The Adventures of an Ancient Historian

On to the next adventure...

2010-07-26T12:58:00.002+01:00

I just realized that I've fallen behind on updating my faithful readers. Since I last wrote, in fact about a week after I last wrote, I was offered a 9 month teaching fellowship at a University in Ontario. So it looks as though the Ancient Historian will be heading back to her motherland once again for the forseeable future. I will be teaching Greek Epic, Latin Epic, Roman Civilization and second year Ancient Greek which makes me think that perhaps it is worth me changing my name. Who would have thought that me, a Roman historian, would be teaching literature and language. Oh well. I guess life is full of surprises. I'm actually really excited about it and look forward to teaching again. The job starts August 1st so as of next week, I will be heading back across the pond.

Yes, in fact, at the moment I am back in the UK. I came back to my old university town to graduated and have decided to hang around and visit people for the month. It's been quite nice, with jaunts down to London, Exeter, and Cambridge. The travelling has been interdispersed with work as I madly try to finish up this article I'm working on and two book reviews. Ah, the life of the academic...

Our hero finds herself unsure of the future, and thinking that unemployment might not be so bad...

2010-06-07T18:40:00.003+01:00

So, my research job here in Victoria is almost over. It's been a great learning experience and has been a nice break from my own research. The prof I am working with here is great (my mentor) and we seem to work really well together. The project is not finished, but I hope I have given him at least some foundational work that he can then build on.

I don't really feel like I've been here. I've been on the move basically every 3 weeks since I got here, with my defense, giving papers, job interviews, etc. But in any case, as is the state of my life at the moment, I've been able to get a lot of work done, visit some people, and enjoy the West Coast life (although this last one not nearly as much as I would have liked). So what's next on the cards for the Ancient Historian? Well, I will be heading back to St Andrews to graduate in two weeks. I will then be staying over in the UK for the summer for two weddings, a conference, a trip to Italy, and hopefully some other adventures, although I am hoping to stay in one place for more than 3 weeks at a time. I plan to use the time to finish the article I'm currently working on and I've just been asked to review a book for the Classical Review so I guess I'll be working on that as well.

As for September, I don't have a job yet, and there are fewer and fewer options in the pipeline. If something doesn't come up, it sounds like I'll be moving in with my sister and her husband. As much as I am not looking forward to not having an academic job, I think the little break might be good for me. I'm hoping to get a new revised draft of my PhD thesis done so I can start sending it to publishers. I can also work on a couple of other articles so that when the next set of jobs come out, I'll be ready! I may try and pick up some temp work somewhere just to feed myself and start paying off my student loan, but we'll see. All I really want to do is teach so this little road bump is a little frustrating, but the Ancient Historian will persevere.

Now a Doctor...

2010-03-10T03:01:00.003Z

So, it's been a while. The last three months have flown by. I moved back to Canada having lived in the UK and Europe for the last 3 and a half years. It was a bit of a culture shock, especially since I have just taken up a research job at the university where I did my undergrad. It's a town which is familiar yet different. Five years has really changed the town but perhaps it has also changed the way I look at a place. I recognize streets but not the shops. I remember places yet forget. I don't want to step back into my 22 year old life and thankfully enough most of my old friends are gone, but at the same time, it's easy to get comfortable, yet forget what I've experienced and how I've grown over the last couple years. I'm still struggling with the fact that I've left my comfort zone and left my friends, but my new job is going well, I've been learning a lot. My work is allowing me to get back into the texts that help us understand the ancient world and putting my own work back into context. It's been a great experience so far and I look forward to the next couple of months.

So, since we last spoke (or last wrote), I headed back to St Andrews to defend my thesis. Well, I'd have to say it was the hardest thing I've ever done but I definitely wouldn't trade it for anything. The whole PhD thing, well, I feel the same way. I don't want to do it again, but I definitely wouldn't trade this experience for the world. As for the defence, it's not everyday you have two experts who have read your "book" and have nothing better to do for just under two hours than discuss it with you. Yes, it's hard to hear the major issues with my work but everything they said will only make my thesis (and my future research) stronger. So now I am a Doctor, but the future of the Ancient Historian is uncertain. The state of the academic world is a mess. There are few jobs but I will keep trying and hopefully something will come up. If not, there's always Starbucks.....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-03T13:08:00.003Z

I'm not a big fan of Christmas. This shouldn't be a surprise to people who know me. I don't like how it brings out the worst in people, the stress of trying to get everything right because some outside force (whether our family, friends, advertising, social pressures, etc) is telling us that's what we have to do. That said, this year, I've seen another side of Christmas and think that maybe, we in North America (and the UK although they are not so bad) could learn something from the Germans.

German Christmas Markets! I've had my first experience of them and I'd have to say they are absolutely wonderful (except for the hoards of people but that's my own problem). The lights are gorgeous, the smell of Glühwein (kind of like Mulled Wine) and baked goods, and all the amazing wooden ornaments and other crafts all laid out. People aren't rushing around, pushing people in Malls, under neon lights, trying to get this year's "must have". The markets are rows of little huts, in the shade of the cathedral, and are covered with little lights. It almost has a sense of home-y-ness about it. There is music playing but it is not the overpowering Christmas music you find elsewhere. People are just milling about, drinking Glühwein, eating, and chatting. Maybe the sense of urgency just isn't here yet since there are still 3 weeks till Christmas, but the feel of the season is completely different here. I might actually think about liking Christmas...

Now, for some Bratwurst!

Three countries in two weeks... Part 3: Scotland

2009-11-22T16:34:00.004Z

Well, needless to say, my trip back to St Andrews was not nearly as eventful as the rest of my travels. Although, I did forget how long it takes to get there from Edinburgh. Next time I live some place, I'm going to live somewhere that has an airport! All these buses, trains, cabs, etc. are really getting to me. So, I arrived in town about mid-afternoon and headed straight into the department so I could print off my thesis! Yes, the purpose of this quick trip back to town was to submit my PhD thesis. I got into the office to find that the PDF program on the computer was broken and since the IT person doesn't trust us postgrads to have admin access to our own computer, there was nothing I could do to fix it. Thankfully, P had her computer with her so we were able to print it off and celebrate! When you submit your thesis, you need to print off 3 copies, so, I'm single-handedly killing the planet with my 300 page thesis (900 pages total). Eeeek! Here is a nice stack of just over 3 years of work:

On Monday, I took it down to the Bindery to get it bound, then walked to the Registrar's office to drop it off. The registrar's office is like a fortress. They won't let anyone in so you have to buzz to get them to open the door. The conversation at the buzzer was as follows:
Registrar: Hello
Me: Hi, I'm here to drop of my PhD thesis
Registrar: Oh, I guess you want to be buzzed in then?
Me: Yes, please.

Seriously, what did they think I wanted? "No, I'll just leave these 900 pages here on the doorstep in the rain and you can come grab them whenever you feel like it." Ugh. So, in I go, to the Golden Palace, or whatever they think they work in. I was directed to a woman at a desk who told me just to set it down here and she wrote out a receipt. No fireworks, Congratulations, or even a smile. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was kind of a lunchbag let-down. I trudged back up to the department, 900 pages lighter, and bought three books and a coffee as a present to myself!

Unfortunately, it was not yet time to celebrate. During my time in town I had two job applications to finish so I went back into the office to work on those. We did end up all going to the pub later and I spent the next 3 days I had in town visiting people, grabbing pints and coffees, and finishing up the job applications. It was really weird to be back in town, especially since most of my friends have left. It was also weird to go into my old office and find that everything has changed. The office has pretty much had a complete turnover, so it is definitely not my space anymore. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was weird. So there you have it. Three years of work is now gone, out of my hands, fini! I will have my defense sometime in the next 3 months but as of this moment, I can't really think about much. It's been an interesting experience, kind of like giving birth I suppose. It's had its ups and downs, and I don't think I'd want to go through this again, but I don't think I'd trade these past three years for anything!

So, now I'm back in Germany for my last month. It's crazy to think at how fast these last 3 months have gone. I feel like I haven't really accomplished anything, and am especially disappointed with myself over the state of my German, but I can't be too hard on myself since I've actually got quite a bit done: Finished thesis, gave two papers at international conferences, presented part of my thesis at the research seminar here.... Nothing to sneeze at. So now I just have a book review and an article to finish before Christmas. Should be able to take it easy at bit and enjoy the Christmas markets...

Three countries in two weeks... Part 2: Germany

2009-11-21T13:48:00.003Z

First, I guess I have to say, that this doesn't really count since I live in Germany all the time, but since this was a brief interlude between my two other trips and I never actually went home, this does count as traveling! So, I got off my plane in Frankfurt Hahn (the Ryanair airport about 2 hours outside of Frankfurt) and since there was actually no way for me to get back to my town that night, I decided to head to Cologne (also about 2 hours away) and visit H who also has a fellowship from the Germany government. I guess it is now worth having a little aside about German transport since I didn't include my epic train journey in my introduction to Sweden's post. I know I said in an earlier post that I loved German trains because they are never late, are clean, etc. Well, I have learned my lesson! Since it is about a 5 hour journey from my town to Frankfurt Hahn I decided that I would catch an early train just to make sure that I arrived with plenty of time. I am so glad I did. My train was a hour late! The Deutsche Bahn had no other alternatives for me so I just had to wait around and hope that I would be able to catch the last possible bus for me to get my flight. Fortunately, I made all my connections and arrived at the airport about 30 minutes before my flight took off. Thankfully, the airport is tiny, I had already checked in, and only had hand luggage. Looks like I'll be getting my money back for the ticket which is exciting but it was way more stress than I needed at the start of my trip.

So, back to Germany. I arrived in Cologne on the first night of Carnival (the main part occurs in February but it's basically a 4 month party). The town was insane. Having spent most of my time in the last 3 years in small towns I wasn't really ready for a big city. Also, it was quite a culture shock since my limited experience with Germany has been in the East and a trip to the West is almost like being in a different country. Thankfully, I was staying with H and we just toured around and had another nice 3 day holiday. First stop was the Roman Museum. Cologne was a Roman colony (which I got to write a bit about in my thesis) founded by Agrippina the Younger (sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero). Since I do a lot on provincial religion and Roman colonies it was really fun to wander around the museum and find all the stuff I have read about over the past couple of years. In the city there is also the Praetorium (the provincial governor's residence). They have some amazing Roman stuff and it was great to tour around and see stuff but not really have to work.

Our next stop was Bonn. It's about 30 minutes away on the subway (or by Train). It was the capital of West Germany until the capital was moved back to Berlin after unification. Our real reason for going there was to see Beethoven's house. He was born there and his childhood home has been changed into a museum. H and I spent far too much time in there just playing with some of the computer archives. They have also made a 21st century version of his only opera, which was 3D and consisted of particles rather than actors. Kind of neat but I think I prefer staged opera. After, we walked down the Rhine, then headed back to Cologne.

My last day consisted of heading to some of the shops, and one last stop, the Gestapo headquarters in Cologne. The museum is mostly in German so H and I just sort of looked at pictures and such but probably didn't get as much out of it as we could have. The basement was turned into a prison and there is still all the graffiti from the prisoners on the walls.

To catch my flight to Scotland, I had to leave Cologne at 2:15 in the morning. I was slightly worried by this since the bus left from the Train station and areas around Stations are not usually the best place to be late at night. However, Cologne seems to not do the whole sleeping thing. The streets were still busy just like it was the middle of the day. People were still sitting in restaurants and pubs and, since I was going to be by myself at the train station I figured I'd hang out in the 24 hour McDonalds, the McDonalds was packed with 13 year olds just hanging out. It was surreal. No problem getting the bus and I headed off for my next adventure..... Scotland!

Three countries in two weeks... Part 1: Sweden!

2009-11-21T13:23:00.002Z

I just got back from my last set of epic travels. First stop, Sweden! Back in the spring, a call for papers came up for a conference on the ancient family and since this is a topic I have touched on a bit in my PhD, I figured it would be worth submitting an abstract. It seemed to be organized by the Classics department in Birmingham and since I hadn't yet had the chance to visit there, I figured it might be a cool place to go. Anyway, my paper was accepted and the email concluded with "look forward to seeing you in Sweden". Sweden? I asked myself. Hmmm. I went back and looked at the conference details and sure enough, it was organized by the Classics department of Birmingham but in conjunction with the University of Gothenburg and was to be hosted in Gothenburg. And so it happened that I was able to head to Sweden, about two weeks after I had returned from South Africa.

Two of my friends from St Andrews had moved to Sweden about 5 months earlier so I decided to extend my trip a bit and visit them as well. So, off to Gothenburg for the three day conference. I arrived a day early and spent most of the day in Museums. First, the main museum which boasts the remains of a viking ship. It also explained some of the Norse traditions and I am definitely interested in doing some more reading on Norse polytheism and Viking history. I then headed off to the art museum since my ticket from the other museum got me in there as well. I have to say, I'm not really an art person, but it was quite neat to see some of the Swedish artists who are not really known outside of Sweden. I spend about an hour just wandering then headed back to the hotel. As far as the conference went, my paper seemed to go well, and I got to meet some really great people.

The day after the conference I met up with K and J for another exploration day in Gothenburg. It was then I had the truly Swedish experience. I believe that Tolkien had the Swedish in mind when he came up with the idea of hobbits. They really do eat all the time. First, there's breakfast. Then about an hour or so later, they have second breakfast. About an hour after that it's time for Fika, which consists of Tea or Coffee and Cake. Then it's lunch time! Then around 3, it's time for more Fika. Then dinner. Then about an hour or two before bed it's time for more, you guessed it, Fika. I really feel like I got to see the inside of most of Gothenburg's coffeeshops. We took a break from eating to head into the Modern art museum, which was even more confusing then the art museum. It was almost like walking into Ikea! At around 6:45 we caught a high-speed train to Skövde, and from there then headed north to J's parents' house. They live on a farm just outside of a town called Skara.

The next three days were spent relaxing, playing Wii, and making little trips around the surrounding countryside. Sweden looks a lot like Canada in places. It almost felt like I was home. Weird. One day, we went into Skara to look at the Cathedral and went to the local museum where 30 bronze shields are displayed. One day, a farmer was plowing his field and hit something. He looked down and called the local authorities. They brought in some archaeologists and uncovered 30 shields and some other artifacts, most likely some kind of ritual deposit. So cool! The rest of my trip was quite relaxed and it was really nice to visit with K and J and just shut my brain off. When it was time to leave, they put me back on the train and I headed back to Gothenburg. Next stop.... Germania!

South Africa

2009-10-22T13:38:00.003+01:00

Last week, I headed down to South Africa to give a paper at a conference on Family in the Ancient World. A great excuse to go traveling, I seized the opportunity, submitted an abstract and was accepted to give a paper. I flew from Frankfurt directly to Johannesburg, a 10 hour flight. I've gotten pretty good at long haul flights but this one was slightly different in that I didn't change time zones. So, no real excuse for jetlag. I just had to make sure I got some sleep on the plane, which of course didn't happen. I use these long plane journeys to catch up on all the trashy movies which have come out.
So I arrived in Jo-burg at about 7:30 in the morning. The conference organizers agreed to pick us up from the airport and drive us to Pretoria since public transport doesn't really exist at the moment (but they are working on it for the 2010 World Cup!). It definitely made me feel better since I've heard some pretty nasty horror stories about safety down in South Africa.
The guest house we were booked into was beautiful. Everyone pretty much had their own cabin type thing and the whole area was pretty open with beautiful trees and 3 pools. We ate our breakfast outside by the pool. I could definitely have gotten use to that lifestyle. The one unfortunate thing about South Africa is that every building is pretty securely walled in, with high walls and either razor wire or electrified fence. No one walks anywhere because it is not safe so you get a little stir crazy.
The conference itself was great. It was part Classics/part Theology and it was very interesting to learn how a different field approaches questions and problems in the same time period. I learned a lot, not only from the differences in methodology but also through talking to people, many of whom were from Africa. It really opened my eyes to the way they view the world and the life that they lead. It also made me really appreciate my life in Canada and in Europe. As one of the conference speakers from Zimbabwe said to me after hearing about Canada "you live in Heaven". Makes me really think about how much we take for granted.
The final day of the conference consisted of a trip to a game reserve (about 2 hours from Pretoria). It was great just to get out of the city and see some more of the African countryside, for good or ill. We drove past the Platinum mines and shanty towns (quite a change from the area we were in Pretoria). I still find it amazing with all the technology and advancements we have made in the 20th and 21st centuries there is still a huge number of people living without water or electricity, and what is especially surprising is that these places are about 45 minutes from some of the richest places in the city. Many of these people work in the city and commute for 2 or 3 hours by bus each day and then come home to nothing. Crime is rampant and I heard stories of people who have almost nothing having their few worldly possessions stolen from their one room aluminum box (basically) while away at work. It really breaks my heart, but in many areas, the poverty is directly related to the government and how corrupt it is. We can't just throw money at these countries as it just goes to help fund the government rather than the people who really need it. I'm not sure what the solution is, but whatever we are doing, it's not working. (Sorry to get on a political rant, as I don't normally do this, but it just made me so hurt, and angry, and confused, all at once)
So, back on track. The game reserve was amazing and we saw all kind of animals, mostly from a distance but it was cool nevertheless. It was almost like being in a zoo but with no fences and the animals can actually come right up to your car (baboons especially like doing this). I almost had a sort of Jurassic Park type moment, but we didn't really see any carnivores (they were all sleeping). We saw a crocodile from far away, lots of Baboons, Giraffes, Zebras, Ampalas, and even a couple rhinos. A great way to end a conference!
I am now back in Germany and have 2 papers to give in the next 3 weeks. No rest for the wicked, but it's my own fault for signing up for all this stuff. I'm getting tons of stuff done and this semester has been really great and very good for me, but I do miss teaching and will hopefully be able to find some kind of teaching post for next year. It's really weird just being paid to sit in an office all day and think. Feels very isolating, which is in part probably also due to the fact that I don't speak the language well so I haven't really met that many people yet. The scary thing is that I've almost been here 2 months which means I am almost half done. Time sure flies.

Prague

2009-10-04T13:24:00.002+01:00

As this is possibly my last chance to do some traveling before moving back to North America, I am trying to see as many places as I possibly can in the next three months while also completing all my work. I headed to St Andrews last weekend for the beginning of semester to get some paper work done and sort out loans, etc and instead of flying directly back to my town, I took a slight detour to meet up with my parents in Prague. They are over here in Europe for a month traveling around the Czech republic, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, etc. I flew Ryan Air which is a cheap way to fly in Europe (although not the nicest) and I've never had a problem with them..... until now. I usually fly with just carry-on but because I took my laptop, I was over the weight restriction for carry-on and had to check my bag. Somewhere in between Edinburgh and Prague (via Frankfurt), my camera was stolen out of my bag by the baggage handlers. Needless to say, I'm not very happy, partly because it's my own fault for not moving it to my carry-on when I checked my bag. Oh well. Lessons learned I guess. Now I have to buy a new camera here in Germany and hopefully will be able to understand the instructions and everything. I guess that will help with the learning German program!

Prague itself was a great time. It was nice to explore a city with other people, especially for the evening since I usually travel alone and rarely explore cities at night by myself. We didn't see nearly as much stuff as I usually pack into days when I'm traveling, but that too was nice, since it was much more relaxing than normal and since there wasn't anything I was dying to see, we just sort of explored whenever we felt like it and for as long as we wanted. We went to some of the major sites, like the Palace in New Town, the Jewish quarter in Old Town (and all the cute shops around there), and the citadel which boasts the earliest settlement in the area. The Jewish quarter blew my mind, in part because it was originally planned as a museum of the "extinct" Jewish tradition following their extermination by the Nazis in WWII. However, things did not turn out for them as planned and it is now a sort of memorial to the holocaust but also a beautiful representation of the traditions and cultural practices of the Jewish people. I learned a ton about marriage and burial practices along with all the religious practices. Stuff I've only come across in passing but didn't really know much about. Our last full day we headed up to the citadel and went to the national cemetery which has some of the richest and most famous Czech people buried there, including Dvorak (sans accents). Quite a different experience from the Jewish cemetery the day before.
I really love Eastern Europe and wish I had more time to explore more parts of it, but I guess I have to save that for later. All in all, a good time but by the end, I was starting to get anxious and needed to get back to work. I know, I know, a sad life I lead. So now I have about a week and a half, touring around Germany with my parents and trying to finish this paper, then off to South Africa!!!

The sad thing of course is that with my camera gone, I have no pictures of Prague. My dad took a bunch and has put them on his website, so if you are interested, either email him or send me a message and I will send you the link.

The life of the academic

2009-09-15T14:14:00.002+01:00

Don't let any one tell you the life of the academic is for the faint of heart. Not only are you never sure exactly where you are going to be in 6 months, or a year, or 5 years, but you also go through stages where everyone wants everything from you all at once or at least a bunch of stuff you might be working on all comes to a head all at the same time. Unfortunately, you never see it coming, even if you are super organized like I am, it just sort of happens and all of a sudden you are buried under, at least in my case: my THESIS, two conference papers I am giving in the next two months, job applications, research proposals, abstracts, book reviews, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Afterall, I did sign up for this and well, it's all a part of the game. I'm just thankful I'm not teaching this semester or I would be a disaster. Unfortunately, this means I have been living in Germany for two weeks now but have not really seen anything other than my office and my flat. It's probably good that there aren't really people around at the moment as well, as it means that I have nothing better to do than work in my office all day and am getting tons of work done. I've pretty much got my life set up here, bank accounts, phone, etc. but I fear that the next 3 months are going to go by like crazy. I'm not speaking German nearly as much as I hoped, but I guess I have other things to concentrate on at the moment. At least all this craziness keeps me out of trouble ;)

I'm heading back to the UK for a weekend to help with orientation and get some admin stuff done. I look forward to the visit but it will be weird as most of my friends have all moved away and I will be in the department with all the new postgrads all of whom I will not know nor will there be time for them to get to know me. I guess it's the end of an era and time to move on. From there, I head straight to Prague to meet my parents. I'm looking forward to another adventure and a chance to see a little more of Europe before I head back to Canada. Their visit will also give me a chance to see some of Germany that I probably won't have time to see. I'm looking forward to a little holiday but will probably have to do some work in there as well.

Well, that's all for now. I figure I should at least try to update this a little more regularly than I have in the past but unfortunately, that probably means more discussions of the joys of my office rather than anything exciting...

DEUTSCHLAND!!!!

2009-09-02T09:30:00.002+01:00

I have arrived safely in Germany. My epic trip began at 3:30 in the morning when my friend H was kind enough to drive me to Edinburgh so I could catch my plane. Edinburgh – London Heathrow – Frankfurt all went smoothly. I was making my way through Frankfurt, following signs to the Bahnhof (train station) when I woman came up behind me and said “parlez-vous français?” Well, needless to say I was a little taken aback, but without a moment’s thought said “oui” then helped her with her question. So needless to say, my brain automatically went into French mode and I spent the rest of my journey through the airport trying to get French out of my head and remember the little German I do know so that I could at least try and communicate with people when I saw them.

I found my train with no problem, and I feel like I need a little aside about German trains. First, they are always on time. If it says the train is getting in at 15:33 and leaving the station at 15:35 it will get in at 15:33 and leave right at 15:35. Second, on the sign announcing the next train at the station there will be a little picture explaining exactly where each car on that train is and where they will stop on the platform. This is quite a novel concept compared to British trains, which are never labelled, never stop at the same platform, and aren’t even in order (the worst I think might have been C,F,A,B,H,D). Third, the trains always leave from the same platform. If you are going to Munich, then you should stand on platform 5 at the station at Frankfurt airport. Always. Fourth, they are clean. The toilets work, the doors close, and you don’t end up sitting on gum or someone else’s lunch. Finally, and this is something about European (and British) transit in general, it was so easy to get from the airport to where I needed to go! My experience in Canada is that you basically need a car or have someone drive you (or take a cab). There is rarely any public transport that takes you to and from the airport easily (although there are some exceptions). At Frankfurt, I got on a direct train to my town. Granted not all trains go through the airport, but those that don’t, you just get on the train (at Terminal 1 at the airport, you can even take the trolleys with your luggage on them right down to the platform), it takes about 15 minutes to get to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) and from there you can get pretty much anywhere.

Ok, so where was I. Oh, right, the train. So, I’m sitting on the train, I have my baggage all nicely stowed and a family gets on a sits right in front of me. And guess what language they were speaking. French! So for my two and a half hour train journey all I heard was them speaking French to each other. So by the time I reached my town, I couldn’t remember any German at all, and really wished that Germany’s language was French not German.

So, once in town, I hit my only problem for the whole trip. There were no taxis outside of the Hauptbahnhof. Thankfully, the place I am living is right off the tramline and I had been there before so I remembered how to get there. Got settled into my accommodation (it’s pretty much a dive but I’m only here for 4 months and it comes with furniture, bedding, towels, etc. Kind of like the place I lived in when I was in Toronto minus the cockroaches) and then headed out to pick up some groceries and other household stuff.

Today, I headed out to the Kolleg to meet with the professor I will be working with, my supervisor (who is also here), and get settled in. The German research council was doing an audit of the Kolleg and so when I showed up, the place was a little crazy. I got to sit in on the first half an hour where the professors got to describe the Kolleg and the project being run there (in German of course). I caught little bits of it, but they spoke a little too quickly for me. If only life came with subtitles. Then one of the PhDs associated with the project took me around, introduced me to one of the secretaries, and got me my keys, showed me the computer lab and my office. I have my own office! (although I will have to share it with one other student once the semester starts), right in the Kolleg with my very own computer, albeit with a crazy German keyboard that takes some getting used to. (this means that I probably won't be able to post any pictures for the next little bit until I can figure out how to connect my lappy to the internet). So I pretty much have my own space and having met with one of the professors, it sounds like there is a lot of stuff going on. I’m quite looking forward to these next four months even if I’ll be a bit lonely for the first month until semester starts. It’s about 30 degrees at the moment here and unfortunately, because I could only bring so much stuff, I’m a little limited in my summer clothes. It’s just too hot at the moment, and I’m quite looking forward to the autumn and winter...

My town is in Eastern Germany but some people have at least a little English. I bought a new SIM card for my phone today with a nice mix of half German/half English as neither the saleswoman nor I spoke the other language very well. Tomorrow’s job: Opening a bank account. I’m sure my German is going to get exponentially better over the next four months!

The last days of summer

2009-08-25T13:58:00.002+01:00

I arrived safely back from Canada, but suffered from the worst case of jet-lag yet. You'd think by now, I'd have this down to an art but apparently not. In my semi-braindeadness I ended up having some problems downloading my pictures onto my computer and partly through user error and partly through Picasa crashing I lost half my vacation pictures. I'm pretty bummed about it but in the end, I guess they are just pictures.

I have one week left in St Andrews. It's a time of packing, frantically writing, buying tickets, sorting out administrative stuff, etc. before I leave the country. I have acquired a problematic number of books over my time here and even though I have taken about 40 kg of stuff back to my parents house on each trans-Atlantic flight, I still have to ship stuff. Ugh. At some point in my life I hope that my belongings and I will all be on the continent. Alas, at this point, it's just not meant to be.

These last few days will find me living in the office. I want to have a complete draft of my thesis done before I go, and I have to get started on these two papers I'm giving this fall. Plus there is always job applications. (Man, these blog postings are all starting to sound the same). Summer has not really come to Scotland. Some days are nice, but it's still chilly. This is especially noticeable in the office where it is on average at least 5 degrees cooler than it is outside. Today, I wandered around the town in just my t-shirt. At the moment, I am huddled in the office, with my jacket on, contemplating whether I should turn the space-heater on and looking forward, with some anxiety, to the next adventure.

10 months planned

2009-07-30T22:32:00.002+01:00

I am back in Canada at the moment, having been to one wedding, another one coming up this weekend, and my high-school reunion the middle of August. Canada has treated me well so far, the weather is hot, the Pacific Ocean is cool, there have been far too many babies and kids around, but all in all, it's been a good vacation. This trip has also helped secure a couple more months of my future. As it stands at the moment, I will be in Germany from September to December, working on my thesis, giving papers in South Africa and Sweden, and hope to submit right before Christmas. Then I head back to Canada to spend Christmas with the family, down to Orange County for the huge Classics conference right after New Year, then off to my new digs in Victoria for 6 months starting January.

What's this, you say. The Ancient Historian is heading back to her mother-land and finally moving back home. Well, yes, the rumours are true. My undergrad supervisor has hired me to help him on the book he is currently writing (and possibly also an article). So it looks as though I will not be heading back to the UK (at least for the next year). I'll still have to defend my thesis and stuff so I will probably head over there for a week or so a couple of times to do some administrative stuff but at least for the next 10 months, I will be elsewhere. In part, I am quite excited to be working on a major research project that is not my thesis, and learning other aspects of my chosen career path, but alternatively, it's going to be so weird to move back to Canada. Don't get me wrong, I do love Canada, but I've been away for so long it will be weird to try and get use to the Canadian way of life again and to come back to my undergrad institution, work with professors that knew me when I was just a little undergrad and friends who all have "real lives" now and yet have remained in and around Victoria. I'm ansy, but who knows what will come up next. This is only for 6 months and I will still be applying for jobs pretty much everywhere so after the 10 months is up, who knows where I will be. And of course, I still have 4 months of adventure in Germany to get through first.

The life of a grad student: Never boring, always up in the air, and always contains a healthy amount of uncertainty. You really just have to sit back, enjoy the ride, and hope that at some point, you'll end up exactly where you are meant to be...

The end of an era?

2009-07-14T12:31:00.003+01:00

As I've spent the last couple of weeks packing up my life here in Scotland, I've started feeling a little strange that my time here has almost come to an end. As soon as I got back from Rome, I moved out of the flat that I had lived in for the last two years. Our lease was up and since I didn't really know where I was going to be, I ended up not getting another flat here, but instead crashing in a friend's spare room which she so graciously offered to me. I've been basically living out of suitcases for the last month, trying desperately to finish the final chapter of my thesis, and get everything sorted out. About two weeks ago, I was ready to go! Most of my closest friends had moved away, the town started filling up with tourists, and I had a number of frustrating circumstances that I was dealing with. I sort of just wanted to run away and hoped that would solve the problem. But I stuck it out, and the last 2 weeks have been amazing. Unfortunately, I am now leaving in 2 days, for about 5 weeks in Canada, then back here for 10 days to really get my stuff together, then off to Germany. Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to the next adventure, but at the same time, this town has (at times) been really good to me. It's comfortable, known, and easy. Germany will be amazing, but at the same time, I fear that I will feel isolated as my German is not nearly as good as it should be. I'm scared of not being able to finish my thesis on time (as 5 months will probably fly, especially since I am giving a paper in South Africa in October that will take away from thesis writing time). I guess I shouldn't get too sad yet since, as it stands at the moment, I will be back here in Scotland as of February to defend my thesis, do any corrections, and just try and find a job. But that's equally scary. With so much uncertain, it's kind of like crossing a river with the hope that the bridge you are in the process of building will hold lest you get swept away in the current. I'm told that everything will work out as it should, but that's not always the kind of comfort I need at the moment. I don't do well with uncertainty and the fact that I'm almost to the point where I will be out in the real world is kind of a scary thought, especially when I've become so good at being a student. This is the world I know. I guess academia is not much different once you transfer over to the professor side, but it will still be quite a change, one that I look forward to, but with a healthy sense of fear.

This post has been a bit of a ramble, but this is the turmoil of my life at the moment.

An update on my future

2009-06-15T14:37:00.004+01:00

While I was in Rome, I got some exciting news. I got an email back from the DAAD and I have received funding to be in Germany from 1 September - 22 December. So, it looks like I'll be moving to Germany for the fall. It's pretty exciting but slightly scary, partly because I basically have 2 and a half months to get all my stuff organized and sort out the logistics of moving (and will also be in Canada for one of those months) and partly because I'm going to be moving to a country where I don't really speak the language. I mean, I can get by, but it's going to be very interesting trying to find somewhere to live and sort out bank accounts and such. I guess this constitutes a serious adventure. The town is in what was previously Eastern Germany and was not really damaged at all during the war (and thus looks pretty much like it did in the 16th and 17th centuries). It's slightly bigger than the town I live in now, and because it's in the East, the cost of living is quite cheap (something I am very much looking forward to).

It's kind of a relief to know that I at least know where I will be and what I'll be doing up until Christmas but it's weird to be packing and trying to move everything (I'm also in the process of moving flats at the moment) and as much as there are certain aspects of my town that drive me crazy, it is kind of strange to think that I won't be living here anymore as of September... (eek, look at me. I'm already starting to get nostalgic).

Roma!!!!

2009-06-14T14:39:00.005+01:00

I have just returned from my epic 12 day journey through the world of the Romans. There is no way I can describe everything I did here, or give my experience justice, but I figured I should at least make an attempt and picking out some of the highlights.

I had been trying to get to Rome for years but had never quite made it, and when I was on the plane, I started to get really worried that I had built up the city so much in my mind that it would end up being a bit of a let down. Well, never fear, my faithful readers, Rome is amazing although the modern city itself is quite disgusting. And maybe I should briefly summarize my experience with the modern city: First, Italians are disgusting and self-centred. They throw their rubbish wherever they are, there is no recycling, and everyone smokes (which means cigarette butts are everywhere because of course, they never use rubbish bins). On the train out to Pompeii, I saw an entire family unwrap and eat a number of cookies, the just toss all the wrappers out of the train window. Gross! You are not allowed to smoke inside buildings anymore, but that rarely stops anyone. When I was at Termini (the main train station) I saw a guy smoking right under the No Smoking sign with two cops standing pretty much right beside him, doing nothing. He then just threw his butt onto the floor of the train station and walked off. Second, there is graffiti everywhere. I was half surprised not to find it on any of the Roman ruins but they are the only things that are immune from being spray painted. It means the whole city kind of feels like a slum which then sort of opens up into these beautiful piazzas with amazing architecture and incredible ruins. This makes it a very schizophrenic city. Third, there are street vendors everywhere, trying to sell you all kind of stuff (umbrellas when it rains, sunglasses and hats when it's sunny). This means you can't really walk anywhere without people just pushing stuff in your face and trying to scam you into buying stuff. Finally, as a woman traveling alone, you can expect to be accosted on a regular basis, by very forward Italian men. I wanted to sit and read my book in the park on my second last day and well, needless to say, I was not alone for long and basically had to lie and say that I was late to meet a friend for lunch so that I could get away.

Other than these few negatives, the city is pretty cool. Most of the little cafes sell pizza by weight and it is absolutely amazing. I pretty much just ate pizza the whole time I was there. Also, you can drink on the streets and there is nothing better than grabbing a piece of pizza and some beer and going to sit by a fountain somewhere in the middle of the afternoon! All the fountains have drinking water spouts so there is always clean, fresh water around. The city is also extremely walkable and I was pretty much walking 8-10 hours a day and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city, wandering around museums and sites and relaxing in the sun.

So, moving on to the ancient stuff. Again, I saw far too much to go into detail here but I can basically summarize my 5 favourite sites of Rome:

1) Pompeii. This doesn't actually count as it is down by Naples but was definitely the highlight of my trip. A town that basically experienced a sort of "sleeping beauty" effect, the entire town was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. This means that most of the town was preserved (including food, paintings, and creepily enough, the bodies of those who couldn't get out in time). This picture is of a temple to the goddess Isis, and rarely do we find temples so well preserved (at least those which were not turned into Christian churches). The paintings are also amazing, and the houses, and well everything. I spent an entire day there and would go back in a heartbeat.

2) Ostia: This was the port town for Rome (since Rome was not a coastal city). The ruins of this town are very similar to those in Pompeii (most buildings survive to at least the first level). It was not buried in an eruption but just sort of abandoned and then forgotten as the coastline changed. There are only some wall paintings but the cool thing about this town is that it was a working-man's town and most of the residences are the ancient equivalent of apartment buildings which is quite a contrast from the amazing private homes found in Pompeii.

3) The Vatican: The museum collections at the Vatican are truly amazing and the views from the top of the dome of St Peter's basilica are breath-taking. However, I was really torn by the incredible collection of stuff there, and the reality of how the Church got all this stuff and how it is hording it (and also charging an arm and a leg to go see it). There is no where near enough space here for me to go into detail about all of this so I'll just leave it at that. If you are feeling brave (and have about 2 hours of spare time) feel free to ask me about it sometime.

4) The Roman Forum, Palatine and Colosseum: These three sites are put together here in part because you basically buy one ticket to get into all three. This picture is taken from in front of the temple of Divus Iulius looking through the open space of the forum towards the Capitoline hill (with the back of the Capitoline museum in the background). The only thing that ruined this experience was the weird modern art (you can see the 3 gleaming white pillar things on the right of this photograph) that litters the site. No idea why the Italians would put this stuff in here and it totally takes away from the coolness of the site, but oh well. I thoroughly enjoyed walking through these areas (especially since I knew exactly what I was looking at) whereas a lot of the people I talked to while there found these sites super frustrating as nothing is really labeled. I kept interjecting into people's conversations as they were wandering in order to correct their information and provide them with some insight. It was weird and I tried not to do it too often but some people were so blatantly wrong that I couldn't just walk by.

5) The Crypt of the Capuchini: Not Roman and not something I had heard of before I came to Rome. A friend that I met up with there took me on our day of adventuring. The crypt is divided into 5 chapels all of which are decorated with the bones of 4000 monks who died between the 16th-19th centuries. It is amazingly done but at the same time kind of creepy. Definitely not for the faint of heart but a must-see as there is really nothing else in the world like it. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside but I found a link to a video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlK0frpbh5s

So, that was pretty much my trip. I pretty much saw everything I had planned on (except Hadrian's villa at Tivoli because it is really awkward to get to by public transport) but I by no means saw everything and will definitely have to go back. And of course, there is no way I could put even a fraction of my pictures here (I took over 1100) so I will be putting up a bunch on my picasa web site in the next couple of days as I sort through them.

My future is still uncertain, but...

2009-05-24T12:23:00.002+01:00

I have just arrived back from the conference in Canada and my paper went over really well. I got asked some excellent questions and it sparked quite a good discussion during the question period. I left Vancouver feeling really inspired and ready to get back to work. Unfortunately, I'm inspired to work on one of my other projects rather than finish my thesis. ugh. So, I am now forcing myself to sit in my office on a Sunday and try and get this section finished. The end is sort of in sight which almost makes this all harder.

The day before I left for Canada, I received confirmation that I have been recommended for the DAAD fellowship. This is a fellowship for me to live in Germany and work with some scholars there. I don't yet know how long I am going for (I should receive that email in the next 2 weeks or so), but I will be heading to Erfurt for at least part of the fall. This town is slightly bigger than the town I live in currently in the UK and is basically just south of Berlin and to the East of Frankfurt. I went to a conference there in my first year and will be working with two of the experts in my field at the moment. Also, conveniently, my supervisor is also in Erfurt for the year as is another one of the PhD students here. My German is not great but I guess I will have to pick it up quickly. I'm quite excited about this opportunity and we'll have to see how all this pans out.

In the near future, I am heading to Rome a week from today having finally been able to organize my plans for this. I'm super excited and it should be a good trip even though I feel as though I have to see everything, plus I have some pictures to take for my thesis and teaching and such but I look forward to getting out of my town and having a nice little adventure.

I think that's pretty much it for me at the moment. Heading back to Canada for my yearly summer month visit for part of July and August, although this year it won't be nearly as relaxing as it normally is, as I will have to bring a ton of work back with me. O well, the life of the grad student...

Spring Update

2009-04-06T12:47:00.002+01:00

Well, I've started hearing back from things that I've applied for for next year. Unfortunately so far the news has not been good. Although, I was kind of ready for the rejection since most of the things I applied for were definitely long-shots, it still feels like I've been dumped twice in the last couple weeks, but I guess this is the nature of what I do and is something I have to get used to. I didn't get short-listed for the lectureship which replaces my supervisor as he is going on leave for the next three years. I did have a great meeting with him and he gave me some very good positive feedback on my application. Really, the only thing I am missing right now is my PhD in hand so I guess I should really get on that!

I also applied for a fellowship in Rome, in which I was competing not only against other PhD students but also professors, post-docs and the like so it is no surprise that I didn't get it. It still kind of sucks but to make myself feel better I bought cheap flights to Rome for part of June so I look forward to a nice little vacation once all my teaching is done (although the reason why I am going is to do a bunch of research but it will still be nice I think).

I haven't heard back from anyone else yet but I should hear from everything else in the next month or so. So as it stands, my future is still uncertain, which is kind of exciting, but I'm now to the point where I really just want to know!

Other than that, nothing else new here. Most people have gone away for the Easter Holidays so I am alone in the office with the radio blasting classical music trying to get my chapter and my paper for the CAC finished.

The joys of PhD life!

A New Year, and much of the same

2009-02-15T09:41:00.002Z

My year thus far has looked much the same as last year. I'm busy slugging away on THE THESIS, proof-reading like mad, making some corrections, and adding in a bunch of stuff that I didn't have the first time around. It's going well, but I have gotten to the point where, unless I have a permanent full-time job lined up for September, I will be submitting sometime in the fall (this is so I remain a full-time student for the next academic year so I don't have to pay off my student loans for another year. I know, I know, I'm being cheeky, but at the same time, my current situation does not lend itself to paying an extra $600 per month.

I'm teaching a bit (Roman stuff so stuff I actually know something about, unlike last semester), but my main goal is to go see as many places as I can while I still live in Europe. I think it's crazy that I've lived here for almost 3 years and have never made it to France, or Spain, or Italy. That last place is even more difficult for me since that is what I study but every time I make preliminary plans, something comes up (most recently, I was going to go for my spring break, but that would mean I would be in Rome for Holy Week, which would not be conducive to me actually getting research done!).

I've just heard that I will be giving a paper at the Canadian Classical Association meeting in Vancouver in May. Hopefully, this will get my name out there on the other side of the pond, and will help with job prospects, but at the same time, I just really enjoy talking about my research and getting stuff out there so I am looking forward to seeing what's happening in the Canadian Classics world.

A brief update

2008-10-27T07:38:00.003Z

I know, I know, I know. I have forgotten about this blog and all of my loyal followers who use this as a way to find out what I've been up to. The joys of going into the "last" year of a PhD means that I am busy with re-writing, editing, and completely throwing out most of what I've written over the last 2 years. But at least it is all starting to come together in some kind of cohesive whole. Scary.

Since my last update I have actually spent most of it elsewhere. I went back to Canada for my yearly month visit. Some of which was good, other parts of it not so much. It's weird to go back to a place where all of your friends still are and realize how much they haven't changed, but you have, or that they have changed in a way you would have never expected. I had some great coffee times with some old friends where it felt like I never left, so really, I was all over the spectrum.

After Canada, I was back in the UK for all of 6 days, then off to Bulgaria to be the "plus one" for a friend at a wedding. It was quite a neat experience, being adopted into a Bulgaria family for 10 days, getting to see the countryside and the "off-the-beaten-track" parts of Bulgaria. It is an amazing place, although I don't know if I'd go just as a tourist. The part that made my Bulgaria experience so great was actually hanging out with Bulgarians and seeing how they live. Wandering around in the major cities just reminds you of any other eastern European city.

After the Bulgaria adventure, I've pretty much stayed close to home. I spent the end of the summer trying to get on top of all my work before the school year started. And I am now at the point where I am doing a lot of re-reading of stuff from my first couple of years, tutoring for three different courses (all three of which are out of my comfort zone), and starting to ask the big questions about what's next. It's a scary thought. I've started applying for lecturing jobs at a couple Universities and have been looking into research fellowships and the like as well. It's made me realize how comfortable I've gotten living here (and comfortable in the PhD lifestyle) that the whole idea of leaving is a little unsettling. At the same time, there are a number of things that I miss since I live in this weird little bubble and I look forward to spending some time in a slightly bigger place. But everything is up in the air. Kind of exciting to think that I really could be anywhere next year.

So what's in the immediate future for our Ancient Historian. Well, besides the mundane proof-reading and re-writing that I do every day, I will be heading off to Cyprus in a week and a half for a nice week vacation. I look forward to exploring another fun and exotic place and taking a well-needed break from my everyday life.

As always, I have at least some pictures for Bulgaria on my picassa site and hope to at least semi-keep up with this blog (although I know I always say that).

Oxford, a new Adventure

2008-06-15T09:34:00.002+01:00

One of my flatmates from last year has moved down to Oxford to continue her studies. This past week I decided to head down there on a "research trip" to go and visit (the library at my university is terrible and I had a bibliography of about 4 pages of books and articles I needed to look at). I had such high expectations of myself, I felt motivated and was going to spend my 4 days down there in the libraries, working. As it happens, I was too optimistic. I spent about a total of 4 hours in the libraries (and 20 pounds in photocopying) and spent the rest of the time, wandering the city, playing tourist, and enjoying the pubs. Not a bad time for a "research trip".

This trip to Oxford has convinced me of a number of things.
1) Where I am is exactly where I should be. My supervisor is amazing (a friend of mine at Oxford only gets to see his supervisor once a semester and she is thoroughly unhelpful if he needs her to look at anything for him), the department I work in is great, and I am surrounded by some amazing people.
2) Oxford attracts a very specific kind of academic and teaches in a very specific way (they only really hire their own, perpetuating this uber conservative approach to research with very little room for innovation).
3) The town I live in is like a little fairy world, or a bubble. I miss life in the city, cool restaurants, a music scene, etc. Not that Oxford is a huge metropolis but it does have a number of features that I really miss living in my little town.

Unlike my last trip to Oxford, this one was thoroughly enjoyable. E and I did all the touristy stuff: We rode on the tourist bus, went to Oxford Castle, Bleinhem Palace, a number of the colleges (we even had the chance to have a meal at Corpus Christi, and I'd have to say, even though it's Oxford, the hall food is just the same as hall food everywhere else), and drank at a number of pubs (the highlight being the Eagle and Child, where Tolkien, Lewis and the rest of the Inklings met up to talk about their work and their new worlds).

All in all it was a great trip. It was a nice vacation and now I feel overly inspired to get back to work for the week before I head back to Canada for a month.

I am a horrible person :)

2008-05-18T16:07:00.003+01:00

Yes, I know I haven't updated in a while. This year has been quite busy for me, and updating my blog has fallen to the bottom of my To Do list. As the semester winds down, and as I come to the end of my second year of my PhD, I've had some time to reflect on my time here. Also, I figure it's only fair that I at least fill people in on how I've been spending my time.

So, going back to my last post, or at least right after my last post. During the semester break (in January), a friend of mine from the department and I took a trip to Krakow. It was my first experience in Eastern Europe and I cannot recommend it enough. Poland was an amazing country to visit, and even though we went in January, the weather wasn't actually all that bad. We spent 5 days in and around Krakow, doing all the touristy stuff like wandering around the city, looking at all the cool architecture, visiting the amazing salt mines, and of course, going to go visit Auschwitz/Birkenau. Definitely an interesting experience and not one I necessarily want to go in here. But if you are interested feel free to ask me about it.

The new semester started in February and I found myself tutoring 3 sections. I thought it wouldn't be so bad since I was at least teaching Roman History (unlike the Fall semester when I was teaching Greek History, a subject I know very little about). The evening degree was fun, as always. The students are basically there because they are interested in the subject and so they actually do the reading and are engaged during class. My experience of my undergrad groups was not quite as good, but on the whole they weren't as bad as everyone said they would be. I had an interesting experiment because of my two sections, one was comprised entirely of guys, the other was all girls except 2. And the verdict.... The boys mostly came to class having done the reading, were engaged and wanted to discuss. Those classes ended up being mostly us just sitting around talking about the material. The girls on the other hand, rarely came prepared and were expecting me to just lecture them. Weird. Every time I said something they would all write it down in the notebooks. Very scary. I only hope I didn't say something stupid that will turn up in one of their essays in the future.

I also had the opportunity to give a paper at a conference at Yale. The conference was on "Provincials and Empire" which is basically what my thesis is on so I was quite excited to go. Plus, it's Yale.... The conference itself was good but it made me realize how much happier I am being in the British school system. A number of the students (who were all American postgrads) were still basically taking courses. It is not until well into the third year that they actually start doing original research, whereas in the British system, I've been doing original research since day 1. I don't want to sound snobby but because they haven't had the opportunity to do a lot of research the caliber is not quite what I'm use to. Most of the papers were just expanded term papers, not really adding anything new to the discussion, but sound in the research nonetheless. I guess I've just been pampered by spending a lot of time at British conferences. Also, they are petrified of talking to professors. I guess there's still this divide between professors and students. In the UK, in most cases at least, the professors treat you like colleagues and so talking to professors is not really intimidating for me anymore. Turned out quite well, since it meant I spent a lot of time talking to professors because everyone else was scared to. Also, I ended up being a bit of a rock star since everyone wanted to know how it was to work with GW (my supervisor). He's pretty famous in the ancient history world and so it was quite fun to shatter everyone's preconceived notions of what he is actually like based on his writing. All in all, it was definitely good times.

During the trip I spent a couple days with a friend of mine in Boston. I think that Boston is now on my favourite cities list. It's a great city, with so much history. I'd have to say I really enjoyed my time there.

So, as soon as I got back from my trip all the undergraduate essays were due, so I have basically spent the last 2 weeks trying to finish marking, get my chapter done, and submit my report for my second year review. Looking back, this year has been really good. I've accomplished a lot and learned a lot. I'm still enjoying my time in Scotland immensely although the next year will probably start being quite stressful as I will not only be trying to finish writing up my thesis but also starting to look for jobs. Eeeek!

Update

2008-01-08T13:14:00.000Z

Hi all,

I just wanted to send a quick message to say that I am far too busy at the moment to try and keep up with this blog. I have started posting my pictures on the previously mentioned photo website and will continue with that to keep you all at least partially in the loop. I may try and add more postings here when things calm down a little, but I can't make any promises.

Until next time.....

Nottingham

2007-11-14T13:16:00.000Z

I spent this past week down in Nottingham at a postgraduate conference. I was pretty stressed about it for the past month leading up to it, since I was giving a paper. A couple friends from the department and I went down on the Saturday morning and so had to get up about 4:00 am to catch the train. Needless to say, we were pretty overtired and giddy by the time we got to Nottingham around 1:30ish. The conference itself went quite well. I think my paper went well although I did get some questions I wasn't expecting. O well, it's all a learning experience. And I was sort of out of my league anyways since it was a literature conference and I am an ancient historian.
Some friends from my undergrad years are also going to school over here and were there so it was a great little reunion. And really, it's kind of fun to just get out of the town I live in and hang out with some other students from schools all over the UK. Plus, I'm glad I got the practice of giving a paper to people outside of the department. I even got the courage up to ask a question in one of the other papers (and that never happens).
The conference ended on Sunday afternoon and all my friends headed back to their respective schools. I, on the other hand, stayed in Nottingham where I met up with a friend from Calgary, her husband, her brother and his girlfriend. We stayed at her cousins house in Nottingham and had a great couple of days just hanging out. On Monday, we went to Warwick Castle and spent the whole day just wandering around the grounds. It was a great way of spending a day and the weather was beautiful!
It was really nice to get out of town this weekend and have a little vacation. I definitely needed it. Now, I'm back at home, madly trying to finish the chapter I'm working on and just getting back into the swing of things. I would definitely like to go and see more of Nottingham since there really is a ton to see and since I was only there for a couple of days (really just one full day to explore) I didn't get to see Nottingham castle, or Sherwood forest, or meet the sheriff of Nottingham... Perhaps another time.

As always, I've added only a few pictures here but have put all my pictures up on my website http://picasaweb.google.com/medea.colchis

Update after a long time

2007-10-05T08:21:00.000+01:00

First I want to apologize for my lack of blogging over the last couple of months. I started this blog with the intention of writing up all the exciting adventures I was having overseas, but then realized that I don't always have something exciting to write about. Also, as I get busier and busier, I find it more difficult to sit down and actually update. So, here's a quick update as to what I've been up to, and hopefully, when I head off on more exciting adventures I will be able to write and post some pictures...

I have moved into a private flat with J and another friend about 10 minutes from the centre of town. It is so nice to be out of the main area, especially when the tourists are around, and now with the students all back, it's nice to have somewhere to escape to. One of my flatmates has just opened a vintage clothing store here and so while she was getting everything organized, I spent many hours helping paint, move funiture, wash windows, etc.

I am still working two days a week in the deli in town. It's going well and it's nice to have a break from school on Sundays and Mondays. I am also teaching this year. The course is an evening course, first year, on Classical Athens. It's a continuing education type class so everyone in it is at least 20 years older than me, but they are great. They are super interested in actually doing the reading and contributing to discussion, which I here is generally not the case with the regular undergraduate courses.

As for school, I'm plugging away, working on a case study of Spain at the moment. I am also giving a paper at a conference down in Nottingham in November and hoping to give one at Yale in the spring. We'll see what happens.

Never a dull moment around here, but most of my everyday activities are not conducive to blog writing. In any case, I hope to be updating this more frequently now that I'm back into my regular schedule.

Adventures in the land of Maple Leaves and Beavers

2007-07-31T11:59:00.000+01:00

I spent the month of July back home in Canada visiting family, friends and attending 2 weddings. At final count, I was in 3 different provinces and 2 states, a total of 7 cities. Needless to say, it was crazy and not all that relaxing, but it was great to see people, visit and just travel around. My first stop was a week in Calgary, visiting my sister and brother-in-law. They have just bought a house and it was nice to just relax, sleep in and see some old friends. It was however, a little odd since I was in the town I grew up in, but no where near the house I use to live in. My parents sold their house this spring and have moved to Vancouver Island so it was quite weird to be in a place I am so familiar with, and yet be living somewhere so unfamiliar. It was sort of a family joke that when I came back to Canada there would be nothing familiar (my parents have a new house in a different province, a new car, my sister has a new house, etc...).
The next stop was Saskatchewan for the wedding of my God-sister. Saskatchewan gets such a bad rap because, well, it's flat... and it's farm country. But having spent a week there, I can honestly say it's absolutely beautiful. The people are excellent, the weather was fantastic (although a little too hot at times, 39 degrees for example). We had a great time and the wedding was lovely. Much laughter and fun to be had. It's always fun when my Godparents' family and my family get together.
After a brief stop back in Calgary for a day to recover, we were back on the road, heading for the coast. We had excellent weather all the way although, again, it was slightly too hot at times (39 degrees while stuck in traffic in Vancouver is not pleasant). The heat made the ferry trip from Vancouver fantastic and we spent the entire trip outside on the top deck. Finally after a 16 hour day, we made it to my parents new house. I love the location and look forward to visiting. It's great because you can just sit out on the back deck and watch the eagles and seals while drinking coffee and reading (or working on puzzle books). There's also the cruise ships heading up to Alaska and they live near a ferry dock. You can tell one is retired when the cruise ship horn sounds and everyone looks at their watches and says "oh, the 10:15 is running a little late today". It's a beautiful location but unfortunately there were too many jobs to do so there wasn't a lot of relaxing time. When I moved away from Victoria, I just packed up all my 6 years of stuff and carted it up to the house. I then of course had separate boxes of my childhood stuff in Calgary and my stuff that I took with me to Toronto. So, my job this summer was to go through all my boxes (as they are now all in one place) and organize what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to get rid of, and pack them all up again. It was kind of like Christmas in that I got to find all this stuff I forgot I had. It did take a while but I'm glad that I went through it all and organized everything.
We then headed off to San Diego for another wedding (we flew this time). We only stayed for the weekend so we didn't have that much time to explore. However, since the wedding was an evening wedding we did have most of Saturday to go and see some of the city. When we first got there we learned that the Dead Sea Scrolls were on display at the Natural History museum and so decided to spend our time there. The museum itself was quite amazing but the Dead Sea Scrolls were even more so. I figure that you have to take these opportunities when they arise because who knows when I will actually be in place where they are being displayed again. There were tons of people there but my parents and I had a really enjoyable experience.
After many hours sitting in airports (San Diego and Seattle) reading Harry Potter, I was back in Canada spending some time in Victoria. Having spent 6 years there, I had a number of people I wanted to see and spend time with and very little time to do it. We ended up planning an evening beach party and then headed out to my favorite pub. All in all, it was great to see everyone and find out what everyone has been up to.
I then headed back to my parents house for a couple days then headed from there to Vancouver to catch my plane back to Scotland. I ended up meeting up with another friend there for lunch while I waited for my flight, which was great! If only I would have had some extra time to hang out with people more but alas, it was not meant to be. Hopefully when I head back next summer things will be a little less crazy!
I'm now back in Scotland, trying to get caught up on everything I didn't do while I was away. It's good to be back and I'm now moved into my new flat so things should calm down a bit. I need some time to organize myself so no more big trips for a while. It was really nice to get away for a bit though. I definitely needed the time off. But now I'm refreshed and ready to go. Hopefully this chapter I'm working on right now will come together.

I'm hoping to have more pictures from my trip up on my picture website soon so you can see all the excitement! (picasaweb.google.com/medea.colchis)

Oxford

2007-06-24T12:47:00.000+01:00

My supervisor suggested that since I have a thesis plan and am part way through my second chapter I should go down to Oxford and speak with SP who is for lack of a better word, Mr. Roman Religion. He wrote his PhD dissertation on emperor worship in 1984 and revolutionized the way we think about ruler cult. I am also working on emperor worship but looking at it from a different angle. Still I was pretty excited about getting to go down and talk with him. At the same time, I was really nervous. After all, I'm just a lowly grad student and well, he's written a ton of books. So, off I went. F's mom lives down in Stratford-Upon-Avon and offered to give me a place to stay and take me into Oxford for my meeting.
After the 7 hour train ride, I arrived in Stratford, met F's mom and we drove to a friend of her's house in Oxfordshire, because apparently the traffic into Oxford can be terrible. The house was amazing. A converted barn with staircases everywhere. I think I may have only seen about half the house during my time there. As soon as we arrived, the two ladies set to work making dinner and would not let me help in any way. S asked me what I would like to drink and I said that some red wine would be nice. She said "excellent." pulled out two bottles of wine from the wine rack and made some comment about drinking through her ex-husbands assets. I only found out later that these bottles of wine were worth about 300 pounds (or probably about $700) each. We just sat around all night chatting and just having a great time. I was definitely well looked after.
We went into Oxford early the next morning and I spent the hour before my meeting just walking around the university gardens and tried to sort out what I was going to say. I headed to his college and found his room. The meeting itself was interesting. He is a very nice man and his office is exactly how I pictured it would be. However, he did not seem at all interested in what I was doing. I left the meeting feeling kind of like I didn't know what I was doing, or where I was going, or even if I should continue on the same line. (I have since spoken with a number of students who have all told me this is fairly common and that I shouldn't really worry about it)
After my meeting, I intended on heading to the library to do some reading and see if I could track down some books that I couldn't get at my university library. I had a letter from my supervisor stating who I was and that I should be granted access. However, the woman who runs admissions to the library was reluctant to give me a reader card and sent me through numberous hoops. After about half an hour, I convinced her that I was responsible, and vowed that I wouldn't bring fire into the library (there's an actual oath that you have to swear), and she finally caved and gave me a card. The classics reading room in the library is insane. It's massive and they have their own coding system so it is very difficult to find your way around or find what you are looking for. After about an hour, I was ready to get out of Oxford and head somewhere more friendly.
F's mom and I headed to Stratford for the rest of the evening. Her boyfriend grew up there so they took me on a little Shakespeare tour and showed me the town. It's a great little town with a neat mix of the old Shakespeare buildings (like his house, his grammar school, etc.) along with the old victorian buildings you find elsewhere in Britain, as well as some modern stuff thrown in. It's quite a nice mix. I ended up being a really nice change from the arrogance and snobbiness of Oxford.
All in all, it ended up being a good trip. I realized how glad I am that I am a part of a department that is very sweet and friendly and helpful (we're like a little family) and even though our library is not the greatest, at least it is usable.

I think that's all for now. I've been far to busy lately to update on a regular basis but I'm hoping that I will be able to update more frequently in the coming months, but no promises. (My laptop is broken, so I couldn't add in pictures, but I will try and add some in later)

After a long time....

2007-05-31T14:05:00.000+01:00

First, I must apologize. I know I set up this blog with the intention of keeping everyone up to date on my adventures and well, since I haven't written in a while, I guess I'm not doing a very good job.

So, update. Since I got back from Germany, I've been working a ton at the Deli, trying to get a chapter finished and trying to fit in some random adventures here and there. They have been little adventures (a day trip to Glasgow when J's friend from Spain was visiting, a couple trips to Dundee just for kicks) but mostly I've just been doing school work and working at the deli, neither of which makes for good blog entries. I did get my first chapter in the beginning of May, had my review meeting with the department (they have decided to give me money next year, don't know how much yet but at least it's something), and am currently trying to finish my second chapter before I head back to Canada the end of June.

I am also currently homeless. I have a flat for next year but can not move into it until the end of June, and since I finished my contract at the end of May for the postgrad residence where I was staying, I had to find somewhere to stay for June. I am currently sleeping on the floor of J's room but will be staying in a friend of F's house with F starting Sunday. I've been living out of a suitcase for the last week and it's been not so bad. After all, my rent for June is free, and you can't complain about free.

Work at the Deli has been good. It's nice to be making British pounds, and it at least keeps me from going insane from spending too much time in the library. It sounds like I may be teaching a bit next year so I'll have to figure out how to balance this all out.

I am heading back to Canada for July, for two weddings. I get to spend a couple of days in Calgary with my sister, then head out to Saskatchewan for a wedding, then head to the coast to my parents house, then down to San Diego for the other wedding, then back to the coast, then back to Scotland. I'm looking forward to a little break and will not be bringing any school work back with me. It will be nice to have a month of no school work and get to see people again. Should be fun!

I think that's all for now. I will try and update more frequently now that my life is starting to calm down a bit.

Germany Trip, last installment, Weimar

2007-04-14T18:19:00.000+01:00

After the conference, I headed about 15 minutes east on the train to the town of Weimar. I got off the train and basically had to find somewhere to stay and find my way around the town, since I hadn't really actually planned on visiting this town. I ended up getting the last bed in the cheapest hostel in town. It was great since it was right in the centre of town and I ended up in this nice 4 bed room. I really just needed somewhere to sleep so it was perfect. I spent the day wandering around (following the walking tour in my Lonely Planet book) and exploring. Weimar has this great park right in the middle of town, so I spent some time wandering around there. Plus it is a town that seemed to be the centre of the music and intellectual scene in Germany for a while, so big names like Goethe, and Bach were there for a time. You can walk by the front of Bach's house (it is now a car park) and Goethe's house (which is now an actual museum).

My second day in Weimar I went to Buchenwald which is the concentration camp about 20 minutes north of Weimar. This time, I took myself on my own tour. It was really good. I showed up when it first opened so I was pretty much the only person there, which was kindof creepy but good because I don't like being in museums and stuff with big crowds of people. It was a beautiful day which is a little weird when you are walking around a place like this. I'm glad I went on the tour in Berlin because I knew what to look for here. And each camp sort of had things set up that the other did not so I think that with the two camps I got a pretty good feel of how these camps were set up. I'm really glad I did these tours, this is something that I've been meaning to do for a while so I'm really glad I got a chance to go this trip. There are a couple other ones I would like to see but that will have to be on another trip.

So, that was pretty much my trip. I left Weimar pretty early on the 31st to get back to Frankfurt. I hung out for a while in the airport and bought an Asterix book in German to practice. I arrived in Glasgow at 9 and decided that I really was going to try and catch the last train so had to catch a cab from Glasgow Prestwick to downtown Glasgow for 50 pounds. Then the train to Dundee for 10 pounds. I missed the last bus from Dundee to my town so had to get another cab for 25 pounds. So, that last leg of my journey cost more than my plane tickets to Germany. Crazy.

So, to recap.
Hours spent....
On airplanes: 3.5
In airports: 15
On trains: 11
number of Bratwurst consumed: 5
number of cities visited: Glasgow, Frankfurt (although both of these were pretty much just the airports and train stations), Berlin, Erfurt and Weimar

Erfurt

2007-04-09T21:30:00.000+01:00

I woke up quite early on Saturday, the 24th of March so that I could catch an early train to Erfurt. I got to Erfurt again with no major problems (I love the German train system. It's way better than the British) and found my way to the accomodation booked for us by the conference organizers. The accomodation is a sort of student accomodation thing associated with the university but many of us at the conference liked to call it the "Cold War Palace" because honestly, it actually looked pretty scary from the outside (paint peeling off everywhere, these dingy windows.... unfortunately I didn't take a picture). I dropped off my stuff and then decided to spend the day exploring the town since I arrived a day early.
My Lonely Planet Germany book had a little walking tour laid out so I decided that would probably be the best way to see the town. I just sort of wandered, with my book, thus looking extremely like a tourist. Lots of people came up and spoke to me. They were all really nice. I spent my time mostly looking in Churches (this is the town where Martin Luther first preached and there are some amazing buildings). I ended up walking into one church while someone was having an organ lesson so I just sat and listened for a while. Amazing!
The town has this amazing cathedral on a hill which I had to of course go see. You weren't allowed to take pictures so I had to settle for a postcard. It really was an amazing building. It even still had all its icons on the outside which living where I do, is odd because all of the icons were smashed during the reformation here.
The walking tour finished in front of town hall and as I rounded the corner I heard music. A violist and a cellist were playing vivaldi in the square. Amazing! I sat and listened for about 15 minutes.
So, the conference.... well, it was great and I made some fantastic connections. I was talking with Richard Gordon (who is a huge name in Roman religion) and was whinning about these expensive books (about $100 per volume, it's 4 volumes) that I have to use all the time but are on short term loan at the library and its been really frustrating. He asked me for my address and said that he isn't using his copies right now so he would lend them to me. It was like meeting a movie star and now he's lending me books!!!! I know how nerdy that sounds but it is really awesome! Other than that, we just found some interesting brewpubs in town and just hung out. It really was a great time and made me even more inspired about my work. By the last day of the conference I really just wanted to head home and start writing. I got some really great ideas but we'll have to wait and see if they actually work in my research. Anyways, instead of heading back home I had one more stop... Weimar...

Berlin (Part 2)

2007-04-06T11:49:00.000+01:00

So, after a fun filled day of museums and touring I decided to spend my second day in Berlin at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It is found about 45 minutes (by U-Bahn, aka public transport) north of Berlin. This camp is one of the earliest and served as the SS training camp and model camp that most of the other camp were suppose to look like. I went on a guided tour of the camp with the same company that did the free walking tour of Berlin the day before. The tour was alright and I'm glad I did it considering this was my first trip to a concentration camp, it was helpful to have someone there showing me stuff that I wouldn't have known to look for. However, as I was with a large group, we can only move as fast as the slowest person, and well, there were a lot of people who were dragging their feet through places that I personally wouldn't have spent that much time in. This is the reason why I don't like going to museums and stuff with people. It was a neat experience though and I'm really glad I went. There is Solviet propaganda everywhere since they were the ones to liberate the camp in 1945. It's interesting, but also quite disturbing because most people then don't talk about the fact that the Solviets continued to use these camps much in the same way as they were used by the Nazis well into the 60s. I guess since they were on the "good" side during WWII it makes it ok (?).

I got back from the camp about 5:30ish and met with my Aussi buddy to go see the Holocaust Memorial. (why not do all this depressing stuff all in one day?) It is a very well laid out memorial and looks at the stories of Jewish individuals and families who lived under Nazi control. Very interesting. I had no idea that almost half of the Jews killed came from Poland and that there were very few from Germany itself. Perhaps this is because of the intensive emigration policy the Nazi had during the 30s(?). An interesting day to say the least.

After the memorial, we headed back to the hostel and met up with two americans who were also staying there (they were on vacation from their university in southern Germany where they are studying for the year). We headed off to a place called "White Trash" near our hostel which had been recommended to us by the tour guide. It was originally a Chinese restaurant which had been bought by a guy from France, a Brit and a German. Needless to say, they figured they couldn't cook Chinese food but wanted to keep the amazing decor so, you walk into this crazy oriental place and order burgers and stuff. Very weird. Apparently it is the place where all the young people (university aged) go to hang out and has live bands and such. A live band (playing some kind of english country music) was playing that night and by the time we left it was difficult to get out the door because the place was packed. It was a great way to end my time in Berlin and I got the chance to meet some really cool people. I've decided that I really do enjoy travelling alone. You never know who you are going to meet or what you'll do on a given day. All in all a really fun experience.

Berlin is an interesting city because so much rebuilding is going on right now. There are over 50 museums and since I only made it to 3 I definitely have to go back. Plus it will be really interesting to see how the city changes over the next 10 years. What a great place to start my travels and I think it was a really great city to introduce me to travelling alone. The people were really nice, helpful and enough people spoke English (and along with my very poor German) that I didn't have any problems communicating.

Berlin (Part 1)

2007-04-04T11:04:00.000+01:00

So I just got back from my 10 day adventure in Germany, and lets just say, I loved it. Germany is such a beautiful and amazing country. So much history, and yet so much rebuilding as well.

I flew from Glasgow to Frankfurt Hahn (which is about an hour and a half by bus outside of Frankfurt) and since my flight didn't get in till about midnight, I spent the night in the airport. Not a terrible experience and I would probably do it again if I had to but definitely not the nicest airport I've ever seen. There were a ton of people who were thinking along the same lines as I was, except they were much better prepared than I was since they had almost their own campsite set up on the floor, complete with sleepingbags, therma-rests, and pillows. I just found a little piece of disgusting floor and curled up with my bag, using my jacket as a blanket. Oh well. At least it was free.

I caught the first bus into Frankfurt in order to try and catch the 9:00 train to Berlin. Needless to say, my first impression of Frankfurt was not a pleasant one. Since the city was almost entirely destroyed during WWII, it's a completely rebuilt city but still looks disgusting with no atmosphere or pretty skyline or anything. I decided that I wasn't going to spend my last 2 days here and started thinking about somewhere else in Germany to go.

My trip to Berlin (and in fact all my travels) was uneventful. My German reading course proved helpful as I had very little trouble reading the signs and figuring out where to go, however, actually communicating with people was a little more difficult. I arrived in Berlin and had no problem finding my cute little hostel right in the heart of Berlin. It was within 10 minutes walking of pretty much everything that I wanted to see. Excellent. Plus, as soon as I showed up, another girl staying at the hostel also showed up. We chatted for a bit, she's from Australia and travelling for a year, and found out that all we both really wanted to do was spend our time in museums. Great! We spent most of the first day just wandering around, headed down to the Bombed out Church by Zoo Station and endulged in some "Street Meat" aka Bratwurst. Since I had not had a great sleep the night before, I ended up heading back to the hostel fairly early and went to bed.

A free walking tour of Berlin leaves from the hostel every day and so, I decided that this would be a great way to see the city, get my bearings, and then decide what I wanted to see more of. The tour guide was excellent, a PhD student in modern history, with some great stories. Unfortunately, the weather was absolutely miserable, freezing cold and raining, so that made the tour a little less enjoyable but all in all, it was great. I learned a lot, since I don't really know any modern history, and enjoyed getting a better feel of the city.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Berlin was to see the Pergamon Museum. When I went to Turkey, I saw a lot of empty spaces where triumphal arches, temples, altars, etc. should have been. The Germans who had excavated the area had taken a huge number of these large artifacts back to Germany with them. (Some with the Brits and the Britist Museum) So, off I went after my walking tour to see the "rest of Turkey" as I've taken to calling it. What an amazing museum. The main feature is the Great Altar to Zeus at Pergamon (below) which is absolutely incredible. I had no idea how big it was even though I've seen a ton of pictures of it. It's the first thing you seen when you walk in and the expression on people's faces when they first walk in is priceless. As much as I hate having people in my pictures, I'm kind of glad that there are some, just to give people a sense of the scale of this altar.

The rest of the museum is just as impressive and I spent a good chunk of my afternoon there. I then headed off to the Altes Museum, which is quite small but has a really neat room copied from the Pantheon in Rome. It has a great bronze head of Julius Caesar (with the eyes still in so it looks quite creepy) and some beautiful, and pretty famous mosaics.

My Aussie friend and I met up for Cocktails in the evening and then just got some doners and some chocolate and headed back to the hostel to regroup. It was an incredibly full day of seeing things, but amazing and made me realize that there are so many things going on in Berlin that there is no way you could see them all in one trip. Just means I'll have to head back there some day...

(I haven't put up alot of pictures here but of course all my Germany pictures are on my photo website under Germany, so feel free to check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/medea.colchis/GermanyTrip)

Edinburgh

2007-03-13T22:00:00.000Z

So, this past weekend, I finally made the trip to Edinburgh (ie, finally did something worth writing in my blog about). Quite surprising that I haven't been yet considering how close it is and how small the town is that I live in, but for some reason I just never really had the excuse to go. However, this past weekend there was a classics conference there and one of my friends from Victoria who is doing his PhD in Exeter was coming up for it. Since I haven't seen him in over a year, I figured I'd go, and just hang out in Edinburgh, see the city and then hang out with him in the evenings. Two other friends from Classics were heading to the conference as well so we made it a nice fun trip.
However, the organizer of the conference picked one of the worst weekends to host a conference. Not only was there a rugby match on that weekend (Scotland vs. Ireland) meaning that all the hostels were booked, but the trains decided to go on strike the day before (they came back on Friday morning but we didn't want to risk it so we took the bus). We all made it to Edinburgh ok and ended up staying with a friend in the department here who actually lives close to the University in Edinburgh so it worked out that we could stay with him.
So while all my friends were off sitting in a room listening about Roman oration, I got to go on some pretty exciting adventures. On Friday, I just ended up walking up and down the Royal Mile, trying to figure out what I wanted to spend my time doing. We met up for dinner at a pub sort of at the end of the main drag called World's End (beer kind of expensive, but definitely had some great pub food).
Saturday I caught a bus out of town and went and visited Rosslyn Chapel. It was the most amazing building I have ever been in. I've seen a ton of pictures and was aware of all the crazy stuff inside but nothing prepared me for actually being inside. I loved just spending the morning wandering around looking at all the cool iconography and crazy columns and stuff. Absolutely amazing, I can't even express in words what it was like. For those of you who are planning to come to this part of the world any time soon, I can't recommend this enough. The Chapel itself is on the side of this hill overlooking a gorgeous valley, so I hiked around a bit and wandered down to the castle ruins (which you can't get into unless you have an appointment). I then hopped back on the bus and headed back to Edinburgh.
I then spent the afternoon at the Royal Gallery of Scotland (although not too much time because modern (ie. not Roman) paintings are not really my thing) and wandering the castle. Of course, knowing me, I spent a good 3 hours just wandering around into every possible place I could see. Hung out in the Military museum for a bit and even saw scotland's crown jewels. It reminded me a bit of the Tower of London but with way less people about since it is not at all the tourist season right now.
I again met up with everyone after the conference to hear all about what they learned all day. Got to try a new place for beer and food and then we all headed back to our friend's flat for a Mario Kart competition on N64 as well as some GoldenEye.
Sunday consisted of hanging out in the Scotland national museum for the morning and then heading back home. Before leaving though I ended up wandering a bit around the University and found the department of Canadian Studies. Who knew? I love the fact that it shares its space with the department of African Studies (because these two countries are just so similar? Note the French, first place I've seen French in a long time.) (Alright, yes Africa is not a country, so ok, more differences, the study of a country with the study of a continent, well, I guess Canada is really big!)

By the early evening I was so beat, I ended up going to bed at about 10. I spent the whole weekend walking everywhere but it was amazing and a great chance to get out of my town, see some of scotland and take a little break from the PhD. I'm heading to Germany for a conference in less than a week and then will be trying to catch up on some of the PhD stuff I haven't had a chance to do over the last little bit. Never a dull moment (well, unless you think hanging out in libraries is dull)!

After a while

2007-02-24T15:57:00.000Z

So my life has been rather dull lately and I figured there was nothing really worth writing about. I now have a job working at a local deli. This is definitely a good thing since being an Arts PhD, it's difficult to find funding and I was getting pretty low on cash. It's a great place and I love it. I'm working about 20 hours a week so it's keeping me pretty busy with all my other spare time being spent in the library. I like to think of my job as my new hobby. It's keeping me sane at least.

Other than that, my life is the same old, same old. No exciting adventures. I don't have time. However, March should be interesting as I am giving a paper (or something) at our post-graduate seminar, am heading to Edinburgh, and am going to Germany for a conference. I have a ton of work to do before the 20th so, I probably won't be updating for the next little bit. I can't believe it's already the end of February. Time is just flying by and I'm worried that three years will be over before I know it and I won't have anything to show for the work I've done.

Anstruther

2007-02-03T14:40:00.000Z

Today was such a beautiful day, and since we've all been working pretty hard (and it's the weekend before the new semester starts) a couple of us decided to go on a bus adventure to Anstruther. It's a little town just across the North Sea from Edinburgh and like most towns here, it's a little fishing town that has the Scottish fishing museum along with a number of neat little shops and pubs. It is also well known for having the 2001-2002 winner of the best chippy in the UK (it is second place right now to a chippy in Cambridgeshire). And so, off we went, to explore the beach, eat great fish and chips and just get away from work for a while.

As most of you may know, I am a prairie girl and was born and raised to love steak and all things beef. I'm not a huge fan of fish or seafood even after spending 6 years on the west coast of Canada. However, I figured, since after all I am in Britain, the home of fish and chips, I should at least eat some while I'm here. And so, since I am apparently becoming more adventurous these days, I actually had fish and chips and they were amazing. The fish was nice and moist and the batter not too greasing and not too heavy. Perfect. Plus the chips here are really tasty especially with salt and vinegar. So now, that I've found out I like fish and chips (at least the ones from the second best chippy in the UK) I'm having a little identity crisis. I'm not sure if I'll be able to eat any others. Maybe they just won't be as good and I'll be disappointed. Below is a picture of J showing off our wonderful meal.

We spent the rest of our time there playing on the beach, playing on a swing set and walking along the pier. As we walked along the coast trail, there is a sign warning hikers to be quiet as you are walking beside a golf course. God forbid, we nature loving hikers distrub those yuppy golfers with their fake landscape and manicured grass. Only in Scotland..... (or maybe not).

Haggis, Haggis and more Haggis!

2007-01-26T13:40:00.000Z

I know I haven't been updating lately. Since I've been back, I've basically been living in the library trying to collect all the data I will be using for the next 3 years. It's consisted of me going through all the recorded Latin Inscriptions in order to find references to deified emperors as well as looking in the ancient literary sources and coins. A daunting task and one that is not quite finished but I met with my supervisor today and he seemed quite impressed with my progress. Things seem to be going well which is a nice little warm fuzzy after the stressful week I've put in.

Yesterday was Robbie Burns Night and I was invited to two parties. The first was a scottish friend of mine from the department who had a whole bunch of department people over to his flat for a nice dinner party. Everyone who came had to have a tartan so most of the guys dressed up in their kilts. They all looked fantastic. We didn't really do the whole traditional Burns' night thing (like the ode and the toasts; although the haggis was processed in), but there was haggis, potatoes, turnips, and lots of wine and whisky to be had. I am pleased to say that I really do enjoy haggis. It's actually quite tasty. Dessert consisted of fruit salad, shortbread fingers and this whipping cream, whisky, and honey concoction. Very enjoyable.

I ended up leaving his party early to head off to the party hosted by my flatmate in our building. I arrived just in time to help with the procession of the haggis and the reading of the ode to the haggis. So more haggis and fun to be had with the people in our residence. By this time I was getting a little tired and since I had to meet with my supervisor today, I left and went to bed. It was great to have two different parties with varying degrees of tradition. It was great fun to be a part of the celebrations.

Lunch yesterday was haggis (although I didn't go, I figured that was just too much haggis in one day), and with the two parties, there was definitely a great deal of haggis yesterday. I got to wear my kilt and well, just enjoy being in Scotland.

Christmas Adventures

2007-01-04T13:49:00.000Z

I know it's been a while since I last updated. With all the craziness of Christmas I ended up not having time many of the things I was hoping to accomplish. All the school work I brought back with me remained untouched. My parents and I ended up flying out to Ottawa on Christmas Day to spend the rest of the holiday with her and her husband. Good times had by all. We spent a couple days wandering around outside. Did a tour of the Supreme Court of Canada and of the Parliament Buildings. We walked beside the Canal (no skating this year since it's been to warm and it has not frozen yet). All in all, it was nice to have a little break and go back to Canada but at the same time I became quite homesick for Scotland. I love it here and really missed not being able to walk around town and randomly run into people. I'm now back and have thrown myself headfirst back into my work. You know you're doing something you love when you miss not being in the library everyday. Or maybe that just makes me a bit of a nerd. Either way, it's been great getting back to work after a nice break.

So, to summarize the holiday:
Number of hours spent on planes: 21.5
Number of inflight movies: 7
Number of Canadian cities visited: 4 (although two of those were just the airports)
Number of UK cities visited: 3 (those were all airports)
Modes of transportation used: Planes, train, buses, taxi, walking, car.
Number of books read: 3
Number of Chapters of German done: 1 (sort of, I'll have to go back and review. No where near what I was hoping to accomplish)

I have an online photo album set up with pictures from Christmas and some of my other earlier adventures so feel free to browse at your leisure. http://picasaweb.google.com/medea.colchis

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Home

2006-12-23T00:31:00.000Z

Since I'm now finally caught up on my sleep, I figured I should update again. The last week I was in Scotland was a little crazy with having to pack, meet my supervisor, attend various Christmas Concerts, and Christmas Parties. I ended up leaving Scotland on Saturday, with a full 24 hours of travelling to get from my little town to my parents house in Calgary. Needless to say, it was a long, tiring trip, with all my flights being delayed (for no apparent reason). No problems with customs or anything but had some interesting experiences in security. In Edinburgh, they hardly even looked at my passport and you don't need photo identification to get on a plane. They didn't seem concerned about my laptop or anything. Flying into Heathrow was also fine. Went through a quick passport check and then off to the large common waiting room for three hours waiting for that moment when your gate finally flashes up on the screen and you have about 20 minutes to run to your gate and get on the plane. Arrived in Montreal basically on time, had to clear customs (no I'm not bringing back firearms, or animals, or bees), drop my bag off, and head through security again. The one thing I learned this trip is that of all the airports, Montreal has the most rigorous security measures: No liquids at all (at Edinburgh and Heathrow certain amounts of liquid are allowed as long as they adhere to specific measures and are placed separately in a plastic bag); my laptop got tested for drugs, or bomb traces, or whatever they test for when they swab it; I had to take my boots off; and the security guy told me to take off my sweater, it has a zipper on the front but when I wear it I only wear a camisol under it so there is Medea, standing waiting to go through the metal detector in her socks, trousers, and a little white tank-top. A little embarrassing but hey, by this time I just really wanted to get on the plane and go home. So, what did we learn from this little experience... Apparently, Canada is not going to have any terrorists flying on domestic flights but international flights are still wide open. Way to go team!

I arrived in Calgary about midnight, so I basically went straight to bed and woke up at 10 the next day with no jetlag. Hooray for me. I've now spent the last couple days finishing up my Christmas shopping, meeting some friends that still live here, running errands with my mom, and trying to do some of the school work I foolishly brought home with the intention of completing. Maybe I should just forget about it and relax but honestly, I dragged my german textbook and dictionary all the way here, it would seem a shame to not open it.

Only two more days here, then off to Ottawa to visit my sister. 5 people in a two bedroom apartment should make for a cosy Christmas. I look forward to seeing her since visits are becoming more and more sporadic these days (I guess it doesn't help that I moved to another continent). And I get to get on another plane... at least I'm now a professional security clearer. My trip back to Scotland should be less crazy since I am taking an almost direct flight to Glasgow, then a train and a bus. Hopefully it won't be 24 hours of travelling but one never knows.

Hope you all are having a great Christmas wherever you are!

Birthday

2006-12-13T12:04:00.000Z

It was my birthday yesterday, and some friends from the department decided to decorate the little area in the department library I like to call my second home. It was great. I walked into the library yesterday morning at 9 to find a big banner, chocolates and an assortment of my favourite classics books. Most of my friends had lots of work to do, so I spent most of the day reading fun books (I just finished Thomas Harris' Red Dragon and have started on Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers). I went out for coffee twice and headed to my favourite pub for a pint.

At around 7, I went over to S's house for a party that some friends had planned. It was great. This is probably the first birthday party in about 5 years that I didn't have to plan myself. Back during my undergrad years, 2 of my close friends and I all had our birthdays within 5 days of each other, so we always had a big wine and cheese party but because I had the best house for parties, I always seemed to be the host. This year, I didn't have to do anything. I didn't even want to know what we were doing, I just showed up when they told me to. It was quite an assortment of people since there was the normal group of people I hang out with, plus friends from the department, and then also some people I live with. All in all good times had by all (at least I think so).

I'm heading back to Canada for Christmas and I think it's going to be weird. I've been here for three months and I'm now just going back to visit for a couple weeks before heading back here again. Strange. It will also be weird being back in a big city again. I've gotten so use to walking everywhere, it's going to be hard to have to drive everywhere. I'm looking forward to the break though, and it will be good to visit with people that I haven't seen in a while and just sit curled up in a comfy chair with some tea and read (and of course work on German, no vacation for the PhD student).

Christmas is coming!

2006-12-09T21:01:00.000Z

It's been a little crazy here over the last couple of weeks as the term winds down and people get ready for Christmas. There have been numerous formal events, theater shows, musical performances, plus having to finish all the school work before Christmas.

Three of my friends are here on Rotary Scholarships and there was a formal Rotary ball last night. I ended up going with my friend F. It started with a drink reception, then moved into a dinner and was finished by a traditional scottish dance (ceilidh, pronounced K-A-L-EE). It was great fun. I got to talk with lots of very nice Scottish men who reminded me of my Grandpa, learn some interesting information about my town, and learn some crazy scottish dances (kind of like square dancing but not). It was an extremely formal affair with men in tuxes (although most were in kilts) and women in evening wear. I had a lot of fun. It was like being at a wedding except everyone stayed till the very end (about 1:00am). The Scots sure know how to throw a party.

I go back to Canada in a week for Christmas holidays and am trying to get a bunch of stuff done. My latest big project is sorting out funding for next year. Not a very fun time. I hate looking for money and trying to convince people to give it to me but I guess I'll have to get use to it since that is the life of academia. I've been a little sick all week and yesterday I lost my voice. It hasn't yet come back and it's been really hard for me. I hate not being able to join in discussions. I'm heading off to bed now and hopefully I'll get before the carol service tomorrow.

I love my town!

2006-11-30T16:55:00.000Z

Today was __ ________'s Day and so the cathedral, the tower and the castle had free admission. A friend of mine from the department and I decided to be tourists and wander around (we're students and so free admission is always a bonus). The museum attached to the cathedral has tons of tombstones and fragments of Celtic crosses so I had a great time wandering around looking at inscriptions and the iconography. Brought me back to the days in Ireland recording gravestones. This picture is taken from the tower and you can actually see my house! Yes, this is where I live. What a wonderful place.

Another friend told us that on this day, the Freemason lodge opens its doors to the community. J and I decided that this would be a pretty cool thing to see. The people were super friendly and even let us take pictures inside. Of course, I have no idea what all the symbols mean but it was cool none the less. There was a great deal of tradition there and it was really neat to look at the pictures and all the paraphenalia. Plus it was nice to get out of the wind and the rain.

J had to be back for class for 4, but before we went back to the department, we headed to the castle. The castle is really just the shell of a castle but there are still some neat things associated with it. First, some of the little rooms associated with the outside walls are still standing (ie kitchen, guard rooms, etc), there is one room that contains a bottle-neck dungeon (a dug out room that is almost like a well. One would assume that prisoners were dropped in by rope?), and there are some tunnels that were false-started during a raid to try to head off tunnels that were being dug from the outside before they hit the inside. The coolest thing associated by far are the mine and counter-mine tunnels. These are long tunnels which did in fact head off the tunnel being dug from outside the castle. You can go down into them and wander around (if you are claustrophobic beware, I had to bend down pretty far to get through them). It was great. Really spooky since they aren't really well lit, and since it was rainy today there was water dripping down the sides and from the roof.

A great day all around. It's fun to have adventures in your own town and I'm definitely look forward to exploring more of the cool stuff we have here.

Glasgow

2006-11-25T16:58:00.000Z

On Thursday, a friend of mine (here after referred to as F) and I went to Glasgow to go see Angela Hewitt play with with BBC scottish orchestra. When we got into Glasgow it was absolutely miserable. It was pouring and super windy. It was like having icicles shot at your face. F and I made our way to the hostel, dumped all our stuff and then decided to explore Glasgow (since we had a couple of hours to kill before the concert). It was actually quite fun. We wandered around aimlessly taking turns holding our super umbrella and taking pictures. We made our way down to the cathedral (unfortunately it was closed) and wandered around the necropolis. By this time (around 4) it was already getting dark so we figured we should start heading back and go grab something to eat before we had to get ready to go.

F took me to this restaurant that he had come across during his time in London called Wagamama. It's a noodle house and yes, I am starting to become a little more adventurous during my time here in Scotland. We ended up getting dumplings and green tea and I had a chicken and pork soup with ramen, spinach and bamboo. Very tasty and was definitely a great choice considering the weather that we had just come out of. And the best part is it's actually quite cheap for a British restaurant.

So, after getting warm and partly dry, we headed back out into the storm to get back to the hostel and got ready. In my dorm I ended up meeting 2 other Canadians who were in Glasgow on work holidays. Kind of fun to hear about their experiences here. F and I then ended up getting a taxi to the concert, although when we got into the cab we actually had to give directions to the cab driver which was a little odd. But we made it safe and sound to the concert. The seats Angela had reserved for us were the best seats in the venue. Front row balcony, just slightly off to the left so that we could see her hands as she was playing. It was quite amazing really. I wasn't quite sure what going to the symphony in Glasgow would be like (and how dressed up people would be) so F and I just figured that we would go all out (afterall, how many times does one get the opportunity to dress up). However, apparently going to the symphony in Glasgow is completely different from going in Canada. I think F and I were the best dressed people there (people's attire varied from suits to jeans and t-shirts). We had fun anyway and felt very posh, looking all fancy and sitting in our amazing seats.

After the concert, we met up with Angela and ended up going back to her hotel for drinks. It was really great to hear what she's been up to. I can't imagine living the way that she does (she's insanely busy and doesn't really take any time off from her performance schedule), however, she does get to travel all over the place, doing what she loves. She's doing some really amazing things over the next couple of months and I should be able to go see her in Glasgow again soon. We had a great chat and I think F was pretty excited to get to meet her since he is a pianist himself and got to talk "shop" with her. It was just really fun to get to go to the symphony again (it's been a really long time since I've gone) with someone who actually appreciated it as much (if not more) than I did.

Yesterday, we woke up early so that we could see a bit more of Glasgow before heading home. Unlike the day before, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We wandered around George Square (right by the train station) and took pictures of the cool buildings and random people. Then we got back on the train, headed to Dundee, wandered around the christmas market, ate bratwurst for lunch and then took the bus back home.

All in all, our trip was great. No big mishaps. It was a great break from all my reading and school work. I got to go to another city and explore more of the scottish countryside. Everyone has told me all these bad things about Glasgow but besides the weather, I really enjoyed the city. It has some beautiful buildings and the Christmas lights were already out, giving the city this fairy-castle feel. I look forward to more opportunities to travel around and see stuff because after all, everything here is really close and easy to get to so why not see some of this stuff while I'm here. However, I am trying to finish my PhD so now it's time for more reading.

Foam fights, haircuts, and drowning

2006-11-21T22:36:00.000Z

So this week has been a little crazy. Our school has something called "Raisin Monday" where the first years get adopted by 3rd or 4th year students into an academic family. It involves pretty much partying the whole day Sunday and finishes with a big foam fight (with shaving foam) in the quad on the Monday. As a postgraduate, we do not technically have to get involved although I did have some friends who decided that this would be fun. I got to follow a couple of them to their academic family party. It was a little crazy and definitely not my scene. It's weird partying with a bunch of first years again. Made me feel old.

On monday, I ended up being a "model" at one of the hair salons in town. On mondays, they book appointments for some of the students to learn new, challenging techniques and need hair to practice on. I signed up for one of these and ended up with a really excellent hair cut (it pretty much looks exactly the same as it did when I first chopped off all my hair in June, except more shaped). The woman who runs the salon, comes over and asks what you are thinking about getting done to your hair, and then suggests a style that the student needs to practice. She then goes through it step by step showing the student what to do and then having the student finish the section. It's a pretty good deal because the woman who owns the salon is pretty much doing the hair cut (and fixing any mistakes the student makes) and if you were to get an appointment with her it would cost you 80 pounds. However, because I was a teaching tool, my haircut was free. Can't argue with that.

Today, I had a meeting with my supervisor and had another small mental breakdown. My new analogy is that I feel like I've been put in a boat and taken to the middle of the ocean. Then I'm thrown overboard and told to swim. (and then my supervisor comes by and offers me a little rowboat with a small hole in the middle). So that's how I feel. Kind of lost but I figure if I already knew everything I wouldn't need to do the PhD. I have a paper to work on for the next 2 weeks which will hopefully give me some direction. I'm really looking forward to it. Should be really interesting.

Well, better stop procrastinating and finish my reading.

A Big Adventure to York and Manchester

2006-11-14T07:47:00.000Z

I realize it's been a while since I've done something really exciting... I've been mostly working on school work and such but this past week was READING WEEK and so I figured I really should go on some sort of an adventure. A classics buddy and I were planning on attending a postgraduate conference down in Manchester and I decided to head down early and stop off in York to visit all those crazy archaeologists I met in Wales in 2005.

So the friend I was staying with in York came and met me at the train station and we walked around the city walls in order to drop my stuff off at her flat before going off exploring. As we rounded the corner by the castle, I was faced with a small field full of Canadian geese. Medea, being very confused, wonders why there would be Canadian geese in England, after all, it's not really on their migration path (unless they got really lost and headed east instead of south). Apparently, a university professor brought them over as an experiment. After watching the Geese for a bit, we spent most of the rest of the day wandering around the walls of York, stopping off at a couple pubs along the way.

Unfortunately, everyone that I know in York was working this week, so I took the opportunity to explore York on my own, trying to fit in as many touristy things I could. The picture here is Clifford's tower, part of York Castle. It was a gorgeous day for walking around. I went to Clifford's tower first, climbing up to the top where one gets a fantastic view of York. I then headed off to the Castle Museum. It's a random collection of all sorts of different stuff, starting with period rooms (like 17th century dinning halls and such), then as you turn the corner you come face to face with a hoover display (that's vacuum cleaners for my North American audience). Kind of catches you off guard. It has a rebuilt Victorian street, the history of the hearth, a jail, and all sort of other stuff. Quite a fun little museum to go to. I'd recommend it to anyone heading off to York for the sheer randomness of it's displays.

In the afternoon, I headed off to York Minster. You can see it from almost everywhere in the old city and I was quite excited to get a look inside. It was truly amazing. I took tons of pictures inside (which I can't post all here, it would just take up too much space) and even paid the extra money to go down to the crypt and the treasury. I'm slightly torn though, since it takes 2 million pounds a year to keep the place standing. As much as I am a historian at heart and hate to see old buildings become ruins, it pains me to think that the money to keep this building looking pretty could really be used to help people who really need it. So frustrating. I don't really know what to think.

Since the friend that I was staying with works for the archaeological research council in York, I got to go to some other tourist places for free. York has "Jorvik, the interactive viking centre" which has a "sights and smells" tour through what York was like as a Viking town in the 10th century. Quite fun. They've done a neat job of laying out the town with all the artifacts they'd found from the excavations. However, it is pretty cheezy with these moving robot vikings and random sounds. I then got to go to DIG which is where the archaeological research council has more artifacts from their digs around York as well as an area set up as an archaeological site where kids (and adults I guess) get a plastic trowel and can learn how to dig. There are different boxes for different time periods, with a bunch of artifacts glued to the bottom just waiting to be discovered. I ended up being the only "customer" in the building and so got my own private tour. It was quite fun playing in the fake dirt (it was made up of little pieces of rubber) although I was definitely not using proper archaeological technique. We then moved on to the bone trays which I absolutely loved and ended up actually teaching my tour guide something about bones since he hasn't really done that much work with them. All in all it was a great time.

York itself is a great town with a huge amount of history. It is however, very touristy and so has a lot of really cheezy stuff as well. I can't even imagine how much history is still in the ground that hasn't been found yet. Recently, one of the pubs in town decided to expand its cellar and ended up finding the ruins of a Roman bath. I loved being there and just being about to wander around the town taking in the sights. It was definitely a great little holiday.

On Saturday, I got on the train to head to Manchester. It was definitely a little bit of a culture shock since I have been in such a small town for the last 2 months it was very weird to be in a big city. The conference itself was great. I got to meet some really interesting people and heard some really interesting papers (which weren't presented well), some boring papers (which really weren't presented well), and some fantastic papers. I guess that's why it's good to participate in these postgraduate conferences. Since it is all students it's a less intimidating experience and a good way of getting more experience in presenting papers.

I apologize for the length of this entry but hopefully that will keep you all going for the next little while as I am now back into crazy work mode (I have a paper to present on Thursday and have to have a preliminary plan for my PhD for my supervisor next tuesday). Hopefully, I'll have time for some adventures but for the time being, I'm back in the library, hanging out with my books.

Winter is on its way

2006-11-01T12:38:00.000Z

It is starting to get quite chilly and the days are getting significantly shorter (it's dark by 4:45 now). Winter is setting in. I went for a walk today because the sky was so clear and it was absolutely beautiful out. I went down to the beach to find some crazy surfers out, enjoying the waves. A little too chilly for me, I'm afraid.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been attending a church here called Holy Trinity of the Church of Scotland. I've been quite enjoying it, although I do find the assistant minister to be better than the head minister. It's a fantastic building that takes my breath away everytime I walk in. I love the organ and the choir there and the accoustics are excellent. So all in all, I've been enjoying myself in my mundane everyday life (however, it's still awesome that I live in such a great place). I've still been doing tons of reading and am starting to get a feel for what I'll be working on for my dissertation. I'm hoping to go on some crazy adventures over the next month so hopefully my entries will become a little more exciting.

Gilbert and Sullivan

2006-10-25T11:37:00.000+01:00

So, a friend of mine has joined the Gilbert and Sullivan society here and at dinner one night leaned over and asked me. "Can you sing alto?" To which I replied, "um, sure?" Kind of a random question for dinner conversation. Apparently, the G & S society is rather short on altos and since I didn't really have anything to do last night, I decided to tag along. Well, short on altos is a little bit of an understatement. There are about 15 sopranos, and about 3 altos. So, off I went to sing with the altos and sight-read my part (which is hard because I didn't really know the music and couldn't really hear the alto part because of all the sopranos). It was fun though, I really enjoyed myself and I think I was pretty much making up my own part (half way through the other two altos had to leave and so one of the girls who runs the society came to sing the alto part with me but she is normally a soprano and so didn't know all the parts either).

I had a good time, it was just really weird. This was my life back in high school when I spent all my time at community theater rehersals, music practices, singing lessons, musical theater competions... It's just been so long that I've been away from this that I felt like I was going back in time to when I was 16. I was in the foreign world that I once felt very comfortable in, but now feel like more of an outsider. The weird thing is that you get the same types of personalities that you would find anywhere in this sort of group. I was meeting people and after talking with them for a bit, would be able to connect them with someone I had once known in my own music days! But all in all, it was a good time and I really did enjoy myself.

So, I guess I know what I'll be doing on Tuesday night for the next little while...

No adventures this week

2006-10-22T16:40:00.000+01:00

Well, another week done and unfortunately I haven't really done anything that exciting. School work is now in full swing and so I've been spending most of my time living in the Classics library reading. Definitely not something worth writing about. My next couple of weeks are going to be a little crazy since I have way too much work to do and not enough time to do it. However, I am looking forward to reading break. I'm hoping to go down to York for a couple days to meet up with some friends from CasHen as well as heading down to Manchester for a Classics postgrad conference. Should be a good time and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the British countryside.

Sorry my life has become a little dull. I'm pretty much settled into my little routine and will just continue working away. The fall here is beautiful but the days are rapidly getting shorter (sun rise about 8ish, sun set about 6ish, and they get shorter by about 5 minutes every day). I can't believe I have been here for over a month. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

PS: You know there's nothing exciting to talk about when you start writing about the weather.

Fife Coastal Path

2006-10-14T18:21:00.000+01:00

The reason why I haven't written anything this week is because I have actually been really busy doing readings and working on a paper. I didn't think that anyone really wanted to hear about all that so...

However, after doing all this work, I realized that I really needed to get away and do something fun this weekend, so a friend of mine and I decided to walk the Fife Coastal Path. We decided that, because I had to be home for a dinner party, we would just walk for about 4 or 5 hours, then turn around and come home. So off we went. It was suppose to be cloudy today but it turned out to be a spectacularly gorgeous day with the sun shining brightly and not a cloud in the sky. Absolutely amazing considering this is Scotland. Two other friends from my residence decided to join us for the first couple hours and we had a great time just wandering around the beaches outside of my town.

The trail itself is amazing. In many places you have a choice of walking around on the beach or on the path so we pretty much stayed to the beaches on the way there and on the path on the way back. On our way we found lots of cool shells, a variety of beaches (including rock beaches, shell beaches, sand beaches, and grass? beaches). Who knew that there would be such variety in the types of shore there would be in a fairly small geographical area.

There is one point where the trail goes inland and you end up walking around past farmer's fields. As we walked through the forest we came across this fantastic old building. Turns out it's an old water mill (according to my friend) and we had a great time exploring around it and other such great things. I just love it here and the fact that as you are travelling around the countryside you can just come across these incredible abandoned old buildings!

We finally reached the first sign of civilization at about 2:00 and decided that it was a good time to starting thinking about heading back. By this time we had walked about 7.5 miles (sorry guys but the signs are in miles here, I have no idea what that is in Kilometers). Heading back took less time since we pretty much stuck to the trail but at one point we saw a pretty cool looking cave just up the hill from the path and decided to take a look. Unfortunately, in between us and the cave was this great field full of a lovely plant called stinging nettle. Now, for all those Canadians out there that don't know what this lovely plant is, it's a plant that has these leaves that can sting you through your clothes. They give you this sort of tingly, itchy, sensation to whatever touches it. If it gets you through your clothes it only tingles for a hour or so, but if you touch it directly, your skin gets all red and itchy and can hurt for a couple of days (if you fall directly into a patch like I did when I was in Wales). Anyways, we decided we wouldn't let this stuff get in the way of our exploration and made our way up the slope only to find a fairly shallow cave that had been completely taken over by birds. Feathers and stuff everywhere. Actually quite gross and a little bit of a disappointment. And then we had to go back through the stinging nettle to get back to the path. However, I guess that's what adventures are all about!

Here's a picture of my friend looking not too pleased about these lovely plants with the cave in the background.

Adventures in the Scottish Countryside

2006-10-07T18:08:00.000+01:00

A friend from the department and I decided to go on a bike adventure today. We were going to go to the Secret Bunker (where the Scottish parliament would have gone had there been full out Nuclear War during the Cold War) but after finding out that it would cost us over 6 pounds to get in we decided to go on a different adventure instead. There are all these "standing stones" throughout the British and Scottish countryside and so we decided to go visit one. I borrowed the bike of someone from my residence and off we went. It was great fun but since the borrowed bike belonged to someone slightly shorter than me, biking uphill was a little bit of a challenge.

We biked out on the "B road" because the "A road" is much busier and since people here drive like maniacs, we figured it would be safer. We found the turnoff and biked up this little random road through farms and such. It got to a point where the road got pretty sketchy so we decided it would be best to leave our bikes behind and just walk. Apparently we missed the "standing stone" because we ended up in this little wooded area with a bee farm.

After exploring a bit, we headed back to the road and wandered back to try and find this "standing stone". We finally found it, right smack dab in the middle of this farmer's field and so off we went, treking through this field to get to the stone. Very cool, and definitely strange because you would never be able to do anything like that in Canada. However, here in the UK, you can basically walk through anyone's property to get to an archaeological site.

I'm glad I was able to get out of the town today. I don't think we'll be able to go biking for much longer. The weather is starting to change and it's starting to get dark around 6:30-7. I guess I should really think about buying a bike in the spring so I can do more of this. There are so many neat places to go around here.

Haggis

2006-10-05T15:05:00.000+01:00

One of my housemates and I were invited by another friend of ours to go down to the leisure centre yesterday to go swimming. It feels so great to get back into exercising. I do a ton of walking here but haven't been doing nearly enough physical exercise in the last two weeks. We had a great time, except for some random kids who thought it would be a good idea to jump off the side of the pool into the lanes. Needless to say, I was nearly jumped on three or four times since they weren't really looking at who was around them. Also, here they don't have separate change rooms. It's one big room with lockers and then little changing cubicals on the sides. Weird. That will definitely take some getting use to.

Last night, Pirates of the Carribean II was showing at the movie theater (the late night show) so I finally got to see it. The special effects were amazing but the story was kind of lame. A little disappointing actually. O well, I got to see the love of my life (Johnny Depp) so that's all that really matters.

After getting to bed by about 2, I figured it would be a great idea to get up this morning at 6:30 to go swimming again. It was definitely a better experience (no kids around) but I'm definitely not 100% today. I need my sleep. I think I may go to bed tonight right after dinner.

The best part of my day was lunch! We had Haggis! As long as you don't think about what it is (kind of the same as sausages and hotdogs) it's actually quite good. Kind of tastes like Tortiere or Meatloaf. So now I've had the complete scottish experience.

BBQs and Bonfires

2006-10-01T21:31:00.000+01:00

Some americans in my residence decided to have a Southern style cookout yesterday. John (the one BBQing) has been to culinary school and so decided to treat us all to his fabulous cooking. It was amazing. He made ribs that were so tender they fell right off the bone, and chicken that was like nothing I have ever tasted. There ended up being about 50 of us there with so much food I think everyone thought they were going to explode. We ended up having a bunch of tourists come by (since our house is right by the ancient ruins, we always have tourists coming by) to see what we were up to. But all in all, it was an enjoyable time.

Today ended up being much more low key. I decided that since we live in such an amazing place, we should go down to the beach and have a bonfire. This was something I use to do a lot when I lived in Victoria and really missed it. So, off we went to the store to buy some wood (since they don't have any drift wood here) and went down the beach and roasted marshmallows and made smores. Ended up being a fantastic, relaxing night of just hanging out around the fire and watching the sun set and the moon rise. What a great way to end the weekend.

Oh, and I did some reading as well.

I love living in an old place

2006-09-28T07:59:00.000+01:00

I went to a "Welcome to the Library" course on Tuesday. Yes, I know I'm a dork. However, I learned some interesting things about this little university of mine. Firstly, we are the only university in Scotland that still has the Papal Bill (what is given to the university when it becomes a university). The crazy thing is that it is from 1411. Also, St. Andrews has in its possession a 13th century copy of St. Augustine's City of God. I guess this is what happens when the university has been around for so long. When I actually get some spare time I'm going to go visit the old library (which is housed in St. Mary's College) where most of the 16-17 century books are housed.

I've been having tons of fun just walking around a looking at all the crazy old buildings in my little town. It's absolutely fantastic. A historian's dream really. At the same time, I don't really feel like I'm that far away. But then I'm jerked back into reality by a car coming speeding around the corner by our dinning hall from the wrong side of the road (aka the right, always look right for cars!)

I'm just so fortunate to have the opportunity to study here. And, I've been hanging out with lots of people from all over the world, not only Americans, although there are plenty of them here.

First mental breakdown

2006-09-27T07:39:00.000+01:00

I went to go meet with my supervisor yesterday. He's awesome but very intimidating since he's published tons and is very well known in my field. We were meeting to discuss what I'll be working on and since I don't really have a clear idea of what I want to do, it was an interesting meeting. Turns out, what I kind of wanted to work on cannot be done unless I want to do huge amounts of archaeology and basically go around the English countryside just digging up random plots of land (not quite but basically). I love archaeology, but to be employable in this field it's not a good idea to be too narrow. So, I'll still probably be working in the Western provinces but most likely it will be in Roman Gaul (France) doing a combination of archaeology and history. Now, I have to learn a whole new province because I don't know anything about Roman Gaul. He sent me away with a ton of books to read by next week and well, I still haven't received my student card (ie library card). I had a little freak out and questioned what I was doing here and am I really ready for this. However, I did have a nice chat with another girl from the department and feel a bit better. Apparently, I need to start getting use to the "I'm not sure what I'm doing here" feeling because it happens fairly frequently.

Well, off to the library I go!

It's a Small World

2006-09-23T10:01:00.000+01:00

I met all (or at least most of) the other postgraduate students in my department yesterday. There is sort of an interesting mix of Brits, Americans and Canadians with a couple other people from other countries in Europe. I got into a great conversation with one American about Hockey which made me feel kind of like I was back in Canada for a moment. Apparently he has subscribed to a North American sports network on his TV and watches the play-offs quite religiously so I will be able to cheer on my team! One of the other Canadians actually grew up in Calgary, graduated from the same high school as I did, and did his undergrad at the same place that I did. It was very random. Who would've thought that I would find someone that close to me, experience wise, half way around the world. Weird!

Exploration and Deep-Fried Mars Bars

2006-09-21T21:51:00.000+01:00

Well, I have now spent a couple of days becoming acquainted with my little town. I've done some exploring, some hiking, and even some travelling to a small town 30 minutes away by bus. It's been quite exciting and great fun. There are only 3 major streets but in true European fashion, there are tons of little side streets and small shops hidden from the main streets so it's always fun to see what you can find. I can pretty much find most things now and have tried out many of the various pubs in the area.

My residence is fantastic. It's like a little family and we have had a couple opportunities to all get together and head off to the pub. It's nice to know that there are many other people who are just as dorky (if not more) as I am! I just can't believe how amazing this place is. When I walk down towards my house from the main town centre I see this:

I am just amazed everytime I turn a corner when I walk through the town. There is just so much to see and the town is completely different from all the other places I have lived. I can't believe how fortunate I am to be living in a place like this.

I also had a chance this week to meet my supervisor. He's awesome although I am still fairly intimidated by him. I have a lot of work to do over the next little while to get myself ready for the task ahead. I'll probably be a dork and go start working in the library this weekend.

On a lighter note, I had the opportunity of experiencing one of Scotland's delicacies today. No, I have not yet eaten haggis. In fact, it was the other, lesser known, Scottish delicacy, DEEP-FRIED MARS BARS!!! That's right, they take a Mars bar, put it in batter, and then deep-fry it. It makes the bar go all gooey on the inside. It's not actually as bad as it sounds (it actually tastes quite good) however, I now understand why Scotland has the highest instance of heart attacks in Europe. (you can also get fried hamburgers) All, I can say is I'm glad I went for a run this morning!

Guess What? ... I'm in Scotland

2006-09-18T22:07:00.000+01:00

So, in true (Medea) fashion, the day we left for Scotland, I had all my luggage packed and at the back door by about 10:00am (the flight itself left at 10:00pm). Needless to say, I spent most of the day unable to sit still because, well, guess what? ... I'm going to Scotland. I'm sure I drove my mom absolutely crazy. We ended up leaving our house at 6:00pm to make it up to the airport in plenty of time. The flight to Heathrow was delayed for just over half an hour because they had to replace a oxygen tank in the front of the plane (whatever that means. Sort of reminded me of the indicator problem my plane had in Frankfurt 2 years ago). Other than that it was fairly uneventful, although somehow I lucked out and ended up sitting in the emergency exit row, which has about 3 times the leg room of the regular seats. Unfortunately, after being pampered I don't think I'll ever be able to go back.

Due to the delay, we were late getting into Heathrow and the plane had to park out on the tarmac (sp?) and we had to be bussed into the terminal. We then had to clear passport control (with no major issues besides the volume of people, what a zoo!), hike from terminal 3 to terminal 1, and the get bussed from the departure gate to the plane to Edinburgh (which just happened to be right beside the plane we had just gotten off of). Good thing our baggage was tagged right through to Edinburgh so we didn't have to worry about sorting that all out. Once in Edinburgh, we then got to take a bus, train, and taxi to our final destination. We never waited for more than 15 minutes for the rest of the connections. Everything went so smoothly. All in all, it ended up being about 19 hours of travelling. But we arrived along with all our luggage with no major problems. So, now I've been in Scotland for about 48 hours.

My flat is fantastic. I'm not staying in the main manor house like I thought I would be, but instead, I am staying in a house across the street with 4 other girls (3 americans and a Brit/Belgian). Should be interesting. The room is small but my view is fantastic. I look right out on the North Sea and fell asleep last night listening to the waves.

So my little university town is fantastic. Definitely a change from Toronto. I love being able to walk everywhere. I almost feel as though I'm in a movie. The buildings here are fantastic. They're mostly stone and just so quaint. Well, that's pretty much all for now. I'll keep you all posted as I explore the town more.

PS: Here's my neat Harry Potter dinning room.

Welcome

2006-09-06T22:12:00.000+01:00

Hello all, and welcome to my blog. I'm hoping to use this blog as a means of sharing my adventures with my friends and family. I'll probably be posting mainly pictures since I rarely have anything truly important to say.

Enjoy!