Tag Archives: history

Seeing Wonderland and Hogwarts in one day

Hearing the word “Oxford” is prestige at its finest. Oxford University isn’t the Harvard of England, no, Harvard is the Oxford of America. Oxford University is probably one of the most prestigious universities in the world and a lot like our wonderful State College, the town surrounds the university.

Now, here’s an interesting fact about Oxford I didn’t even know. When someone asks you where you went to college, you wouldn’t say, “I went to Oxford;” you would say what specific college you went to, for example, “I went to Christ Church College.” People would know right away you went to Oxford. See, Oxford is comprised of 38 colleges so there’s a reason why you would say what specific college you would go to. And, you would go to that specific college if it had a reputation for what you’re studying or if your family all went there. That’s just a bit of history.

I took a tour of Christ Church College when I arrived and eventually saw the famed hall. The stairs were used when students would first enter Hogwarts in the Harry Potter school, and although the dining hall wasn’t used in filming, the Harry Potter movies made an exact replica of Christ Church’s dining hall for the movies (see the pictures below for proof).

We also saw the Turf Tavern, a pub that many famous people have wandered into, like Ben Kingsley and Elizabeth Taylor and even CS Lewis. And we also saw the inspirations for the Lewis Carroll classic “Alice in Wonderland.” Actually, Wonderland had it’s inspirations from Oxford. Carroll took quite in interest in the Dean’s daughter, Alice Liddell and inspired the character of Alice from her. The Cheshire Cat in the tree was because a tree outside Christ Church College was where the Dean’s cat would hang out many of times. There was a souvenir shop right across the street from the visitor entrance of Christ Church for enthusiasts to grab their Alice gear.

Overall, the town was beautiful and quaint. It’s rich in history and thrives on tradition. It’s also a place of vast knowledge and cobblestone streets. It is a working university town and reminded me of a much older version of State College. It did make me a little bit homesick because it was just like being back at Dear Old State, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Europe in general is rich in history, and that’s why later this week I am traveling to Rome. I’m definitely excited- history was practically invented in Rome. Final thoughts of Oxford: Wow, going here would be crazy- but I would never trade Penn State for this… well… maybe. No… I think I’ll stick with Penn State.

Me in front of Christ Church College

The quad inside Christ Church. In the center is a fountain.

Photo above is of the Turf Tavern, where our tour guide told us Bill Clinton “didn’t inhale.” Lots of famous people entered there for a drink. Below is the dining hall in Christ Church. The inspiration for the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies.

Alice in Wonderland souvenir shop

Location: Oxford, England

Roma!

Visiting Rome almost made me want to change my major to Archaeology and move to the Eternal City.

Ruins almost three thousand years old simply pop up around corners, their pitted stones reflecting the sunlight, still warm at the end of November. They stand, silent in their ancient grandeur, above the shops and restaurants. I could imagine the Romans in their togas and sandals walking along the paths, up the hills to the Forum and down to the Pantheon.

I know this description glorifies Rome and glosses over the less digestible eras of its history. But the simple scope of that history is enchanting. After reading all about the Roman Empire when I was younger, I never thought I’d actually have the opportunity to stand in the Colosseum or the Vatican. I would include pictures in this post, but for some reason the blog platform is malfunctioning and refusing to let me add them.

Going to Rome was my last trip for the semester. It was interesting to see a more Mediterranean culture (and warmer weather) after traveling to Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague. I have twenty-four days left to focus on Paris, to see all the neighborhoods I haven’t explored, to finally try a macaron, to go to the Louvre one more time, and soak up everything this city has to offer.

Location: 24 via Marsala, Roma, Italia

Czechin’ Out Prague

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Studying abroad constantly shows me how little I know, how limited my knowledge of the world’s history and cultures is. In American schools, we learn about our own country’s history over and over, year after year, without ever expanding our understanding of what was going on elsewhere.

Old Town Square

This week I spent three days in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Prague is a beautiful city with a rich past: it’s been the home of Germanic and Slavic tribes, the Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburg Empire, the Nazis, and the Soviet communists during the Cold War.

Prague Castle

We took a three hour walking tour of the city and visited the Museum of Communism, located ironically next to a McDonald’s. I learned just how ignorant I was of the Czech Republic’s history – I had no idea under what circumstances it had lain after World War II until the Velvet Revolution in 1989, or how it had evolved from Czechoslovakia. In the Museum of Communism we watched a video that explained the various uprisings and demonstrations that led to the fall of Communism. Seeing the footage of police brutality and the lengths the government went to in order to suppress the Czech people was striking.

Wenceslas Square

Being surrounded by this saturation of history is one of my favorite parts about studying in Europe. Every street I walk on has seen hundreds (if not thousands) of years of human civilization. I have five weeks left to soak it all in before I leave Paris for Pennsylvania. Time is spinning quickly.

Location: Dělnická 24, 170 00 Praha, Czech Republic

Mexico City, Mexico

Our whole group (13 students, 2 profs, 1 assistant) took our tourbus to Mexico City this weekend. The city is about a 2 hour drive from Puebla, and we left around 8:30am on Wednesday morning. And we had a RIGOROUS schedule from there on out…

Wed:

Arrive in Mexico City. We visited the pyramids at the city of Teotihuac�n, one of which is the third tallest pyramid in the world. It was hot and sunny, but I CLIMBED THE WHOLE PYRAMID. Photographic evidence to follow. 🙂

After that, we went to the church of “The Virgin of Guadalupe,” which our tourguide claimed was the second most important Catholic site after the Vatican. According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to a farmer (sometime in the 1800s?) and demanded that he build a cathedral to honor her. When the farmer went to the local bishop, the bishop didn’t believe that the farmer had actually seen the Virgin, and building cathedrals is expensive, so he asked for proof. Frustrated, the farmer went back into the hills where he had seen the Virgin. She reappeared to him, and he explained to her that the Bishop wanted proof that she was real. Despite the fact that it was wintertime, she told the farmer to go over the hill and pick some roses for the bishop. The humble farmer did as she asked, and to his amazement, a breed of rosebush very difficult to grow in the dry Mexican soil had sprung out of that hillside. So, he picked some roses, put them in his cloak, and returned to the bishop a second time. The Bishop was unimpressed with the petals that fell from the farmers cloak, and refused to build the church a second time. But then, the farmer opened his cloak up wider, and on the inside of the coat was revealed a perfect portrait of the Virgin herself, in brilliant colors. This last convinced the Bishop, as the colors that appeared on the coat were of no natural substance that could be found. In fact, our guide claimed that to this day the substances on the cloak have not been properly identified and will never lose their color.

The cloak itself is still able to be seen in the new cathedral (the 3^rd one since the original chapel), but (in my opinion) even more impressive than the cloak itself are the numbers of people who flock to see it. Though I am not Catholic, it was a pretty remarkable and faith inspiring experience.

That’s the last thing we did on Wednesday. After it, we drove around the city for a bit before going to our hotel and settling in for the evening. OH! I almost forgot. And we got to have dinner on the roof of a hotel overlooking the main square of the city. It was a delicious meal, and the view was pretty amazing too. J Then, we went to bed.

Thursday:

Thursday we did a pretty fantastic walking tour of a lot of the downtown of M�xico City starting around 9am. We got to see the main square (called a zocalo, I think I mentioned that somewhere before) again in the morning. It was full of a kind of market – little tents where people set out their wares – as well as a political demonstration of some kind. After trotting through the square, we got to visit the Palacio Nacional, which is kind of a combination of the Mexican Congress, Government Offices, and Presidential Offices. It’s pretty much everything except a Presidential Residence (that’s someplace else.) After the Palacio Nacional, we went to a set of ruins that’s located right in the center of the city called the Templo Mayor. Because Mexico City was built right on top of the ancient (and HUGE) Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, pretty much anytime someone digs around, ruins or artifacts are discovered. Apparently in the 1970s they were digging for electricity and hit upon the foundations of one of the largest ceremonial buildings from the city.

So we walked through those and through that museum for an hour or two and got in our ancient history lesson for the day before crossing the street to see the Cathedral that is also located in the center of town. Unfortunately, we only got to see bits of it because of a celebration and service that were happening when we arrived. Sooooo – then it was off to lunch! J

After lunch, we hiked around to see a bunch of different Diego Rivera murals throughout the city (they’re everywhere). We visited a huge theatre called the Bellas Artes, one museum dedicated just to Diego, and another museum with just one of his works. It was a busy afternoon. I don’t know how much you know about Rivera murals (admittedly, I’d only vaguely heard of him before this trip), but the man had OPINIONS. And he put them into his art. He also tells huge stories of social and economic and historical change in many of his murals. I think they’re kind of incredible, and that he must’ve been a pretty fascinating person.

After all of that we headed back to the hotel. I was filled with good intentions of starting my homework (due Monday, as I write this it’s Sunday evening and I’ve not yet begun…hurm.) Instead, I went out with a few people to walk around our part of Mexico City, visit a bookstore (in which I bought a few things), and found a lovely bar/restaurant where we had dinner with the locals. It was a GREAT evening in M�xico. J

The next day, Friday, was even busier:

We headed out at 9am again on our trusty little tourbus to travel across town to see the Castle and grounds of Chapultapec. (For you folks interested in history, Chapultapec was the last Aztec emperor to be defeated by the Spaniards when Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire was finally defeated. In contrast to Montezuma (called Moctezuma here), Chapultapec is considered a national hero and symbol of resistance to the Spanish Conquest. Moctezuma is thought of as a weakling who was traitorous in submitting to the Spanish and for appeasing Hern�n Cort�s. History lesson done.)

The castle is also the place where previous dictators and even (briefly) the king and queen sent over from France lived. It’s a gorgeous location on top of a huge hill overlooking the city. The interiors are amazing, the gardens are green and perfect, and the view is spectacular. Frankly, if I were in the market for a castle, Chapultapec’s pretty much fits anything I might need. J

After that, we spent the entire rest of the day at the National Anthropology Museum. This is a HUGE HUGE HUGE museum dedicated to pretty much the entire history, geography, ethnography etc etc etc of M�xico. It’s kind of like their capital city’s version of the Smithsonian, only it’s mainly focused on (you guessed it) Anthropology. I loved it. Our guide spent close to three hours explaining the main exhibits and the parts of history that we’ve already studied in class to us, and then we had a little bit of time to go out and wander on our own. Out of 24 main halls, we maybe covered 10. And then buzzed through 10 more. But it was a wonderful glimpse into the history and people of this country. I’d love to go back someday and wander about properly.

Saturday:

Whew! Despite starting to be a little tired out from all of our excursions, we were downstairs and ready to switch hotels at 9:30am on Saturday morning. We were moving across the city (a 2-hour drive from end to end, though we were more in the middle). After leaving our luggage at our new hotel, we spent the day going through the museums of Frida Kahlo and Dolores Olmedo. The Kahlo museum is basically the house, called Casa Azul, where she and her husband/lover/ex-husband/lover Diego Rivera lived. The other place, the Olmedo Museum, was pretty much the home of one of the very wealthy friends of Kahlo and Rivera and housed all kinds of art, carvings, a small art museum and a weird assortment of animals from peacocks to a kind of hairless dog that is in danger of extinction. It was an eclectic sort of day. After that, we got to go on a boat ride in a canal similar to those that might have been used by the Aztecs. It was a great relaxing end to the day, and I even have video (which will probably be posted to Facebook rather than my blog.)

Saturday night was group dinner again, after which I almost fell asleep in my soup from all the exciting stuff we’ve been doing!

Today, Sunday:

Ok. Todaaaaay! We left our hotel at around 10am to go to a market in one of the neighborhoods nearby. A “market” here is like a fancier, bigger, higher quality fleamarket. There are food, clothes, crafts of every size, color, shape and description, supplies…pretty much anything you can think of is available at a market here. Our group spent about 3 hours checking out this one.

Around 3pm, then, we headed back to our home city of Puebla, and we got here around 5:15.

All in all, I have to say that Mexico City was an amazing “fieldtrip” and is a gorgeous city filled with more activities than one can possible do in 5 short days. It was absolutely part of this experience that I’ll never forget.

Location: Calzada de Tlalpan, 2043 | Colonia Parque de San Andrés, Mexico City 04040, Mexico

Oh, they had wheels!!

So today we went and climbed and hiked up the pyramids of Teotihuacan. There are the pyramids of the moon and the sun. The pyramid of the sun is bigger than the moon, but the moon is much steeper. It was really interesting exploring the ruins of Teotihuacan after we had learned all about its history. It is incredible because the people of Teotihuacan did not have access to the wheel or animals to help them in building the pyramids. They did everything through human labor, which makes the pyramids that much more fascinating! We have a joke that the people of Teotihuacan did actually have the wheel and cement trucks and horses, but just destroyed them all when the Spanish came and conquered Mexico so that the Spanish would not have access to them but the people of Teotihuacan then realized how bad of an idea this was because the Spanish then used the indigenous people as slaves and for human labor. Hah, but this is just our funny pretend theory. It was interesting how at the base of all the pyramids and the surrounding area-was littered with venders trying to sell you everything under the sun! Everything from Obsidion to animal whistles. It was a little intimidating because they were so persitant that you buy their merchandise. My favorite was when they would yell in English to us “Almost free”. It was such an amazing opportunity though to experience such an essential part of past history.

Location: Teotihuacan, Mexico City, Mexico

Chongqing

Our flight from Dalian arrived late Thursday night in Chongqing where we were picked up by a bus. Chongqing is the largest city in the world by population with over 33 million inhabitants. I can honestly say I have never been anywhere more humid than Chongqing. Stepping into Chongqing felt like stepping into a bathroom after an hour long steaming shower, except cold. We only had one day in the city, most of which was spent in the Three Gorges Dam Museum.

Our dinner was a traditional Chongqing hotpot. The beef and lamb were delicious, and the cooking sauce had an excellent spicy taste, but I could not stomach the chicken feet, cow stomach, eel, chicken stomach, or bull penis. Yes, they served bull penis. The 3 day cruise follows our extremely brief stay in Chonqing, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Location: Chongqing, China

On Beijing

It’s currently 11:30 AM here in Dalian. We arrived on an overnight train early this morning and are taking a short break before heading out to tour the city. While I have some downtime, I want to reflect on the trip so far and the crash course our class took through Beijing.

The approximately 13 hour flight from Newark to Beijing seemed pretty much as long as it sounds. I had time to watch 4 movies, listen to about 3 full albums, and take a decent nap. Our flight path took us within 60 miles of the North Pole, though I had an aisle seat so I did not get a chance to open the window and look at all the ice. We arrived in Beijing and our passports were checked in one of the world’s largest terminals. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed out for a hot pot dinner. I had experienced a hot pot meal once before in the U.S., but never a hot pot meal where pig brain was an option. Feeling slightly jet lagged and completely exhausted, I decided not to be adventurous and went with what I thought was beef, but later found out was lamb.

The following day marked the beginning of our adventures through Beijing, beginning with Tienanmen Square. Mao Zedong, who is seen in the U.S. as a controversial former communist leader, is essentially worshiped here.

This is his mausoleum. The building is massive and citizens buy flowers to present as an offering before entering the viewing room.

Following Tienanmen Square, we visited China’s National Center for the Performing Arts. The building is the largest dome structure in the world, and contains multiple theaters. It seemed as though no expense was spared during the structure’s construction; everything was modern and clean.

The following day we toured the Forbidden City. Even before entering, the massive walls guarding the city displayed just how powerful and wealthy the Chinese dynasties were. The Imperial garden was breathtaking. Some of the trees were over 300 years old, and I was amazed by the size of the rocks moved into the garden. Every building was painted with meticulous detail and used bright reds, blues, greens, and yellows to give the structures a very regal appearance. This style is seen in nearly all ancient Chinese architecture, but each building has its own purpose and meaning, and each structure really is its own work of art.

I took a particular interest in the various sculptures seen throughout the ancient sites we visited. Most important buildings seemed to have a pair of sculptures or statues to the right and left of the entrances. The lion statues are the only animals which are noticeably different from one another. The lion on the right is female, which can be noted by the lion cub under its paw. The lion on the left is the male, and has a decorative ball under its paw rather than the cub. Although I believe most are for decoration some served as large incense burners during celebrations. I tried to get at least one photo of each of these statues.

The air in Beijing was far from clear. The smog began to dull vision at only a few hundred feet. This was most obvious when we visited the Great Wall. The wall itself was impressive, but the smog prevented us from observing the distant hills and mountains.

The olympic park was our next stop. The Bird’s Nest was extremely impressive and the its design is unlike any building I have seen. Although it looks absolutely massive from the outside, it seats fewer people than PSU’s Beaver Stadium.

The following day we visited the Summer Palace. This massive garden contains a huge manmade lake and some extremely intricate structure design. One of my favorite pictures I’ve taken so far this trip is of the ceiling in a gazebo type structure located within the palace garden.

We ended our stay in Beijing with a trip to the Temple of Heaven and a city street on which foods such as scorpion and centipede could be purchased.

All in all I really liked Beijing. I generally am not one to enjoy city life; I prefer open fields and trees to busy streets and skyscrapers, but Beijing is one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to. Even though nearly 22 million people live there, the layout allows the sidewalks to be less crowded than sidewalks in New York City. Buildings aren’t jammed one right against another, they are spread over a huge area leaving space for sculptures and gardens to be scattered throughout the entire city. Although we only had a few days to spend in Beijing, it has become one of my favorite cities.

Location: Beijing, China

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