This was the official first week of term break so everyone was ready to relax and enjoy some time off of reading and writing.

On Monday I went to Greenwich with a few friends. Yes, this is the Greenwich of Greenwich Mean Time--a place where the Prime Meridian divides the western and eastern hemispheres.
It was kind of funny...the 24-hour analog clock displayed in Greenwich Park, which is SUPPOSED to be 'official', had not been adjusted for Daylight Savings Time yet. So it was an hour off! I don't have a picture of this, but my friend does, so I'll have her email it to me and I'll add it later.

Greenwich as a town is pretty cute--it is only a 20 minute Tube ride from London but it seems a lot further away because it's so different from London. The town is mostly known for its maritime history: tourists can climb aboard a couple old boats and visit the National Maritime Museum and old Royal Navy College.

We didn't do any of that, though. Our goal was to take a relaxing stroll along the Thames and through Greenwich Park.

Beautiful blossoming tree in Greenwich Park

From atop a hill in the park.
In the background is an area east of London called the Docklands.
It's mainly a financial and business center.
You can see there are some skyscrapers... as we passed through on our
way to Greenwich, it kind of felt like I was back in the US.

You can just make out the writing in the brick indicating
East and West Longitude.

Straddling the hemispheres!

It feels so....strange and...perplexing.

Walking through the park.

A shot of Greenwich

We found a MEXICAN restaurant! I have been craving Mexican food for months!
So has Stephanie, another American.
Our Latvian and Korean friends did not understand our utter joy.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Tuesday we went to a beautiful park north of London called Hampstead Heath. It is also just a short Tube ride from the city center. Most of the park is not a well-groomed--it's meant to be kind of 'wild' and over-grown with woods and ponds. There are lots of paths, dirt and paved, but they are not well marked, so it could be quite easy to get lost. It helps to explore with a group, as we did, so everyone can help navigate through the wooded areas.

Here's a short video of Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath. The view from this hill looks south to the center of London.


Some parts of the park are maintained quite well--themed gardens and even an enclosure with deer, alpacas, and various fowl. I only have a couple of pictures of these areas of Hampstead Heath:

Sleepless night #4.
Again, it's after 3 a.m., actually after 4 a.m. (since clocks went forward tonight), and I've been lying in bed for hours, unable to sleep despite my exhaustion.
Thankfully, the days since receiving my bad news on Wednesday have gotten progressively better--it has helped to talk through some things with a few people and I have really felt the support of my friends and family.
Unfortunately, the issue has not been resolved, and since SCCS has spring break next week, it looks as though further communication with school administration is going to be put on hold. Until then, thoughts continue to flood my mind at night when I should be sleeping. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to put this out of my head.
I think I need a therapist. Or perhaps a mild sedative.

On a more positive note, I was able to make it to two museums this week: the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday and the Tate Britain on Saturday. Both of these places are FREE, so there's no guilt for only staying an hour if one manages to hate them. I happened to stay interested and engaged at both places for nearly three hours each (with the help of an audio guide)! The Portrait Gallery has portraits of British people and the Tate focuses on British artists, so I suppose they would appeal even more to British citizens.

Painted portraits are a curious thing... A thing of the past, really, because of photography. That is, unless you're royalty or something. Nowadays, a person would have to be pretty full of himself to commission a portrait. Honestly, what would you do with a gigantic painting of yourself?!? Hang it above the fireplace? Seems quite narcissistic to me. You'd have to be pretty confident that it would end up in a museum at some point. There's probably a portrait of Bill Gates somewhere. Anyway, it was very cool to see what some of these historical figures from the 1600-18oos looked like. Their clothes and hair were hilarious.

King Charles I (1631)

Henry, Prince of Wales (1610)

The Tate Britain has a huge variety of art, which I like--a little bit of everything. I'm sitting here trying to remember if something stands out, and all that comes to mind is this:

The Lady of Shalott

I guess I've read Anne of Green Gables (and seen the film) too many times!
There really was A LOT more to the museum than this!

On that note, I think I'll try this thing called sleep. I've heard a body needs it to feel good.

It's after 3 a.m. here and I can't fall asleep. I know this is directly related to the terrible day I have just been through. I've talked to lots of people about it already, but I can't seem to get it out of my head, so I thought writing about it might help. [Warning...this email is a downer.]

First of all, a review of several random and annoying things that happened throughout the day:

• the power (electricity, phone, internet) went out this afternoon in my residence hall for 5 hours because of a power line being severed during construction down the street
• the fire alarm sounded at 11 pm for no reason and lasted for 5 minutes (just long enough for everyone to get angry (suspecting it was yet another false alarm), put on their coats, and start heading downstairs)
• being shocked IN THE EAR by my telephone as I was talking to my friend. The phone then died. And there is still no dial tone now. (The shock really hurt! But no hearing loss, thank goodness.)
• I put a load of laundry in the washer (at midnight...), went back up to my room for the duration of the 38 minute cycle (as I usually do), then returned to the washer to find there was still 37 minutes left--the machine malfunctioned.
  

I may have been able to handle those minor problems better on a different day. Maybe I would have even laughed about them. But they were all made unbearable because of an upsetting email I received today from my principal back at SCCS.

The 3-sentence email basically stated that I will not be teaching mathematics next year. (Instead, I've been assigned other subjects.)

Just to remind you, I am studying for my Master's degree in mathematics education!

The principal's decision to change my teaching assignment just makes no sense to me on so many levels. Isn't higher education supposed to be a boost for one's career? Now it feels like I am going through all this for nothing. I've devoted one year to developing myself as a teacher--learning to become a better math teacher--to no end, it seems. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars I am now in debt because I believed it would be a worthwhile investment into my future as a teacher. Guess I was wrong about that.

I do plan on calling my principal tomorrow (or, today, it is now) and talking to her about it. But that just makes falling asleep tonight even harder because I can't stop thinking about what I'm going to say to her.

Also, I did no academic work today because I just couldn't focus, so now I feel guilty about THAT too!

Sorry that this post is so depressing, but I had to get this off my chest once more. And, bonus for me... this is the first time explaining the story that I didn't cry about it.

What does it take to be considered a nerd? I like libraries and math--I think those are 2 of the main ingredients...

On Saturday I went to the British Library. Not to read books (you need a special pass to use the facilities and no books may be checked out anyway) but to browse their collection of old manuscripts and artifacts.

It's pretty amazing how old some of these items are. They have the oldest complete Bible in existence--350 AD, along with other 'illuminated' (illustrated) Bibles from around 700 AD. There's a King James Bible from 1611 and a Gutenberg Bible from 1455. Other non-religious items include the Magna Carta, Shakespeare's poems, The Canterbury Tales, and Beowulf (1000 AD). A section focusing on music has works from Mozart and Handel to the Beatles. It's too bad all these things are encased in glass because it would be so cool to touch the pages of books so old.

Visiting the British Library is probably not on the top of the list of things to do in London for visitors staying only a few days--it took me 6 months to make it there, and I really like books! So, if you think you might want to look at any of these books yourself, you can go to this website. For some, there's a cool feature that allows you to open the book and turn the pages to see/read inside. The British Library Highlights Tour

I handed in another essay this past week and I estimate that I am now 1/3 done with the work required to get my Master's degree. Yes, it is true--only 1/3 done even though my time in London is over half done. Needless to say, I will be quite busy through June (and also the summer, once I'm back home).

With hopes of possibly absorbing some academic motivation and intellect, I made a trip to Oxford on Saturday. After having been in Cambridge just a couple of weeks ago, I was eager to compare these two cities.

My friend Vanessa (I went to Yorkshire and Bath with her too) and I took the train from London Saturday morning. We signed up for a walking tour at the TI again as I have found these tours to be worthwhile and enjoyable. Our guide was quite old and there were several times where I was worried she might fall on the brick streets and break her hip, but she managed to lead the group around for two solid hours without injury.

Like Cambridge, the city of Oxford is primarily composed of college buildings and student accommodation. It also has claims to many famous people including lots of prime ministers, authors, and scientists. Even though there are lots of beautiful buildings and parks, I think my favorite part of the day was seeing a gray-haired man in a tweed suit and hat (genius professor, I'd like to believe) riding a bike while loudly humming classical music. This is exactly what I hoped to see.

Some sights of Oxford:

Magnolia tree blossoming

Radcliffe Camera-- part of the university's library


The buildings and grounds of New College...
(See also a video of the New College's chapel)

The most famous college--Christ Church.

Vanessa and I ended the day with dessert at a place called The Nosebag (!)

I've had a perpetual breakout of zits on my chin all term. This issue has been quite exasperating to me as I am 28 and should not be having acne like someone half my age. The cause of this problem has alluded me until recently. I have realized that large portions of my day are being spent hunched over a desk, reading, with my chin in my hand. Therefore, my pores are likely being blocked up by all the skin oils I'm rubbing all over my face. Brilliant.

How's that for a scientific hypothesis? Look what has academia done to me!

Now, excuse my while I apply my daily dose of zit cream. (An exercise in futility.)

[There will be no pictures to supplement this posting, thank you very much. Just picture your own adolescent skin and that's what I look like.]

Total Lunar Eclipse visible in London!

I got a pretty lame shot with my camera--I didn't want to go outside in the cold so I took the picture through the window at the end of my corridor. The earth's shadow is covering about half of the moon at this point.
Looks more like a UFO in the picture, but these are always cool to see in person, especially at night.

I saw someone in my class eat an entire apple the other day. I mean the core and seeds and the even the hard end bits! All that was left was a little stem. I have never seen this before! It took me by surprise and now I feel a little bit wasteful because I throw out the core. Is this practice normal in some countries but not in the US? Or maybe this person is just an exception.

Also, I checked into the rain stat from my last post...it is Cambridge, not London, that gets half as much rain as Chicago. London gets about 25% less rain than Chicago which is still interesting, I think.