I have not really had a chance to write as much as I would have liked, exams and life have conspired to keep me busy. I have a bit of a break right now between packing up my apartment and meeting up with a friend, who is coincidentally, also heading of to Australia.
In the past few days it has really started hitting me that this huge adventure is really happening, and happening very soon. Several times in the past few days I have said goodbye to people I wont see for almost a year, and a few who I may never see again. Many of my friends here are on exchange from overseas. Saying goodbye to them is a bit easier, just because from the moment I met them I knew that they would be leaving soon. It is different with friends from here. Especially the few who are graduating this coming semester, then heading back to other provinces where they are from. Some I have become very good friends with and it is odd that I may never see them again.
Anyhow, enough of that sad-ish train of thought. Time to get down to talking about travelling! My departure is coming up so fast I cant really believe it. I have had a long exam period here this semester, and I still have one to go, then I am heading up home to have Christmas with my family. Then, just a few days later it is off to London.
When I did up my whiteboard calendar this morning, I realized just how much time I have in Europe. I think that I am going to do one, perhaps two overnight side trips from London. After having taken suggestions from some of my English friends I think I have decided on Oxford as one overnight trip. I might just stay in London instead of doing another one.
I think the thing I am most excited for in London other than New Years is going to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. If you have checked out my other blog which I have not been updating.....you will see that I am quite into astrophotography, but that is not the only reason. It just so happens that when they were setting up a standard for defining longitude, which in itself is arbitrary and needs a zero point to be selected, that observatory was the one which eventually became the standard one. On the courtyard outside is a big brass line marking the Prime Meridian, the border between east and west, the place upon which Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Time is based. Except it isnt. Though it is true that the prime meridian was originally established there, and for a very long time that brass line was the actual prime meridian, if you were to stand on it today with a GPS it would not read zero degrees. The actual prime meridian as is used for all surveying and cartography today is 102 meters to the east, just on the other side of the parking lot. There are a pair of paths which cross, and if you go 11 feet west from the center of the intersection, that is where the actual prime meridian is. Also there are the original chronometers built by John Harrison which are just amazing. I highly suggest the book Longitude by Dava Sobel.
Anyhow, my clothes have come out of the dryer, so it is time to spring into action once again. Just for fun this is a picture of the wimpy little snowfall from last night.
Even though it is a bit small, it is nice to get some snow in Victoria. It happens most years, some a little more than others. It was real windy and flurring all day yesterday, and this is what came out of it. I took that this morning out my window and it is actually still there, this afternoon which surprised me.
I will try to put up another post or two before Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment