an American in London

Each area of study has its great masters, who have laid the foundation for thought and philosophy for subsequent generations of students. These masters are often an inaccessible group; aloof from the common student studying their works. For me, they represent no more than spectacular ideas that sprung from a common source. It is hard to imagine them as anything else. Today I had my first class in English Literature and we discussed four of these great masters of my chosen area of study, Robert Frost, Edward Thomas, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot all who lived and worked in London for some time. My Professor, Dr. Talbot, discussed how all of these men has some sort of relationship with each other and how they produced their works in London. Three of them, Frost, Pound and Eliot, were Americans who flocked to London as it was the cultural center of the English language. We talked about some of their poetry, much as I would have at BYU. But then we got up, walked a few blocks, and stopped at the house that Pound lived in for some time and was the center of the literary movement in London. Then we walked further down the same street and stopped in a church where T.S. Eliot was married. These giants of my college career where suddenly accessible and human. The streets that inspired them were the same now. The house was there, as was the church. You can't feel that closeness from Provo.
We left from there to get some lunch. Myself and a group of other students decided to try out the Cafe Diana across from Kensington Palace. The cafe is small and its walls are covered in pictures of the Princess with at least three or four copies of the snapshot when she visited the cafe once for a drink. I had the fish and chips again (it is more common than I thought). Afterwards I rode the tube with two others to Hampstead Heath in the borough of Camden north of where I live. Hampstead Heath is an enormous park that has some great views of the entire center of the city. I decided that I would swim in one of the three ponds they have set apart for public swimming. I changed into my suit and jumped into the coldest water I've ever felt in my life. There was a sign next to the pool that stated its temperature was at 13 degrees celcius. I thought I would get used to it but I couldn't. After three laps I tried off, and decided I would never ride that far to jump in water so cold again. I've I wanted to freeze I can just take a dip in the Hyde Park Serpentine Lake, which is much closer.
For the rest of the day we don't have too much planned. Tomorrow is a free day to explore and Wednesday we embark on our first excursion outside of the city to Canterbury and its famous Cathedral; which means more pictures and stories in the coming days.