Hot Cuppa History - Matthew Wright

Hello readers,

My name is Matthew Wright and I am a Marketing and Spanish double-major from Hendersonville, TN, the only city I've ever called home (Knoxville is working its way up there). Since my childhood, I have been fascinated with cultures around the globe and can easily recall nights spent spinning the Cold War era globe that rested on my shelf, letting my finger land on a country and then learning all I could about whichever one it would be that day! This fascination never really had an outlet until last winter when I travelled with another group of UT business students to Costa Rica, an incredible adventure. Lasting only one week, that journey served to wet my appetite for travel; a year later, I've found myself blessed enough to be living in a flat in the center of one of our world's largest and most historical cities, London, England.

To be able to wander the streets once walked by literary giants like Woolf and Dickens only blocks from our home, to see the remnants of iron fences cut down to fund the war efforts of the 20th century, and to pop in next door at the British Museum and see some of the finest gems of human history are opportunities that are simply unequalled.

If one looks closely they may see the hints of war that still persist despite the expanse of time since this continent saw the largest wars in modern history. Engraved into the marble of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Soho Square a block or two from our flat is a memorial to "St. Patrick's good ole boys that were lost in the Great War." I plan to keep my eyes open for these hints as my stay continues!

Being someone who particularly enjoys languages, being able to see the stone slab that assisted so much at translating the perplexing language of Egyptian hieroglyphics (and the namesake of one very popular language learning software), the Rosetta Stone, is simply amazing. Not to mention it is a testament to the influence that the British Empire once held by the fact that they even have the relics that they do!

So, while I continue to explore this immense metropolis, I will do my best to understand the quirks of that British Empire. The most puzzling of those quirks? That the vehicles drive on the left...