London Pride

As I boarded my flight to London with fourth-of-July fireworks still ringing in my ears, it occurred to me that England does not have an independence day. “No,” said the woman next to me on the plane, who was, by chance, a Londoner, “we’re the ones who gave everyone else their independence.”

Paris, Je T'adore

I instantly fell in love with this city. Like I-want-to-go-back-this-minute-and-never-leave love. I don't know if it's the old-school Europe feel, the people lining the sidewalks sipping cafe on iron chairs, or if it's the on-the-water feel, the many veins of rivers winding through the heart of the city, or if it's just the many walks of life that buzz through the streets, a welcome change after London's young sleekness. Indeed, Paris is anything but sleek: the streets are dirty in some places and gaudy in others, with darkened statues on the tops of buildings, intersecting roads, and everywhere in between. All in all, the city has an element of realness that I've missed whilst in London. I've missed old ladies shuffling down the sidewalks half hunched over. I've missed graffitied subways that smell like an odd mixture of urine and death. And I've missed being stared at, laughed with, and all around consumed by a city, though this time it happened in French.

Paris Preview

The Magnificent Museum of London

The Museum of London offers a multi-dimensional mosaic of London’s history. It presents a narrative of London from as early as 300 BC, chronicling both the city’s feats and great misfortunes. It is also extraordinarily interactive (even for a museum) allowing visitors to take a stroll through a life-sized Pleasure Garden, watch a film of the London fire blazing complete with eyewitness accounts, touch a prison door, and listen to a narrative of communication in London through the receiver of an antique telephone. Peering through the window of an antique glass shop on one of the museum’s many true-to-life streets, I felt just plain overwhelmed. Standing amid centuries of London’s artifacts, I recalled Henry James’ take on the city: “It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable or cheerful or easy or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.”

Tower Bridge

The Thames from the Tate

Thanksgiving

What is one to think as one sits on grassy Parliament Hill overlooking London? Buildings of once brick and steel now steeped in gray sunlight resting under a sky of cotton-ball clouds, blue for the first time this week. The man with his dog writes, a woman in a red cap pretends to read, tourist families photograph, couples lounge on blankets sharing lunch. The sun licks us all -tasting us, tanning us- as the grass sweetly buzzes the melody of excited cicadas. Who are we, this group of strangers, sharing an objective view of this city for just a moment? Are we lonesome pilgrims, each humming to our respective tunes of thanksgiving? For we are all thankful- we must be. Even if we chose to ignore it, it returns. It prods us through the sunshine. It swarms around us with the bees. It tickles our ears through the ostinato of the cicadas. Reminding us, always, enchanting us, you are here. You are here.

The Joy of London

Westminster Abbey may be composed of rigid stone, but the enthusiasm of the abbey’s employees makes the site warm and enjoyable. In conveying their passion for the site, the faces that illuminate the abbey make its long history come alive.

Gillian Sutch is just one of the many tour guides who shuffle through the Abbey each day, reciting facts and stories that are historical, cultural, and sometimes even comical. Wearing a bright red blazer and speaking in a soft-spoken voice, she complements the historical narrative of the Abbey with interesting factoids not evident to the average visitor.

She shares, for instance, that gems were stolen from Henry III’s tomb by tourists, and that the renowned playwright Ben Johnson is actually buried standing up. It is precisely these touches that make one’s visit not only engaging, but also memorable.

“It all just sort of ties up,” Sutch said wistfully of Poet’s Corner, a nook of the Abbey where British writers are buried. Sutch named the Corner as her favorite part of the site simply because “all the names [of the late poets] mean something.”

“Whether they’re buried here or elsewhere,” she added, “they’re remembered either way.”
After quitting a long career in public relations, Sutch became a certified tour guide in order to pursue history and London, her two passions.

“I love the history,” she said with a sheepish smile. “I hope to continue giving tours for as long as I can.”

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

I'm officially in London! I'm studying abroad for six weeks at Heythrop College (Fordham's sister school) where I'm taking a creative writing course and exploring every inch of the city. I'll be doing lots of writing, lots of reflecting, and lots of photographing along the way, so stay posted and be sure check out posts labeled 'London!'