It
turned out that Tuesday ended up being our last day of legitimate lecture, and
also a fairly eventful day for me in general. We arrived at Faraday House at
9:30 AM, a little sluggish from our eventful day yesterday, but ready to start
the day. We actually had one of my favorite guest lecturers come speak to us in
the morning. A woman who is part of the organizing committee for the Cultural
Olympiad came to discuss with us her role in the Olympic Games, the London 2012
Festival, and what sorts of tasks and challenges make up her job. One of her
main roles in her position is being a sort of middleman between the
International Olympic Committee and those participating in the Cultural
Olympiad. She discussed the integrity of the Olympic logos, and how one of the
greatest challenges is regulating the use of such logos by those participating
in the Cultural Olympiad (a problem that was solved by coming up with a whole
other logo altogether). I had asked her what some of her favorite projects or
performances have been to work with or acquire. One that she mentioned was a
performance called “Dinosaurs Not Allowed.” In short, a group of English
children who are traditional folk dancers wanted to create their own show-but
didn’t want the complete interference of adults. Thus, they organized their own
production and came up with the title. She was very honest about her job and
other organizations she works with, which was both refreshing and a bit
humorous. She made me really think further about my appreciation for the arts
in addition to other sorts of jobs I had never even pondered about before.
After
lecture, we had a final meeting about our papers with our professors. Jessie
and I decided to go to the Science Museum in South Kensington with our free
afternoon. We took the tube and meandered through an underground tunnel to walk
up the steps to the entrance to the museum. The size of the museum was apparent
the moment we stepped through the doors. Regardless, we decided to start at the
top at level five and work our way down from there. On the top floor there were
two exhibits: one on the history of veterinary medicine, and the Wellcome
collection regarding normal medicine. The Wellcome collection was perhaps the
most extensive and thorough exhibits I have ever seen. We had spent about 20
minutes in one section of the room, learning about medical factoids from health
care around the world to the first heart rate monitors, before finally
realizing we had only hit about 1/6 of the exhibit total. We still walked
around the rest of the area before moving down to Level Four where the main
room took us through the history of surgical medicine and hospitals through the
use of models and dioramas. I really enjoyed the portion on Psychology
(obviously), which included a lot of materials from various psychology studies.
The
third floor was one of myself and Jessie’s favorite areas-the children’s
section. I remember when Grandpa Gene and Grandma Edie lived in Richmond, going
to the children’s museum there was always one of my favorite highlights of
visiting. Specifically the part where you got to lift a hula-hoop around your
body and above your head to create a giant bubble with you inside. Though there
were no giant bubbles here, we still had a good time checking out the different
interactive exhibits. And yes, we were the oldest “kids” playing in that
section. After getting some refreshments we moved on to the other side of that
level which was about Aviation. It was mostly closed off, however, so we didn’t
get to look too far into it. I wasn’t too worried about missing that part as I
have been to the Air and Space Museum/Udvar-Hazy Center countless times. The
second level opened up to a reveal a section on Energy. In the middle stood a
giant pole that ran up to the ceiling and was literally buzzing. Emblazoned in
yellow with black text screaming “Do Not Touch,” the exhibit naturally invited
you to touch it. Though it was nothing like Electroshock Therapy from Tough Mudder
(running through hanging wires, with 1000V of electricity jolts through them,
in order to get to the finish line), you were still able to feel a slight
tingling from it. The concept was energy and electricity can be tangible and
isn’t just something going around in space that you can’t experience
physically. Another cool part of this section was an installation that
dominated the entranceway and few levels above, where your answers to questions
regarding energy would be displayed. Also on this floor (I think, I’m losing
track now) was an extensive section of computer technology, which my dad
would’ve enjoyed. By far, however, one of the most interesting things from this
museum was the installation called “The Listening Post”. It was pretty much a
few hundred of little screens with text scrolling across them. The catch was
that the words being displayed were being randomly selected and streamed live
from the internet-creating a raw and unedited projection of the world’s online
thoughts. Some of the textual display was paired with basic instruments in
order to create a symphonic vibe to it.
After
we finished at the museum, we went to Chinatown to have dinner with Lauren and Eleni
who were going to see Mama Mia. Getting dinner in Chinatown was on my bucket
list, and one of the many last minute things I got to do before I left. My main
course was alright, but what was really the best food there was the duck we had
for an appetizer. I don’t know why I never eat duck at home, either it’s not as
popular as England, or it’s way too expensive. It’s actually become one of the
tastes that I like more in terms of protein now. The highlight of dinner was
probably when, at the beginning, I asked the waitress if they had any specialties. She thought I asked if they
had any special teas. Thus, we ended
up with a massive pot of tea that none of us necessarily wanted. After dinner
we stopped by a gift shop so Jessie could pick up a few things, and headed
home. I ran and went to the gym after I got back, definitely not used to doing
that anytime post-Chinese food but I needed to. Following my workout, I took
the 63 bus down to the King’s Cross area to meet up with Annette who had just
arrived in London last week to study abroad! It was SO good seeing her and
catching up. Like I’ve said, seeing Emory friends in London has been so nice
and such a surreal experience. We spent hours just talking and catching up,
along with giving her plenty of recommendations for things to do during her
time here. We lost track of time and by the time I got to the bus stop it was
about 2:09 AM. Even though I had to wait until 2:36 AM to catch the bus back (didn’t
realize that during the week the night busses only come every thirty minutes…shout
out to Mama Stein and Sam for talking to me on the phone then/making me stay on
the phone until the bus came), it was completely worth it to see her J
No comments:
Post a Comment