My Semester Abroad

Local college students — from the Puget Sound area or studying at a Puget Sound university — are traveling the world as part of their studies; several are sending dispatches about discovering their corner of the globe. They welcome your comments and questions.

Editor's note: Thanks to all the students who shared their experiences on traveling and learning. "Semester Abroad" is being discontinued.

All blogs and discussions:

January 28, 2006

London: Musuems and some random facts

Posted by Laura Geggel at 08:03 AM

It's been a great week — I went to the British Library and saw original manuscripts like "Jane Eyre," "Beowulf," Shakespeare's 1st folio (published seven years after he died) — where that famous picture of him with his neck ruff comes from). There are tons of Bibles and the Golden Hagadah, which was made in Barcelona around 1320 and is quite beautiful.

Later went to this museum that used to be the house of Sir John Soane (b. 1753), who designed the British Bank. Soane left all of his things to the city, but said that he wanted everything to stay in his house. So everything is a bit cramped because his house isn't huge and he collected so many artifacts, including the first commissioned portrait of Napoleon to an Egyptian sarcophagus.

Random fact: I just learned why the word sarcophagus is similar to the word esophagus. They both lead to digestion, or so thought early archeologists. Sarx means flesh in Greek and phagein means to eat.So excavators actually thought that the limestone coffin was digesting the mummy! Gross, gross, gross.

Jennifer Henrichsen
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