London Calling: Happy Birthday to You, Prince William

As the title suggests, today (technically yesterday, since I'm writing this a day late) was Prince William's 30th birthday! Yay!

Today we had a class trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was filled with a ton of interesting pieces and exhibits. They currently have a ballgown exhibit that we are hoping to visit soon. At the museum we saw several pieces that were linked to England's long history. Fun fact: Tea is not native to England, although you would think it is. When Charles II married Catherine of Braganza in 1662, part of her dowry was a large shipment of tea. She loved drinking tea and the trend filtered down into the masses. We also explored other areas of the world. One very interesting piece was an Islamic rug, that was simply beautiful, and was only lit at certain times. One of my favorite parts was the theater portion of the museum. There they had promotional posters (fact: the word "poster" is a medieval term) and everything else you can imagine. We got to see costumes, costume renderings, set designs, and so much more. They had costumes from the West End's production of The Lion King, which we will be seeing later on our trip. They also had Chris Martin's (from Coldplay) outfit that was designed for the Viva la Vida tour.

Outfits worn by Coldplay and Mick Jagger

Lion King Costumes

Our next item on the itinerary was a lecture on Britain and Exceptionalism. We had a gap so Emily, Lindsay and I made our way to Patisserie Valerie for a quick lunch. I had the vegetable soup. Yum.
Our lecture today was very interesting, though the title does not seem like it. Justin presented the history of London as a living history, using the notion of psychogeography. From what I gathered, psychogeography is the history that lives on in the living of people today. People today are fascinated by stories of the past because these stories represent their current feelings or fears on an issue. He also talked about London being a city that burns and always rebuilds itself. This all sounds heavy but he presented this in such an interesting way, and you could tell he had a passion for this. Some random things we learned that I found particularly interesting.

A new found solution to the identity Jack the Ripper: Queen Victoria's grandson had an illegitimate child with a lady who did not meet royal standards. It is thought that she told her friends that the child was his. Jack the Ripper killed five women, who are believed, in this story, to be the woman's friends. So, basically Queen Victoria's grandson and the monarchy had these women killed, the child taken away, and the mother sent to a mental institution to protect the monarchy from scandal.
The Queen and the monarch's popularity was extremely hurt by the death of Princess Diana. On the day of Diana's funeral, the Queen bent to public demands and when the coffin passed by her, she bowed to the coffin. For a rare occasion, she gave into popular protest.
London was a Roman city and when the Vikings attacked, they tore down London Bridge, which is where we get the nursery rhyme. We also get the rhyme "Ring Around the Rosy" from the Plague.

Isn't that all so interesting? I am looking forward to our next lecture.

After class, we did not want to retire so soon to our flat. Our place of destination was a bridge in St. James Park where one can see a great view of the palace. St. James park is beautiful, and the rain held off, so we were able to walk around for a bit. A note on the animals in the park: They are crazy. They get way to close and the birds fly so close to your head you can feel the wind from it. And I hate birds in general. Also, we saw a swan. Which was cool, except for the fact it's a huge bird. And people, don't get too close because I saw a baby and a girl get bit by the swan in a period of five minutes.

The view from the bridge

For the Jubilee

Evil Swan

Just and FYI, the Mall and part of the park are blocked off until September, I suppose for the Olympics, so it does complicate things a bit. We then went to the palace. Of course it is as beautiful as usual. We took pictures and one can also see Big Ben and The London Eye. While we were there, we started to see cars pulling up to the palace and individuals in long dresses and tuxedos. Bobbies (policemen) were thoroughly inspecting the cars before letting them into the gates. So of course, we stood and watched as all this was happening, wishing we had received an invitation. There must have been a party for William. What else could it have been?

Buckingham Palace

In order to have our own celebration for William's birthday, we made our way to Harrods to pick up some sweets and we came out with cupcakes, and a few chocolates of course. The night ended with a birthday celebration to William that we thoroughly enjoyed.