A literary walk, the British Museum (yay!) and fun with some kids!

When we last left off, I was contemplating the beauty of Bath, hoping for a trip back to Bath one day with a bit more time to explore. I have now realized that if I went back to all the places we have been thus far with "more time," I would exceed the time I am allotted here in London! There's just so much to do here...God has indeed given me a great blessing by allowing me to see even just a few new things.

Thursday was an adventure. Laura and I decided it was about time we did our laundry, so we loaded up all our dirty clothes into my large suitcase and headed down the six flights of stairs and down the street to the "launderette." (Laundromat is an unknown word here...) We loaded up our clothes, taking care to put the precious detergent in the correct slot(for wash, not prewash), set the washer on cold wash so as to not end up with pink socks and underwear, put in our $7.20 for the small load of whites and our $9.20 for the large load of jeans and shirts, (yeah, it costs a lot!) and waited. I went down to the tube station to top up my Oyster card for traveling on the tube, and when I returned, the clothes were finished washing! Laura had placed the dark clothes into the dryer, which will run for an uncertain amount of time for about 40 cents, to take the bulk of the wetness out of our jeans which we were sure would take forever to dry. Just then, as we were sitting waiting for the dryer to cut off, I noticed a small sign saying, "only put detergent in the prewash slot when using cold wash," and my heart sunk. We had put the detergent into the regular wash slot. After quickly checking, we discovered that our entire load of white clothes had been washed, without any detergent. We are sure to never make that mistake again! We rewashed the clothes, this time with the detergent. As Laura said, "There's $7 literally down the drain!" We are sure to never make that mistake again. To save on the cost of drying our clothes, we came back and hung everything up in the room. Let's just say the picture says it better than I can. Thursday night we went on a walking literary tour, where our tour guide pointed out some of the places where famous British writers have lived, were born, or worked during their lifetimes. I have never had a British literature course, so a lot of these names were unfamiliar. Here's a list of the ones mentioned...Charles Lamb, writer of "Tales of Shakespeare," Charles Kingsley, E.M. Forrester, Anthony Trollup, Conan Doyle, Benjamin Disraeli, Charles James Fox, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell, and Maynard Kings. Kudos to you if you know who they are! I just realized when I was typing this list how many Charleses there were! Anyway, it was freezing out, and we didn't know about much of what we were hearing, so it was good to get home.

Friday we decided to get up out of bed at a decent time! We got moving and had some "crepes" for breakfast - this is the English form of pancakes. We mistakenly thought our pancake mix would give us real American pancakes, so it was a bit disappointing. Again, a mistake we will not make again! We rode the tube to the British Museum and spent the better part of the afternoon browsing portions of the ground floor of the museum. Now when I say "huge," that word does not contain the size of the museum! Laura and I were there for over three hours, and we only saw part of one floor! Here's some of the cooler things we saw...

We were exhausted after walking through such an amazing labyrinth of historical artifacts and scenes! One of the more exciting things for me was seeing the Rosetta Stone. It is what enabled us to read hieroglyphics.

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This is an ancient Corinthian helmet. It is made of bronze, and has been dated to 650-570 B.C.

This is what is known as the "Elgin Marbles." It was ironic that I got to see these because I just learned about them in my globalization class the day before! The Elgin Marbles are chunks of the Parthenon that were taken by a British ambassador. The Parthenon was being slowly torn down by locals who used the stone in the ruins for their own purposes. Elgin got permission to remove the marblework, purchasing it for Britain from the Ottoman Empire, which had taken over Greece. Now that the British government owns them, and the Ottoman Empire is no longer in charge of Greece, many have said that the ornate carvings should be returned to Greece, for it is part of their history. However, the British government legally bought the pieces, and therefore they belong to Britain. Who is right? This is one of the many controversial pieces in the British Museum that can only be gawked at!

There was a table set up in the "Enlightenment Room" that we casually walked by, but returned to when we realized what was going on! They had set up and "hands-on" table where we were allowed, with the supervision of a worker, to hold and look at several artifacts from the museum. The first one we held was a Stone Age hand axe. The man said that it was dated at 35,000 years old! Now, I know better about ages that they give these things, but it was pretty neat to hold a tool once used by people who had never even seen a wooden handled axe like I am used to seeing!

We also saw an Egyptian cosmetic jar, a Greek vase, an Islamic wall tile, and a Roman bowl.

The Roman bowl was found in the Thames only 5 years ago! It's amazing what they are still discovering all around here. Can you guess which picture is which?

The best thing, in my opinion, that we got to hold was a piece of a foundation stone from a Mesopotamian building, nearly 4,100 years old! The piece of the stone, seen here, is inscribed with cuneiform writing, one of the earliest forms of writing. Roughly translated, the small section says basically, "I, Ur-Namu (king of Ur) have built this building and I dedicate it to the moon god." We know from historical records that Ur-Namu ruled in the year 2100 B.C., allowing us to date it at over 4,000 years old. Pretty neat!

We left the museum with plans to walk to Marble Arch, which looked like a short distance from the museum, at least when we looked at it on the map. I stopped first at a hot dog vendor to buy some lunch. I then ate what I refer to as a hot "tube-shaped meat posing as a hot dog" dog. It was hot, I will give it that, but it tasted unlike any meat I'd had before. Oh well, I guess it was edible, because I sure did eat it! We walked for the next 45 minutes, which would've only taken us an hour, had there been fewer people on the street. In busy cities, it's every man for himself, so if you give an inch, they'll take a mile. The way to do it is to not look at anyone in the eye, just walk straight, and don't move for anyone, except women with babies, and old people. They can't move as quickly, so it'd easier just to go around them. We stopped in a few shops along the way with two goals - a nice dress coat for me and a pair of fashionable European boots for Laura. We made our way to Primark, the Wal-Mart of clothes in London, where Laura found some boots! We ended up going back to one of the clothes stores we just went to and I bought a coat that I'd found there that I liked. It fits great, which is amazing considering the differences in the European way of measuring sizes! It's also knee-length so it will keep me warmer in the cold London nights. And it was a great price too - God put that coat there just for me! We rode a double-decker bus home and had a much needed dinner. Laura caved in and bought a McDonald's dinner, just for the feeling of home!

Saturday was a little more eventful. We met up with the Criggers, a missionary family who I think I've mentioned before that live in London. We had lunch with Michelle and Rob, and played with the three kids. Rob drove us all in our first actual car ride since being here (was that weird, seeing the steering wheel on the wrong side!) to the country, where we walked around in Epping Forest, on our first real nature-type walk since being here as well! It was refreshing to be surrounded by trees and grass, rather than buildings and people! The trees didn't step in our way! The trees were so old too...here's a few pictures of them. The kids had a blast too. Here's me with Abby - we have the same coat! We went back to their house after a stop at Tesco, another Wal-Mart like store with a small selection of clothes and random stuff, with a big part of it being a grocery store. Michelle pointed out to me a plaque on the wall saying that the cosmetics and pharmacy part of the store used to be a church! Michelle fixed us a delicious dinner, after which we talked and played with the kids, then came home ready for bed.

Sunday was a relaxing day to spend reflecting on all that God had given us this past week. We went to church at ChristChurch London, again hearing some awesome music and worship of the Lord. One song in particular touched my heart. I'm learning more and more the way God speaks to me through music. I felt like I was singing that song just to Him. I'll leave you with some of the lyrics of the song...just think about it for a little while. What does it mean to you?

"In Christ Alone" - by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

In Christ alone my hope is found,

He is my light, my strength, my song;

this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,

firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My Comforter, my All in All,

here in the love of Christ I stand.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

This is the power of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath.

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.