First Week!

The only possible words to describe the past seven days would have to be: complete roller coaster. I hardly know where to start in explaining things, but I'm going to try to keep things upbeat, so I'm going to organize this into a few categories so we can begin and conclude on a high note. Those categories will be: (1) touristy-things, (2) frustrations and culture shock, (3) research progress, (4) cool cultural stuff.

1. Touristy Things. We kicked off Thursday with a group meeting, which was awesome. We went on a lovely tour of Westminster Abbey, got lunch at a pub, walked down Southbank to Tower Bridge, saw an ancient Roman wall, had some incredible ice cream (I got Ferrero Rocher flavor ... you can bet I'll be having that again a few times this summer!), spent a few minutes in the Natural History Museum, biked around Hyde Park a bit, and went to institute! Talk about a busy day! But it was excellent.
      On Friday, I went to St. Paul's Cathedral. I was planning on going for my project anyways, and Friday happened to be the day that the BYU Singers were giving a concert, so I figured it was a perfect day to go. The concert was incredible--not only did they sing beautifully, but the acoustics in the dome made it even better. Touring the cathedral was fabulous; I went all the way to the top of the dome, which was almost 600 steps up! The views from up there were fantastic. I'd highly recommend it to anyone!
      After St. Paul's, I wandered around Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge for about four hours (I was locked out of the flat). It's a beautiful area though and very nice. I walked past a lot of embassies and consulates and whatnot, as well as numerous international restaurants and shops. It was a huge reminder of how international a city London is.
      Yesterday, I went back to the Natural History Museum, to the Science Museum, and to the V&A. I'll probably go back to a couple of them because I only really looked at a few specific exhibits, and then moved on to the next thing. One of the great things about London is that they have so many free museums! (It makes up for the ridiculously expensive admission prices for the religious sites, in my opinion.)
2. Frustrations and Culture Shock. All I can say is thank goodness for Averyl and everything she's done for housing. If I had to navigate this for myself, I probably would have navigated myself back to the States, honestly. It's stressed me out so terribly and I'm not even the one that's been going out and looking for stuff. Fortunately, some lovely girls from the YSA ward have been letting me sleep on their couch since I got here, which has been absolutely wonderful. I'll be able to move in with a family tomorrow morning. Anyways, enough about that for now.
      I figure I might as well be honest about this: culture shock is hitting hard. It's kind of pathetic, since England is about as close to America as you can get on this side of the Atlantic, but I'd categorize it more as a homesick kind of culture shock than "This culture is completely different from the one I left behind." (That's not to say that London is just like America, because it's not. It just also isn't as different from America in the way that, say, Ghana or Paraguay or Mongolia, is different from America. But I'll get into some cultural things later.)
      The funny thing about culture shock is that it was one of those things that I thought I'd be prepared for. And although I was pretty accurate in guessing which of the "symptoms" I'd display, it's interesting to realize that anticipating outward symptoms is not the same as anticipating the actual emotional impact of culture shock. The emotional impact of culture shock is hard. I don't know how I failed to really think about it, but it's definitely not like you're suddenly doing these things without a reason. You have a reason: you're completely distraught. Whether or not there's a reason to be completely distraught varies and it certainly isn't perpetual, but when it strikes, it's hideous for a little bit.
3. Research Progress. Although I haven't really gotten into the bulk of my research yet or really followed my schedule at all, but I've found some really interesting things that relate to my project.
      Like I said earlier, I went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Strangely enough, the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral happened to also be an astronomer. !!!!!!. How cool is that?? Not only was he an architect who was influenced by cosmology, but he was an architect of a major cathedral! It's like religion + science/intellect + architecture all in one! I was so excited when I found out. His name is Sir Christopher Wren, and he's someone I'd definitely like to understand better.
      The architecture of St. Paul's itself was also very thought-provoking. What really struck me was that the building is structured to represent our journey to God, so the doors open on the west side, and at the opposite east wall is the high altar. The audio guide I listened to as I was walking around talked about how, when the priest performs services at the high altar, he stands with his back to the congregation, in a sense standing with them, as they approach together what the guide called a "transcendent God." It spoke of God as being "totally different" and "beyond" the people. I found it interesting that this building is supposed to be representative of the people's journey to God, and yet the services suggest that God is unreachable.
      I thought this contrasted very significantly with LDS temples. They, similarly, are representative of our journey to God; but these buildings include the Celestial Room, which is meant to be representative of being in the presence of God. The journey is actually completed, at least symbolically. The Anglican concept of a transcendent God is something I'd definitely like to explore more deeply and understand where it came from. (I probably should know this, since I just took Christian history, but I've forgotten so I'll have to go back to my notes I guess.)
      At the Science Museum, I was really excited because there was an exhibit called "Cosmology & Culture." It ended up being something of a bust, because there wasn't much in the way of new information. That being said, I did get to see some copies of the Almagest, De Revolutionibus, Dialogue Concerning the Chief World Systems, and others, as well as some cool little contraptions. The one that really interested me was a Celestial Sphere made by Vincenzo Coronelli in the 17th century. It's like a globe of the night sky, if that makes sense. It's beautifully decorated with depictions of the constellations, both as stars and then filled out with illustrations.
      I also found a picture and a name that I'm excited to look into a little bit more. The man is named Camille Flammarion, and the picture is an engraving from one of his books, though the artist is unknown. It depicts a man who is in the world's sphere, and then breaks through it and is able to see the spheres outside of it. How cool! It's from 1888, so it's a little bit late for being a huge discovery, I think. But I think that Flammarion will be an interesting character in terms of getting an idea of where the whole medieval cosmology concept went by that time period (since apparently it was still relevant), and how that fit in with later perceptions of God.
   

   

   The Flammarion engraving

      I also saw an exhibit called "Signs, Symbols, Secrets," which was about alchemy. Alchemy was very closely related with Medieval/Renaissance cosmology, and there was a little bit of stuff from the museum that suggested God's role in alchemy. Although I don't think this will have a large impact on my project, it may be helpful. I got a good list of 16th-18th century texts that would be relevant to this  area.
      The final exciting thing for my research is that I found a book that I think will be helpful for my project called The Story of Astronomy by Couper & Henbest. It does cover a huge time period, but it does particularly discuss how astronomical discoveries impacted people's perspectives. I think it will be helpful in getting an overview of things, and in seeing how things have changed since the Copernican Revolution. 
4. Cool Cultural Stuff. 

• Stay Left. The words of the day during our group meeting were definitely "paradigm shift." It popped up several times, including in a conversation Ben and I had about walking. Some things you just take for granted in a country where you drive on the right side of the road, such as the propensity of everyone to carry this rule to the sidewalks. We don't think about it often, but pedestrian traffic in the US mimics vehicular traffic in a lot of ways. The same thing is true in London. I have to constantly remind myself to "stay left." Sometimes it's hard. When I'm crossing the street, even if I can see cars coming, after I've looked both ways, I always look left again right before I walk. It's just habitual! I'm afraid I'm going to break the habit, come back to the States, and get plowed by a bus. Or just be perpetually confused for a few months. 
• Buskers. There's a website that I follow called Thought Catalog. It calls itself "a place for relevant and relatable non-fiction and thought," and I really enjoy it. Yesterday, someone posted an article that was about something I happened to have a lot of experience with yesterday: street performers. Or, to use the apparently technical term, "buskers." I walked past a fabulous quartet and a guy who was singing the same song for several hours (or at least, every time I walked by him). The article is pretty cool, and can be found here:  http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/the-buskers-of-londons-underground-music-scene/. It was exciting to see something that I'd just been able to start experiencing on a website I've been following for months. Just to think that if I were home, I wouldn't really know what this is like ... but I'm in London, so I do! It's definitely cool. 
• Pants vs. Trousers. Remember this post? You know, the one where I posted that hilarious picture of pants and suspenders? Well, wouldn't you know that I messed it up right after getting here. We were in institute, and I decided to make a comment that involved me using the word "pants," which Averyl (thankfully) corrected for everyone. Naturally, I got laughed at. Thankfully I was able to laugh at myself too. I hoped that public humiliation would be enough to permanently change "pants" to "trousers" in my head. No such luck. I've messed it up like three times since then. :)

Whew! I think I'll leave it at that for now! I'm excited to see what the next week holds!