Entry #2

9 November — In the eight or so weeks I have spent in London thus far I have already found a few of my favorite things. By this I mean I have already found my favorite place to grab a coffee and study, my favorite sushi restaurant, pub, shopping destination, neighborhood... you get the idea. While each of these locations offers me a place of comfort and sense of home, I have made an effort in the last few weeks to see every part of this city that I can in my remaining five weeks (which is too scary to think about).

About two weeks ago, a few of my group members and I took the tube to Liverpool Street to grab some sushi at a restaurant none of us had been to before. The moment we stepped out of the tube station each of us felt as if we had stepped into an entirely different city than when we had entered the Mile End station near campus. The sun had set, and while it was only about six o'clock, it could have easily been two in the morning. Our walk from the station to our restaurant felt almost like an out of body experience, as office buildings towered over us on either side, young business men and women were leaving work and heading into pubs or going home, all in a sort of frenzy. I felt as if I were transported into a dystopian novel, and I found this part of the city oddly intriguing. A few weeks later I returned to Liverpool Street during the day and found it a little more inviting and less as though George Orwell had written about it, but it still presented a great contrast to the London that I am used to experiencing.

Similarly, a few days ago I visited the Museum of London Docklands in Canary Wharf with a classmate. We both had a very similar experience to the time I previously mentioned, and were in disbelief with the feeling we had strolling between office building after office building, seeing nobody under the age of 30, let alone anyone wearing street clothes. I began to reflect on other areas of London that I have spent more time in, and my mind skipped to the evening I spent at the Tower of London on Remembrance Day. While walking on a path through the grass filled with candles it was hard to wrap my head around the idea that I was walking around a fortress that has been standing through numerous centuries of London’s history while still standing only a few miles from Canary Wharf or Liverpool Street. You can even take a look across the Thames as you stand near the Tower and you will see the Shard standing in company with similar incredibly tall glass office buildings. Not to mention St. Paul’s Cathedral which sits at the highest point in the city, as it is one of the most recognizable landmarks in London and one of the dozen projects of renowned architect Christopher Wren. This city has managed to maintain an essence of powerful history while evolving with grand innovation which I don’t expect to ever be used to. I appreciate finding comfort in this new place, and as I explore more of London the more I will have to miss once we depart back to Lewis & Clark.

 —Claire Greene