Museum Musings

Last week, along with a friend, I visited an Imperial War Museum in London. There, WWII fighter planes dangle from the ceiling and a jeep is frozen just before it drives off the second floor. We guessed how many uniform-clad school children running about could be jammed into the single-man bomb shelter, and we squinted at paraphernalia and pamphlets. We laughed at the sassy letters evacuated children wrote to their parents, and we commented on clothing styles, many of which we find on streets today. We walked in silence through the holocaust exhibit, which bars anyone under the age of 14, and watched in rapture as Hitler spoke.

A quote from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone stuck out to me as a child, and to this day it comes to mind when I hear Hitler speak. Harry has just received his wand at Ollivander’s when the wandmaker says, “I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter . . . After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great.”

About a Boy

I've been in London for a bit over two weeks now. I find myself settling in, falling into patterns, and enjoying my new normal. For several months I've been anticipating the panic to set in, realizing the magnitude of what I am doing, and to freak out just a little. It hasn't happened yet, so I'm just going to go with it.

The KU Big Read program has punctuated my first few weeks here. Essentially, Kingston University sent every first year graduate student, staff member, and incoming freshman a copy of About a Boy by Nick Hornby (a KU alumnus). Nearly 12,000 specially printed copies were distributed with lots of social media chatter, pictures on Twitter tagged with #kubigread, and events on campus. One of my lecturers developed KU Big Read (this being the inaugural year) and, as a publishing student, we received lots of information about the program prior to arriving on campus. It was a great, natural conversation starter with my new classmates, and it encouraged me to read a book I may not have picked up otherwise.