My Semester Abroad

There are drunken international students of all ethnicities singing out in the quad between the dorms. It would be quite charming really if they could carry a tune, but alas...

I got into a real snarl at the underground today with my friend Liz. If we hadn't listened to the others we would have managed our trip back with one tube switch, but instead we made four. It probably would have been easier to walk back from Camden Town to Goodge, but both of us were so tired from wandering around the market that all we wanted to do was sit down and people watch in the subway. There are so many accents in London that some people, when they hear me speak, don't even know I'm American. They have to ask.

And the funniest part is when I tell people I'm from Seattle, they get all excited and say, "Oh! Like Frasier?"

I'm here for six months, studying at University College London (UCL) for my junior spring semester, and London is amazing. I think I'm finally figuring out this "driving on the left side" thing after risking my life by crossing the streets. I've also found that combining 8 hours of jet lag and museum hopping just doesn't work.

I visited the British Museum to get tickets to their cool Persia exhibit (on Persepolis) when I realized I was so tired I could no longer walk in a straight line. Still, I managed to appreciate that Persepolis was an ancient city/castle in Persia that Alexander the Great burned down in 330 BC. Alex was drunk at the time, and his friend's courtesan suggested it would be a great revenge for when Xerxes attacked Athens a couple hundred years before. So down it went--a shame because it sounds really cool. The ruins are now in Iran, which is where the British Museum had most of its exhibit on loan.

My exchange program took all 30 of us on a walking tour around the UCL neighborhood. It's right in the middle of London, a quick walk to the British Museum. Our guide showed us all over and told us what famous people lived where. Apparently the University of London (which is comprised of several colleges, including UCL) has a rather famous senate building that not only is the basis for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth building in "1984," but also caught the fancy of Hitler back when he wanted to invade England.

LAURA GEGGEL / SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES

A Chihuly glass sculpture hanging in the Victoria and Albert museum, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006.

German bombers were told to avoid the Senate House because Hitler decided to locate his headquarters there once the invasion proved successful, the tour guide said. I can believe it: the building looks so oppressive with its huge white blocked tiers rising toward the sky.

A couple days ago I met up with my British relatives and managed to finagle some clothes hangers out of them (hangers here are like a pound each!). They're a cheery bunch; when my dad's side of the family escaped from Germany in the 1930s, half of them came to the US and the other half went to England. I love having relatives everywhere I go. We went to Gilbert's old house (as in Gilbert and Sullivan), only now it's a hotel and a restaurant. Gilbert died there, too -- a lady fell into his swimming pool and he dived in to save her. But he had a heart attack and drowned. The fate of the lady is unknown, but we assume someone else saved her.