What to Expect -- Week 1 (Thursday 17 June -- Sunday 27 June)

We leave Atlanta for London on 17 June to arrive at Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. Students we be assigned private rooms at the University College of London (UCL). Students will be staying at Astor College (UCL), pictured here. May not be the most fashionable dorm, but you can't beat the location, in the heart of Central London. There are kitchen, bathroom and laundry facilities, plus each room has a bed, closet, desk, and sink, plus internet hookup. More images of Astor can be found here.

That first weekend, students will have an on site orientation and neighborhood tour. Dinner will be served in Ramsey Hall at UCL, as will breakfast the following morning. There will then be a Photo Frenzy contest. Lunch will be on your on, an go a free field trip to Hampton Court, the world's largest inhabited castle.

The class begins on Monday, 21 June from between 1:00 and 3:30. The first lecture will be First Britons, First Americans: Indians, Celts, Romans and Saxons. For this class, we will look at the development of the humans, and the peopling of both North America and the British Isles.

The next class will be Wednesday, 23 June (1:00 -- 3:30) with a lecture entitled The Origins of American Culture: England in the Middle Ages. We will look at the development of English and how it later influence America. Topics will include the the Norman Conquest, Magna Charter, the Forest Charter, the development of Parliament, the Black Death, and the War of the Roses.

For this week's required field trip, on Thursday, 24 June, we will visit the British Museum in the morning to look at exhibits on early American and English peoples. Then after lunch, we take a walking tour The City, the oldest part of London. Arriving by subway to the Mansion House stop, we will learn that the City's origins go back to the Romans and it still remains the economic center of London. Highlights of the walking tour may include visiting the remains of a Roman amphitheater, seeing Roman mosaics at England's oldest church, All Hallows By the Tower, visiting the Museum of London (free admission), St. Paul's Cathedral and ending at the infamous Tower of London (which we will visit next week.)

The tower bridge today

An optional field trip may be offered during the weekend to Bath (site of the mot extensive Romans ruins in England) Stonehenge & Avebury (two world-known pre-Norman Celtic sites), and Old Sarum, the remains of the Norman castle -- what many consider the true start of England.