2. Four-day weeks (maximum, and I've had three-day ones before when my Thursday 8:30AM IDIS 204 (British Studies I) class got cancelled) with three-day weekends that usually have field studies to various sites in London.
3. The slushies machine in the Dining Hall! Especially the blue and purple-pink flavours. Too bad they stopped having it because they thought it was making the students sugar-high and destructive (as opposed to, you know, the Castle pub and its alcohol).
4. British
5. Free museums (well, gambling tax-subsidized anyway) in London, especially the British Museum and Imperial War Museum.
6. London in general, even if it started to get boring after going there every weekend. Oh, how I never thought I would miss you and your nasty pigeons, Trafalgar Square. I liked how easy it was to get everywhere with the Tube system, but I don't miss how filthy those stations and tunnels were.
7. The awesome Castle professors. Dr. Scott, though not British, was my favourite by far and I miss his history class, the fact that he knows EVERYTHING, him putting-up with me auditing the course and still giving him assignments to mark anyway, and going on the Wartling dig with him (he lied about the IDIS 304 (British Studies I) exam being easy though D:). Christian Lloyd is awesome because he is Christian Lloyd (and he had the most interesting lectures -- seriously, he did a lecture on British comedy), and I miss Dr. Gristwood's interesting facial expressions, amazing voice, and fabulous hair.
8. The English countryside and having a huge private estate (with a Castle) to hang-out on. God knows I'll never be able to live on such a property again unless I marry an aristocrat who hasn't lost his money and property yet.
9. ASDA! Sure, it's just a British branch of Wal-Mart, but they had awesome British candy, crisps (lamb and mint flavour!), and it was nice to get off of the estate every once in awhile.
10. The group(s) of friends I hung-out with, including Will, Larissa, Alyssa, Laura, Tamara, Katie, Amanda W. (my awesome room-mate), Anne (it's sad that I'll probably never see her again, as she's from Australia), and probably a lot of other people I am forgetting right now.
11. The fact that I wasn't lazy for once and actually did my readings before class! No, I'm not joking, I actually did my IDIS 304 (British Studies I) and HIST 289 (England Since 1851) readings -- with highlighting and notes in the margins most of the time -- before the relevant classes!
12. The ducks in front of the Castle! Sure, they did crazy things like have violent sex everywhere and became really aggressive after awhile because people kept feeding them, but they were still very much a part of the Castle. And the baby geese, though I don't know why we had Canadian geese there.
13. The English bunnies that were everywhere on the estate, especially around Bader Hall! There was one really cute baby one that was often on the road back to the residence hall.
14. Being woken-up by cows and strange varieties of birds.
15. The rolling English hills in the countryside and the fact that there are sheep everywhere. Insert a sheep joke in here.
16. A4 paper. Much more elegant than letter-sized, I think. I don't miss the hole-punching being two holes in the middle though, as I thought it made the papers slide everywhere in my binder.
17. Roundabouts!
18. Sleeping in the Castle's courtyard on those really sunny and hot days. Well, I only did it once, but it was still fun.
19. I didn't do much travelling, but in theory, easy access to other parts of the UK and Europe.
20. School at a Castle in the UK, dammit!
- Mood:
bored - Music:Do You Hear the People Sing? -- Les Miserables OST
Any entries about England itself will be backdated from now on so that everything can be anally in chronological order. Thanks.
- Mood:
busy - Music:Do You Hear the People Sing? -- Les Miserables OST
Also, I fucking love how we were all wearing FORMAL WEAR. Remember, kids -- we here at Herstmonceux Castle always wear our best ball gowns and pearls to class! It's a good old English tradition.
Anyway, uh, I think they were probably kind of drunk by the time Dr. Gristwood noticed I was sitting nearby, and I was really taken back by how different his voice sounded after consuming alcohol -- it was higher and a lot more nasal than his usual deep and kind of poshy one. Anyway, usual conversation items like congrats on the term (that better mean I got an A in IDIS 304 (British Studies I)), are you traveling or going home after this, etc., and most interestingly, something about how the DJ plays the exact same playlist in the exact same order every year.
Some strange sketchiness when the DJ played Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' as the one last extra song after a lot of drunken chanting on the students' part and Dr. Frith invited me to dance with her and Dr. Gristwood (no harm in that, I suppose), and it was pretty funny to watch. Afterwards, I asked if I would take a picture with then, and they were fine with that, though I'm kind of scared of looking at it because of the potential drunkenness factor. Had a short talk with Dr. Frith about pretty much the same thing I said with Dr. Gristwood, then asked if I should still e-mail the latter to know my participation grade for the course, to which he also added that it was well within the A range. Hooray, for that makes-up for my shitty (but entirely fair) 65% in participation in HIST 289 (England Since 1851), which I am thankfully auditing.
I'll try to upload these pictures to the galleries soon, but right now, I am absolutely fucked in terms of how much packing I still have left to do, so I should work on that and continue printing hard-copies of my class notes.
- Mood:
exhausted - Music:I Am Lincoln -- The Island OST
That said, it was my first true all-nighter in what's probably been years, as I seem to be getting old enough not to be able to do one without taking at least a short nap at some point.
On a different note, closing ceremonies for the Spring 2007 term at the ISC are tonight, and I already miss the Castle. I can't believe that, taking into consideration that I have to leave for Heathrow on Sunday morning at 3:30AM, this is my second last day here. That is terribly depressing.
- Mood:
sad - Music:I Am Lincoln -- The Island OST
This time, the ISC trip was to Rossini's 'La Cenerentola' (, and seriously, the singing, music, costumes, etc. were incredible. We had standing tickets at first, and then Diana (one of the ISC's musicians-in-residence and a professional opera singer herself) managed to get seats -- unfortunately, I didn't realize that they were for different areas, so while I still had a great seat right in the middle of the second balcony, everyone else was in the first four rows on the stall level. But yeah, I can't go into too much detail in describing it, but it was an incredible experience and it's rather sad that that's the first and only time I'll ever be able to go to Glyndebourne.
On a less sad note, I was able to add another leather souvenir bookmark to my collection, though it makes me regret not getting the ones at the House of Commons, Knole, and the Imperial War Museum (and probably the Globe Theatre) even more. I got two postcards and the program (which, unfortunately, is one big one that covers the whole season instead of just one show).
On a cultural note, the English picnic culture at Glyndebourne was extremely interesting to watch. There were some damn impressive fancy picnic sets there that wouldn't have been out of place in an expensive and poshy restaurant.
Anyway, back to writing about my feelings for my CLST 206 (Roman Britain) field notebook. We went to Pevensey Roman fort on Wednesday as our last field trip, which was great. We visited a church in the nearby village of Westham afterwards, then bought ice cream bars at the convenience store.
- Mood:
impressed
During Dr. Scott's great tour of the area and its history, we went down to the beach and tried running-up it to get a bit of a sense of what it would have been like for the Canadian soldiers on the raid. It was definitely a really interesting experience and while it obviously can't really capture what went on, it did help a lot in terms of getting a better understanding of some of the conditions. I did not take up Dr. Scott's suggestion of throwing rocks in the air to feel what it would be like to be hit by rocks that were blown into the air by artillery, for obvious reasons.
I got to climb into an actual German bunker from World War II. However, I as wearing shorts and flip-flops, so I couldn't go through the actual entranceway like you're supposed to, as the path to it was narrow and lined with stinging nettles. So instead, I had to do it the hard way and crawl and climb in and out through the extremely low and narrow openings for observation and machine guns. It was pitch black inside, so I had to take lots of useless flash photographs to see (and as I was alone in there and didn't have the help of multiple cameras, I couldn't see everything, especially if I didn't want to step in broken glass). Still, what an experience.
While walking through Dieppe, we also visited the main cathedral, done in the Gothic style (of course) in the town. Quite large, very beautiful.
A bunch of us went out for drinks at one of the restaurants that had a kitschy Mexican theme (during which Dr. Scott and another professor walked past us), then some of us went to dinner at a nearby restaurant with a seaside theme. Each of us (there were ten of us) got a three course meal (plus the usual bread) for 14 Euros, which included a started, main course, and either a cheese or dessert. I got mussels for the starter, which were so good AND there were a lot (though they were tiny), skate (a type of fish) in a cream sauce with vegetables on the side, and chocolate mousse. SO GOOD, and the girl's toilet even had seashells in the seat.
Typical French breakfast in the morning at the hotel (eg. baguette, croissant, butter, jams, and some kind of hot drink at the very least), which was a very nice hotel for a three star (the other one was a two star, and not surprisingly, the professors and other staff stayed at the three star one too), even if it took forever for me to figure-out how to open my door, with Christian Lloyd having to do the explanation to the hotel receptionist in French because my French sucked. That said, I started picking-up more of it again while in Dieppe.
The Saturday morning marketplace was awesome -- lots of clothes and food (especially cheese in heart-shaped blocks) on sale. I bought a skirt and some jewelery, which is really odd for me as I don't really wear jewelery (but hey, it was cheap). I also had this awesome egg and sugar pastry that looked just like a starfish, which I'd bought at a bakery -- seriously, it was the BEST pastry I've ever had, both in terms of taste and aesthetics.
In the afternoon, we went to the Chateau Musee, including lounging on the grass field near the top and overlooking the city. Lots of nice paintings, ivory carvings (seriously, these were very impressive), and even a whole gallery room dedicated to artwork featuring fish. After that, some of the girls I was with wanted to go back to the fairy shop we'd visited the other day, and I went to see the little Dieppe raid memorial museum that commemorates the role Canadians played in Operation Jubilee, and a bit on the actual liberation of the town later.
Drive through the French countryside to get to the EuroTunnel station? Gorgeous. The Chunnel itself? Not as nice as the ferry ride across the English channel on Friday morning, but still a really interesting experience, what with the vacuumed-sealed compartment doors that made getting to the bathrooms like running a gauntlet.
So, that's the Dieppe mid-term cultural studies trip in a nutshell. On a very different note, it's extremely depressing that I literally have only seven days left at the Castle, not counting the Sunday when I have to leave by 3:00AM to get to Heathrow Airport. I can't believe a six-week term (which I know is quite short) went by that quickly and I'm really not ready to leave the Castle or England yet. It's all very sad, but not as sad (in a different sense) as the fact that 100% of my CLST 206 (Roman Britain) grade will be determined in three days (oh, how I loathe that class).
- Mood:
tired
Anyway, there were two great little moments yesterday in IDIS 304 (British Studies I) -- one was on a newspaper article about new citizenship requirements for immigrants in Britain to reinforce British identity (whatever that is) where points would be deducted for 'anti-social acts, fly-tripping [littering], and criminal behaviour', to which he followed-up with something like 'I don't know why those are included, as they're great British traditions'; the other was when Will brought-up the London 2012 Olympic logo and asked the three tutors what they thought of it, to which Dr. Lloyd was like, 'Well, I hated it at first and now I like it. It's superficial, just like London is' (something to that effect, as I'm not a great paraphraser).
There was also a bit of an awkward moment at yesterday's information session about the tomorrow and Saturday's mid-term cultural studies trip to Dieppe in France. Regarding safety, Christian said something like 'Don't buy drugs from any of the street dealers, as you don't know what you're getting', after which there was an awkward silent pause and Rachel, who's one of the Student Service Co-ordinators, added '... and it's illegal?' Good time, good times.
- Mood:
lazy - Music:Book of Days -- Enya
Changing of the Guard, Queen's Walk, St. Margaret's and Westminster Abbey,
and traveler's cheques problems.]
entries on any accounts via the website, nor can I edit or delete anything
(if you want to comment on the double-posted entry, please do so at the
earlier one), and I really hate posting by e-mail because of the screwed-up
formatting. Anyway, this will do for now -- I'm definitely going to be
extremely behind in covering, in detail, what I did on Thursday and Friday
in London, the Barcombe excavation on Saturday, and London today, partially
because of LiveJournal's problems and partially because I'm going to be
bogged down in assignments this week.
So, London today in a nutshell -- I had a field study for IDIS 304 (British
Studies I), which was a Jack the Ripper walking tour. That was in the
afternoon, so I had free time in the morning. I went to the London Eye first
while there was still practically no line-up -- I had to wait to buy a
ticket, but not to get on. Yeah, it's ridiculously tourist trap-ish,
especially at the ridiculous price they ask for a half-hour ride on a ferris
wheel, but I figured that it was one of those things you have to do when in
London and once you do it once, that's all you have to do it.
Anyway, I was actually rather disappointed in it, especially when the price
is taken into account -- it wasn't THAT high, and while you can get a
gorgeous view of the Thames and the Houses of Parliament, as well as see
landmarks like St. Paul's Cathedral and Buckingham Palace in the distance,
there's not much else to see and it wasn't as impressive as I thought it'd
be. There's especially nothing to see in the south side of London. Luckily
for me though, the 25-person capsule only had 11 people, most of whom were
mature adults instead of screaming schoolchildren. I did NOT buy the
souvenir photograph of us in the capsule, as it was a whopping 7.50 pounds,
though a lot of people did flock to buy those and I'm not sure why,
especially after you've already paid so much to ride it. Oh well, their
call.
After that, I went to the Imperial War Museum again, which I should have
done straight off the bat as I ended-up rushing through things in order to
be able to get to Tower Hill station in time for the walking tour. This
time, I went through most of the exhibits I hadn't seen last time, which
included: large exhibits of things like various tanks, artillery,V2 rocket,
planes, etc. and got to walk through part of a bomber; the submarine
exhibit, which is designed for kids, but a lot of fun; the Victoria Cross
and George Cross gallery (I'll admit it, I cried reading some of the stories
of how the recipients got their awards); the Secret War exhibit, which is
about espionage, namely MI5, MI6, and other undercover fun (and yes, they
did open with a James Bond display); the Holocaust Exhibition, which I had
to rush through, but it was extremely powerful while remaining factual
instead of grotesquely over-the-top like it could have been, and I think
that (letting the event speak for itself) is a big reason why it was so
well-done (and yeah, I cried here too -- seriously, I'm pretty sure that I
cried over the majority of the exhibits in the Imperial War Museum).
Then I had to get onto the Tube to get to Tower Hill station as fast as
possible, and while I was five minutes late, they thankfully hadn't left
let. In short, I expected the tour to be good, but it was AMAZING -- our
tour guide, Simon, was really good and very funny, very into what he was
doing. Obviously, few of the buildings that existed in 1888 are still there
today, but I think that added to the fun. I got complimented for knowing
what 'toff' meant in British slang (upper-class) when he was talking about
Mary Kelly, so hooray for that. Hopefully I can write about it a bit more
fully later tonight.
After the tour was done, most people left, though a few of us followed Dr.
Gristwood to Brick Lane -- we'd been talking about it in the class that Dr.
Frith was supposed to teach last week, until she got sick and Dr. Gristwood
had to substitute -- where we saw the mosque that's changed religions
multiple times and the view of Brick Lane with all of its curry restaurants.
We were then supposed to wander off on our own and he offered to walk us to
the Tube station, but the lot of us walked there as a group alone (on a
completely different note -- I've been wondering what it is about Dr.
Gristwood's appearance, and another student mentioned that he looks like and
has some mannerism of Hugh Grant, which is stunningly accurate, especially
when he smiles).
So we got on the Tube, and everyone else went back to Embankment because
Will wanted something from Starbucks. I went back to the Imperial War Museum
to buy the souvenir guide, a WWII ration book replica, a postcard with the
WWI recruitment poster with Lord Kitchener's face on it, a reproduction of
some advice on health eating from WWII, and a postcard that I'm going to
send to you,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dryerase, as I think you're going to get a kick outof it.
Then we went home on the bus, where we had to put up with Chris (ie. the
ISC's loud and rich alcoholic this term) and his obnoxious inebriated
yelling when everyone else voted for quiet so we could sleep and he refused
to let anyone sleep by constantly shouting, then complaining that the vote
was stupid because no one was sleeping anyway. MAYBE WE WOULD IF YOU SHUT
THE FUCK UP. Eh, I fell asleep after while.
Anyway, that's the LAST field study to London EVER, and I'm actually really
sad that everything is coming so close to the end. It's weird to know that
I'm NEVER going to wake-up before 8:00AM to get a packed lunch with crisps,
a chocolate bar, and bad orange juice and make myself a wrap in two minutes,
ride a coach with other ISC students into London and get itineraries, go on
field studies and have free time, run back to Cleopatra's needle by 5:30PM,
and then go home with a movie playing on the coach EVER AGAIN, unless I go
back to the ISC for spring term again next year, which I seriously doubt
I'll do as much as I like it here.
Oh well. Time to work on a group presentation for HIST 289 (England Since
1851), so I've got to run to that.
Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, Westminster at night, hostels.]
LiveJournal wasn't working then and still isn't working now. The date will
be changed accordingly later.)
So, I'm back from my Thursday-Friday overnight in London, which was,
overall, quite fun. The only major problem was that I apparently can't cash
my traveler's cheques at any bank because the signature on them don't match
the one on my passport (which is several years old and signed back before my
signature was set), but I can always cash them (albeit only 50 pounds a
time, and only twice a week) at the Castle, so that's all good.
I intend to write fuller entries about Thursday and Friday, but we all know
how good I am with that. Instead, I will, in the meantime, write down what I
did (to the best of my memory) in chronological order:
ancient Greek galleries. I was really tired though, so even though I enjoyed
myself, it felt more like a chore than I would have liked. Parthenon Marbles
were less exciting the second time around, but there was a pleasant surprise
in one of the Caryatids from the Erechtheion. Also saw a copy of Myron's
Diskobolos. Unfortunately, I wasn't tall enough to take a photograph of
myself with the bust of Pericles like I'd wanted to.
Museum for lunch. They only serve pretentious and expensive food items.
Also, I FINALLY figured-out why the entrance to the museum was so
astonishingly dull -- I entered THE WRONG WAY both times, using the coach
group entrance instead of the main classical facade.
exploitation, but my Underground day pass stopped working (you need it to
leave) for unknown reasons, and I was too scared to ask for assistance in
case I got charged or penalized for 'not having the appropriate fair'. This
also put a stop to my plans to go to King's Cross station to get tacky
photos of Platform 9 and 3/4.
(which was fantastic, by the way, and worth the 13 pounds). I went-in
shortly before they were closing. It's an amazing museum, but given that I
no longer have an interest in any of the topics presented, this was a waste
of time for me. The animatronic T-Rex and hilariously blatant gift shop
advertising in the dinosaur gallery were fun though.
something strangely surreal about seeing Daniel Radcliffe in-person instead
of on-screen or in screenshots. It was REALLY good (Dan himself was much
better than I'd expected, for the most part), and I'd definitely recommend
it if you're in London before it closes this month. (I also kind of regret
not getting the t-shirt as a novelty item I'll never use, but that's a story
for another day.)
Now, on the negative side, I DID do something stupid and technically got
ripped off -- even though I'd done research ahead of time about where the
official half-price ticket booth is, I still ended-up confused at Leicester
Square station and bought tickets at the wrong booth -- luckily enough, the
tickets were legitimate and at worst, I just paid some more than I would
have at the actual kiosk though they were still discounted. I paid 35 pounds
for my ticket (actual price is $50, could have gotten them for $25), which
were on the floor level and even though it was off to the side (which I was
initially appalled by when told which seats were left, I had a great view,
albeit my bad vision where people's faces looked little blurry.
at night, during which I felt sure I would be mugged. Had dinner at Burger
King (awful) and had a scoop of tiramisu ice cream at the Haggen-Daaz
parlour, but it was more of a 'Crap, I'm in here already and I'd feel bad
about walking-out without buying anything' thing. I also walked down
Westminster and saw the Houses of Parliament all-lit up and also took a
night-walk on the Queen's Walk by the Thames and between the London Eye and
London Aquarium.
too nice of a day to use the Tube) to watch the Changing of the Guard at
Buckingham Palace. It was spectacularly boring, not to mention that the
place was swarming with tourists of the exceeding annoying sort. I was more
excited about Canada's representation on this odd gate in the middle of
nowhere by the palace.
line to get stuck in a capsule for half an hour with 25 or so bratty
schoolchildren and paying 15 pounds (over $30 Cdn.) for it was silly.
Instead, since it was such a nice day, I walked around on the Queen's Walk
again while eating soft-serve ice cream, though the fact that I had to use
my teeth to eat it was probably not a good sign -- but it did come with a
bit of a Flake bar!
after walking through St. Margaret's nearby, I paid 7 pounds to get into the
abbey and did the tour by pamphlet. If I were to describe Westminster Abbey
in a short sentence, I'd say that it was like the Houses of Parliament, but
with a lot of dead people. Seriously, there are famous and unknown (to me)
monarchs, aristocrats, statesmen, military commanders, etc. buried under
every inch of floor or in fancy tombs with creepy effigies.
Overall, it was really gorgeous inside, though kind of odd to realize that
'Hey, I'm totally standing in the presence of Queen' Elizabeth I's body!'
and whatnot -- some of the burials go back to the Middle Ages. I was
especially touched by the Battle of Britain window in the RAF chapel. Kind
of wish I paid the extra 4 pounds to get the audio tour, as I probably would
have got more from it through that.
that to see the Holocaust exhibition, but that's when I ran into the
traveler's cheque problem -- I'd run-out of cash, and the first bank told me
that they charged a commission for cashing traveler's cheques and suggested
that I go to this other bank. Other bank, however, also charged a commission
if you didn't have an account there, and of course I don't have an account
at a British bank, so I don't know what the first cashier was thinking.
Either, no cheque-cashing because my current signature doesn't match the old
high school one on my passport, so no museum. I can't blame the bank teller
though, since she was only doing her job and I'd refuse to cash cheques too
in the same situation.
Castle, I ran to Cleopatra's Needle by 5:30PM and asked Rachel and Tom if
there were any seats left from the Art History field study. There were, so
hooray, I had free transportation back to the Castle, during which I also
had an enlightening conversation with Helen, who's one of the Fudan
University students here.
So that was my London overnight and the first trip I've ever done
independently. Overall, minus being too tired on Thursday to really enjoy
the British Museum, picking a museum I wouldn't have any interest in for
that afternoon, getting lost in the middle of the night in the area my
hostel was in, and the traveler's cheque debacle with the lost opportunity
for the IWM, I really enjoyed myself and especially liked seeing 'Equus',
going on the walk on the promenade with some hard soft-serve ice cream, and
Westminster Abbey.
Also, there was an almost-full moon out tonight and it's rather incredible how bright the halo is out here in the countryside. But onto London!
Unlike all the other kids here who seem to go to exotic places like Amsterdam, Milan, Barcelona, etc. every weekend (I'm not sure how this works when we have field studies for our classes usually every weekend), I'll be heading off to London (I know, boring, but hey, I need to start small) later today -- this is the first time I've ever traveled alone, but I'm pretty excited, as I'll have more time to go museum-hopping and I don't have to worry about following a group I may not necessarily want to do the same stuff with (seriously, does anyone REALLY need to go to TopShop every weekend?).
I booked my hostel bed very early yesterday morning via hostelworld.com as a friend of mine recommended -- I'm paying 13 pounds for a 12-person mixed dorm at what's supposed to be a very nice hostel right across from the Natural History Museum. The only thing that I could find for the day that was cheaper was a bed for 10 pounds, though it's for a 28-bed all-male room, and that obviously won't cut it no matter how flat-chested I am.
I also book a taxi after class yesterday to take me to Polegate station. It's coming at 9:00AM, and it's a 10 pounds fixed rate. Kind of sucks that I don't have other people to split the bill with, but eh, considering I haven't been spending exorbitant amounts of cash on TopShop several times a week, it's not too bad. Unfortunately, I'm running out of pound paper money and will have to start into my traveler's cheques, but I've never used those things before. As for railway tickets, I figured that since I'm not completely sure when the taxi will get to the station, I'll wait until I get to the station first -- I figure that there won't be a huge demand on Thursday morning anyway.
In terms of what I'll do IN London -- I haven't exactly set-out a plan yet, though I'm pretty sure that I'll stay within what's considered Zone 1 on the Underground system and will go museum-hopping. I'm still very ambivalent on whether I want to go on the London Eye or not -- at 12+ pounds for what's essentially a ride on a giant ferris wheel, it kind of screams 'tourist trap', though on the other, I should probably do it once at some point for the photographs.
And in terms of getting back from London on Friday -- I signed-up for one of the waiting list spots for the ECON 111 (Microeconomics) field study (some idiot ahead of me signed-up not only herself, but a whole bunch of her friends, which is against the rules), but they're leaving London at 4:30PM, which seems too early. At the same time, I don't want to spend up to 20 pounds for a train and taxi. Hmm.
Anyway, since I'm forgetful, here's a list of what I have to do before the taxi comes, and I'll probably add to the list later:
I had intended to spend time working on readings and assignments for next week, but ended-up reading chunks of Robert Graves' 'Goodbye to All That' instead. For some reason, my interest in the Blitz and British Home Front in World War II has taken a backseat to the British Army in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I, but I'm not complaining. I wish those Osprey books at the Imperial War Museum weren't so damn expensive though.
- Mood:
excited - Music:Just Like You Imagined -- Nine Inch Nails
Back the Opening Ceremonies at the beginning of term so many weeks ago (and surprisingly actually written about in his much-neglected journal here), Dr. McLean (henceforth Dr. Scott, because that's how I automatically refer to him for some reason), who's my tutor for HIST 289 (England Since 1851) and also teaches HIST 287 (Early Modern England), announced that was looking for student volunteers to help-out at a nearby excavation of a medieval house in Wartling. I was interested in participating, so I talked to him during the mingling afterwards and sent him an e-mail later noting that I was interested. A short while ago, he sent-out another e-mail saying that there would be a dig every Saturday beginning with today and every Saturday afterwards, and I replied back saying that I could make it to today's outing.
I arrived by the Castle's parking lot at 9:45AM this morning as the e-mail response stated. I was expecting many more students to be there, given the amount of interest that was shown at the Opening Ceremonies and at the Imperial War Museum yesterday, but including me, there were only five -- a girl in Dr. Scott's HIST 287 (Early Modern England) class, a guy who's also taking HIST 289 (England Since 1851), and Christian and Jeremy, who are in CLST 206 (Roman Britain) with me. Dr. Scott had also brought his son, Connor, along, which also solves the mystery of that doodle on Dr. Lloyd's (henceforth Christian Lloyd, because that's how I mentally refer to him) bulletin board. We all piled into Dr. Scott's car and then drove down to Wartling, which is actually only a three or so minute drive away, keeping in mind that in England, every drives at crazy speeds.
We pulled-up on the side of the road near a pub in Wartling, which seems to be one of those scenic little English villages. We had to walk past a house and into their yard, then along path and some steps with lots of plants overgrowing around it, then hop over a fence and into a huge rolling field where the dig site itself was in the corner. We were introduced to the woman whom I believe is the graduate student in charge of the site, which is of a medieval castle with some later elements to it.
I completely regret not bringing my camera along, as it's hard to describe the site -- it was fairly small and right by the highway, though separated by lots of plants that were too tall to look over. Big squares of land of varying depths had been dug up and you could see foundations of the walls in the dirt. They had also uncovered a well, which we got to look down (it's very deep) -- apparently, the water down there was drinkable when they first dug it up!
At one point, the ECON 111 (Microeconomics) tutor also showed-up, as there weren't any extra spots after all on one of the English field studies that morning. He's a really funny older tutor, and Dr. Scott was telling us stories about how the guy would walk miles to the pubs in the area and probably keeps returning to teach at the ISC because of the pubs. All in all, good fun.
We had to walk across a thin yet high strip of remaining grassy land to get to a space where the graduate student showed us how to dig a particular square of land -- Jeremy and the other HIST 289 (England Since 1851) student got to removing the top soil and digging down to the yellow layer of dirt there while Dr. Scott was digging in the plot beside them, and the other students went to wash findings with Connor. I was given a trowel, handheld shovel, and bucket and set to work scrapping off the dirt on a small square at the other corner of the site, keeping in mind that this is a very small site. Definitely much harder work than I'd anticipated -- the dirt was, for the most part, very hard and therefore difficult to scrap away. I was very glad for the knee pad I had to kneel on, but my back and knees were definitely uncomfortable after awhile. I didn't find anything huge, but I did uncover a few glass shards, chunks of red pottery, and a particularly interesting small piece of broken pottery that was made of red clay, but glazed so that it looked like metal on the painted surfaces -- very pretty to look at.
So, I troweled away for the morning before we all took a quick break so that Dr. Scott could drive Christian and other-history-guy back to the Castle so they could catch a cab to Lewes for a medieval festival and the girl so she could use the bathroom (the only on-site option was to squat in the vegetation). Jeremy and I stuck around before going back to work for awhile longer, but there's not much more to report there because it was more of the same.
Around 1:00PM, we took another break and Dr. Scott drove Jeremy, Connor, the other girl whose name I didn't catch, and myself back to the Castle for lunch. Oh, and you know how the Herstmonceux Castle books always tell you that the faculty are so available at the ISC that you can even eat meals with them in the dining hall? LIES. They always sit with other tutors or staff members, and I don't blame them. However, Jeremy, other-girl, and I saw down for lunch at one of the round tables and after they'd originally sat somewhere else, Dr. Scott and his son came over to our table, which was great. Conversation was mostly about classes, such as presentations and whatnot -- Dr. Scott asked me what I thought about the Imperial War Museum yesterday and I said that I thought it was really interesting, but that I was disappointed with the Blitz Experience exhibit. And he agreed that it was ineffective and he didn't like it, but that some students told him they'd really enjoyed it. Some jokes about it being okay to eat ice cream for dessert after lunch because of how hard work at the site was, and then by 1:40PM, we headed back out to get a ride back to the site. Other-girl went back the Bader Hall to do schoolwork, which left Jeremy and me as the only ISC students still volunteering for today.
When we got back to the site, we switched-up jobs a bit at Dr. Scott's suggestion, so Jeremy and I washed finds while Dr. Scott went back to digging away at his plot. I ended-up washing two bags of stuff, and while it sounds really boring, it was actually really interesting to handle the various items they had found. Everything was caked with dirt, so we had to rinse them off in a container of water and lightly scrub with a toothbrush. Most of the stuff I was was big chunks of pottery and some interesting pieces of glass, plus some heavily crusted metal (we were told not to wash those) and what I think are fragments of smoking pipes.
Anyway, it's the kind of tedious and menial task that I actually really enjoying doing, so I had fun with that. I did two bags and Jeremy had one, but his stuff was more interesting -- among the usual potter, glass, and metal, he also had pieces of animal bones, the tobacco end of a smoking pipe, and shared of really beautifully decorated and colourfully glazed pottery. By comparison, my most interesting piece was probably a big chunk of red pottery with a hole carved into it. The economics tutor had taken over the plot I was digging at in the morning after he's not surprisingly come back from lunch at the nearby pub, and he fittingly (as others described it) found the neck of a wine bottle there. After washing the items, we left them to draw on newspapers and helped put the cleaned and dried findings from the morning into labeled plastic bags before helping to clean-up stuff before leaving.
After that, we basically put things away and piled back into Dr. Scott's car for a ride back to Bader Hall on the Castle's estate. Overall, I thought it was a fantastic experience to get to participate in an actual archaeological dig, albeit a small one in England rather than on in Greece or Italy. Apparently, in England, these kinds of digs and volunteering for them is a HUGE thing, and I wish it was the same in Canada. But hey, at least when we go to Barcombe next Saturday for our excavation field study for CLST 206 (Roman Britain), I can say that I've had experience doing a dig.
As for whether I'd do the Wartling dig again -- absolutely, but unfortunately, today was the only day I could do it, with the possible exception of the Saturday before my day of departure. Next Saturday is Barcombe as I just mentioned, and the Saturday after that is the mid-term overnight trip to Dieppe in France. Alas, but at least it was a worthwhile and interesting experience. I still wish I'd had the good sense to bring a camera though.
- Mood: tired
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