This week is very exciting for me not only because I will soon be traveling around with my sister and co., but also because a student of mine from my Victorian literature survey class last term is going to be town for a few days. My former student, Nodya, is doing UF's study abroad program at Cambridge for the summer and is staying London before she goes there. She called me Thursday night to let me know that she made here okay and everything. Funny thing about her hotel in Bayswater though - she paid for a room with bathroom en suite (i.e. attached) and what she got was a private bathroom and shower on two different floors. So, she had a total of three rooms that were on different floors. Not exactly what I would call a "suite." We decided to meet at the BL at two in the afternoon so she could do St. Paul's and Westminster early in the morning before the crowds and could do some work.

So, around two I packed up my materials in the manuscript room and ignored the feelings of guilt that the always surly staff person's frown gave me as I asked for my books to be held on reserve for the next day, and went down to meet Nodya in the lobby. I walked through the lobby, didn't see her, and went do to the lockers to put my stuff away and get a snack. Then I went back to the lobby and waited for a half an hour. Finally, I got started to get worried about the poor girl, and went to get bag from my locker. On my way there, I thought to check the upper lobby and there was Nodya waiting for me. Okay, maybe I should have been a bit more specific about what I meant by lobby. Anyway, we wandered through the BL's exhibits (the second time for me). It was much more enjoyable with someone interested in literature.

Next, we decided to go over to the British Museum. I hadn't actually been yet even though it's only a ten minute walk from where I'm staying. When you first enter the museum you go into the Great Court which was recently enclosed and is very lovely. At the center of the Court is the Reading Room or what used to be the British Library. Before the St. Pancras building that I know and love was built, this is where the BL was located. The reading room itself is a rotunda with a lovely ceiling. The reading desks stretch outward from the reference desk located in the center. This room gives one much more the feeling of the panopticon than the current BL because the reference desk is elevated and seems to look out over the whole of the reading room. This room is where Marx wrote Capital and many other famous literary people wrote and studied. I think I could live here.

the Great Russell Street entrance to the British Museum

the Reading Room

the Great Court

At this point, you may be wondering why there are no pictures of me or Nodya at the British Museum. This is because I'm an idiot and accidentally erased the pictures from our Friday adventures from digital camera before I transferred them onto the computer. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing when I went to delete one picture and accidentally selected "delete all" instead of "delete current." Doh! Nodya and I agreed to go back to the BM when she comes back through to retake some of the ones we were really excited about. I did go back today and take some shots that I really wanted to make sure I had. I promise not to ever again delete a picture from the camera until I verify that they are all already saved on my computer. Very much a typical Lisa moment.

The museum is nothing if not immense. There's room upon room upon room of stuff. Most of it, taken by the British from the countries they colonized in the nineteenth-century. Nodya and I's most common response to everything was "How did they get it here?" Somehow the 18th and 19th Century English people managed to transport everything from very impressive Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles to Egyptian statues as tall as house all the way to England with the technology they then had. For me, the museum seemed a lot like a Victorian Epcot: you don't have to go to ____ because we took the really important artifacts from there and brought them to nice and clear British Museum. More than anything, I liked the reliefs like the Parthenon Marbles because they tell a story - it's like a book on a wall. Although I have to admit that both of us were very freaked out by the violence of the Assyrian hunt reliefs. We also went the British nineteenth-century rooms for obvious reasons, and, while they are quite nice, I really prefer the V&A's collection (see below).

Aphrodite

a Dionysian Procession

the Assyrian Hunt

one of the two human-headed winged bulls

the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles

the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles

Having seen enough of the BM for one day, we went off and had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant around the corner. It was so nice to have someone to have dinner with. I don't think we stopped talking the whole time - both of us happy to be someone that we already knew. It is very much a compliment to Nodya that at no point did I feel like I was hanging out with a student. She graduates after her summer program and was definitely one of my best students.

After dinner, we decided that the weather has going to hold out and went over to the East End for a Jack the Ripper walking tour with the same company that I did the Inns of Court with. This tour is much more popular, and they even had two guides so that they could split the group in two. The tour was interesting, and our guide was appropriately dramatic. Mostly though, I liked seeing the East End a bit. Nodya and I both already knew most of the story of the "Autumn Terror," so we hung out at the back and enjoyed the walk. We parted ways on the tube, and promised to meet outside the South Kensington tube station the next day at ten to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

Christ Church Spitalfields

Aldgate (old gate) also called the Prostitutes Church in the 19th Century

section of the Old Roman Wall

soup kitchen for the Jewish poor

Ten Bells Pub

view of the Tower of London from the Tower Hill tube station

the chandelier and medieval religious wall

Nodya in front of the V&A

We also saw the Raphael Cartoons, which are actual colored drawings about twelve feet tall and at least thirty-six feet wall. They, of course, have their own special room. We then poked around the Renaissance rooms, which had lovely sculpture. This is the point where I distractedly erased all my pictures, so you'll notice that from this point on I do have pictures of Nodya and myself because they were taken after I deleted the rest.

Speaking of sculpture, Dad asked me via email why I haven't been mentioning much sculpture. Well, truth to tell, the Victorians didn't do a lot of sculpture, being mainly interested in painting and the developing art of photography. And, since I'm mainly interested in the Victorians, I tend not see the most of the sculpture collections at museums. So, Dad, I recommend you take it up with the Victorians;-)

Although we didn't even see half of the V&A, we soon left because I needed to get to the BL to put in another half day's work. I hope Nodya has a great time in Cambridge, and I look forward to her coming back to "town" later in the summer. I really enjoyed going around with her because it gave me a chance to wander through the BM and the V&A and get a sense of their collections so that I know how much time I'll need when I go back to really study the collections.