To read all the blogs (updated almost daily through the end of July) please goto:
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/2009/Olmert/BlogPage1.cfm
Newswise — It's an intense class "designed for energetic students" - a three week Study Abroad odyssey in British culture. The class takes students each summer to London and East Anglia and is led by University of Maryland English Professor Mike Olmert. The Emmy award winning Olmert is also a recently inducted member of the Maryland Hall of Fame. He genuinely loves this class and is not afraid to work his students hard - they earn their three units of credit! But as he has written to University of Maryland President, Dr. C.D. Mote, Jr., the students "seem staggered by how much their intellectual horizons are expanded. And I'm as certain as I can be, it's not me; it's London, a place that once changed my life forty years ago."
Olmert's letter to Dr. Mote became the subject of a Newsdesk release last summer. This year, you'll get to hear from Professor Olmert and his students, as they make their way through an itinerary that intensely focuses on the history, art, literature, architecture and drama of Great Britain. Their blog-style reports with photos will be posted here to Newsdesk and also Twitter (via Twitwall) as part of the UMDNews daily postings.
Below are a representative sample of some blog postings both from Prof. Olmert and his students:
Saturday, July 11
The Pump House Gang
From: Prof. Mike Olmert
The infamous pump in Soho.Doing some last minute research before the students arrive in the morning. I was lucky enough to finally track down something I've wanted to sort out for years (see how good students are for us?)
In Soho, I found the site of the infamous cholera outbreak of 1854 that led to the invention of the science of epidemiology. In September of that year, some 500 residents living near Broad (now Broadwick) Street suddenly began dying. A medical researcher called John Snow interviewed the families of the cholera victims and discovered that they all took their drinking water from the same public well, one that stood outside the local pub.
By contrast, there was a brewery next door where none of the workers got sick, because the men got a ration of beer everyday and they never drank water. There was also a (Dickensian!) workhouse nearby where no one got sick--because the workhouse had its own well. Snow convinced the local parish authorities to remove the handle of the pump. The outbreak stopped abruptly. On further inspection, it was found that a sewer line was leaking into the well cavity.
The picture shows the commemorative pump with its handle missing. In the background is the (new) John Snow pub.
Monday, July 13
An Experience One Can Only Daydream About
By Maryland Student Sam Ryschkewitsch
This afternoon I experienced a moment that I daydreamed might happen in London, but didn't expect to actually come to pass. I saw someone famous"¦ and walked right by him. The person in question happened to be Simon Schama, Columbia professor, recent guest on Jon Stewart, and most significantly for me, the writer and host of A History of Britain -- which I watched in preparation for this trip. (You may have heard that this trip is for "energetic" students"¦ what you haven't heard is that we all proudly consider ourselves nerds.)
I slowed my pace, felt my jaw drop, tried to think of something clever, and seeing that he was on his cell phone, moved on down Endell Street to our dinner rendezvous at the Rock and Sole Plaice. Unsurprisingly, I thought of something non-babbling to say within a minute of moving on: thank you.
This morning, Dr. Olmert led us, his twelve ducklings with notebooks, to the Houses of Parliament for a tour. The first room we stepped into, at first glance, resembled a kind of bland giant room with a stone floor and " as you look up " an astonishing hammer-beamed oak ceiling (as Olmert says, "Don't look at ground level; LOOK UP!" ). With a dawning sense of amazement, I noticed the white hart among the hammer beams and recognized it as Richard II's symbol. The history clicked. Thank you, Simon Schama, for the context.
Monday, July 20
A Good Day
by Maryland student Todd Gentilcore
Woke up at 7:20am. At 8:10am I'd guzzled my tall coffee, and then off my bus went to Charles Darwin's Down House. The coach reached the house at 9:30am. I strolled through Darwin's garden, noticing his millstone for his worm experiment and peering into his green house to catch a glimpse of his carnivorous plants. 11am came round and I went inside Darwin's house with my pen and notebook at the ready. Close to 11:30am, in Darwin's study, I noticed a copy of Das Kapital that Karl Marx personally gave to Darwin. Talk about two people dedicated to their work.
12:15pm: off to Canterbury. My "pilgrimage" ended at 1pm. Once I filled up on a sub I was prepared to enter the Cathedral. Quarter-to-two and I stood in the doorway that the knights burst through to kill Thomas Becket. This was the place that the "footsteps" T.S. Eliot mentions finally caught up with Thomas. I'll admit, I didn't think I'd see the altar where Becket died when I read Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot or The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer this past spring, but there I stood gazing through the open door. Around 4:15pm we headed back to London, and I slept most of the two-hour ride away.
From 6pm to 6:30pm I chilled at the flat and drank some tea. At 6:30pm I was off to Soho to see Dreams of Violence by Stella Finheely. The play was 90 minutes of pertinent theatre. The frustrations of family, financial meltdown, class conflict, and feminism were all mentioned in this sleek play. Following the play, the actors, directors, and writer all stayed around for a discussion. Going to the play I thought would provide the least intellectual stimulation for the day, but it ended up rivaling both Down House and Canterbury. We left the theatre at 10pm, and I hung out with my classmates, who I now consider friends. It's 3am while I'm writing this, and to close I'll quote the venerable Ice Cube: "It was a good day."
Study Abroad Blog Page on Newsdesk: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/release.cfm?ArticleID=1928
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