Day's 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Hey!

Sorry it's been four days since I've had a substantial post. Lots to talk about though! :-)

So day two of classes is where I'll begin. I had talked about how I would enjoy the class. Well we started talking and immediately I knew more than any of the other students in the class. We started talking about Edward Said and Michele Foucoult and I had a jump start on them. Then we briefly discussed Marxist ideology and Post-Modernist thought in the "Structures" and I just had to appreciate my education I've gotten at Emory & Henry. I have really begun to see just how good my professors are. So that was a very refreshing moment... seeing just how good my education has been while at Emory. It's nice. All of the reading and hard work has put me at least a little ahead. I love that. So essentially class was setting up what political Islam is for us and setting up some of the background that goes with it. So the second day of class/first real learning day was good. Oh- also I picked my topic for my paper/research. I'm going to be talking about the political group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Should be something that will be a lot of fun.

I wanted to touch base on the middle eastern girl from Qatar in the class. I had mentioned Monday that there a clear divide between the western half of the room and the eastern half. I think it was something everyone noticed but didn't acknowledge on Monday. Well on Tuesday everyone kind of shifted. The girl from Qatar was a little bit closer to us and we were a lot closer to her. I think we all then let everyone else in the room know that we all noticed it the day before and we all attempted to fix it. Which was good. That's how it should be for the rest of the class. And it's stayed like that for the last two days this past week.

We ended up all going to the British museum on Tuesday. Talk about amazing. The very first major thing that we notice as we walk in is that the Rosetta Stone (the stone that helped us decode Egyptian hierglyphics... SP?). Wow. There were a lot of neat exhibits. I got a booklit as a little take away.

Another neat British custom is that when in a place that serves food, they don't have eat-in and to-go. Instead it's either sit-in or take-away. It's neat.

Finally on Tuesday... the ticket issue. So they ended up not having enough tickets for everyone in the social program. Essentially what happened is that there are two types of students that are here. There are those that come through programs (like Butlet, ISA, etc) and those like me that apply directly through the university. Those that applied through programs had the same play. Those that didn't were told to go to another area. When Johnny and I tried to find out where to go, we saw that had an e-mail sent out in the afternoon telling us that the meeting place was a half hour earlier. We couldn't make it in time and then realized that our only chance of going was to go to the originally scheduled one. Well, we got there and thought we'd probably get in, but people had been crossing off other people's names... so even some people that were supposed to be in that one got screwed. I was a little upset just because I wanted to see the play and thought it was a little off that they sent us the e-mail telling it was a half hour earlier than we expected in the Middle of the Day when we were all off doing fun things... exploring the city, etc. So I was a little bummed. But the director of the social program felt so bad that she took the group of us out and bought everyone drinks.

While we were in the museum someone came up and asked us an interesting question. Essentially the British museum is a museum of Great Britain's colonial power/colonialism. It has artifacts from everywhere in the world. And so the person who was doing a project for her class asked us if we thought that the artifacts should be returned to their original home.

And it took me a while to think about what I honestly thought on the issue. On the one hand, I think that these countries deserve their national legacies. On the other hand, if western powers give artifacts back to countries which are still in the modernizing phase, we have to question whether or not these countries will be able to correctly store and take care of these artifacts. For example, the Iraqi museum was devestated during Hussein's rein. Had the British given the artifacts back to the Iraqi's, it would now be destroyed. So I think in regards to developing countries or war-torn countries, it's completely legitimate for the British/French/US to keep many of these artifacts. There is also so much history stored in one place. As a tourist/student I can see so much history in one place. It would somewhat stink for tourists and students to not be able to see the history that the British have accumulated over the centuries. Because while these artifacts are the specific countries legacies, they are also British legacy in that the British were once the most powerful country/empire in the world. These artifacts show that. So I think I came up with a compromise... at least for me. I think that if these countries, like Egypt, was their national artifacts they first have to prove that they have the capacity to maintain such artifacts. This is the first step. If it is sufficiently proven, then there should be a trade off because both countries deserve something out of it. The more famous artifacts should go to the original country while the British/French/US/other countries of imperialist history should get less famous ones, but still ones that are historically significant and meaningful to the history of the more colonialistic countries... eh. Perhaps I'm wrong. But I think it's a start.

That's it for Tuesday. On to Wednesday!

Alright... Wednesday!

So wednesday was another good class. We started delving into a little Islamic history... most of it I knew. I learned a couple of things.

That afternoon we went back to the museum to finish up. I was exhausted, but got to see Islamic history section and the mummies of Egypt. It was interesting, but I was ready to go ahead and head on out. It was good to get almost everything in the museum done. Oh! There was one modern exhibit that I wanted to talk about (I'm glad I made notes).

So there was a company that wanted to do a modern art piece. So in the early 2000's they asked two people if they would release their entire life's medical history. And they did. So every single pill the two ever took from a prescription was documented. Every pain pill, every sinuis pill... everything... The did it with a man and a woman. I took pictures of it and posted it on my facebook account. It went for almost 30 yards in little 1 X 1 inch squares. It was huge. Very neat exhibit.

I then went back to my place and took a small nap and ate some dinner. I was exhausted. Then we went out to this awesome place called the ABSOLUT ICEBAR. It was freaking insane. They keep it at something like -5 F. It's really neat. Everything is made out of ice, including the bar, the cups you drink out of... everything. It was one of the most cool experiences I've ever had. I took a lot of pictures inside the bar and everything.

After that we went to a pub. It was really nice and interesting. There are a lot of random pubs all over London! It's fun to just wander into one and see what's going on. Something that I've never experienced. :-) I'm having a blast.

Thursday, now!

So class was very interesting today. We watched a movie on al-Qaeda and I learned a lot of useful information. I am going to type up all of my notes from my classes and print them out. The movie was great and I'm going to try to buy it.

But there was an issue in class. My professor has tended to ask me some of the harder questions in the class because I am well-versed in the literature and everything. So he essentially asked if I thought the United States was justified in somewhat playing the role of international police man.

And that's all for tonight, folks. More to come soon!