Strangely Warmed, as John Wesley once said

Day 3:

This morning was my LondonAlive walk to John Wesley's church.  We left King's College at 10:15 with plenty of time to catch the tube and walk the few blocks to the church.  However, luck was not in our favor.  Through no fault of our own, we didn't make it to the church in time for the service.  We did have a lovely, though unplanned, tour of the surrounding neighborhood while we followed the iPhone's little blue dot that led us in the wrong direction.  We saw St. Luke's Episcopal School and a few shops before we made it to our original destination.

Because we missed the beginning of the service, we looked around the courtyard of the church and saw the statues memorializing John Wesley and his mother Suzannah Wesley before heading across the street to the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground.  John Wesley was the father of Methodism, which is particularly meaningful for me as a member of the United Methodist Church.

John Wesley Statue

Entrance to the Church

Suzannah Wesley Statue

I enjoyed wandering around the gardens in the back to see where John Wesley's grave is.  I kept thinking about how moving it was for me to be here as a visitor and imagining how it would feel to worship here every Sunday.  The church was packed, and while many of the worshipers were probably visitors I'm sure most were members.

John Wesley's Tombstone

Garden in the Back of the Church

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground was an extremely peaceful and relaxing place to spend a half-hour or so.  We saw tombstones with a few recognizable names, people walking their dogs, and pigeons resting between flights.  

A shy pigeon

 

Author William Blake's Grave

Daniel Defoe's Tombstone

So Peaceful

 Once the service at the church ended, we returned to see the sanctuary and chapel.  The inside of the sanctuary has a main floor with three sections and marble columns and a balcony above it.  The pipes from the organ are visible on the back wall of the balcony.

Organ Pipes

View from the Balcony

View of the Altar Area

Looking Toward the Back of the Sanctuary

We were also able to see the original chapel, complete with the organ that belonged to John Wesley's brother Charles.  Charles Wesley is responsible for writing the words to many hymns that are familiar to churchgoers (including Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!).  The chapel is small, but is still used for prayer today.

Chapel

 

Charles Wesley's Organ

Altar in John Wesley's Chapel

The church has a museum in the crypt beneath the main building.  They have done an amazing job putting together artifacts, paintings, writings, journals, letters, etc. that educate about the beginnings of the Methodist religion, John Wesley's life and work, and the history of the church.  It is interactive, well-organized, and informative.  They have even included the layout for future exhibits on the walls so that patrons can see what is planned next.  I was really excited and surprised to see a pendant from the Headquarters of World Methodism at Lake Junaluska, NC, because I have attended church camp there for a few summers.  I'm not sure the group near me was nearly as excited about my connection to Junaluska as I was, though!!

Pendant from Lake Junaluska, NC

A little further along, we saw a pew from the original chapel in an alcove across from this quote on the wall from John Wesley.  I know the picture is not the greatest quality, and I apologize, but the lighting was difficult.  The display invited patrons to sit on the bench and reflect on this quote and their own spirituality.  I took advantage of this opportunity to thank God for blessing me as He has done and for taking care of me and my loved ones up to this point.  This quote reminds me of why I love my faith.  I know that I have little in common with a preacher who lived in the 1700s, and I know that I can never compare the strength of my faith to that of John Wesley; but we share a belief in the same God.  That is amazing.

Strangely Warmed

Following the museum visit, we toured John Wesley's house, which is also on the grounds with the church.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but we saw many interesting relics from Wesley's life.  Most interesting to me was his library of books and his study chair, both found in his study.  The study chair was leather and had two arms and a shelf-like area on the back of it.  However, the user would sit facing what appears to be the back, lean his arms on the padded arms of the chair, and use the shelf-like protrusion to prop up his books or papers.

*    *    *

After the marathon visit to John Wesley's church, I headed home for lunch and errands.  I decided to eat al fresco since I had cheese from my trip to the specialty cheese shop yesterday.  That plus a roll and a banana, and I was set!

Lunch!

After lunch, I ran errands and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside.  Once I returned from my errands, a group of us decided to head to a pub for dinner.  We ate at The Coal House, and we ended up in this tiny little room down in a hole.  It even had a barred door like a jail cell!  

Dinner!!

First Looks at London

Days 1 and 2:

The first day we arrived in London, we had just a few short hours to get as settled into our pretty small dorm rooms, shower (yay!), and meet our professors and classmates to go on our neighborhood walks.
 

Home, Sweet Home

This was our first look at the area around King's College, which is my home for the time being.  As tired as I was, I was thrilled to get out and walk around to see what I could see.  I was also really looking forward to meeting the people I will be spending my time with over the next few weeks.

Dr. Welsh, our professor, took us around the neighborhood and showed us really important things like where to do laundry, find baked goods, and eat fish and chips.  She also pointed out neighborhood grocery stores and took us to the Waterloo Underground Station to purchase an Oyster card (this lets me ride the tube).  After getting the necessities out of the way, she led us on quite a tour that covered the National Portrait Gallery, the Old Vic Theater, the London Eye,

Close Up of London Eye

The Full Effect

Big Ben and Parliament, the Thames, Liecester Square where we saw half-price ticket booths, Trafalger Square, and more!  She even was kind enough to buy our whole group pizza for dinner at one of the restaurants on the Thames. 

Once we finally got back to the dorm, a few of us headed down to Sainsbury (the local grocery store) to get a few items to help us make it through the night and next morning.  Without even unpacking my suitcase, I headed to bed for the first time in 27 hours.

Saturday morning, the academia began with class meetings about syllabi and course requirements.  Following that, we had program orientation and then headed out on our LondonAlive walks.  My LondonAlive walk was called Along the Riverfront.  Again, I headed out to the Thames, but we didn't just see all of the same things as the night before, which was nice.  We also saw the Millennium Bridge (which was immediately recognizable to me from Harry Potter), the Blackfriars Bridge (which I knew about from my English major days at James Madison University), the Globe Theater (which is way smaller in person that I had imagined),

Globe Theatre, complete with sprinkler system so a fire doesn't get this one!

along with the Swan Theater, the Tate Museum of Modern Art (which I learned used to be a power plant), the London Bridge, Tower Bridge,

Tower Bridge with some random people in front of it

 the Tower of London, and Borough Market (which was an open-air market that was amazing!).  We ended the walk at a specialty cheese shop, where we made friends with the cheese lady.  She let us try a few cheeses and explained the differences between them to us.  It was surreal to stand in the chilly, slightly damp air surrounded by wheels upon wheels of cheese!  I bought a few slices of Kirkham's Lancashire and Sparkenhoe Leicester to bring home for a snack later.

One of my yummy cheese selections!!!!!!!!

Getting Here, Always an Adventure

Days 0-1:

Getting to England was an adventure in and of itself.  I live in Richmond, VA, and I was flying out of Charleston, SC, which is approximately 8 hours away.  That meant that I had to get to the airport in Charleston by train, plane, or automobile before I could get on the plane on 6/27 to even begin my journey.  In order to save a little money, I chose the train and embarked on what should have been a 7-hour Amtrak trip (my first!) on Thursday, June 26.  I was lucky enough to get randomly bumped from coach to business class where I got my very own row of seats, but that's pretty much where my luck ended!  As seven hours turned into nine, I was ready to be on solid ground again.  Finally, late Wednesday night, I made it to my hotel in SC.

The next day I began my tour of the airports.  The Charleston airport has a lovely Dunkin' Donuts that serves wonderful bagels and cream cheese.  I'm sure that many people would consider ordering a bagel at a donut shop a food crime, but it was exactly what I wanted.  After breakfast, I headed to the gate and ended up meeting up with a whole crew of students who were heading to London to be part of the same study abroad program as I was.  We ended up sitting near each other on the plane, sharing gum, travel advice, a few laughs, and lunch and the layover in Dallas.  Ahh, Dallas...

Remember how my seven hour train trip turned into a nine hour one?  Yeah, that's about how the layover in Dallas happened, too.  We were supposed to leave at 4:45 and we had arrived around 2:30--the perfect amount of time to grab a bite to eat, exchange our dollars for British pounds, and run to the restroom before taking off for our overnight flight across the ocean.  Except, that's not exactly how it happened.  The airline kept bumping back the departure time...thirty minutes here, thirty more minutes, forty minutes, and so on.  Until finally, at around 6:15 they announced that they were going to give us food vouchers.  This was not good news.  This meant that there was no way we were leaving at 6:40 like they had said a few minutes before that, and I happened to be taking the first bite of my delicious grilled cheese sandwich (also from Dunkin' Donuts...I'm not sure why I have an affinity for buying anything and everything EXCEPT donuts there!).  So, I took my voucher and bought ice cream and bottled water!!!  It was delicious :)

The airline gives me a food voucher, I get Ben and Jerry's!

Eventually they did put us on a plane, and it was only 4 hours after our original departure time.  Once we arrived in London Friday morning, my new College of Charleston friends and I grabbed a cab, stuffed ourselves and our luggage into it, and took off for our new home at King's College!

We had arrived!  Here are some pictures from my cab ride.

A London street

Double decker buses

Welcome!

My name is Kate, and I am a graduate student in the British Studies Program through the University of Southern Mississippi for the next month.  I am studying library science and will receive my MLIS from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in August 2014 (as long as everything stays on track!).  As part of my class assignment, I will be keeping this blog to journal about what I am privileged enough to see each day during my travels here in London and surrounding areas and then in Edinburgh with my professor and fellow students.  I will also add personal entries for those family members and friends at home who want to make sure I'm eating enough vegetables and having fun while I'm here!  Entries may be updated or changed, so you might want to look back to see if I've added anything new to an old entry.  Also, I might not update every single day.  It all depends on how much time I have each evening.  All photographs are mine, unless otherwise noted.  I'm excited to share my love of books, libraries, history, travel, and other random stuff with you!