[December 9] London: History London Walk & New Pornographers Concert @ Shepherd's Bush O2

On one of the very last days of classes in London, I went on a little 'field trip' for my History of London World War One class. This class only had 3 students in it!

I don't know why, but due to my History of London and British Women's Social History classes, I have become really interested in WWI. I've never really learned about it much in school, and when I did, I wasn't especially interested and we didn't learn a lot. But now I know so much more about the British side than the American side—I need to fix that one of these days!

So: On a very, VERY cold morning, we started out our London walk by the National Portrait Gallery by a weird statue of Edith Cavell, the first woman nurse. Long story short, she was eventually put to death for helping soldiers she wasn't allowed to.

And here are the grateful pigeons, crapping on her head:

DO NOT let that blue sky fool you... I felt so frozen. This memorial is for WWI on Whitehall street and I'm pretty sure it's already been on my blog before:

We learned a lot about the various memorials and what they mean and the significance of this and that... you know, it's really great to have so many nice memorials commemorating people who should NOT be forgotten. BUT: Sometimes, it actually makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Because I know that in staring at this memorial yes, I am 'remembering' their suffering and efforts, but it feels like they deserve SO MUCH MORE. I don't know what exactly, it just all seems insufficient compared to their extreme sacrifices.

Then... we walked towards Buckingham Palace. This scene (below) looks a bit out of place now that I think about it, because it looks like it should be in the countryside and not right in the middle of a city. But one of the best things about London I think are all of its parks! Look at that bird! Is it a pelican? I can't remember:

On the other side of these buildings is Whitehall:

Another memorial...

This particular day happened to be the day that some politicians would 'debate' over the increase in tuition for college students and they were very prepared for student protesters. I couldn't tell especially because I'm not used to what the atmosphere around Whitehall/Parliament Square/Buckingham Palace is usually like, but my History professor was really excited! "Ooooh this is history!" Ha, ha. He said that this semester is the most 'eventful' semester IES Abroad has had in London. IES was really good about sending out e-mail notices and warnings about potentially dangerous situation to stay away from, and they would also occasionally text everyone and you would have to text back your name, letting them know you were okay.

Anyway! This is kind of funny—they are police trailers for the horses! I've just never seen that before...

We happened to arrive at Buckingham Palace at the perfect time, as the marching band was marching right past!

The best view possible!

Most of these men are tall to start with, but with those huge hats on, they look even taller! Cool and kind of intimidating...

Buckingham Palace is actually not that pretty in my opinion. It just looks like a museum or some sort of government building in my opinion.

Vans full of swat teams:

More memorials I unfortunately forget the meaning of:

The Victory Arch:

Bird pooping on his head hehehehe:

David:

With a strategically placed leaf:

My professor said that David's buttocks became the "symbol of the gay movement" back in...?

Memorial for New Zealand:

Can you see the white crosses on the tops of each black pillar?

Poor Duke of Wellington got demoted from the top of the Victory Arch and now just stands on a measly tomb-looking thing...

That night, I went to the Shepherd's Bush O2 to see the New Pornographers! Neko Case, the lovely leading lady, is from Tacoma, in case you didn't know! I'm really glad I got to see them live.

[October 17] Trip to Ieper (Ypres), Belgium, Day 2: Cemeteries & Chocolate.

And now... time to blog about the 2nd day of our Belgium trip! Gosh I am SO behind on blogging, as I mention every single post... it just takes forever to load pictures and honestly I bet a lot of you just look at the pictures on here anyway!

The day began with a little jaunt around Ieper to buy chocolates. The city area is very 'European' in atmosphere... and the city has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years! The main reason why we visited Ieper was to see a lot of the WWI history, because A LOT of WWI took place at Ieper. The way I understand it was that the Germans were making their way northward and they would need to get ahold of Ieper... and once they advanced... Britain sent soldiers to fight along with the Belgians and whomever else they could force onto the battlefield. As you can tell, my understand of war is very elementary. I've never been able to understand all of the intricacies of who did what and how that caused this and all of the things that are going on at the same time and, and, and...

Well. Here's one of my friends sitting outside of the hostel we stayed in:

This is the town center and it was built in the 13th century!

In case you can't read this picture of a sign I took, it says "15th century Gothic remains of the 12th century of St. Martin's Deanery. Tombstones, damaged sculptures and fragments of the destroyed St. Martin's church in 1914-1918."

Trying my best to be a Gothic statue...

And then we visited one of many, many graveyards... I can't remember which is named what, honestly. But it was a beautiful day outside and to think of all of the soldiers that were brutally murdered in the VERY SAME place that we walked on that bright and sunny and green day was just unreal.

Right here, battle took place... We learned about all of the wounded and the 'medical care'... the soldeirs would get a shot of morphine if they were lucky and were basically doomed to die. Sanitation was unheard of... chemical warfare was 'invented'.

Then we visited a mock trench. It wasn't actually used during the war, but it was a good example I guess... minus guns and bombs and mustard gas and death and blood and everything else terrible you could think of...

The soldiers made these raised areas to walk on, I think to help prevent getting trench foot, which would happen to them if their feet got wet and cold inside their boots... eventually they'd turn blue and swell up and get blisters and then you'd get gangrene and then they'd have to be amputated.

Walking inside the trench... it was clean and sunny and obviously I can't begin to picture what it must have been like to fight in those conditions, but I know it WASN'T PRETTY...

A little hole to stick your rifle into to shoot at the enemy...

Then we went to the Langemark German cemetery:

Obviously no relation but I took a picture anyway:

And here is the mass grave that is the resting place of almost 25,000 soliders. Oh gosh. How can anyone stomach that? In the rest of the cemetery, over 10,000 soldiers are buried and out of all of the dead in this particular cemetery... about 3,000 of them were SCHOOLBOYS/CHILDREN. They just plain needed BODIES to send into battle. A lot of them were tricked into going. Hitler visited this cemetery at some point, I also remember.

When I got back from the trip, I listened to 'Zombie' by the Cranberries and it suddenly meant something much different to me and I think it's about being shell-shocked (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) during WWI. It's a really powerful song I would recommend listening to, but here are the lyrics:

Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou...

Another mother's breakin',
Heart is taking over.
When the violence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.

It's the same old theme since 1916.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a... 

And then off we drove some more through the Ieper countryside... we were really blessed with a beautiful day...

And we visited another cemetery. It was really breathtakingly gorgeous... really well-maintained and looked after...

And I had to show a few of the ages on a few of the graves...

This one says "Believed to be buried in this cemetery".

Kids from our group:

I really don't have much to say about the cemetery because I think you can see for yourself...

Afterwards we visited Talbot House which was a sort of refuge for soldiers during their time off. It was a really nice little place. We learned about how when a lot of soldiers had their time off, all they would care about was having a good time because it could be their last good time... and so alcohol and women (and I don't know what else) were not in short supply.

Really adorable signs up in the house...

There was a chapel in the attic:

One of the rooms which I quite liked:

And the Talbot House still receives guests there today! I would love to stay their sometime if it wasn't such a pain to get to on my own...

Then of course, we visited a bakery that was just across the street. The man in the picture is Julian, the professor that went on the trip with us. He's my History of London professor and he's really interesting!

My treat! The pink stuff is all marzipan (my favorite!!!) and inside there was a little cake-type thing with cream. Really delicious but I couldn't eat it all at once actually.

Then, we visited a prison. Here's a one of the walls inside the prison, all scratched up by the prisoners:

We learned about all of the things soldiers could be punished for... and of course the most memorable one is for desertion. I can't blame the soldiers that panicked and fled. Sometimes I wonder if our bodies will even physically allow us to march into gruesome battle? Well, I obviously wouldn't know. But a lot of the prisoners were given a last meal, some alcohol, had a bag stuck over their head...

And were taken out here to be executed, oftentimes by their friends or brothers. A lot of the time, they wouldn't even know what was going on because they'd have the gas mask on backwards over their head and it would just be silent. This is all just completely gruesome to me... but it doesn't compare to the torture I learned about in Scotland... compared to the Scottish, this is all quite humane and merciful.

So really, Ieper stands in my mind as cemeteries and chocolate. An awful combination but at least it wasn't all war and bloodshed... it was a great trip but I would only recommend going if you're interested in the history of everything and 'don't mind' being reminded every other second about all of the thousands and thousands that died there.