OBU in London #3 - July 20 (British Museum)

Pickwick Hall's kitchen

This summer, I had the privilege of spending a month in England with a group of 15 students from Oklahoma Baptist University.  Dr. Lindsey Panxhi (an English faculty colleague) and myself, along with our respective spouses, conducted a faculty-led Study Abroad that spent four weeks on the ground in London teaching OBU courses to OBU students while being immersed in the culture and history of Great Britain.  These are our stories!

Friday, July 20, 2018 – British Museum

Woke up – nice breakfast, courtesy of Pickwick.  Patrick, the owner, and his wife Clara, are quite pleasant and enjoyable to chat with.  He is the picture of British propriety and politeness.  Probably mid-50s to early-60s.  Helpful in answering curious questions about London and England.  The breakfasts here are consistent: toast (3 types of bread) with butter and/or marmalade, cereal (four kinds, including oatmeal), milk, tea, coffee, and hot chocolate.  We are buying peanut butter for the team as well, to supplement the breakfast options with more protein. 

British Museum

After breakfast, classes: then lunch.  Lunch is usually going to be sandwiches or crackers and meat and cheese, with some fresh veggies.  Vanessa and Arsid have been doing a great job shopping, and are quite economical with their purchases.  They’re coming in far below the budget estimates per meal.  We’d figured about 2GBP/each for lunches and 4GBP for supper – they’re shopping for about 1.50 for lunch and 3.00 for supper.  The savings are helpful on two fronts.  First, we have a couple of unanticipated costs: laundry (5GBP/load) and additional Oyster Card funds.  Most of the team will deplete their Oyster Cards before the trip’s end.  Second, we’d like to give excursion money to students for Cambridge, Oxford, and Dover – saving budget money on meals helps with that goal.

British Museum main entrance

After lunch, we spent the afternoon at the British Museum, an extremely extensive collection of artifacts and artwork from around the world.  I’m not sure the precise size, but the Museum appears to cover two full blocks east-west and one block north-south.  Four floors (I think) with hundreds of individual rooms and displays.  We did not exhaust the opportunities to explore the Museum, even though we stayed until past 4PM.

My favorite displays were ancient Greece & Rome, and China.  Their China floor had a brilliant floor play, with historical panels accompanying art – very informative and enjoyable.  The only downside (a fairly major one) to the afternoon was the lack of air conditioning.  The building was quite warm, a result of hot temperatures outside (90-95F every day thus far) and the massive throngs of visitors in the Museum. 

We probably would have stayed longer and enjoyed ourselves more, if it was not so hot in the Museum!

Supper and clean-up.  No Colloquium tonight.  We are all still tired, but at least we have adjusted to London time.  Early to bed after FaceTime with the two girls.