What's next?
That's the biggest conversation topic among the UCL M.Sc.'s these days: what the hell are we going to do next? Although so far the main result of this has been to scare each other even more about that place called "The Real World". It seems to be a rather shitty place to be in .. I fear that for my own sanity I will set it aside for now and focus on my Thesis topic and my two papers due in December (that's in four weeks!! Fuuccckk....)
London = Not Shit after all
OK, so London is not quite as shit as I may have been thinking it was really. Autumn sun shine and uplifting conversations with you fellow students about possible futures (see above) push your mind both up and down. Yesterday morning I picked up my book and almost immediately threw it away again. "I need oxygen! I need the cold on my face to wake me up!" And without a mind, I just 'up and walked away' (that's from a Bad Religion song for the uncultured ones among you). I didn't even bring a notebook or a camera and both were dearly missed, because I went in a direction I hadn't been to very often yet.
So, yesterday I made a discovery. What I found I don't think the common tourist will ever encounter on his own, but there is a system of alleyways, backpassages and walks that lead to the most marvellous places. Basically curiosity about what it was I was seeing there in the distance dragged me on from the one site to the other until all of a sudden I was at St. Paul's Cathedral wondering how the hell I had gotten there. Amongst others I had passed through and along: Dickensian high rise flats, several beautiful mediaeval church yards, the Gate of the Priory of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (built in 1504) leading to the still operating Priory (now a charity operating an ambulance and an Ophthalmologist (of zo iets, they mean Eye Disease) centre, old old inns, the Church of St. Bartholomew where the "Worshipful Community of Fruiterers" had planted a tree to celebrate the Third Christian Millenium. I entered the Church of St. Magnus-the-Martyr where they worship a Viking: really he's there, in the centre of the Church horned helmet and battle axe and all! Here the "Worshipful Community of Plumbers" had been so nice as to provide a nice replica of what London Bridge looked like in 1400 (pretty cool actually: all houses along the sides and a chapel at the centre of the bridge). Anyway, I won't bore you with what else I saw, although I decided I'll take anyone coming here to visit me on this walk instead of to the Big Ben and Hyde Park and that sort of places. Mediaeval London is way cooler. Did I mention there's a Guild Hall here? Apparently there's still Guilds here (those Worshipful Communities I mentioned) and (last fact of the day) Goldsmith's College, one of London's Universities, was founded by the Worshipful Community of Goldsmiths. Anyway, this walk I undertook yesterday lasted for four hours, but as I walked by the remnant of the (ROMAN) wall of Londondinium in Noble Street I realised what an incredible story there is in this place. And for the first time since I arrived here with that unwashable grin of the new cosmopolitan in September I realised I actually quite love this place.
That's the biggest conversation topic among the UCL M.Sc.'s these days: what the hell are we going to do next? Although so far the main result of this has been to scare each other even more about that place called "The Real World". It seems to be a rather shitty place to be in .. I fear that for my own sanity I will set it aside for now and focus on my Thesis topic and my two papers due in December (that's in four weeks!! Fuuccckk....)
London = Not Shit after all
OK, so London is not quite as shit as I may have been thinking it was really. Autumn sun shine and uplifting conversations with you fellow students about possible futures (see above) push your mind both up and down. Yesterday morning I picked up my book and almost immediately threw it away again. "I need oxygen! I need the cold on my face to wake me up!" And without a mind, I just 'up and walked away' (that's from a Bad Religion song for the uncultured ones among you). I didn't even bring a notebook or a camera and both were dearly missed, because I went in a direction I hadn't been to very often yet.
So, yesterday I made a discovery. What I found I don't think the common tourist will ever encounter on his own, but there is a system of alleyways, backpassages and walks that lead to the most marvellous places. Basically curiosity about what it was I was seeing there in the distance dragged me on from the one site to the other until all of a sudden I was at St. Paul's Cathedral wondering how the hell I had gotten there. Amongst others I had passed through and along: Dickensian high rise flats, several beautiful mediaeval church yards, the Gate of the Priory of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (built in 1504) leading to the still operating Priory (now a charity operating an ambulance and an Ophthalmologist (of zo iets, they mean Eye Disease) centre, old old inns, the Church of St. Bartholomew where the "Worshipful Community of Fruiterers" had planted a tree to celebrate the Third Christian Millenium. I entered the Church of St. Magnus-the-Martyr where they worship a Viking: really he's there, in the centre of the Church horned helmet and battle axe and all! Here the "Worshipful Community of Plumbers" had been so nice as to provide a nice replica of what London Bridge looked like in 1400 (pretty cool actually: all houses along the sides and a chapel at the centre of the bridge). Anyway, I won't bore you with what else I saw, although I decided I'll take anyone coming here to visit me on this walk instead of to the Big Ben and Hyde Park and that sort of places. Mediaeval London is way cooler. Did I mention there's a Guild Hall here? Apparently there's still Guilds here (those Worshipful Communities I mentioned) and (last fact of the day) Goldsmith's College, one of London's Universities, was founded by the Worshipful Community of Goldsmiths. Anyway, this walk I undertook yesterday lasted for four hours, but as I walked by the remnant of the (ROMAN) wall of Londondinium in Noble Street I realised what an incredible story there is in this place. And for the first time since I arrived here with that unwashable grin of the new cosmopolitan in September I realised I actually quite love this place.
posted by Isalicus at 19:58
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