library musings

Hello from a rainy Thursday in London!

I'm currently sitting in the library waiting for a particularly violent downpour to stop before I head outside to get some lunch.   The library is surprisingly full today.  I guess I didn't realize how many people actually use reading week to read.  Now I don't feel like such a loser.

Reading week is nearly over, and I realize now I set my goals for the week way too high.  I didn't take into account the preparation needed to write four final essays: reading a 900-page novel, finding tons of secondary resources, visiting a museum and taking pictures of one artifact and contemplating its position in relation to other artifacts and the museum as a whole...etc.  However, I feel good about what I've accomplished this week: reading the 900-page novel (Dickens's Dombey and Son) and writing the accompanying essay, which I just finished, for my Dickens City module.  One thing at a time, right?

Sunday night I went to Victoria Park with some friends to see a fireworks show.  Although fireworks had been going off all weekend for Guy Fawkes Day ("Remember, remember, the fifth of November...")  this show was in remembrance of the Blitz, and started off with the sounds of air raid sirens and searchlights.  The park was packed; I think all of East London and then some were there.  There were people at all the entrance gates with buckets, collecting money for the Stairway to Heaven memorial trust.  I had no idea what that was--all it brought to mind was a Led Zeppelin song--but luckily Jersey was with me and, for some reason, knew all about it.  During WWII, the Bethnal Green tube station (which is a 10 minute walk from my campus) was used as an air raid shelter.  When anti-aircraft rockets were fired off in Victoria Park, the crowd panicked.  Someone tripped on the stairs of the station, starting a domino effect.  173 people died, and 90 were injured.  According to the memorial trust's website, it was the worst civilian disaster of the war.  It's strange to me that the site of the worst civilian disaster of WWII doesn't already have a memorial--that money is still needing to be raised.  Maybe it has something to do with it having occured in the east end--I get the feeling that it's a pretty overlooked area in general.  Anyway, the fireworks were possibly the best I've ever seen.  They were huge.  It was a little strange, watching fireworks in a coat and scarf, rather than shorts and tanktops. 

Alright, the sun is out--gotta love London's sporadic weather.  Time to seek out some lunch!