A Week of Self-Guided Education

The British Museum is absolutely incredible. I have been to several museums in London, but this was by far my favorite. It had dead people, live people, still people, and active people. There were mummies, sarcophagi, the Rosetta Stone, instruments, coins, armor, statues, thousands upon thousands of live school children (they were not officially on display), an Indian garden, a bubble roof, and much, much more. My favorite was the Egyptian section. The history behind the artifacts is baffling, both in terms of time and reasoning. I am just glad the brain has developed to where it is now because some of the logic behind their motives was... subpar to our standards. One thing I learned about History from the British Museum is that every culture that creates beautiful statues seems to then consistently destroy some body part off their work of art. Here are the rules I observed in regards to this strange practice: The body part to be destroyed can't be just any body part, such as a a back molar in their mouth or the ossicles- it must be prominent so that everyone can admire its absence. The second rule is that you can't destroy a body part that another culture has already claimed for their own destruction. The Egyptians were partial to the nose, so the Asians chose the hands (see above). In addition to the British Museum, I went to the British Library this week. Therein lays the Magna Carta, an original copy of Handel's Messiah, some of Mozart and Hayden's originals, a notebook of Leonardo Da Vinci's finest, a Guttenberg Bible, a philatelic exhibit, lots of books, cafes serving coffee (equal to the number of books in the library), and hand sanitizer at the door. I saw and or experienced them all. There were also floors labeled "Upper Ground Floor," "Ground Floor," "Lower Ground Floor," "Basement" and "Floor 1." That was especially exciting for me, second only to the hand sanitizer. The British like their alcohol, and the disinfectant was no exception. I also visited the Winston Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms, took a backstage tour of the National Theatre, and learned a thing of two about Shakespeare and the theatre.