The Imperial War Museum in London

Today my International Conflict class took an excursion to London to visit the Imperial War Museum. Housed in what was originally a pyschiatric hospital (fitting somehow) the museum features a large collection of military vehicles, weapons, war memorabilia, in addition to extensive archives of photography and audio recordings telling the stories of those affected by war in the 20th century. Of the two classes I'm currently taking (Common Law is the other) I am certainly enjoying this one the most. I normally get tired of museums after an hour of looking around but I was able to stay focused throughout the 3 or so hours we spent there. If nothing else, I'll take that as a good indication that I'm on the right academic track. Here are some of the photos.

After finishing up at the museum we went to see a one man play called "Within Spitting Distance." The subject of the play was the difficulties in Israeli-Palestinian relations but the most striking aspect of the performance was that it was conducted entirely in arabic with english subtitles. The actor was in fact extremely talented but I was able to appreciate the work most from a linguistic aspect. I had not been exposed to many interchanges in arabic and it was quite cool to hear it spoken at such length with such expression. Not only that but it really added to the authenticity of the performance - it felt real as opposed to a "westernized" take on the situation in Israel. The musical selections were also really cool and left many of us wondering where we could get the music. For my first time in London, I would have to say it was a successful day. It was a bit rainy but as my professor joked, that is part of the real London experience. We will all be going back on Saturday to see Midsummer Nights Dream at the Globe so hopefully this weekend will bring the sunshine my camera lens wants to see. Until then, thanks for reading.

Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Avebury

I've been in England for a little more than two days now. Classes at Oxford start tomorrow and the jet lag has finally started to recede. If only I didn't have a few thousand pages of reading to finish. Still we have been having a lot of fun. Yesterday the Fellowship took us on an excursion to see Stonehenge, Salisbury, and a little town called Avebury in the hills of Wiltshire. As glad as I am to be able to say I've been to Stonehenge, it was a bit underwhelming. Hordes of tourists, all taking pictures of a ruined grouping of relatively small rocks stacked on top of each other. I guess it was worth the visit, especially since it was for free but high profile tourist attractions just never seem to do it for me. I still got some nice shots although the grey day didn't do much to add drama to the stationary rocks.

The mound of earth on the left of this last shot is actually a burial mound erected by the ancient Beaker people who supposedly erected Stonehenge. Apparently, the closer you were buried to the anciet stone circle, the more important you were. The next stop on our journey was the town of Salisbury, the location of a very famous cathedral.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the Alzheimer's Society forgot a few letters?

The next place we went was Avesbury. It is also the location of a huge mesolithic stone circle but we hardly payed any attention to the history. We were much more concerned with the free range sheep and climbing the stone pillars as you can see.

This picture is for Sheena - she really likes butts, pictures of butts, and especially putting her butt on things.

Well, this is the first of what will hopefully be many more posts concerning escapades at Oxford and beyond. I better get back to that reading...

Getting Down in D.C. with the Fellows

After 4 action packed days in New York it was time to leave the big apple and head towards the nations capital, Washington D.C. I had been there before so I thought it would be a let down after New York but I had so much fun. There are 22 Foundation Fellows in my class and I ashamed to say that I hadn't really gotten to know most of them that well before this trip, but that all changed by the time we got to D.C. I have always thought that traveling with people aids relationship building and this was certainly true in this case. Perfect timing, considering we will all be studying at Oxford together this summer.

City Romps

Have you ever walked by one of those neighborhood watch signs and realized that you were dressed exactly the same as the suspicious man they warn against? I have!

This is what Bobby looks like all the time.

Oh this was just priceless! Alex got food poisoning during the trip and threw up outside the Old Abbit Grill. The legs belong to Trey, who like any good gentleman would have, stood there to make sure no one stepped in it by mistake.

How sexy is that Phoeny Li?

FDR

Tracy got mad love for Eleanor Roos.


The Capitol

Seeing this girl was a highlight of my trip. Siggi also spent a year in Germany as a Congress Bundestag Scholar in 06/07 and I hadn't seen her since last year in Berlin. She is originally from D.C. and works as a secretary in on of the Florida congressional offices. Crazy people are always calling her up and chewing her out over the phone, when they don't like what their representitive does - that's what was happening as I shot this picture.

You may notice I didn't even have a picture of the Capitol building itself under this heading but that is for the same reason I didn't post many pictures from Manhattan - it's almost impossible to take an original picture of it.

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress serves as the national library of the United States as well as the research arm of the U.S. Congress. It ranks as the worlds largest library by shelf space and is recognized as one of the most important libraries in the world. Its collections span more than 30 million catalogued books in 470 languages, more than 58 million manuscripts, and the largest rare book collection in North America, including a Gutenberg Bible. Needless to say it was pretty sweet and even though we just dropped in for a visit, I was able to snap some nice shots before we left.

Panel with Washington Lobbyist for UGA

Somehow, sweet little Anne doesn't look so innocent here - I don't know what it is

I feel like this shot captures the inner Rachel

It may seem like all we did was tour around but we actually spent most of our time conducting panels with such Washington notables such as Paul Begala from CNN and Johnny Isaacson, a Georgia Senator. Generally I wouldn't take photos during a conference for courtesy's sake but we arrived at this one a few minutes early and I was thankful for the chance to take a few candids of us in action.

The Subway:


The National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery was one of the big surprises D.C. had to offer. I do like art galleries but this one was great, featuring mostly images of famous Americans. Even so, I enjoyed the modern art section the most, especially the Chuck Close portrait as seen above.

Scientology

The church of Scientology was founded in Washington D.C. by Elron Hubbard and the original church was founded in the dupont circle a few blocks away from where we were staying. Surprised? Well I was as I walked by the founding church and exclaimed, "No way." Seconds later, and I kid you not, a wierd dude practically jumped out of the bushes, responding, "Yes way!" and promptly steered us into their church to teach us about their religion/cult. Lets just say we were glad when we were finally able to leave. During my three days in D.C. I managed to have a few dubious encounters with the scientologists themselves and those who are against them. The pictures above show a group of masked protesters, campaigning against the tax free status granted to the Church of Scientology by the U.S. government. Apparently, I was at great risk taking these photos, as I was informed by their leader - they were somehow expecting an attack from Scientology's kid army, and besides, it is dangerous to be seen with them. They warned me that my future career and even my saftey was at stake by being seen in public at their protest. In the end, I was forced to come to the conclusion that I should avoid ANYONE who gives a rip either way about the Church of Scientology! Good times...