Some Last Minute Indulgences

So my last week in London has finally arrived...can you believe it? I've been juggling endless papers and trying to experience some last minute London venues. On Sunday, for instance, I went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey. It was at three o'clock (hardly what I'd call evening, but its gets completely dark here by about 3:45-4:00 pm) so it was a nice break from writing my papers. The evensong service was wonderful- their choir was made up of men and boys, very formal and traditional. They were dressed in red choir robes with white tunics and stiff lace collars. Their music selections were very English and very old; many of their songs had a haunting quality, which of course was wonderful to listen to in a place like Westminster Abbey. I thought it was very exciting to attend a service in a place so steeped in history (the abbey is over 1,000 years old).

My roommates and I also threw a holiday party on Monday, inviting all of our friends. We all got dressed up and drank cocktails and played loud music. It was really nice to see everybody and celebrate the end of our time here in London. I had a pretty good time, but I have to admit that I had the hangover from hell the next morning. That's what you get when you drink different types of alcohol in one night- rookie mistake. I won't go into detail lest I mortify my relatives.

It is with a heavy heart that I said good bye to one of my favorite things here in London- the British Museum. Today I went for the seventh (and final) time of the semester to check out my favorite things one more time. I also went to the exhibit that I had been meaning to go to all semester; this was the exhibit featuring the terracotta army of China's first emperor. The terracotta army is seriously interesting stuff- permit me to nerd out spectacularly and tell you about it.

So the First Emperor of China, a man named Ying Zheng, was born in 259 BC. At the age of 13 he became the king of a province called Qin, which was one of seven states in China at the time. All these states used to battle each other for power, but when the King grew up he conquered all of those other states, thus unifying China into an empire. The King of Qin declared himself the emperor of this new, unified China.

The Emperor wanted to rule over China forever; he was afraid of dying and tried alot of different remedies to prolong his life. He also spent over 30 years of his reign building a massive tomb complex, an underground empire which he could rule for all eternity. His tomb complex is gigantic and surrounds a huge artificial mound in which the emperor himself is buried (the emperor's tomb is yet to be excavated, although legend has it that it is filled with wonders). Anyway, in 3 of the rooms in these tomb complexes the emperor had over 7,000 life size terracotta warriors constructed; these were his warriors for the afterlife. The warriors are all unique and magnificently detailed. The British Museum's exhibition featured only about ten of these terracotta warriors, but was pretty cool to see them up close. The vast majority of them are still in China. Keep in mind that what I have described just now is a tiny fraction of the awesome story of the First Emperor and his tomb- you should look it up on Google!

Anway, when I finally tore myself away from the museum and started my walk back to my flat, I found myself to be quite depressed. The British Museum is such a fabulous museum, and after all my visits I feel like I know it inside and out like an old friend. Who knows when I will see it again? My only consolation is that when I return to New York I will have familiar places in which to nerd out: The Met and the American Museum of Natural History. I must admit that I have missed them.