Capitalism!, Liver'puul, Lib-tron emminent.

This past week was at once busy and non-productive. Finals week is nearly upon us, and as a result the homework load is getting heavier. This is extremely unfortunate, as I have recently joined the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, the only independent cinema in central London. 1.50 for a weekday matinee = disaster for Torrey's academic prowess. Oh well. I've already seen "Mesrine: Killer Instinct", "Public Enemies", and "The Godfather (Part I)". Lots of crime/outlaw drama, though I personally am looking forward to the Halloween weekend horrorfest that starts at 9:30am on Saturday and continues until 10pm on Sunday...

Tuesday night involved a trip to the National Theatre to see a play called "The Power of Yes", which was about the origins and unfolding of the 2008 financial crisis in the UK and US. Very interesting and informative, though pretty depressing. Basically I've been in a funk about money/the Future/JOBS, etc, though talking to my mom and convincing her not to abandon me financially for 2 hours this evening helped immensely. This Tuesday we're going to see another contemporary play called "Enron".

The big event of this week was a 2 day, 1 night trip to Liverpool, from which I've just arrived back at the flat. The trip was for my Black Atlantic course, so the majority of activities focused around Liverpool's role as a port city, and subsequently its involvement in Britain's slave trade. After the 4+ hour drive on Friday morning, we stopped off at the Quarry Bank Mill, just outside of Manchester. The mill was built and operated in the 1700 and 1800s, predominantly by the Greg family. The museum was really interesting, as all the buildings are original. The mill was fully functional up until the post-war era, and so much of the machinery still worked, which made for some pretty amazing demonstrations. The mill mostly dealt with cotton, thread and fabric production, and it was amazing to get a sense of how terrible working-class people's lives were, even at a "progressive" institution like Quarry Bank Mill. After the tour, we loaded into the coach and drove the last stretch to Liverpool.

LIVERPOOL! City of my recent predecessors (kind of)! The approach into the city yielded an impressive view of 7 miles of docks, the imposing Anglican cathedral, and a host of modern, cement-block buildings that comprised Liverpool's new "ONE" complex. According to a city council pamphlet, Liverpool won a European Cultural City award a few years ago, and so they've been trying to re-invent Liverpool as a bustling metropolis filled with all the trappings of a cosmopolitan paradise. Lots of luxury stores, lots of punky kids, lots of Beatles branding. Fun, but not terribly interesting in the historical context. We stayed at a generic youth hostel, which was actually pretty nice compared to the one my art class stayed at in Bruges. Dinner included a cheap burrito stand and a walk around the docks and the ONE complex, then bed, as I had been up until 3am the morning before (see Mom, I DO get out!)

Today, we woke up early to a full breakfast courtesy of the hostel, which included sausages, croissants, yoghurt, scrambled eggs... YUM. Then, we walked as a group down to the Albert Dock area, which houses the International Slavery Museum. There, we met a good friend of my academic advisor's, Mike Boyle. Mike teaches at the University of Liverpool and at NYU, specializing in history and sociology, specifically of Liverpool, I think. He was great, and his lecture was very informative regarding the level of commerce that the slave trade brought to Liverpool. Although not many people worked DIRECTLY within the context of the slave trade, lots of people were indirectly involved, including ship-builders, dock-workers, sewers, merchants, cloth tradesman, etc. My dad had told me all about his side of the family and their move to Liverpool from Dundee in the mid-1800s, and so after the lecture I mentioned this to Mike Boyle, who immediately asked about how this line of my family got to the US. I told him by way of New York/New Jersey, and we found that we had a similar story, as half of his family line settled in Westchester County, NY in the early 1900s. Before I had a chance to really comment on the matter, he asked me what it felt like being in Liverpool, as I wasn't that far removed from it. "You could have just as easily been born here than in the States," he said. I had to laugh, because I'd been hearing similar things from my dad for a long time.

After poking around the exhibits in the slavery museum, the group (along with Mike Boyle) jumped on the coach to see some of the city that was less accessible on foot. We saw many of the Georgian houses that belonged to slave ship captains and venture capitalists that made their money within the slave trade. It was really interesting to see how close the lower-classes lived to the extremely wealthy in Liverpool, as evidenced by the different styles of houses and such on various streets. To some extent, this is still true in Liverpool, which I thought was interesting, as here in London there are definite pockets of wealth and poverty, both historically and in modern times.

After that, we were free to roam the city for a couple of hours before getting back on the bus. Although I couldn't make it up to Everton to see some of the houses and addresses that were inhabited by my ancestors, I tried to get a sense of what life must have been like for them. Mostly, I'm glad they decided to come to America, as my life (and indeed, the lives of my father and grand-father) would have been much different (and much tougher) if that part of my family tree had stayed in the UK.

So, now I'm back at the flat, doing laundry and staying up too late, per usual. My friend Elizabeth is currently on a plane coming here to London to stay with me for a couple of days over Grinnell's fall break. I'm excited to see her and to show her around! Finally, I'll get to feel a bit like a local!