Museum of London

I'm trying to post things a little more often, so I don't have so much to write! Today, Laura and I went on our first British Life and Culture field trip! It was not as much of a big deal as I thought it was...we got to our meeting point at St. Paul's Cathedral by way of the tube, and the whole group stood around for a while and waited for the stragglers to show up. We all walked a short distance to the Museum of London where we were released to browse the museum at our own pace...no guided tour! That was where we saw the difference between those students who are truly interested in studying here in London, and those who just came for the credit. We are all required to come, but most of the students hurried through and left as soon as possible. Laura and I took our time, and I'm glad we did.

The Museum of London is about the history of London. It was smaller than we thought it would be - only one floor, but tastefully done and interesting. It was organized into different time periods, beginning with "half a million years ago" - I thought that part was funny! Outside the Museum is this wall on the left - it is a part of the outside wall of London they believe was built around A.D. 200. I don't know if these dates are correct - I'm just telling you what the signs said! It was pretty neat to see this wall just sitting in the middle of the city - that shows you how much the city has grown! We were definitely right in the middle of tall buildings, and to see this was amazing. Here's another view of the end of the wall.

These were statues carved into parts of the wall on the outside. Amazing detail, and for such a long time ago!

The next section of the museum I saw was about Medieval London. Here's a picture of me with the sign leading to it! We saw all types of artifacts that had been excavated from different areas of London. One of the main things that caught my eye was the section about clothing - we saw this chain mail armor, and I tried on this "lovely" hat to see how I'd look as a Medieval Londoner! We sat warming our hands inside a classic medieval-style house made of sticks and straw and stuff. Here's Laura and I warming our hands by the "fire!"

We had a friend of ours take the picture...while others stood by and laughed. But we didn't care!

I also got to see a few Medieval London sewing tools - like the thimbles and needles in the picture. Isn't that cool? The information next to this stuff said that over half of the freemen made their money from textile-related business, and "woollen" cloth accounted for 88% of the value of all exports. Also, 45 out of 80 Lord Mayors made their fortunes from cloth trading.

The last part of the museum was about the Great Fire of London. I'll start with posting all the pictures and then tell you a little more about it.

The Great Fire of London happened on September 2, 1666, apparently not long after the Black Plague wiped out a huge portion of the population. The fire began on Pudding Lane in a bakery. Lots of people were blamed for it, but it was probably an absent-minded baker who left a fire burning. The fire raged for 5 days and destroyed nearly 13,000 homes. It destroyed more than 4/5 of London. More than 200,000 people were left without a place to live. St. Paul's Cathedral burned down...its bricks were said to have exploded from the heat. This was not the first time the city had caught fire, but it was the one that destroyed the most. The foreigners had trouble getting around after the fire because they were often blamed and beaten for the fire. The only records they have of what happened are from eye-witness accounts. The two pictures on the right are paintings of what it could have looked like, and the one on the left is a painting on the back and some stuff in the front that people tried to save when they knew it was useless to hope their houses would not burn. Some people took advantage of the situation and charged an exorbitant amount to rent a cart so the people could get their belongings away from the fire. Others, like one of the postmasters, saved as many letters as he could and mailed one to all the adjacent cities letting them know of the fire so they could help. Some theives looted the homes and shops that were only slightly damaged, yet some people gave all the money they had to help people restart their lives. There was no such thing as fire insurance then, so people had to pay for their homes to be rebuilt. Many could not afford it. But the city was eventually rebuilt. One of the cool things I saw in the museum was a scale model of what St. Paul's Cathedral looked like before it burned down. It was really neat to see the difference, and I knew what it looks like today because I've seen it!

I'm sorry for the depressing ending! It was really cool to learn all that about London though. There were only a few students still there when we left. We actually walked by St. Paul's today on the way back to the tube station. I couldn't resist taking another picture, especially seeing the moon so bright right next to it! After we finished at the museum, we got back on the tube and rode home, relaxed and did homework, had some yummy tacos that Laura made, and went to bed! I'll post again soon...pray for me as we start to plan trips to different countries. It's a whole new world we're not used to dealing with, like booking hostels and flights, and bus rides! If anyone has any advice for me, email me for sure!