London's Middle and Inner Temples

Last Thursday, there was another field trip before the long weekend began. We went to see the Middle and Inner Temples in London. I didn't know anything about them, but I figured we were heading to Dublin afterward, so I might as well tag along. It turned out that this trip was very interesting, fun, and I learned a lot!

This trip is considered a pre-law study abroad, so the trips all center around something having to do with the legal system. The Middle and Inner Temples are two of the four primary establishments for joining the bar and becoming a barrister in Britain. Barristers are the lawyers who are allowed to argue in front of a judge. Historically, these were set up by knights, and they became training centers for people to learn the law. Most people didn't read back then, so they would read the law out at dinners and eventually, you would attend enough of these that you could become a lawyer. These days, people go to universities to become lawyers, but they still have to attend a certain number of dinners before they can go through the bar process. The purpose now centers around networking, as barristers don't get their business from the general public - the public goes to solicitors who determine whether the person needs some paperwork or needs to go on to court. New barristers get their business started with referrals from more experienced barristers. It's a little confusing to understand the process since it is so different from ours, so hopefully I got all of the details right!



This first shot is actually at the Eagle pub the night before our trip. Jeremy is pictured here with Bill Westerbeke and Sheyda Jahanbani. "Beke" was the law instructor for the first two weeks of the course, and now Karl Brooks is here for the second two weeks. I just wanted to make sure Beke got on the blog somewhere! Sheyda is the director of the program and the one who invited Jeremy to come along and be her TA.

Our students on the train from Cambridge to London. Isn't it nice to see college students all dressed up?

Another group shot of our students. The program is really lucky to have such a good group of kids!

Jeremy, Sheyda, and I at Middle Temple.

Here is the dining hall at Middle Temple. Isn't this a gorgeous room? This is where all of the dinners I mentioned earlier are held. It is also open for lunch for barristers and for special guests... like people from KU who are visiting. It was a wonderful, fabulous, delicious buffet that we are still talking about. The tour guide said lunch was like McDonald's, and dinner was the real deal. I'm thinking I'd eat Mickey D's every day if it was like that!!

This is the head table. It was made all from one tree in Spain and sailed up the Thames back in the days of Queen Elizabeth I. The room was actually built around it - you might notice the convenient table-sized stained glass over on the side. To sit here, you have to be one of the main readers or treasurers, or royalty, pretty much. Needless to say, not where we sat!

Another view of the Middle Temple. Those are all pictures of royalty who were somehow associated with the group - Charles I is in the middle.

The church that Middle and Inner Temples share.

The coolest thing about visiting Inner Temple was that we got a first-hand feel for the effects that the blitz had on the city of London. It's not often that we are exposed to what war really does - September 11 and Pearl Harbor being the only big attacks that I can really think of on our own soil. This marker here shows where one of the buildings stood. It is now a courtyard.

Inner Temple recreated the coats of arms for all of the readers throughout history when they rebuilt after World War II. You can't see it here, but some of the coats of arms are blank - the names were recorded elsewhere but the coats weren't, and no one is entirely sure what they looked like. It was sad to think about those being lost in a bombing by the Germans.

After the tours, Jeremy, Sheyda, and I walked around London for a while before we began our various travels. Here we are standing on the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.

The other way - this is the Tate Modern museum, which exhibits modern art.

The inside of the Tate Modern. It was a really cool building!

One of the two Globe theater replicas in the world. This one is the bigger of the two and is accurate inside where the other one isn't. Do you know where the other one is? That's right, Odessa College in Odessa, Texas.

A beautiful view of the River Thames - you're looking at Tower Bridge and London Bridge.

The Millennium Bridge looking back toward St. Paul's Cathedral. I haven't seen it, but apparently in the new Harry Potter film, the Death Eaters destroy the bridge. We saw it the day after the film came out, and are happy to report that it still stands.

At the end of this day, we began our journey to Dublin via Ryan Air. It was a little crazy - between a fatality on the train tracks to the airport (which is apparently shockingly common here), a freakish thunderstorm with actual thunder and lightning, and Ryan Air's renowned customer service, I thought we'd never make it. Let's just say that the comparisons between Ryan Air and Southwest end at the cheap fares, and I was really homesick for an airline that cared (and no, Southwest didn't pay me to say that, but if they're reading this, I'll take a rapid rewards credit!!) In any case, we made it to Dublin at about 2:00 AM on Friday morning. My next post will tell you all about it!