Week 2 in London

The highlight of week 2 was Mike's arrival on Monday. Mike travels quite a bit, and I travel a little bit, so we have spent many days and nights apart, but ten days is an unusually long stretch, and we were very glad to be back together.

In addition to bringing himself, Mike brought me some things I hadn't been able to find here:

brown sugar
baking soda
baking powder
chocolate chips
crisco
vanilla
Mapleine
various spices

Notice the baking theme? Much baking is done, at all times, in the Pulsipher household. I get the feeling that, at least in London, nobody cooks from scratch. On the other hand, sweets and biscuits (translation: candy and cookies) occupy a much more prominent and abundant position in grocery stores here than at home. So people are buying goodies; they're just not baking them. (So why are there so few overweight people here? It's a puzzle.) To celebrate the arrival of my spices, I made Southwest Chicken Pasta salad, which we've been eating for dinner and lunch ever since. And last night I made chocolate chip halfway cookies, in preparation for our first group of students to come over for Sunday dinner. Here's the first batch. Like my pans? I got them for 99 pence each at the 99p store!:

Chocolate chip halfway cookies for our first student dinner

Mike helped by beating the egg whites, which is a whole lot harder by hand than with a mixer. (I know, I beat the first batch, which is why I recruited Mike to beat the second.)

Mike beating egg whites by hand (groan)

Mike also brought over a set of king-sized sheets and a mattress cover to convert our two twin beds into one bed. And we decided to borrow a couple of mattresses from the London Centre to put on top of our very uncomfortable ones. Alvaro, who manages the London Centre along with his wife Thais, drove the mattresses over for us, along with a mattress for my co-director Kristine.  That night I slept EIGHT HOURS! The first time I had slept more than six the entire time I've been here. Hooray!

Here is the recap for the week:

Monday: Mike arrived! To keep him awake, I took him along to see the exhibit of Tudor and Stuart kings and queens at the National Portrait Gallery. Lots of the most famous images of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and others were on display. My favorite portrait was of a mother and son, newly restored to favor under Henry VIII, in all their finery. The gold lace and beads just popped out of the painting. (Mike and I both noticed that some painters seemed to devote more time and attention to the clothing than the faces. Not surprising, as the clothing is what announced your wealth and status to the world.)

Tuesday: Group trip to Hampton Court Palace. Here's one of the sculptures of royal animals, welcoming us into the palace:

The English Unicorn

I'd last been there in high school, on a tour led by Tom Moore, but much has changed (and improved) since then. My favorite improvement: At four times throughout the day, costumed Tudor characters (Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Lady Rochford [Anne Boleyn's sister-in-law], and Thomas Seymour) appeared at various places in the palace and enacted scenes related to the king's rising dissatisfaction with Anne Boleyn and courting of Jane Seymour. They interacted with the audience, who they addressed as friends of Lady Rochford. (There was a great bit where Thomas Seymour spoke of a wife's proper submission to her husband, and he singled out Mike as a husband who looked distinctly henpecked!)

Actors portraying King Henry VIII and Thomas Seymour

Mike in a Hampton Court hallway

There were so many interesting things to see, we ended up staying for five hours. One half of the palace has been preserved (or restored to) its original Tudor state. The palace was owned by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey before he fell into disfavor and Henry seized it for himself.  Wolsey had been incredibly rich and powerful. He had placed bas-relief images of several Roman emperors--including Nero!--on the walls at the entrance to the palace and in its main courtyard as a way of invoking or honoring their power.

I also loved the four-screen video dramatization of a privy council meeting, discussing the events on the day of Henry VIII's wedding to his last wife, Catherine Parr (or, as all the historical sites are now spelling it, Kathryn Parr). Beautifully acted and historically accurate.  I wish I had a copy of it to show my classes.

The other half of the palace was restored to its late Stuart and Georgian splendor. There was a very odd exhibit called "secrets of the royal bedchamber" that introduced visitors to the elaborate ceremonies and political jockeying surrounding Stuart and Georgian monarch's levees and couchees (getting up and going to bed, accompanied by an adoring public). At the entrance to the exhibit was a big room filled with overstuffed mattresses, with an impressionistic film playing on the ceiling. Mike and I were very happy to take a load off our feet for a while--and the mattresses were very comfortable. Still, the idea of a roomful of tourists napping together is very strange. . .

There were lots of lovely gardens as well, and whimsical sculptures.

Delightful garden at Hampton Court

Sculpture growing out of my head at Hampton Court

Resting with disapproving server at Hampton Court

As you can see in the last image, we (or at least I) got very tired walking around. We refreshed ourselves midday by having a welcome repast in Henry VIII's kitchen. We had chicken stew and a hunk of bread, and scones with jam and clotted cream for dessert. Very fun day.

Part 2 to come later . . .