Well, I haven't written much in awhile, and now that I'm stateside for an indefinite amount of time, I'm afraid my blog won't be nearly as interesting as it has been for the past year. Alas, I have no foreign adventures to write on now, just my adventures from my senior year at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, VA. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my life after college, and I'm guessing many of my entries might be written tackling that issue and my indecision. If you have any suggestions on what you think I should do, please by all means shoot me an email at indianajans@gmail.com. I need all the help I can get.
Conquering the Blue Ridge Parkway, one mountain at a time
But I'm trying to make the most of the year and carry on my traveling mentality to get out and explore more of the local attractions around me. For example, the Blue Ridge Mountains have been practically in my backyard for two years and I'd yet to venture into them. Well, a group of us Readingites decided that needed to change, and last week we went hiking on Otter's Peaks. We ended up walking the whole of Sharp Point Mountain in just a couple of hours, including several breaks, and it was gorgeous. The term 'Blue Ridge' is simply perfect for these mountains; as we were driving in we saw the peak in the distance, and it looked almost like a painted blue line across the sky. I found a place to climb out to get the view above, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen; not even in Greece did I see a mountain vista so beautiful. Everything was shades of blue and green, it was the most calming, seclusive place I've seen. It's what I would image the mountains of Peru to look like, but I haven't seen them, so I'll have to get back to you on that.
Us at the summit!
We made a pact to try and make a hiking journey as much as we possibly can this year. The next two weekends are all booked for us, but hopefully after then we'll get back out on the trails. I'm not sure if we'll get a more gorgeous day than our first one out, but we can try. I think hiking will be a great source of stress relief this year. With all the work already piling up for us seniors, the feeling of going somewhere to be outside where we don't think about those papers and books for a day will be incredible.
Speaking of work, I'm up to my head in it. I've certainly found myself missing those lazy days in England, where I went to class 3 times a week and spent the rest of the time going out on the town, traveling into London, or staying in to watch movies. It seems like I can barely hold onto my time now, and I'm constantly in a state of productivity, constantly on the move. For right now I'm keeping up with classes, but only just.
But I'm doing things this year that I've always wanted to try: I tried out for and joined the school choir, I started a job as a barista in the campus coffee stand, I'm enrolled in a creative writing (screenwriting) class, and I will soon be co-DJing a radio show on the WWRM--the campus radio station. More information on that last point as I get it; the show is available online and can be heard all over the world, so you'll all have to tune in! A theatre friend--Melissa Gilbert--and I are running it, and we plan on broadcasting musicals and recording old radio plays. We hope to cast and record our own version of the original War of the World radio broadcast for Halloween, so look forward to it!
In short, this year may not be filled with train rides across Europe or conversations in broken English with Greek locals in cafes, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let it be boring. I'm hoping to make the most of my last year in college, and after that, who knows? Maybe it's a good thing that I have no set plans for myself. I'm open to anywhere the world takes me for now, and I'm planning on enjoying the ride.
Dr. Irwin asked me to write up on my experience in Crete for the Tales of Reading website (HERE). I thought I'd include it here, too. =)
Let me start by saying that I love England. Any country that successfully combines tea and men wearing tights while quoting Shakespeare and calls it culture is alright by me. So when I go on to say that I traded my remaining time in England to go adventuring in Greece, know that it wasn’t because I couldn’t stand the place any more. True, it could’ve had a bit more sun, but even so, I was devastated to leave England behind. There are so many things to experience in England, and I returned over the summer because, frankly, I wasn’t done with it yet. I’m still not, and I don’t know if I ever will be. One thing that I understood only superficially before I left for Reading was the fact that I would be studying at a completely different University for a year. There were many differences between Reading in England and my little college on the hill in Virginia, but one of the things the two had in common was the availability of study abroad programs. I ended up taking an archaeological class with a fellow student from Macon, Sam Henderson, and our professor mentioned that she would be taking several students to Crete in the spring to help her with her dig there. Our ears perked up at the mention of it, and then the question came to us: can one study abroad, while studying abroad? We were full Reading University students during our year abroad, and so when we asked the question to those who would know, the answer was a resounding “Yes you can!” I gave up my hopes to study in a more exotic country to participate in the Reading program, and here I was facing the possibility of having my cake and eating it too. So when we got our acceptance emails in March, neither of us could really believe it. We were going to Greece! It was strange to go from adjusting to life in one foreign country to adjusting to another completely different place. Neither of us spoke Greek, but after a few days there we learned ‘good morning’, ‘please’, and ‘thank you’, which seemed to be the vital things to know in the small town on the coast of Crete where we spent the next three weeks. We were travelling with two other Reading students, and the four of us became a close group. I’ll never forget spending the days on a hill overlooking the coast while washing bits of ancient pottery and spending my nights huddled around a table in a family-run taverna, eating home cooked Greek food and being fed free raki—the local liquor of Crete. It was simply beautiful, in many senses of the term, and the whole village seemed to know about the four young archaeological women in their midst. As if that wasn’t enough, we got to explore much of the rest of the island on our days off. At the same time that Sam and I were in Crete, another group from Reading was doing a dig in Jordan, and I'm pretty sure that's an opportunity that's usually available. Reading is great all around, but especially has some amazing opportunities for the budding archaeologist, not only Silchester and not only in Crete, but so many more; all one has to do is ask and look into it. I honestly believe that going to Reading is probably the best thing an archaeology student at the home campus can do for her or his future career. I cannot believe the amount of opportunities I've had in the past year, and I feel so grateful that I took the leap, both in going in Reading and in taking all the chances I was offered there. Why stop when you get to Reading? Sure, just going to Reading is great; but it's a lot more fun to thrive there! As Miss Frizzle of the Magic School Bus used to say, “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!” Who knows? Maybe you’ll get as far as Greece.
Scotland was by far my favorite place we traveled over the summer. It felt like I had stepped right into of one of my childhood King Arthur and Unicorns fantasies; the air hung with a misty, heavy atmosphere and abandoned castles littered the hilly landscape. To say the least, it was hauntingly beautiful.
The front view of the GlobeTrotter Inn, Edinburgh
We flew straight from Dublin to Edinburgh and checked into our hostel room early on Wednesday the 22nd. We were staying at the GlobeTrotter Inn, which wasn't in the heart of Edinburgh but ran a shuttle bus every hour in and out of the center of the city. The hostel itself was about 10 minutes out of town in a building that looked almost like an old castle; we even had a beach view! We really lucked out with this hostel and, unlike our musical-bunk room in Dublin-we managed to get the full 6 bed room completely to ourselves for 2 out of the 3 nights we slept there. The rooms were very clean and roomy, and the beds had privacy curtains, which is a real luxury in multi-room hostels. The showers were pretty amazing, too; really, it was a great and cheap place to stay in Edinburgh. I highly recommend it.
The Royal Mile
Anyway, after dropping things off and taking a short nap we took the shuttle into town. We spend most of the first day just walking around Edinburgh, taking in all the incredible buildings and the picturesque streets. We walked down the Royal Mile, visited a shop where kilts and tartans were made in the basement, and got our first look of the Edinburgh castle. Edinburgh is basically a photographer's dream, and I'll probably be including many pictures at the end of this entry. The castle was especially impressive and fun to photograph.
This guy was stationed outside the castle. I don't think they pay him enough.
It started to rain rather hard, so we headed back to the hostel to read and sleep, and set out the next day to go inside the castle. It took us at least 2 hours to explore the castle, it was more like a small fortified neighborhood than one castle. It had a plethora of buildings, including a very nice cafe where we a lunch of pies and roast Scottish lamb. We walked around the inner roads of the castle and visited some of the buildings, one of which held the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Scone, the stone that served as Scotland's throne for crowning royalty since the days of William Wallace. The Stone used to be held under the English throne in Westminster, but, as one of the guards in the room divulged to me in great and enthusiastic detail, the Stone was repatriated (I made the mistake of asking if it'd been 'stolen') by a group of college students on Christmas Day in 1950. The group of 3 men and one woman took the Stone while the English guards were busy celebrating the holiday and took it with them back to Scotland as a sort of prank, and were surprised by the explosion of reactions from the English government--who called them morally compromised thieves--and the Scottish government--who called them patriotic heroes. Eventually, they had to come clean. Luckily, no serious charges were pressed, and according to the guard they all enjoy free pints whenever they visit a Scottish pub.
Bagpiper in Edinburgh Castle
Under the Edinburgh Castle
After walking through the castle and being treated to an entertaining and slightly terrifying demonstration on Scottish weaponry back in the day, Tony and I walked around under the castle to get some pictures. I took quite a few...
Storming the castle
Nappin' while I'm shootin'
Good ol' Sepia
So anyway. After storming the castle for a bit, we went to wander some more around the highly walkable streets of Edinburgh (in the rain, for the most part) and ended up finding an office for bus tours. After our good experience in Dublin, we decided it would probably be money well spent, so we went in search of the perfect tour. We decided to go for our dreams and picked a Highland tour that would take us to Loch Ness, and even allow for time for us to take a short boat tour to go Nessie hunting. I really wanted a tour that would take us by Duone Castle, the filming sight of most of Monty Python's Holy Grail, but there wasn't a tour that seemed to cover them all.
Misty Mountains on the morning of our bus tour
And the best thing about our tour was that we didn't even have to wake up super early to make the meeting point; the tour bus picked us up from the hostel on its way into Edinburgh! We were the first on the bus, too, so we got the best seats. We had a really nice tour guide, and minus the unscheduled stop so a family in the back could unload their very car sick children, I enjoyed it even more than the tour in Ireland. The Highlands were completely gorgeous. According to our guide, it's been speculated that Scotland was once a part of Canada, became detached during the movement of the plates, and collided into the rest of England, creating the Highland. That would actually explain the hills and wildlife found in Scotland that's typical of North America but nothing like England. "Which means, of course, that Scotland is the most well-traveled country in the world," he said.
Lookin' for Nessie on the Loch!
We stopped for lunch at Port Augustus on the Loch, grabbed a few sandwiches for lunch, and boarded the bus for the boat tour! The whole Loch Ness experience was probably one of the best things from our trip to Scotland. I just loved how seriously everyone in the area took it, and I have to say that after being in the area and seeing the Loch, I'm a believer. Especially after coming face to face with Nessie herself...
It's Nessie!! With a baby in tow! ;D
So yea, the boat was fully equipped with all kinds of sonar gear, which apparently picks up some mysterious readings every now and then... Also, during initial surveillance of the Loch, scientists tagged a few areas that the sonar picked up as large and unidentified. When they came back, they found some crashed planes, sunk ships, and the like, but a few of the points of interested had disappeared...
Glen Coe
After becoming fully convinced Nessie exists, we set back out to complete our travel through the Highlands. We stopped by the mountain Ben Nevis and Glen Coe, where the Macdonald massacre took place. Back when England was taking over and buying off the Scottish clans, some clans signed up right away while others held out. The Macdonalds were one of the more stubborn clans and the Campbells, who were among those who signed with England right away, were sent to help the Macdonalds come around to the English side. The Campbells were told to take up residence with the Macdonalds and await further instruction and, as was custom, the Macdonalds let the Campbells into their homes without a second thought. Order came through one morning to kill every man and boy over the age of 16 in the village before dawn, and the Campbells carried it out. But they didn't stop there. They went further to throw all the women and children out of their homes, which they then burned to the ground, to brave the elements on their own in the middle of the Scottish winter. Needless to say, nearly the entire clan perished, and 200 years later there are still pubs in the area that proudly hang the sign "No dogs, No Bums, No Campbells". But the real tragedy of this story is that on the very morning the massacre took place, the clan leader was signing allegience with England; the message to stop didn't make it in time.
Doune Castle
Feeling nice and solemn after our stop in Glen Coe, we stumbled upon a happy random happenstance: we passed a sign for Doune Castle. Turns out we got to drive right past it, and I got to snap a good picture; so at the end of the day, I got to have my cake and eat it too.
Arthur's Seat and the clan tents in The Gathering
The next day we were leaving Edinburgh to go back to London, but our flight didn't leave until 7 at night, so we spent a lot of time trying to think of what to do for the day before that. Tony ended up finding a flyer for something called The Gathering, which ended up taking place the weekend we were leaving. So Saturday we made our way down to Arthur's Seat--a range of cliffs in Edinburgh--and got in line to enter the biggest clan gathering for the past 200 years, and the first venue in Edinburgh to host Highland Games in history. The Gathering had tents to reunite with the family clan, places to get Haggis--which we tried here; it was so so--Highland dancing, Highland games, and some good ol' bagpiping bands, including the Red Hot Chili Pipers, one of Tony's new found favourties.
They're in there, I promise...
We were very lucky this summer. Very, very lucky. Every time we think that we've hit the end of our good luck, something else amazing happens. For instance, within 5 minutes of entering the event, not 10 feet away from us in the probably square mile area of the event, who would walk past us but Prince Charles and Camilla. Yep, it was a magical time.
Climbing Arthur's Seat
After bumming around and watching some Highland games, we decided that we wanted to go climb Arthur's Seat. So we took off from the event and made the hike up the cliff to see all of Edinburgh, and The Gathering, spread out before us. It was simply gorgeous.
On our way down Arthur's Seat, we witnessed a Caber Toss match. In a Caber Toss, the goal is to take a giant pole of wood, run with it, and then throw it in a way that the end that was once in the air lands on the ground and the pole raises to be perpendicular to the ground. I even managed to get a recording of a successful toss.
Wow, I don't know about you, but I think that's a substantial enough entry. Basically, Scotland was amazing and I hope I can go back one day.
One of the numerous rainbows we saw in Dublin; this one is from the view of the Guinness Gravity Bar
We're back in London for now, for less than 24 hours actually, and we have been for a few days. I've put off updating this for a bit because it's been so nice to just relax at the flat without feeling the need to do things like figure out travel plans or write about them. Much as I loved this past year, I'm on exhausted traveler. It'll be nice to be some place boring for a bit, or at least stay in the same country for longer than 3 months. Anyway, I've also put off updating because there's just so much to say and it's a little overwhelming. Over the past week we've been to Ireland and Scotland, and they were incredible. In order to help myself start this entry, I decided I would only focus on Ireland for this update; I'll write about Scotland when I'm back home.
So Ireland. Wow. Well, after going on tours and learning all about Ireland's unfortunate history, I find it somewhat fitting that Tony and I spent most of our time in the country in the rain and worried about money. We flew in late Saturday evening and arrived at Isaac's Hostel. When we arrived they were having a social BBQ in the garden where we could get a hamburger and beer for just €5, which is reasonable enough. I enjoy hostels; I often feel out of place walking into a hotel. In a hostel I don't feel the need to act like anything other than what I am: a broke college student. But it can be a little uncomfortable when sharing a room with strangers. Tony and I stayed in mixed gender 6 bed rooms in both Edinburgh and Dublin. In Edinburgh we completely lucked out and had the place to ourselves for 2 out of our 3 nights there, but in Dublin it was a slightly different story. The sleeping patterns of the people in our room were so random that there was constantly at least one person asleep in the room at all hours of the day. First off, there was a guy there who was.. rather interesting. Tony and I think he was a vampire, but we have no proof other than the fact that he was completely nocturnal, came in at 9 am, slept until 8pm, got dressed in a suit and went out until the next morning. The two of us got into the habit of going to sleep early so that we could get up early to take tours, and I also felt a little ill while we were there so I took to napping in the afternoon, around the time the vamp--other guy was leaving. Once we'd go to sleep, the group of French girls would come in, get ready to go clubbing, and get back loudly at 3 in the morning and then sleep until 11am or so, while we would get up and leave by around 6 or 7am. It was a complicated schedule... sorry you had to hear all of it, but I found it somewhat fascinating.
Walking the streets of Dublin
Anyway, after a night of sleep, Tony and I went on a free tour that was being advertised in the hostel. It was a great tour and it let us see pretty much all of Dublin, plus our tour guide was filled with fascinating stories about Dublin's past. My favorite, and probably the saddest, story that I think captures the unlucky nature of Irish history involves Dublin castle, which was built and inhabited by the English. The Irish weren't very happy about the English occupation, that unhappiness dictates most of their recent history, and they were prone to rebellions that were often catastrophically unsuccessful. This one particular rebellion involved 19 men and women (because Ireland is so above sexism) who believed that they alone could storm Dublin castle and reclaim the city from the English. They made it pretty far and were nearly at the point of raising the Irish flag in the castle until they started having second doubts; they hadn't been met with much, if any, resistance, but why? They started to think that the English must have seen this coming, that they were laying in wait, two steps ahead of them, just ready to catch them in the act. Paranoid and panicked, they retreated to the City Hall just next to the castle, where one of the members raised the Irish flag from the roof of the building and was shot by an English castle guard. But, the real tragedy is that the English were hardly onto their plot at all. Where were they? At the races. Had the group simply carried on, they could've taken control of the castle and possibly reclaimed the city for Ireland, bringing an end to years of rebellion, oppression, and bloodshed.
So kids, the moral of the story is: believe in yourself and your ability to rebel against the English. Just don't mess with their tea like the colonists did, it makes them cranky.
Frothy mustaches after our first taste of Guinness brewed right in Dublin
Anyway, the tour was money well spent, especially since we didn't spend any, and it set us off on the productive track to see the rest of Dublin. We also got to hit up the Historical Museum and see the bog men, which were incredibly impressive. We decided to be especially ambitious and walk completely across town to the Guinness Storehouse. For €11, the student price, we walked through the exhibition and got a free taste of freshly brewed Guinness, along with a free pint in the highly impressive Gravity Bar. The exhibition was all well in good, but the Guinness was excellent and the bar was way beyond our expectations; we didn't know that it offered a full panorama of the city of Dublin. We even had the incredible luck of seeing a rainbow from up there, which is the first picture in the blog. We would see a good 5 or so more in just the 3 days we spent there; I can see now why leprechauns and rainbows are so stereotypically Irish.
A walkabout of the Gravity Bar
That was enough for one day (trust me) and the next day we woke up tired, worried about our dying bank accounts, and, at least on my part, a little more than under the weather. We mostly took it easy, making simple adventures out to see the streets of Dublin and coming back in for naps and rest. I won't explain my symptoms here because I still have to cross the border of the US and I want to be allowed to come back, so I'll just say for now that flu meds seemed to help. Still, the day wasn't a complete bust and we got to see some great street performers, not to mention of course the tickets we bought to see Riverdance. The show was incredible, definitely the best dance performance I've seen. Unfortunately, it only furthered our anger about the Moulin Rouge... Our two tickets for Riverdance combined was less than half the cost of one Moulin Rouge ticket, and yet the talent of Riverdance was astronomically greater.
Galway Bay
Our last day in Ireland was spent on a tour of the west where we visited Galway Bay, the Shannon River, and the Cliffs of Moher. They were all staggeringly beautiful and I would write much more about them because they deserve the attention, but I need to get to sleep so I'm well rested for the plane tomorrow. Besides, the tale is better told with pictures.
Galway
Empty houses on green hills
Cliffs of Moher
Back to the States, indefinitely. So long, Europe...
Well, we are in London again after returning from one of our many adventures, this time in France. We were in Paris from Monday 13 July to Yesterday, 16 July. Overall, it was a good trip, and I can easily say that I enjoy Paris much better in the summer than in the winter, and when we secure a way home before we leave the country. At least we learn from our mistakes.
Our visit started off well: with fireworks and picnics!
Anyway, we arrived in Paris in the late afternoon and once we found and checked into our hotel, we did a little exploring around the area. Our hotel was on a man-made narrow canal and it was a very nice location. When we were looking around for food, there were several locals enjoying lovely picnics along the water and, not to pass up a chance for a picnic, we joined the crowd with a few quiches and some wine that we got at a nearby cafe. As we finished our dinner and started heading back to the hotel for the night, the neighborhood began their fireworks celebration for Bastille Day the next day...
Military Official in the Bastille Day parade
Parachuters, too!
Turns out the 14th of July is Bastille Day. What a crazy random happenstance! We actually didn't realize this until a few days before we left, and it was an exciting surprise. There are three things that we were looking forward to: the parade, the Louvre being free, and the fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, we only got to experience the parade. We decided to make our way to the Eiffel Tower and hopefully climb to the top, and on our way we stumbled upon the parade. There was a bit of a hold up somewhere, so there were tanks and army trucks sitting in front of us for a good 15 minutes, and the soldiers seemed to be getting on well enough with the locals around them; it was all smiles, as any parade should be.
Hippo does Paris!
Once they got moving again, Tony and I continued our trek to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, it had closed early that day to start preparing for the show. We would've been disappointed, but really it seems like it would all be more hassle and annoyance than it's worth. The way I see it is that my favorite part of the Parisian skyline is the Eiffel Tower, so if I'm going to see Paris from up high, I would want to be able to see the Tower, not be standing on it. That and the price tag was a bit too big and the gypsies in the area a bit too pushy, so we got our Hippo Picture and left happily. If I were to be totally honest, much of the sightseeing we do nowadays is inspired by wanting more pictures of Hippo in front of exciting places. If you've so far not been introduced to Hippo, you can see his Italy album and his Greek album on Facebook. If he has the time, I might just make him a blog page later...
Arc de Triomphe
So after the Eiffel Tower, we set off for the Louvre because it's free on Bastille Day. However, it's also closed on Tuesday. Guess what day it was? That's right. So we once again found ourselves sitting outside the closed Louvre. So we went to the Arc de Triomphe because it was there. Now's a good time to say that eating in Paris is ridiculously expensive. We were hard pressed to find much of anything less than €10 that wasn't a pastry or slice of quiche, and with the exchange rate being what it is, that makes the cost of eating nearly painful.
Showing our love at Oscar Wilde's grave
After all that, we still had some time that we could spend elsewhere so we headed off to the Pere Lachaise cemetery to pay a visit to someone very special in our lives: Oscar Wilde. It's tradition to leave a kiss of appreciation at the grave, and Tony, Hippo, and I all obliged. We then went on to Jim Morrison's grave, mostly because we were in the area. We then headed out because our feet hurt from all the walking!
A kiss at the red windmill of the Moulin Rouge
Speaking of painful, we then had to head back to our hotel to get ready for the Moulin Rouge show we'd booked before arriving. The sad thing is that we booked it before knowing it was Bastille Day, and it was because of that show we missed the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. The show itself was about 45% Razzle, 50% Dazzle, and 5% talent. It was rather overpriced, but we got a slight discount by booking on Expedia, plus they give you a free bottle of champagne. I think that this is partly to justify the high prices, but mostly so that by drinking half a bottle of the rather potent drink you'll not notice how bad the show is. We, however, were not fooled by this tactic, and were still able to recount, if maybe a little inebriated, the many failings of the show during our metro ride home. To begin with, it was filled with horrible lip synching: lip synching so bad that it might actually give me nightmares. I do wish they had more solo dances, however; not because I thought that they needed to showcase more talent, but because none of the dancers seemed to be able to dance in synch with any other human being to save their lives. Let's just say I'm happy I had the champagne, if only as a way of easing the pain. It was the first show I've attended in a long time that had me constantly looking at my watch in boredom. I guess it doesn't really help that the last live show I saw before this was Les Mis in London last Friday, and it was the theatrical experience of a lifetime. Thus ends our Bastille Day. By the time we got out of the show, we could hear the finale at the Eiffel Tower and headed home.
Admiring ceilings in Versailles
The next day we went to Versailles, the palace of the kings of France. It was rather... impressive. First off was the interior of the palace including many lavish rooms with incredible ceilings, and then there was the gardens and of course the jaw-dropping Hall of Mirrors.
It was pretty much an entire palace of eye candy and we would definitely return, especially when they turn the fountains on, because they weren't turned on when we were there, which was very disappointing.
Not going to lie, this kinda made me want to reread The DaVinci Code.
After almost a full day at Versailles, we still had time to go to the Louvre, and this time it was finally open! We decided that we would go back for the full day on Thursday, so we got the essentials down in this trip including the Mona Lisa and the other paintings we wanted to see so that we could spend the entire next day in the sculpture rooms.
Venus de Milo
And that's exactly what we did. They Louvre's collection is entirely impressive, and Tony was walking around like a little kid in a candy store. I manned the camera; he pointed, I shot. It was a good system.
After a nearly full day there, we still had some time before our late flight so we ran to the Rodin Museum, once again mostly so we could get some good Hippo pictures but also to see some of the masterpieces in person. When we got there we found that the area was blocked off. We asked a guard why and he explained as best he could that there was a group called Manifestation that was planning a riot in the area because they were protesting the high price of health care. I don't really know why they were protesting, as France has Universal Health Care, but oh well. We were confused as to why they chose the Rodin Museum as their apparent location of focus, but when we were going around the blockades we discovered that we were also right next to the French equivalent of the Ministry of Health and Safety. Still, only the museum was blocked off, and the protest group for some reason had a bagpipe player. I guess it isn't a proper protest without a bagpipe.
Once done at the museum, we pretty much just headed to the airport and were off. We had a very obnoxious man to deal with at UK customs who seemed to think it was highly suspicious that I was a student here for a year and would then want to come back right after. He gave us the very unwelcomed third degree. We're leaving for Ireland tomorrow afternoon, and after that it's straight to Scotland, so we'll be off for about the next week or more. Honestly, I'm ready to go home again, but that's not much more than a week away, so I think I can make it through these next few days. I feel exhausted now, but I'm sure after a few months in Lynchburg, VA, I'll be dying to get back into the swing of adventure and travel. Until then...
P.S. I hate audio guides. Let me tell you why. Audio guides are a way of supplying your average Joe with useless information of mild interest once he reaches a very important point of interest. That's the start of why I dislike them: they take a very long amount of time and flourish to say very little. The real source of my hatred, however, is that by having something speaking in a person's ear about a particular statue, painting, room decoration, etc creates in them the feeling that they must stand directly in front of the object in order to understand everything that is being said to them. This means that at every point that a non-audio-guide-patron wishes a closer view or unobstructed picture of a well known object, he or she is constantly blocked by the wall that is 6'2" of stupid tourist who's been standing directly in front of the object for the past minute and a half and cannot possibly move out of the way until the full detailed description of said object has stopped playing in his head.
In less than an hour I'll be leaving for Paris for the next 3 days. But before I go, I had to write a self-assessment paper for Silchester. Since it did the job of describing my time in Silchester and what I took from it, I figured I'd post it here to fill everyone in on my time in the mud.
My time at Silchester provided me with a learning experience that could not be recreated in a classroom. I’m a hands-on person and I learn by doing, so my time spent in Silchester was the best look at archaeology I’ve so far been able to have. Of all the things I learned there, the most important is that I unfortunately feel that field archaeology is not something I wish to pursue further as a career. However, I still have an interest in archaeological finds, and I would like to continue to work with them. I worked under Sarah Lucas in the Southwest corner of Insula IX. My first task was cleaning a flat surface, where I learned the proper way to use my trowel. I mostly enjoyed digging, but at the beginning it made me nervous because I kept fearing that I was digging too much and destroying a feature that I just didn’t see. I also had a bit of bad luck in my first week when it came to digging in interesting areas. I moved on to clean an edge along the Victorian Trench; the edge was difficult to clean and the ground was very dry and thus hard to break through. I also didn’t have a single find for the full 2 ½ days I spent cleaning it. After I was done with the edge, though, Sarah and Tom let me move on to a feature next to where I was digging: a very clearly defined post hole. I was excited about digging it for most of the week, and it was already planned so I could start digging right away. However, after only half an hour of digging, I hit natural and my posthole was over. I found two miniscule pot sherds and nothing else. Disappointed, I then went on to do the section and plans. After my anticlimactic posthole, I wanted a break from digging. Sarah and Tom gave me a task to do that concerned the row of stake holes that align with House 1 in Grids 12-11. They wanted me to find and identify the remains of the holes and try to work out the relationship between them so that we might make a conclusion regarding whether or not they were made at the same time. I poured over old plans and context cards and really enjoyed searching for all the clues that I could find about the holes. However, I was met with frustration when I found that there was some earlier confusion about the stratigraphical relationship between the holes and the fills that they cut into. I wasn’t very good at matrices or stratigraphy, so it was hard for me to understand what was going on at first, but I got much better at it the more I dealt with the problem and with the help of Sarah and the Archaeological Database, we managed to solve the problem. After understanding the stratigraphy, I was then able to look at the site and label the stake holes correctly, something I had struggled in doing before. Though the paper-chasing got difficult and confusing at times, because of the work I did on that I had a greater understanding of matrices, stratigraphy, and could more easily understand a plan and visualize what it represents on site. Once the paper chase was over, I did some more cleaning, which was a welcome change to sitting in the planning hut going over confusing context cards. Tony and I found a large pot in Grid 1 and we spent several days eyeing it while trying to find the cut of the pit that it belonged to. Sadly, we never managed to find the cut, and we were sure that we wouldn’t be able to do anything about the pot, but Sarah was nice enough to let me give the invisible fill a context number and dig it out in the last hour before we left. It wasn’t the whole rim, but it was a sizeable amount of it, and I was very happy to finally have a significant find.
My pot and I
Also on site, I worked at the Environmental cabin doing floating, sieving, and sorting, and the finds cabin doing washing and learning more about the types of finds happening on site. I’d already done extensive work with Environmental sorting and Finds washing in Crete with Saro Wallace, so there was nothing new there. During my time at Silchester, I was lucky enough to sit in on a talk with Mike Fulford, the director of Silchester, to learn about the dating of pottery found on site. It was fascinating to watch him look at a sherd and give information on what pot it came from, where it came from, and when it was possibly made. I have no idea how he did it, but it’s something I’d like to learn. I think if I did continue on with archaeology, it would be more focused on Finds. I am glad that I had this time at Silchester, because without it I would never know for sure that working in the field wasn’t for me. Like Thomas Edison said after 8000 failed trials of the light bulb, “Well, at least we know 8000 things that don't work.” Field archaeology just doesn’t work for me; I’m sure I’ll eventually find what does.
End Essay.
Also, we had a pirate night where we everyone dressed like pirates and charged the local pub. It was fab.
We be lady pirates. Aarrrrrrr!
Now off to Paris! Let's hope we make it through France without being mugged this time.
Tune in to the WWRM ('Worm') to listen to our theatrical radio show Sundays from 8:30-9:30 (or 10, as it may often be) Eastern!
Welcome to Senior Year!
Conquering the Blue Ridge Parkway, one mountain at a time
Us at the summit!
The front view of the GlobeTrotter Inn, Edinburgh
The Royal Mile
This guy was stationed outside the castle. I don't think they pay him enough.
Under the Edinburgh Castle
Storming the castle
Nappin' while I'm shootin'
Good ol' Sepia
Misty Mountains on the morning of our bus tour
Lookin' for Nessie on the Loch!
It's Nessie!! With a baby in tow! ;D
Glen Coe
Doune Castle
Arthur's Seat and the clan tents in The Gathering
They're in there, I promise...
Climbing Arthur's Seat
One of the numerous rainbows we saw in Dublin; this one is from the view of the Guinness Gravity Bar 
Walking the streets of Dublin
Frothy mustaches after our first taste of Guinness brewed right in Dublin
Galway Bay
Galway
Empty houses on green hills
Cliffs of Moher
Our visit started off well: with fireworks and picnics!
Military Official in the Bastille Day parade
Parachuters, too!
Hippo does Paris!
Arc de Triomphe
Showing our love at Oscar Wilde's grave
A kiss at the red windmill of the Moulin Rouge
Admiring ceilings in Versailles
Not going to lie, this kinda made me want to reread The DaVinci Code. 
Venus de Milo
After a nearly full day there, we still had some time before our late flight so we ran to the Rodin Museum, once again mostly so we could get some good Hippo pictures but also to see some of the masterpieces in person. When we got there we found that the area was blocked off. We asked a guard why and he explained as best he could that there was a group called Manifestation that was planning a riot in the area because they were protesting the high price of health care. I don't really know why they were protesting, as France has Universal Health Care, but oh well. We were confused as to why they chose the Rodin Museum as their apparent location of focus, but when we were going around the blockades we discovered that we were also right next to the French equivalent of the Ministry of Health and Safety. Still, only the museum was blocked off, and the protest group for some reason had a bagpipe player. I guess it isn't a proper protest without a bagpipe.
My pot and I
We be lady pirates. Aarrrrrrr!