Week 4: Back to work and our first IES field trip

I can't believe it's already week 4! Quick class updates:

Crypto: We learned about transposition ciphers (permutation, columnar, and others) and then talked a bit about the Shakespeare vs. Bacon conspiracy theory. Good stuff! We also talked about Playfair ciphers and I had them go to the British Library to check out a first printing of Shakespeare's First Folio to see if they could find any secret messages in there. Fun!

Stats: I tried to spice things up a bit in here by adding some new assignments. One idea: Found Statistics. Each week they have to bring a photo or piece of paper of some statistics they've found in London. They can't use the internet. I'll play along too. It's like show and tell! Hopefully that will make things a bit more interesting.

Thursday we went to see The Land of Our Fathers at Trafalgar Studios. Another play w/ the students. This one was in a tiny theater. Ed and I were practically on the stage. It was a play about some trapped miners. Six or so male characters. Again. I'm hoping one of these plays has some strong female characters in it. We'll see. This one also had lots of profanity/offensive language. Not my favorite. Spoiler alert: the miners die at the end. Or so that's what others told me. I didn't exactly understand that in the moment. Others were crying. I was just enjoying the water pouring onto the stage and the song. Oh well. Maybe next time I'll understand.

Friday I went out to do this Colorscape thing in Clapham Common. It was a bust. I had done a similar thing in Austin (think giant inflatable maze building with different colored rooms) and this one looked smaller and there were way too many kids there, so I decided to pass and just do my run instead. It was nice to run in a new park, but this park was no royal park!

Saturday was our first official IES field trip. We went to Cambridge and despite the rainy, gloomy day it was AMAZING! I need to go back. We toured the colleges and got to see the amazing Kings College Chapel. Gorgeous! The fan vaulting was unbelievable. I could sit in there for forever. Beautiful. And the stained glass! Mom would love it. We also went into The Eagle pub where Watson and Crick announced their DNA discovery and I'm SURE they did some scratch work on a piece of paper or a napkin or something at some point. I need to go back and get inspired to do some math or something. There was also a cool ceiling that US air force pilots had signed their names on during the war. Pretty cool.

One of the colleges at Cambridge.

This crazy clock is amazing. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The Mathematical Bridge. Had to have my photo w/ this one.

Then, we did some punting on the river. It was okay. But, our punter was a small lady and she had some troubles navigating our big boat. I'm glad we did it, but I was hungry and over the rain. Some students claimed I looked miserable. Whatever. It was a cool experience.

Mathematical Bridge from the water

Kings College in the background

Then, a few students and I headed to get some lunch. We found a non-crowded pizza place indoors and warmed up and had a delicious lunch. Then, we strolled around the market square and spent some time in the Fitzwilliam museum before we had to leave. I could have stayed a few more hours for sure! Loved it!

A Rodin at the Fitzwilliam

Sunday was another busy day! It was Open House London where all these buildings/homes across London are open to the public for free! I made a huge list and over the course of the day made it to only 4 on my list, but it was still fun. I spent a very long 2 hours at Sands Film Studios. It was cool to see their costume shop and see their famous costume maker doing stuff for Benedict Cumberbatch, but 2 hours was way too long! Then, I had lunch at The Mayflower pub where the Mayflower docked before it came to the US. Then, I checked out the shaft they used to build the very first tunnel under the river. The first tunnel under any river apparently. My engineering friends would have loved it! We had to climb all hunched over to get in there. Pretty impressive. Apparently they built it above ground and it sank into the ground under the weight of the bricks. Some sort of fancy method. After those two places, I checked out the London Mathematical Society which is right by work. The building wasn't that impressive, but it was cool to see what they do there and know it's so close. Maybe I'll stop by there on another day. Finally, I checked out a private residence that was SUPER modern. I loved it and would live there tomorrow....if I had millions of pounds. :)

This is a photo library. Those binders have hundreds of photos in them organized by subject. Animals, costumes, architecture, war, professions. Fascinating.

Costume studio.

Henry VII costume worn by Damian Lewis (Homeland guy!)

Sweet potato and goat's cheese pie w/ cider.

View from top of shaft

View inside. That curvy line is where the steps down used to be.

 

 

Fun basement area with dance floor and spa room.

Master bedroom overlooking giant waterfall into a Koi pond

Just part of the garden

Front door to what looks to be a tiny house. 4 stories!

Downstairs looking up into the garden area

After that, I met Ed on Oxford Street to do an ITV taping of Sunday Night at the Palladium. Think updated variety show. Comedian host (Jack Whitehall?). Live music (Lionel Richie and The Script). Winners of a street dance show here in the UK. Some magician types. A number from a West End musical on women's equal pay movement. It was fun. But, this meant we missed the premiere episode of Downton Abbey. I'll have to find it online!

Busy week! Sorry for the long post! Too much excitement.