Immersed in a new culture

So far this week has been very routine, but as always, interesting and exciting. On Monday I went to two Museums! I had extra time on my hands and still have a lot of Museums to visit on my list. I first went to the Sir John Soane Museum as part of an assignment for my British Experience class. Sir John Soane is a famous architect who was a finalist in the design for the Houses of Parliament, but didn't get chosen. He is most famous for designing the Bank of England here in London. His Museum, previously his home, is basically a collection of his antiques, artwork and designs from his whole life. This is the smallest Museum I have been to yet. It was situated in a nice neighbourhood among other houses and flats. There was a queue to get in due to the small size of the building. I only had to wait about 10 minutes though. There was an array of amazing pieces of work in this place. Everything from marble sculptures, antique furniture, to Soane's drawings and models for the Bank of England and the Houses of Parliament. He had created quite a variety of things in his day. There was even a large tomb made by Soane in the cellar room. It was intriguing to be able to tour the inside of a typical English house. Although the furnishings were all from Soane's time period, I found the layout of the home to be quite unique. There were a lot of little windows and doors everywhere, as well as some very impressive balconies that looked down from floor to floor. Overall I thought the Sir John Soane Museum was very eclectic. The next part of my assignment was to walk through Lincoln's Inn Law Courts. This is where all of London's barristers work and practice law. There are two types of lawyers in the United Kingdom, solicitors and lawyers. Solicitors are a basic type of lawyer that deals with the public, does research on the case, etc. If a case needs to go to court a Solicitor then gives the case to a Barrister to handle. Barristers work at a higher level in the court and their main role is to act as advocates in a legal hearing, which means they stand in court and plead the case on behalf of their clients in front of a judge. Barristers can always be distinguished from a solicitor because they have to wear a curly George Washington wig and a gown to court. Walking around in the Lincoln's Inn Law Courts I actually saw a few Barristers with the curly wig and priest like gown on. It was so crazy. I have no idea why they still carry on this tradition. I wanted to take a picture, but refrained myself. I also have no idea why all the Barristers practice in this same location, but I assume it is because the High Courts of Justice is right in the area. Lincoln's Inn Law Courts was a very nice place; there were business people buzzing around all over the place. I the park area I saw a John Deere lawn mower! I couldn't believe it! Pictures Below of lawn mower and High Courts of Justice.



After grabbing some lunch I took the Tube south to Tate Britain. I hadn't been to this area before and I was surprised by how quiet and less busy it was. Tate Britain is a collection of British art from the last 5 centuries. The name Tate Britain comes from Henry Tate, who originally opened the gallery in 1897 with 65 pieces of his own work. It is now the largest collection of British art in the world. I browsed around the gallery for a couple of hours. The majority of the paintings were oil on canvas work, which I am not particularly fond of because it often looks smudgy I think. However, the art was still impressive. There were a lot paintings of London in earlier times. I also enjoyed the painted portraits of the upper class long ago. Before cameras, the wealthy paid famous artists to paint their family portraits. The family was typically seated on a luxurious sofa, dressed to the nines. I thought it was so funny, but most of these family portraits had a little dog seated on someones lap or sitting with the rest of the family like an actual member. Apparently some things don't change over time or social classes! After I was done at the Museum I explored the area for a while before returning home. Pictures Below of Tate Britain.

Tuesday was another internship day. My supervisor, Karina, was late again. It didn't mind today since it was nice outside. After a while she arrived and we chatted all about her skiing holiday. She spent a week in Switzerland, so I was able to ask her all sorts of questions about the weather, transportation, and exchange rates for my upcoming trip. Even though she stayed at a resort all week she was quite helpful. She told me the Swiss are very organized and good at planning everything.I am not quite for sure what this mean, but I shall find out! The rest of the morning was spent working on the April newsletter for the organization. I asked Karina if she had any updated pictures of the business and I got sent out to take some of my own. I got some great pictures of the garden blooming outside. Then I had to go to the chemist(what they call a pharmacist here) and use one of those automatic photograph machines to upload the pictures to a CD for my use. When I got back Karina took my to lunch. We went to a great little cafe that wasn't run by Turkish people this time! I decided to order a very popular British dish, a jacket potato. These are basically huge baked potatoes, stuffed with whatever yo want. Karina got some sort of weird meat in hers, but I just stuck with cheese and bacon. When it was delivered to the table I couldn't believe how huge the potato was. I have never seen a potato so large, not to mention the amounts of cheese and bacon spilling out. The bacon is better here because they use the big round slices of bacon with less fat instead of the strips of bacon used in the States. Actually my mom used to get this kind of cottage bacon at the meat locker in Grundy and it tastes very similar. My first experience trying a jacket potato was great. It was a delicious meal. It took me a while to eat though because the potato was so large and very hot. Again Karina snarfed her food and then drank her tea while I finished. The rest of the afternoon I continued to complete the newsletter. Karina was busy trying to track down an old man that volunteers at the Trust, but hadn't shown up for 2 weeks. He also wasn't answering his mobile phone(what they call cell phones). She was sure he was dead in his flat. She called the police to go check it out. They reported back that he wasn't home, but there was fresh milk in the fridge. Then she assumed he was in the hospital somewhere. He doesn't have any family and has been volunteering at the Trust for 10 years so apparently Karina felt obliged to find him. She called various hospitals and other centers looking for him. She didn't get much information because they have patient confidentiality here just like we do. It was kind of amusing listening to the whole process. Finally at the end of the day, George called Karina. He was just fine. He hadn't been answering his phone because he can't hear anyone on it he said and he hadn't come to volunteer for a while because he wasn't feeling well. He was a little mad she called the police I think because they must have rummaged around in his things. Even if I don't get a whole lot of work experience from this internship, it sure is a culture experience!

On Wednesday I had my advertising class in the morning. For lunch I decided to go to the grocery store and try out the shelf warm eggs because someone in the kitchen had made a very delicious looking egg sandwich. The eggs tasted the exact same and I even keep them on the shelf! This afternoon I walked around and area called Covent Garden. It is a very nice area with two quiet markets. A variety of things are sold here from jewelry and scarves to souvenirs and candles. The area also has some excellent small shops and boutiques. I can spend hours looking at things. I found the World's Largest Map and Travel Store. It was quite impressive. I have never seen so many maps. I checked out some books on Italy for Spring Break and bought a map of Venice and Rome. I am getting really excited for Spring Break now. I can't believe how fast time has gone. The rest of the night I packed, did laundry and got ready for Switzerland.

This morning, Thursday, I had my two British classes. Now I am all packed and have my boarding passes printed, ready to go to Switzerland!