Tuesday, March 8, 2011

In class today, I heard a lecture about how Americans have taken over html programing with out own words and how we need to spell color as colour. Honestly I can't help wondering if it's simply a pronunciation difference. In the States, most people pronounce color with an "er" type of sound rather than the more "or" type of sound used for words like "your" and "pour" so maybe the spelling changed to reflect that? It certainly holds for behavior/behaviour and rumor/rumour. I don't know. I think perhaps I should refrain from any theories pertaining to languages and spelling. I was always horrid at spelling.

On a slightly more entertaining note (at least I should hope more entertaining as spelling was always one of those subjects I wanted to fall asleep in), we went over to Greenwich as part of British Experience Seminar on Friday (and it was assignment 5 too, just saying). We took a boat there in the morning where there was a voice over the loud speaker pointing out things as we went, including where the Mayflower launched and another glimpse at the Tower of London (I have got to get there sometime; I've read too many historical fictions involving the Boleyn family not to).

When we were there, we went up a huge hill to the Royal Observatory which sounds really thrilling and there was a very pretty view of the city from up there but overall, I found the Queen's Gallery (also called the Queen's House) more interesting because even though it's now an art gallery, I like old building's like that where I can try to imagine how people would have lived in them when they were first built. Granted I'm not sure how often the Queen was actually there but they probably had someone people there at all times to keep the grounds and such, right? And it's such a huge, maze of a place. Anyway, a few of us went to the Queen's House after we went through the National Maritime Museum which was interesting I suppose and made a bit more fun by the fact I had just finished reading Treasure Island for the first time. Pirates always make seeing boats more entertaining.

After that, we went around to cute little shops and things until late afternoon and then came back on the DLR (Dockland's Light Railway). To be honest, I had to look up what DLR stand for just now because I keep remembering it as being Driver-Less Rail because there's no driver and, being unable to figure out what DLR stood for when I first heard it and being me I made something up. Funnily enough, my version has stuck better than the truth. I wasn't a big fan of the DLR but that might be because as a light railway, it's more flexible and we ended up standing on one of the bendable points in the carriage, which basically meant we were standing on a circle on the floor that creaked as it moved about from side to side while the walls around us kind of got shorter and longer, especially around curves. It was fun for about a minute and then I started longing for the tube or buses. We got off on Canary Wharf, went upstairs to Tesco (grocery store) for a bit and then went to the Canary Wharf Tube station to get on the Jubilee line (which is the most robotic tube line every if you ask me since it has these doors at the station that a come open at the same time the doors onto the tube do; a very Camazotz feel to me and if you can catch the reference I applaud you.

We've now been to a church service for Religions in London (one of my Central classes) and it was at part of the Church of England, one of the more Evangelical churches (since they range from Anglo-Catholic to Evangelical). It was a lot like the E-free church at home and yet a lot different too though I think a lot of the difference was that it was smaller. There was less than a classroom full of people. I beginning to think, however, that going to the pub after church is a bit like going out for Sunday brunch after church back home. I think I may have to go to more church services to tell for sure but that's the way it seemed at Hillsong as well when I went there.

Anyway, hopefully I'll post on Monday after this weekend. Three cities in three days, not counting London of course.

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