History and Empire

Day five, we started with a full English breakfast, pretty standard, it was good. Had a hard time getting out of bed today, I'm feeling pretty tired and think tonight will be a quiet night.

We took off from the hotel at 9:30 for a 10 meeting at the British Museum with a guided tour. We wandered through the museum for about 3 and a half hours and saw a lot! This museum had relics and artifacts from the prehistoric early man to the reaches of the brotish empire. There was exhibits on Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, native Americans, and Japan. I really enjoyed this one exibit that looked at the process of life and death through different cultures. Side note, there was a fire alarm while we were there, which was odd. There was no rush to get out of the building or panic at all, everyone was calm and almost ignored the alarm.

After a brief walk we arrived at the British Library and entered the Magna Carta exibit. I really enjoyed this exibit. We got to see the historical precursors to the Magna Carta being written and we got to see the implication it would have on history. King James the first really screwed up as a king and the Magna Carta served as a last minute bailout to save his reputation. While it first seemed to have little significance the longer it existed the more it was officially recognized by both kings and Parliment. The exibit also covered the effect it had on the American colonies and Revolution. On a personal note I managed to get a nose bleed halfway through the exibit, which i was less supposed that it happens more when it happened. I get the feeling it won't be my last before the trip is over.

After the Magna Carta exibit we walked into the prized collection section of the library. There was some cool bibles and historical accounts of both world wars but the really prize was found in the arts section. They had several notes and letters from the Beatles members from the process of writing songs. It was amazing, I loved seeing the inspiration for many of the songs I grew up listening to.

Dinner was at a very good Chinese restaurant, not the one we originally planned on, but it was still good. I had pork Dim Sum and chow mein.

Personal Update-

Along side of being tired I'm also getting a little irritated everyone and ten with some of my travel mates. There are just some students who don't take the educational parts of this trip seriously. There are also some students are taking the fun parts of this trip too seriously. I know it's probably just me, but it's starting to get to me, I just need to separate myself from those people on our nights off.

Matthew