that seem to be slipping away. Some of the art I found very interesting, and other exhibits I didn't really get. However, there was this one piece that looked a bit like a child's fort/castle made out of rusty oil drums and you could actually crawl inside it and even though the outside was really ugly, inside the roof was poked with an ice pick and the light shone through the metal like stars and reflected off internal mirrors. It reminded me of my bedroom at my old house in Charlotte with hundreds of glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. So that was pretty cool.

From there I just came back to the flat and watched Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters online, then I went to my drawing class at 7 pm. It was a woman model this time, probably in her early 50s, but had a pretty good body for her age. I think my 25 minute sketches turned out fairly well, so I'll post one.

Today Ashley and I went back to Hyde Park and walked through more of it since it was sunny. We took pictures in Kensington Gardens (part of Hyde Park) and just strolled along the Serpentine (which is a lake I guess) talking and enjoying the day. Again, it was cold, but pretty. From there we walked down to the Victoria and Albert Museum and explored a lot of that. I love the fact that most all of the museums here are free! There was this one room in the museum that was all gilded and looked like the ballroom from the sound of music - I was pretty much in heaven.




After that Ashley and I came back to the flat and I just made dinner and now I'm going to watch Dirty Dancing. I was so upset with the quality of acting in the stage performance I saw of it the other night that I was really wanting my DVD to watch, so my friend Tommy sent me one which is quite exciting!

Banana Bread, New Friend, Dirty Dancing

Pictures: 1) with my banana bread, 2) close up bread, 3) ready to go to the show with the scarf grandma made me, 4) pretty building on the way to the show, 5) outside the theater




Sunday night I decided to make banana bread because I had a bunch of overly ripe bananas on hand. SO, I looked up a recipe online, went and bought the ingredients I didn't have, and started cooking. Unfortunately the recipe was in cups and the measuring cup we have is in liters, but I sort of guessed/looked up rough conversions online. I also made it with walnuts and currants (which are dried black grapes - sweeter than raisins and smaller). I was so delighted with the results and the bread was delicious!! One may be wondering why I'm so excited about this, but I have never made banana bread by myself or any recipe that was as complicated as this one, so I'm quite pleased.

Monday I did homework most of the day and then met my friend Matthew's cousin Catherine at the National Theater on the Southbank of the Thames. I was going to catch a bus since it was raining, but it ended up not being a very far walk, and despite the rain, it wasn't too cold. Catherine and I met in the theater lobby then went to Wagamama (a noodle place) for dinner. She gave me a whole list of stuff to check out while in London and helpful websites. She also gave me a list of cities she recommends that I visit. She was very nice and hopefully we can hang out again soon. Interestingly enough, she is in the advertising business and has recently been working on a public safety campaign that sounded really cool. If I do go into advertising I'd like to do something for the good of civilization.

Today I read a lot for my WWII class and then I walked down to the Aldwhych Theater where they are showing Dirty Dancing Live. I passed it on the way home from Wagamama last night and thought I'd try to catch the show tonight. I arrived to buy the tickets at 6:15 and bought a £15 "restricted view" seat (which was the cheapest thing available). It was the very top, very last row of the theater, but I figured I could move down once the show started because the seats never fill up. After I bought the ticket I walked to a coffee shop nearby and read my novel until 7 when the doors opened.

The seat wasn't so bad, but once people sat in front of me I couldn't see very well unless I stood up and leaned against the wall next to me. At the half-way point I moved several rows down and had a perfect view of the stage. The girls sitting near me were from Seattle (which is where my old roommate Casey lives) and so we chatted quite a bit. One of the girls had been here for 6 months and is about to move back and she told me about some shows she'd seen and suggested. Apparently there is a "Rainman" musical that stars Josh Hartnett on the stage. I think I'm going to have to see that! lol

This is how I felt about the show: great costumes, great props, good singing, good dancing, TERRIBLE acting!! They used almost all exact lines from the movie and they sounded so phony! I don't understand why they couldn't watch the movie and act it the way it is supposed to be acted! I was sitting there thinking "I could do this so much better - it isn't supposed to sound like that, it's supposed to sound like this." But, I suppose it wasn't so bad for £15. Now I really wish I had my version of the movie to get that acting out of my head. lol

Tomorrow is class so I best get to bed.

Hampton Court Palace

Pictures (double click on photo to see big then press back button to go back to blog): 1) Arial view of Hampton Court Palace (half circle shape are gardens with The Long Water flowing to it), 2) a little finch in the gardens, 3) me in the gardens, 4) in the gardens with the palace to the right, 5) with The Long Water behind me, 6) looking back on Hampton Court Palace from behind the gates leading to the heath, 7) facing the Long Water with palace behind, 8 & 9) the roe deer, 10) the Long River - notice the moon above

Today was AMAZING! I woke up at 9:15 and Ashley, one of the guys, and I left for Hampton Court Palace at 10:15. We took the tube to Waterloo train station and bought round trip tickets to the palace (about a 30 min ride). They were £6.50 ($9.62 with today's exchange rate - ick, it's gotten worse lately). Anyway, we took the 11:06 train and we thought it went straight to the Hampton Court stop, but apparently we were supposed to get off at Surbiton and switch trains. Well, we went one stop too far before we figured out our mistake, so we had to get off and wait for another train going back the direction we came from which was another 20 minutes. *sigh* But we passed the time pleasantly despite the freezing cold and the outdoor station. Once we got back on the train we switched at Surbiton and didn't have to wait very long for the next train to Hampton Court.

Ashley had already bought us tickets for the palace online the night before for £10.50 each which was quite a good deal because they were several pounds more at the ticket office there. And, our passes came with full garden, maze, and palace access as well as free audio guides and any tours. Too bad we were later than we expected or we may have actually had time to utilize the audio guides. However, we did go on a tour at 1pm (we arrived about 12:20)and it was pretty good. The guide told us all about the Tudor lifestyle (the palace was lived in by Henry VIII (the one who had 8 wives)) and his decedents - all together, the Tudors.

There is this society called the historians or something like that who come and live at the palace now and then in 100% authentic garb, living conditions, etc. They even make food exactly the way it would have been made in the Tudor times, eat it that way, have it served that way etc. They were there yesterday and we got to watch them preparing meals. They aren't allowed to serve it to the public because of very specific laws about how food must be prepared when catered. However, when they sit down for meals the public is allowed to observe the way they eat, the way the food is brought in and out, and other customs. Unlike the things you hear about Renaissance way of life (like using lots of spices to cover up the taste of rotten meat) that sort of thing never happened in the Palace. King Henry would have only the best for his guests, and he had fresh meat year-round (which was quite rare). It also only took the servants 40 to 50 seconds to pick up the food from the kitchen and have it delivered to the table which means the dishes were never cold.

Water was not safe to drink in the 1500s because of disease, and though they didn't know why, they knew that the process used to produce beer and wine made them safe; therefore, people drank only those beverages. However, they weren't inebriated morning to night because with meals like breakfast one would have "small beer." Beer we drink today is beer after the first stage of fermenting, small beer was the 3rd or 4th stage and had so little alcohol content that by the time you drank enough to even get you tipsy you'd have exploded from too much liquid intake.

We also got to see a tapestry that Henry VIII had commissioned. There are 25 total, all still surviving, and they are called the Abraham tapestries. They are made out of silk, gold, and silver thread and considered one of the chiefest collections of worth owned by the Queen (things like this technically get passed down to monarchy after monarchy and thus technically belong to the queen). Anyway, these tapestries may be worth a large portion of the royal jewels. I think the guide said at the time of Henry you could live quite comfortably off of £5 a year and these tapestries cost Henry about £3,000 (or maybe it was £300,000...I don't remember - but a lot!).

Before the tour the three of us went to the gardens and there aren't words to express the sheer beauty of them! I felt like I had stepped into a scene from a Jane Austen movie - with perfect, huge, cone shaped green trees and acres of green grass and flowing fountains and swans. I was in absolute awe. That is when I decided I was born for that life. lol After the tour we went to the hedge maze, though it was a bit of a let-down since in winter you can sort of see through the hedges. Then we went to a cafe that was located next to the maze and I ate my prepacked lunch and they ordered some food. I brought cookies for everyone though since we are still eating that batch Grandma B. sent me. Mmmm.

After that we went back inside and saw some rooms lived in by King George II and Queen Caroline when they were there. When their son was 10 he was given his own "apartments" (i.e. - a set of rooms for himself) and we saw all of these. All the beds we saw looked so short but in fact they were all between 6'5" and 7'2" yet because of the width and huge tapestries hung above them they looked like midget beds.

The palace first created and lived in by Thomas Wolsey, then Archbishop of York and Chief Minister to the King, who took over the lease in 1514 and rebuilt the 14th century manor house over the next seven years (1515–1521) to form the nucleus of the present palace. Wolsey spent lavishly to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court, which he was later forced to give to Henry as he began to fall from favour.

The palace was appropriated by Wolsey's master (Henry VIII) in about 1525, although the Cardinal continued to live there until 1529. Henry added the Great Hall — which was the last medieval Great Hall built for the English monarchy — and the Royal Tennis Court, which was built and is still in use for the game of real tennis, not the present-day version of the game. This court is now the oldest Real Tennis Court in the world that is still in use. Also, the Great Hall was used by Shakespeare to put on performances for the royals and is also believed to be the first place where Macbeth was staged. (A warder, a person who lives and works in the palace, told me this when he heard I was studying Shakespeare). The warders were all very knowledgeable and happy to answer questions - the trick was getting them to stop talking!

After that I stayed while the other 2 went back home because Ashley was going to see a stand-up comedian and didn't want to be late. I went back to the gardens and by this time the skies were very blue with white fluffy clouds and sun just streaming down. While it was still very cold, I was so unbelievably happy and could not stop smiling. I shall never take advantage of good weather again!! I walked over to the Long Water which is basically a really long and narrow man made lake that butts up to the palace gardens. It is very pretty. I attached a google satellite image of the palace and you can see the Long Water butting up to the half circle shaped gardens.

There are gates behind the gardens and I behind the gates a giant heath (a tract of open and uncultivated land)with trees here and there. I didn't realize you could go past the gate, but these two women came through so I realized it was unlocked. There was no one around and it was such a beautiful day so I kept walking. In the distance I thought I saw some animals, and the closer I got I realized that they were deer - and they weren't behind a fence or anything. I kept walking toward them expecting them to bolt, but they didn't. I ended up getting so close I could have touched them and I walked right through them. I was a little scared because I'd never been so close to wild creatures before and I guess if they'd had a mind to do so, they could have charged me. I later asked a guard what kind of deer were back there and he said the ones who let me get close were probably the roe deer because the red deer are more skittish. They had antlers that looked a bit like moose antlers. Anyway, I couldn't believe it - getting closer to deer than I ever had in London of all places!

Once I got back into the gardens there were a bunch of students taking pictures and I heard their American accents so I asked where they were from and they said California. They were absolutely freezing. When they left California it was 75 degrees. I think they must have just arrived in London because if you still aren't dressing warmly after a month here, you're just an idiot. I was wearing 2 pair of socks, 2 pair of long johns under my jeans, a silk long-sleeved undershirt under my sweater which was under my peacoat. And I never walk out without gloves! I also had my ear-flap hat. Anyway, I took some pictures for their group and one of them took a picture with me standing in front of The Long Water.

On the train ride home an old gentleman was sitting across from me who was out in London for a special church service and was going all the way home to Plymouth in the county of Devon in the SW of England. We talked about the beauty of the day and his daughter in Germany who he's going to visit this year. He also told me a few places he thought I should go see while I'm here. He said many people go to Land's End (yes, it's a real place) to see the sunset over the water there. It looks like a lovely coastal town. Maybe I'll go there for a day or two at some point.

Anyway, it was an absolutely lovely day and I can't wait to go back to Hampton Court and see the things I didn't get a chance to see! Today is beautiful as well, but I think I will just stay in and get some homework done. *sighs* Oh that pesky school work ;)

Package, Class, Imperial War Museum, Figure Drawing

Pictures: 1) The Imperial War Museum (notice all the snow that came down on Monday and is still there Thursday!), 2) inside the museum - those are real planes from the wars, 3) A map that really struck me - I never realized the sheer volume of land that Hitler had under his command and how close he came to world domination. Unfortunately, pictures of the Holocaust exhibition and the artwork were not allowed.

I spent most of the day Thursday finishing up reading for Shakespeare. Before I went to class I wanted to stop by STA Travel to see about going to Paris when Stephen and Krystle come to visit me in March. First I stopped off next door at the Acorn Management office to see if I had any packages and the one my Grandma B. sent me ages ago finally got here! I now have a new scarf, dark chocolate M&Ms :), hot cocoa mix, and best of all - a whole batch of snicker doodle cookies! And, thank goodness, they weren't stale yet!

PS - a note about shipping me packages: 1) make sure you send it to Lauren Bailey, c/o Acorn Management, 19 Bedford Place, London WC1B 5JA and 2) write "Not for Commercial Use" on the package so it doesn't get held up in customs

STA told me that Stephen, Krystle, and I could get round trip tickets on the Chunnel to Paris and back for 53 pounds each, and a hostel for about 19 pounds a night each. We'd be going the morning of my birthday (the 8th of March) and returning the evening of the 9th. I checked later on the Eurostar website and found round trips on the Chunnel for 49 pounds each, so I booked that instead. I'm still looking at hotels/hostels but most of my flatmates when to Paris this weekend, so I'll ask them about their accommodations when they get back.

Thursday morning we had to meet our art teacher, Kathy, at the Imperial War Museum at 10:30. We spent the first hour looking at WWI and WWII art (for, unbeknown to me previously, they have an impressive collection). Then this old man, Roman Halter, who was in the Holocaust came and spoke to us about his experience. He is an artist now and after telling us about his life, he told us what each of his paintings in the room we were sitting in meant. He is really incredibly talented.

The Following is Roman's story - very interesting but long - I will mark it in a different color in case you don't feel like reading it.

Roman grew up in Poland in a town that had 800 Jews, 950 Germans, and thousands of Poles. When he was 12 he remembered his grandfather talking about a speech Hitler made in 1939 about how they "must find a solution to the Jewish problem in Europe" and how in the future there would be no Jews in Europe. Roman says he was confused and thought, "Where will they all go?" because there were 3.3 million Jews in Poland at the time. After this, if a Jewish person had enough money he would pay 100 pounds to go to the US or 50 pounds to go to Britain. Yet given that this was on the tail of the Great Depression and inflation in Germany had risen so high so fast that almost everyone's savings were lost, not many could afford this route.

After the Germans invaded his town the antisemitism got much worse. The Germans made a list of all the potential leaders (Jewish and Polish), rounded them up, took them away, and shot them. They took certain students to train as SS men, including one of Romans school friends. By the end of the murders of leaders and the murders of other random Jews who somehow displeased the German invaders, there were 360 Jews left in Roman's town. That is when they were all rounded up and sent to Łódź Ghetto. The ghetto was very crowded and so they could only accept 120 of the people - the other 240 were taken away and shot.

The ghetto was split up into pie-shaped pieces, and you could not leave your quarter unless you had a special pass. Roman was 13 and pretty strong for his age, so he was used by a higher official to fetch butter milk outside the ghetto every day. He had to carry the buckets on his back with a yoke. One day on his way back to the ghetto he heard shooting from a field he knew well. He went closer to see what was happening, and there he saw the boys training for the SS, including his former friend, shooting people. He knew if he was discovered, even with his pass, he would be shot too, so he ran back to the ghetto as fast as he could. He never told his family what he had witnessed.

Łódź Ghetto became a productive center for German goals. Once they could no longer keep any more people, they brought in families from many other European countries, tortured them until they told where they had hidden their valuables, accompanied them to said place, and then killed them. Many people in the ghetto starved to death as rations were very scarce and poor - it was up to the children to sneak out of the ghetto and beg for food. If they were caught they were either beaten or killed. When Roman arrived in Łódź with his family there were over 220,000 Jews in the place, but they were slowly sent away to work or extermination camps so by the end there were only 70,000 left. Usually, the SS would round up the weak, sick, and starving to take them for extermination.

Once, Roman and some of his family including his mother were rounded up and put on an open cart to be taken out of town. His mother knew where they were going, so she told him (who despite being very thin, could run quite fast) to run and not stop no matter what until he got to the other section of the ghetto. She told him to jump the fence and be safe. Then she kissed him goodbye and he ran. He never saw her or the others on the cart again. He was soon taken to a metal factory to work with many other child laborers. They made metal plates for the heels and toes of German boots. He became quite skilled and was sent to many different departments, including the engraving department where German money was made. 500 of these metal workers were later shipped to Auschwitz to do metal work there.

There were 35 cattle trucks with 80 people per truck and it took several days with no food, no water, no bathrooms, and barely any air. By the time they arrived, half the people were dead, and the other half looked close to death. The man at Auschwitz who decided who was immediately sent to death and who was sent to work issued the whole lot of them to go to the gas chambers, but the Jewish man who had been the head of the metal factory had a paper saying that they were skilled workers and not supposed to die. He was screaming at the top of his lungs despite the SS beating on them, but he managed to get the attention of a supervisor who looked at the note and corrected the mistake. They were not killed that day. Roman says he remembered on the way to the gas chambers how all the people were hugging, crying, and praying. The man next to him was praying the same prayer over and over in Hebrew, but Roman had had very little formal education and could not understand what he was saying. He asked the man what it was, and the man said it was Psalm 31, vs. 5: "Unto him I commit my spirit; for you are my redeemer, O Lord, God of truth."

Eventually Roman was moved again, this time to Dresden. He said when he saw that beautiful city, he knew from that moment on he wanted to be an architect. He said it was one of the most beautiful cities in Europe; however, not long after it was fire bombed by the British and though they escaped by running to the river, the entire city became an inferno. To this day, it is still being rebuilt, and looks as though the destruction happened a few weeks ago, as opposed to over 50 years ago.

Before the war ended and Hitler started realizing they may not win, he ordered the evacuation of many camps, and Jews all over Europe were sent on death marches (forcible movement between Autumn 1944 and late April 1945 by Nazi Germany of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, from German concentration camps near the war front to camps inside Germany). Roman was on one of these marches from Dresden toward the interior of Germany when he escaped with two others. He said before they got away, they passed many bodies of those who died from starvation along the way or those shot for not keeping up. Roman was helped by a German woman until the end of the war. The British government said that they would find a place for 1,000 Jewish youths who had no family left to come to England, but they could only find a little over 700. Roman was among this group.

He arrived in England when he was 18 where he went to a recovery house. He could not speak English, he knew very little Hebrew, rudimentary Polish, and some German. Overall, he was quite uneducated; yet he still dreamed about becoming an architect. He studied at night and worked during the day until he won a scholarship to study full time. He started his own business, and his architecture firm, Roman Halter & Assoc., did amazing work. At 74 he said he wanted to get out of the business because he wanted to paint and write. His colleagues thought he was crazy. Roman did not speak of his experiences in the Holocaust until that time. Not even to his wife and children. Yet he had made a promise to his grandfather on his deathbed that he would speak out and clearly about what happened to them, for "all people have a right to live - different birds with different feathers all have a right to live." His grandfather who was also his best friend died in the ghetto from a cold and starvation. His brother was hung in front of him. Out of his whole extended family, only he and three sisters survived. Out of the 3.3 million Jews in Poland, only 300,000 survived. Out of the 800 in his town, only 4 survived including him.

At 74 one of Roman's daughters helped him write the story of his life, since writing English is still a bit of a struggle. That is also when he started his art, which is incredibly full of talent and haunted with his memories and dreams. One of his pieces was called "Woman Wearing Mantilla" and was of his mother. He said that the fashion of wearing a Spanish mantilla to Synagogue was adopted in Poland (probably when the Spanish Jews were exiled from Spain in the 1400s). Throughout the painting there are images of mothers and children, and then fainter images of the same to represent the ones who died. He also had a painting called "Starved Face." Roman said the Nazis had three goals in starvation: 1) murder, 2) getting rid of the weak, and 3) making Jews look physically different from Aryans to prove that they were, in fact, subhuman. Roman said all the faces end up looking the same, and it is only in the eyes that you can read sadness, despair, compassion, and hope.

After listening to Roman's story, I had lunch in the cafe at the museum and then went to see the WWII exhibit and the Holocaust exhibit in the museum. The Holocaust exhibit was very moving and thorough, and helped explain some of the things Roman talked about. I was nearly moved to tears several times, especially when I saw a clear, tall, rectangular shaped box filled with shoes from Auschwitz. Looking at them, you knew that their owners were all killed, and then you notice little tiny pairs of shoes, and one cannot help but have tears for the terrible loss of innocent young lives. That exhibition took about 2 hours or so to walk through and I read many, many placards, listened to TVs running clips of survivors' stories, and went inside a real cattle car from the time. The horror simply cannot be imagined.

I was heading out the doors at 4 pm when I ran into Ashley on the way out. Apparently she too had stayed and looked thoroughly at the WWII stuff. It was nice to have someone to come back with.

After I got home I made some dinner and had to get ready to go to my figure drawing class. It is only about a 10 minute walk from my flat in the London School of Economics building. I left at 6:30 and despite not being able to find the room for a while, I arrived at 6:50. They even had refreshments while we waited for the room to free up! The class was packed - at least 25 people. I had a feeling it was a nude figure drawing class, but I wasn't sure - until this old man took off his jacket and stood butt naked in the middle of the room. Not exactly a glamorous person to draw naked, but it develops skill more quickly drawing imperfect bodies than perfect, wrinkleless, young ones.

I realized how much more urban and open-minded London is than anywhere I've been in the states. Most of the people there to draw were college age or a bit older, but no one blinked an eye when the guy started posing for us. I was not only proud of the maturity level in the room, but also very impressed with the model. I wish I had that kind of bravery - to just stand around naked for two hours of the sake of art. Although I guess once you're that age, you don't have as much modesty as you probably once did.

First he did 4 three minute poses, then 2 ten minute poses, then 2 thirty minute poses. At the half way break I talked a little bit to the guy next to me who is a web designer who is going to school to become a counselor. He said he started drawing about a year ago but mostly did faces so he wanted to start working on whole bodies. He was fairly good, though you can tell a newer artist by how hard they apply the pencil when drawing the outlines of the figure. We chatted some as we walked out and he reminded me a bit of my cousin Michael, so I think we may become friends. Besides improving my art, I also joined this class hoping to meet more British people.

So, that has been my last few days. Today my flatmates left for Paris (except Ashley and one of the guys) so it is rather quiet around here. I already did some laundry and may go to Big Ben or Tower Bridge or Westminster Abbey today. Tomorrow if it isn't gross out, Ashley and I will go to Hampton Court Palace.

Shopping and Covent Garden

Pictures: 1) Wicked stage before it started (that is the map of Oz with the Emerald City in the middle), 2) Some of us in the lobby at Wicked

This week 2 of the flatmate's had friends staying with us, so while everyone else had class yesterday, I took Jake and Amanda to Covent Garden for some shopping. Of course we stopped by the thrift store and I found a Ralph Lauren red dancing skirt for 2 pounds! Later we went to H&M and I bought a pretty shirt for 5 pounds - they have wonderful deals there! After browsing some other stores we stopped by a cupcake shop and a cookie store in the heart of Covent Garden on the way home. They got this huge, beautiful double chocolate cupcake, and I bought 2 cookies: milk chocolate orange and oatmeal raisin. Mmmm.

I felt a bit dizzy when I got home (probably too much sugar before eating a proper lunch) so I made a ham sandwich and read some Antony and Cleopatra. Most of the flatmates had gone to buy Wicked tickets in the morning while I was still sleeping, but as I wanted to go, I decided to go before the show started and buy a 60 pound ticket for 25 pounds (which you can do with a student ID). I ended up sitting 14 rows from the stage right in the middle which was just fabulous! And OMG - the show was AMAZING!! I really want the soundtrack now! I also thought it would be a sad ending and it wasn't so that made me happy. :) All the lighting in the lobby of the theater (Apollo Victoria) was green. Quite neat!

The people sitting next to me were an Irish couple and very nice. They talked to me for a while, and boy did I have to listen because their accents were so thick! They had flown in for 2 days in order to see Wicked and We Will Rock You. The woman had read the book and said it was okay, but afterward she said she thought the show was much, much better. Before we'd even spoken the man offered his wife some candy (similar to malted milk balls) that he bought at concession, then he turned to me and offered me some. lol Of course I didn't accept, but once we started talking I asked him what they were exactly, and then he insisted I try one.

love meeting strangers and talking to them. Like the people I met last time at Billy Elliot. To me, these random encounters (making snowmen in the park, talking to people on the tube or in a show) really make this a wonderful experience. I am so much braver than I used to be and so much more confident. Last time I was here I'm fairly certain I would never do such things.

Oh, and also, someone was caught filming the show and they took his camera away. My guess is they'll delete the footage and the Irish woman said they'd probably fine him. Of course, the way she pronounced "fine" ("feen"), it took her repeating it three times for me to figure out what she was saying.

Now, time for me to get back to homework. Class today at three.

SNOW!

Pictures: 1) Russell Square gardens monument, 2) Me eating the snow on our street, 3) "Singing in the Snow" in Russell Square gardens last night, 4) Katie K, Me, Bridgette in the street last night, 5) the view from our back windows, 6) Me in Bloomsbury Square today, 7) me with the law people and our snowman




Not a whole lot happened yesterday (I finished reading Picture of Dorian Gray), BUT last night it started snowing and it has just been coming down ever since. SO, we went out and took snow pictures last night! Then today, everyone went to get burritos for lunch but I had just woken up and eaten breakfast, so I stayed back and got ready to go out in the snow (which was really thick).



I walked over to Russell Square garden (where I drew the other day), but it was locked because the government workers who are supposed to lock/unlock it every day were off of work due to the snow. So, I took pictures through the gates then walked the other way down the street to Bloomsbury Square. Those gates were also locked, but there were people inside playing and having snowball fights, so I was walking around it trying to figure out how to get in and I asked one of the guys and he showed this other girl and I how to climb over.




I had a brief snowball fight with them (he was from Urania and she was from Rome). Then I sort of wandered off to look around the rest of the little park and there was a big group of English people having a snowball fight and I heard one of them say "Get the girl in the red trousers" and next thing I know, a snowball hits me. So I laugh and start throwing some at then, but mid throw on the second one I slip and fall on my butt. It was quite funny. So I start hanging out with them, throwing snowballs and whatnot. I found out that they all worked at a nearby law office and this is what they were doing today. Tough job.

Some of them were younger because you don't have to go to law school here to become a lawyer - the company just takes you in and trains you for 4 years. They were doing IP law...whatever that is.

Then we all decided to make a snowman, and boy was it huge! It was quite amusing watching the guys trying to lift the 2nd ball on top of the first one. After we finished it and took pictures with our snowman, they had to go back in b/c 1) they were freezing and 2) they probably should actually do a bit of work today. However, I wonder if they'll get snowed in. Public transit gets severely delayed or shut down when it snows this much. One of the guys said it took him three hours to get to work. I don't understand why the tubes would have so many problems since they're under ground, but apparently they do.



All the guys helped the girls back over the fence and then they were off and I walked back to the flat. On my way it started really snowing buckets and it was actually going in my eyes. My black coat was white when I reached my doorstep. It hasn't stopped snowing all day long and it's 2:37 pm here. I've never seen snow like this. I asked one of the law people if it snowed like this very often, and he said "No, never - that's why everyone is so excited!" So, I guess there are benefits to coming here in the coldest winter in 15 years. I love snow.

It's supposed to continue snowing till 3 am then no snow tomorrow, and then snow on Wed through Friday. We'll see - that would be so exciting!!