National Treasure

Today was a very academic day for me. After staying up most of the night and waking early this morning to finish a paper that needed to be handed in by noon (so I procrastinated a little), I travelled to a little treasure spot in Kew Gardens known as The National Archives of England (insert booming, dramatic, music here), to do some research for my dissertation.

I. Love. The National Archives in London.

First. They are in Kew, near the beautiful Kew Gardens. And, the Archive building itself is surrounded by a beautiful landscape, a pond, a fountain, and ducks - all of which you can see while working away. What more could you ask for?

Two. The people who work there are nice, friendly and helpful (even when stressed), almost as if - shock!- they actually like their job (even the cafeteria workers).

Three. The cafeteria has good food, and cheap food. This surprised me. It seemed once they lurred you into the archives of ancient history and locked the door, they would then charge you an arm and and a leg to eat (because goodess knows you need energy to try to decipher the English used in those old documents... if it even is in English...). But no! Hot meals at a good price are the name of the game at the archives :-)

Fourthly. It is just simply fascinating. The archives are cool (literally too, temperature wise). Call me a nerd, but I get a small thrill being around all that history; handling and reading documents that were written and used by great men of the past. (oops, and great women too. Sorry.)

Looooooove it! I will go back! And, consequently, I have to go back.