Week 1: London

I spent the week of May 19-25 in London.  I arrived in London on May 19, went to my hostel, and fought jet lag instead of taking the nap that I really wanted.  Once I was able to check in to my hostel I went in search of some food and that evening I decided not to waste any time sight seeing since I knew I'd be busy working during the week and wasn't sure how much time I'd have to see London (good thing because I was buuuusy!)  So that first night I walked in the direction of Westminster Cathedral to see what I could see...

Westminster Cathedral

Inside Westminster Cathedral

I then walked toward Buckingham Palace (I had been there before, but I figured it would be neat to see again).

Buckingham Palace.

The guards were too far away (behind a gate) to try to make them smile. :)

When I decided to leave Buckingham palace, I turned around and saw this:

View from Buckingham Palace, looking out on the Thames.

I tried to figure out what that castly-palace thing is but never did, so if anyone knows, please tell me!


After my sight seeing excursion, I spent the week at the Natural History Museum in London laser scanning various Neandertal and early modern human crania and mandibles.  In case you have no idea what that means, here is a picture to illustrate:

Here I am with my trusty computer and laser scanner scanning the Gibraltar 2 Neandertal mandible.  On the right is what the scan looks like.  I can take measurements off of the scans to test hypotheses for my dissertation.

I had assumed I could only work at the museum from 10:30 - 4:30 every day, and while it was true that I didn't get to start working until 10:30 each day, I wound up staying and working until 7:30 or 8:00 most nights.  The curator was there until 11 several nights- apparently it was a very busy week for him!!

After a week of scanning mandibles, I had the better part of Saturday free to sight see before flying to Amsterdam.  With that time I decided to see some of the iconic landmarks of London, which even though I'd seen them before, it was fun to see them again!

Big Ben!

Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

In all, it was both fun and productive.  I stayed in a hostel in London and wound up meeting a number of cool people from all over the place (Sweden, Germany, Australia, Spain, etc.).  I actually enjoyed the hostel living a lot more than I thought I would!  I felt a bit like an old person since I had to get up and work each day instead of being able to stay out late, but I wasn't the only one there working.  Hostels are interesting places because you get an interesting mix of people there for a variety of reasons, and because you share a room and kitchen, you actually meet them and learn about why they're there as opposed to hotel living where you're more isolated and may never know how cool the other people there are!

London was great: next stop, the Netherlands!