We travel to London

Since the colleges in Oxford are hosting their Open House for today and tomorrow, we do not have our official classroom.  We decided to designate today as “London Exploration Day.”  We all caught the X90 bus into London c. 9:20 AM.  Well, almost all.  One of our troop failed to wake up in time but to give him credit, he navigated his own way into London town and found his fellow students.

My co-leader went off on his own adventure as did I.  I decided to explore Belgravia, the rarified atmosphere of the rich.  Growing up off Sutton Place, NYC, this was not unfamiliar territory to me, even if I viewed the typical array of super-high end establishments.  My need for Fendi and Ferragamo is pretty minimal, by that I mean non-existent.  But I enjoyed walking the streets with the hints of privilege behind the Palladian windows.

a fairy tale referent

Today we wanted the students to go off and experience getting lost or at least turned around in a new place.  Finding one’s bearings, getting disoriented/re-oriented is part of situating one’s self in the world  New places bring stress, a loss of direction, but also opportunity and adventure.  Tomorrow or the next day we will find out what they discovered.  I suspect they were rather inventive in their negotiations.