I forgot I was here for school....I should probably start going to class

Thanks for reminding me about school....I thought I was on an extended vacation and wine tasting trip. So I'll write a bit about my day to entertain the idea that I actually attend classes here ;o)

Today I got up at noon...I know...lazy Kate. Anyhow I packed up my backpack, grabbed my Ipod and made my way to the 'high street' tube station at a quick pace as I had to meet my class at the 'St Paul' tube stop about 20 minutes away. This is for my History of London course where we have seminar on Mondays and field trips on Wednesdays. Last week we went to the British Museum where the Rosetta stone is located among many other artifacts relevant to British history and early development of culture (pre-Roman invasion):

British Museum:So this week we are focusing just past 50 AD as the Romans are invading London and quite easily conquer this mainly village based, non-militaristic region. After the Boudiccan uprising against the Romans, the Romans decided it would be appropriate to surround the city of London with walls as defense. London was at an ideal location upon the Thames with 2 hills, also beneficial for defense purposes. So on the field trip we looked at some of the remains of the Roman wall left in the city today. The wall, of course, has been added to and built upon, but the foundations are from the original wall that went up around 200 AD. During the medieval time period the British decided to let the wall remain, as taking down a large wall surrounding a square mile is time consuming and lots of work. So today if you walk around the city of London you walk amongst original Roman wall scattered throughout modern British architecture and a few buildings pre-'the great fire' (though few remain). Here is a segment of the wall that we passed today:

As a side track, while we were in the area of 'St. Pauls' tube stop we looked of course at the 'new 'St Paul's Cathedral which stands 365 feet (one foot for ever day in the year-easy to remember!). This was the masterpiece of Christopher Wren, among many other buildings he was commissioned to re-build after the great fire of 1666. The fire, which miraculously only killed 5 people wiped out nearly 80% of the city and left 13,000 homeless. The Old St. Paul's was burned to the ground and then re-built under Wren's plans for the new city. His grave inside the beautiful building is a simple stone tablet which would surprise many however it reads..."Underneath lies buried Christopher Wren, the builder of this church and city; who lived beyond the age of ninety years, not for himself, but for the public good.--Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you" St Pauls:St Pauls became the symbol of hope and the future of London. During the blitz in WWII there was a special segment of the public devoted to watching the Cathedral night and day. If a bomb dropped on or near it the team would remove and drive the bomb as far away from the city as they could, risking their lives for the symbol of the city. Many believed if St. Paul's could survive, so could they, which is why during the day the people came and prayed for the war to end. Dozens of people died removing the bombs to save St. Paul's and because of this today it still stands.

Okay well that was my class review.....no I did not copy and paste that...I am actually learning!!! Shocking I know :o)

Anyways I'm off to European Business Environment for 3 hours...ouch...talk to you all later!!

(Oh and it's raining again).

Lots of love,
Kate