Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
So I made it to and from London with relative safety and what ought to have been the ease of long practice but wasn't.
The train ride down was very long, but the five hours served as ample time to begin the paper due the day after tomorrow and by the time I hit Kings Cross, I was half done. Now, anyone who know the tube should know that getting from Kings Cross to West Brompton where we were staying ought to have been easy- only two changes and nearly direct. Oooh no. That would be far far too easy. They were doing work on a bunch of the lines, so Victoria wasn't running, Jubilee was only running half its line, and District and Circle weren't running between Edgware Rd and Earl's Court. So we had to go a bit out of the way to get where we were going. Eventually, however, we made it to the tube stop and got soaked by the lovely rain storm that hit as we exited the train. The hotel, thankfully, was only a block away from the station, so we didn't have to go far.
We found out when we got there, however, that the hotel didn't have our reservation on the books. I had the confirmation from the travel agent, though, so they gave us a triple room for the two nights. After we changed, we met up with a friend of mine who lives in the City and a friend of Dana's, who happened to be in the City for the week. We had dinner at an Italian place near the British Museum and then went for drinks at a pub not far from there. It was a lot of fun, but Dana and I passed out just about as soon as we got back to the room, which was just about the most ghetto place I've ever been indecently.
Sunday morning, we set an alarm for very early am and got moving. We went to Notting Hill and walked around there until lunch time and then we went off to Covent Garden for the afternoon. After that, we walked around Parliament Square, where I probably annoyed the hell out of Dana with my London Fun Facts while we walked around the Houses of Parliament and stood in line to get tickets for the Eye for Monday morning. We had dinner at Garfunkles in Trafalgar Square and then I climbed the Nelson Monument. Again. The pictures sucked just as much this time as they did last time, but it was lovely all the same. I didn't even mind that it was raining.
Monday morning, we got up and checked out, then went back to Parliament Square and crossed the bridge at more or less a dead run to make it on to the Eye at the time we booked. It was nice, but I could wish it had been a sunnier day. From there, we walked up to Buckingham Palace and ran into (very nearly literally) the changing of the guard. We were too far back in the crowd to see much, but the band was good, so I'm going to call it a success. We got lunch at Pret and I couldn't find the Starbucks that's near Victoria, which is irritating, but so be it.
We then had to take off (at more or less a dead run) to get back to the hotel to get our luggage and then hop back on the tube to make it to Kings Cross in time to make the train. Which we did, with a margin of five minutes. Another five hours on the train saw my paper finished, and we got off in St Andrews in another soaking rain. The pictures are here, and I rather like most of them.
I now have two days of "free time" during which I shall write my PhD proposal-finally- before I have to start getting ready to throw Easter dinner for fifteen people. And then another paper. And another Latin translation. And then another palaeography assignment. And then a dissertation And on it goes. :)
The train ride down was very long, but the five hours served as ample time to begin the paper due the day after tomorrow and by the time I hit Kings Cross, I was half done. Now, anyone who know the tube should know that getting from Kings Cross to West Brompton where we were staying ought to have been easy- only two changes and nearly direct. Oooh no. That would be far far too easy. They were doing work on a bunch of the lines, so Victoria wasn't running, Jubilee was only running half its line, and District and Circle weren't running between Edgware Rd and Earl's Court. So we had to go a bit out of the way to get where we were going. Eventually, however, we made it to the tube stop and got soaked by the lovely rain storm that hit as we exited the train. The hotel, thankfully, was only a block away from the station, so we didn't have to go far.
We found out when we got there, however, that the hotel didn't have our reservation on the books. I had the confirmation from the travel agent, though, so they gave us a triple room for the two nights. After we changed, we met up with a friend of mine who lives in the City and a friend of Dana's, who happened to be in the City for the week. We had dinner at an Italian place near the British Museum and then went for drinks at a pub not far from there. It was a lot of fun, but Dana and I passed out just about as soon as we got back to the room, which was just about the most ghetto place I've ever been indecently.
Sunday morning, we set an alarm for very early am and got moving. We went to Notting Hill and walked around there until lunch time and then we went off to Covent Garden for the afternoon. After that, we walked around Parliament Square, where I probably annoyed the hell out of Dana with my London Fun Facts while we walked around the Houses of Parliament and stood in line to get tickets for the Eye for Monday morning. We had dinner at Garfunkles in Trafalgar Square and then I climbed the Nelson Monument. Again. The pictures sucked just as much this time as they did last time, but it was lovely all the same. I didn't even mind that it was raining.
Monday morning, we got up and checked out, then went back to Parliament Square and crossed the bridge at more or less a dead run to make it on to the Eye at the time we booked. It was nice, but I could wish it had been a sunnier day. From there, we walked up to Buckingham Palace and ran into (very nearly literally) the changing of the guard. We were too far back in the crowd to see much, but the band was good, so I'm going to call it a success. We got lunch at Pret and I couldn't find the Starbucks that's near Victoria, which is irritating, but so be it.
We then had to take off (at more or less a dead run) to get back to the hotel to get our luggage and then hop back on the tube to make it to Kings Cross in time to make the train. Which we did, with a margin of five minutes. Another five hours on the train saw my paper finished, and we got off in St Andrews in another soaking rain. The pictures are here, and I rather like most of them.
I now have two days of "free time" during which I shall write my PhD proposal-finally- before I have to start getting ready to throw Easter dinner for fifteen people. And then another paper. And another Latin translation. And then another palaeography assignment. And then a dissertation And on it goes. :)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Bosworth
I imagine that everyone interested has already seen this, but just in case anyone else is as behind on their news as I am, the site of the Battle of Bosworth Field has been identified- and it's not where people thought it was. For those of you not as nerdy as I am, Bosworth was the battle in which Richard III was thrown from his horse ("A horse, a horse/My kingdom for a horse") and killed, leaving the throne to the first of the Tudor kings (Henry VII) and ending the Wars of the Roses. Read on here.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
*waves*
Hey guys, I'm not dead! Just really very busy. Already. And this is only week four. Ah well, that's what grad school is supposed to be. So to fill you in on the last, oh, month and a half...
I got back with no trouble, even with the layover in Dublin. I stand by my earlier statement that Dublin is a nice airport; it's just a hell of a lot bigger than I remember it being the last time I was there. But I made the transfer with no problem, and even went through immigration there (I think) so I didn't have to do it in Edinburgh, making the queue there that much shorter. I then took a cab back to my flat because I was not awake enough to deal with my luggage on two buses and a train and then one of my friends had a bunch of us round for dinner, so I didn't even have to figure out dinner. I spent the rest of that week in a jet-lagged fog, so I'm not entirely certain what I was doing...oh well.
The next week, we spent nearly every day in the library, trying to get a jump on this semester. It was a bit boring, but it worked. I'm not nearly as overwhelmed as I was last semester. I still have an ungodly amount of reading, but I do actually like that, so I'm not going to complain. Much.
Classes are still pretty great- Latin is still mostly the PMS show, which is a fantastic way to learn the language. He's got us translating an apparently legit passage about a man who, whilst riding through a wheat field, was led by a little red man to a lady who ordered his brain removed from his head and then had him put back on his horse. I've no idea what happens next; we're not done translating it yet.
We've been doing library scavenger hunts in Domesday, which are...interesting I suppose. Would have been better, I think, if we'd done it last semester to get us used to the library when we were new, but whatever. We've got a huge new bibliography (well, it's new for me at any rate) of dictionaries and the like for quick look ups (and we got the ok to google stuff as well, so long as we double check. Shock waves ran through the room at this, let me tell you), so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Presentations start next week, and they're going more or less alphabetically so I've got a bit of time to tighten up what I'm going to say, which is nice. I have it outlined, but it could stand to be improved.
Tutorial this semester is also pretty fantastic. I'm with a different prof, and I'm sharing time with another MLitt (whose energy level is about a thousand times higher than mine at any given point in time), so it's an entirely different dynamic. Takes some getting used to, but I think it's going to be fun. Of course, we were supposed to meet today but he's out of town. And didn't tell us. My adviser told me yesterday when I picked up a paper, so I then told Meredith, who had been freaking out because she wasn't finished with her bit of work for today, so at least she got to sleep tonight. And I shall put my new free time to good use as well.
We've picked up a class this semester as well. Paleography (according to Wikipedia)is "the study of ancient handwriting and the practice of deciphering and reading historical manuscripts." And it's pretty fantastic. We've got an assignment to transcribe what I think might be a bit of the bible for the middle of May, and there are like four contractions that I couldn't work out on my own, so I'm going to spend my afternoon in the Library with one of the contraction dictionaries trying to get that done. Then I'll only have the actual research to do, and that shouldn't take me more than an afternoon at the very most, and then write it up and it's done. Easy.
On a slightly less boring note, I'm going to London on spring break. Not for all of it; I've got far too much reading to take that much time off, but at least I'm going. The student travel office here does a deal that's the train both ways and two nights in a hotel for eighty nine pounds (which is an amazing deal), so a friend and I are going and living it up for four days. I'm excited and so is she. It's going to be fantastic. I miss London...
And that's more or less all I've got going on. I promise I'll be better about posting, and I'll start taking pictures as soon as it stops raining and post them... somewhere. I'll link. TTFN!
I got back with no trouble, even with the layover in Dublin. I stand by my earlier statement that Dublin is a nice airport; it's just a hell of a lot bigger than I remember it being the last time I was there. But I made the transfer with no problem, and even went through immigration there (I think) so I didn't have to do it in Edinburgh, making the queue there that much shorter. I then took a cab back to my flat because I was not awake enough to deal with my luggage on two buses and a train and then one of my friends had a bunch of us round for dinner, so I didn't even have to figure out dinner. I spent the rest of that week in a jet-lagged fog, so I'm not entirely certain what I was doing...oh well.
The next week, we spent nearly every day in the library, trying to get a jump on this semester. It was a bit boring, but it worked. I'm not nearly as overwhelmed as I was last semester. I still have an ungodly amount of reading, but I do actually like that, so I'm not going to complain. Much.
Classes are still pretty great- Latin is still mostly the PMS show, which is a fantastic way to learn the language. He's got us translating an apparently legit passage about a man who, whilst riding through a wheat field, was led by a little red man to a lady who ordered his brain removed from his head and then had him put back on his horse. I've no idea what happens next; we're not done translating it yet.
We've been doing library scavenger hunts in Domesday, which are...interesting I suppose. Would have been better, I think, if we'd done it last semester to get us used to the library when we were new, but whatever. We've got a huge new bibliography (well, it's new for me at any rate) of dictionaries and the like for quick look ups (and we got the ok to google stuff as well, so long as we double check. Shock waves ran through the room at this, let me tell you), so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Presentations start next week, and they're going more or less alphabetically so I've got a bit of time to tighten up what I'm going to say, which is nice. I have it outlined, but it could stand to be improved.
Tutorial this semester is also pretty fantastic. I'm with a different prof, and I'm sharing time with another MLitt (whose energy level is about a thousand times higher than mine at any given point in time), so it's an entirely different dynamic. Takes some getting used to, but I think it's going to be fun. Of course, we were supposed to meet today but he's out of town. And didn't tell us. My adviser told me yesterday when I picked up a paper, so I then told Meredith, who had been freaking out because she wasn't finished with her bit of work for today, so at least she got to sleep tonight. And I shall put my new free time to good use as well.
We've picked up a class this semester as well. Paleography (according to Wikipedia)is "the study of ancient handwriting and the practice of deciphering and reading historical manuscripts." And it's pretty fantastic. We've got an assignment to transcribe what I think might be a bit of the bible for the middle of May, and there are like four contractions that I couldn't work out on my own, so I'm going to spend my afternoon in the Library with one of the contraction dictionaries trying to get that done. Then I'll only have the actual research to do, and that shouldn't take me more than an afternoon at the very most, and then write it up and it's done. Easy.
On a slightly less boring note, I'm going to London on spring break. Not for all of it; I've got far too much reading to take that much time off, but at least I'm going. The student travel office here does a deal that's the train both ways and two nights in a hotel for eighty nine pounds (which is an amazing deal), so a friend and I are going and living it up for four days. I'm excited and so is she. It's going to be fantastic. I miss London...
And that's more or less all I've got going on. I promise I'll be better about posting, and I'll start taking pictures as soon as it stops raining and post them... somewhere. I'll link. TTFN!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Well so much for every two weeks. My bad. Although my life hasn't really been all that interesting lately. I went to Edinburgh not too terribly long ago and bought a rain coat. Also hiked up to the Castle and wandered around, all awash in my history nerd glory. They've also got a lovely cobbled street with people selling stuff... it reminded me a bit of Covent Garden, to be honest, although I didn't get anything. I imagine I'll be back before Christmas... Christmas shopping calls... It was a pretty good time; pictures will follow but I make no promises as to when. Before Christmas, certainly.
I went to Dundee yesterday to get a jump on Christmas shopping and took some pretty killer pictures with a dragon. No really. A dragon. Again, pictures to follow.
I've more or less got this week off- I still have tutorial on Tuesday, which is my own fault because I opened my mouth and asked if we were still meeting rather than leave well enough alone- so I'll probably do some exploring, possibly back to Edinburgh to finish off the Christmas shopping, possibly somewhere else entirely. Who knows? All this will, of course, be fit in around Latin translations (the last two of which were about witches killing children and rabbits killing pilgrims... Prof has an...interesting... sense of humour) and my reading of The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, a Chronicle of Early Medieval France and the high stakes (and usually very violent) politics that were the rule of the day. I've been reading early Frankish law and a lot about legalized violence and honour and where the line is... pretty interesting stuff. If you're a nerd like me.
And Latin, of course. I'll never understand how people conversed in that language; you've more or less got to wait for the end of every sentence- every clause anyway- for the verb, and people got rhetorically insane just because they could. Good times, that.
We also just finished our wonderful foray into Domesday Book (which apparently doesn't need an article), which culminated in a lovely long paper that was like pulling teeth to write. Got it done with time to spare, but still. Ouch.
So that's what I've been up to. Well, that and a LOT of trashy tv online. Hopefully the next post will be full of more interesting things. And pictures. :)
I went to Dundee yesterday to get a jump on Christmas shopping and took some pretty killer pictures with a dragon. No really. A dragon. Again, pictures to follow.
I've more or less got this week off- I still have tutorial on Tuesday, which is my own fault because I opened my mouth and asked if we were still meeting rather than leave well enough alone- so I'll probably do some exploring, possibly back to Edinburgh to finish off the Christmas shopping, possibly somewhere else entirely. Who knows? All this will, of course, be fit in around Latin translations (the last two of which were about witches killing children and rabbits killing pilgrims... Prof has an...interesting... sense of humour) and my reading of The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, a Chronicle of Early Medieval France and the high stakes (and usually very violent) politics that were the rule of the day. I've been reading early Frankish law and a lot about legalized violence and honour and where the line is... pretty interesting stuff. If you're a nerd like me.
And Latin, of course. I'll never understand how people conversed in that language; you've more or less got to wait for the end of every sentence- every clause anyway- for the verb, and people got rhetorically insane just because they could. Good times, that.
We also just finished our wonderful foray into Domesday Book (which apparently doesn't need an article), which culminated in a lovely long paper that was like pulling teeth to write. Got it done with time to spare, but still. Ouch.
So that's what I've been up to. Well, that and a LOT of trashy tv online. Hopefully the next post will be full of more interesting things. And pictures. :)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Pictures! The polo match on the beach, some of the ruins, and a nature walk that was meant to take us to the botanic gardens. We got there. Ten minutes after they closed. Oops
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Right so I've had all my classes. Latin at 9:30 on Monday and Tuesday and Sources and Source Crit Tuesday at 3:30. That's it. Oh no wait, I have a private tutorial with my adviser this semester and with Alex Woolf (!!!) next semester because my thesis topic is so far out of left field there aren't any classes that pertain to it. Because that's not intimidating at all.
Latin Prof (who has yet to introduce himself so I don't know his name) teaches in a traditional Scottish kilt. Every day. No lie. Knife in the sock and everything. I really don't get that... I mean, what if you fall? I don't imagine a dirk through your foot would be a lot of fun for anyone. Whatever. It's massively entertaining; he's about fifty five, completely bald and rolls all his 'r's. Every single one. It's hard to understand. He also thinks we're all REALLY dumb, because he kept asking us questions (such as how does one tell time in the Middle Ages) and no one got it right. He's also RACING through this language. I've had two classes and I'm supposed to know one conjugation and two declensions. I've got them up in dry erase on my mirror so I have to look at them all the time; I've got the conjugation and one of the declensions... i need to get the other one by Monday. Problem is (for me anyway), he's not giving homework. Now I know that doesn't really sound like a problem, but I'm NEVER going to learn this language without drill. So if he doesn't assign anything on Monday I'm just going to do the drill from the last two chapters and ask him to look it over for me.
I've got the prep done for Sources. It's due 6 October. That's 6 days away. I also have half the book read for my tutorial. I'm pretty sure he's not expecting me to have the whole thing done but I will. And then some. I really hate to say this because It's going to come around and bite me in the butt (probably really soon) but I really don't have enough to do. Like at all. I'll be done by the end of the day tomorrow more likely than not. End of the day Friday at the very latest. Oh well.
So I went to this polo match on the West Sands (one of the two beaches of which I'm in walking distance) on Sunday. Took about an hour to get there from my apartment, much to my surprise and that of the friend I went with. We made it, finally, and watched for about an hour and a half. I still only have a vague idea of how the game is played. But it was a pretty good time. We also saw wind surfers crash. Sounds bad, but it's really very entertaining. No one got hurt, of course.
I need to hit the Library again tomorrow to get some more books to read... they don't use the Dewy Decimal system here so I'm a bit lost, but then I also don't really mind wandering around a library. So it works out.
Would someone from HSV forward me Isabel's email address? I tried emailing her and it got kicked back. Thanks!
That's all I've got for now. Cheers!
Latin Prof (who has yet to introduce himself so I don't know his name) teaches in a traditional Scottish kilt. Every day. No lie. Knife in the sock and everything. I really don't get that... I mean, what if you fall? I don't imagine a dirk through your foot would be a lot of fun for anyone. Whatever. It's massively entertaining; he's about fifty five, completely bald and rolls all his 'r's. Every single one. It's hard to understand. He also thinks we're all REALLY dumb, because he kept asking us questions (such as how does one tell time in the Middle Ages) and no one got it right. He's also RACING through this language. I've had two classes and I'm supposed to know one conjugation and two declensions. I've got them up in dry erase on my mirror so I have to look at them all the time; I've got the conjugation and one of the declensions... i need to get the other one by Monday. Problem is (for me anyway), he's not giving homework. Now I know that doesn't really sound like a problem, but I'm NEVER going to learn this language without drill. So if he doesn't assign anything on Monday I'm just going to do the drill from the last two chapters and ask him to look it over for me.
I've got the prep done for Sources. It's due 6 October. That's 6 days away. I also have half the book read for my tutorial. I'm pretty sure he's not expecting me to have the whole thing done but I will. And then some. I really hate to say this because It's going to come around and bite me in the butt (probably really soon) but I really don't have enough to do. Like at all. I'll be done by the end of the day tomorrow more likely than not. End of the day Friday at the very latest. Oh well.
So I went to this polo match on the West Sands (one of the two beaches of which I'm in walking distance) on Sunday. Took about an hour to get there from my apartment, much to my surprise and that of the friend I went with. We made it, finally, and watched for about an hour and a half. I still only have a vague idea of how the game is played. But it was a pretty good time. We also saw wind surfers crash. Sounds bad, but it's really very entertaining. No one got hurt, of course.
I need to hit the Library again tomorrow to get some more books to read... they don't use the Dewy Decimal system here so I'm a bit lost, but then I also don't really mind wandering around a library. So it works out.
Would someone from HSV forward me Isabel's email address? I tried emailing her and it got kicked back. Thanks!
That's all I've got for now. Cheers!
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