Well, this was the second week back at class. And I took a super exciting trip this week, so there is actually something fun to write about. I know, "its about time" you're thinking. And I agree.
So anyway, Monday was human anatomy again. This week was sexing. I am unconvinced that I can do it. I'm going to have to find some better books and pictures and get into the lab to figure it out. I had no idea if those pelvises and skulls were male or female.
Tuesday was animal stuff. We had to do a quick sort and analysis of a bone assemblage in applied zooarch. That just entails going quickly through a box and seeing approximately how many of each species you have and what condition the bones are in to see if it is worth doing further analysis on the assemblage. It was kind of a cheat because our prof had already analyzed that assemblage and it was pretty much sorted, but it gave us the general idea. We're going to have to do it for real as a graded assignment later in the semester. Then we had our other animal class where we found out about our presentations for March. We have to present on animal remains in human graves. A bit of funerary archaeology. My topic is sheep in prehistoric Britain. I thought about doing something on the Andes, but the library here isn't really equipped for that and I wasn't sure I could find enough journal articles in english. Plus I think it will be helpful to learn more about Britain for my thesis as well.
Wednesday I didn't do a whole lot of anything. I got some reading done and finished my stats paper. Then in the evening I went to campus to get books for my thesis. I ended up with about 10 of them and they weighed a ton. Then I went to see The Edukators, a German film at the Global cinema that they hold on campus on Wednesday nights. It was kind of interesting, but not great.
Thursday me and Danielle, my friend from Canada, went to Bath. We left early to catch the train from Poole to Southhampton and then from Southhampton to Bath. That all went really smoothly and we got there in 2.5 hours. We got there around noon so we headed to a Thai place for lunch. I got green curry and it was really good. Then we went over to the Roman Baths. I had been there with Erik a few years ago, but when we went we didn't get very much time to go through the museum so this time it was much nicer. I got to really see everything. But I didn't touch the water this time. It isn't treated so they have signs everywhere that say not to touch or drink it.
Its really cool there because part of the museum is just leaving the excavations open so you can see what is left of the original Roman baths and then parts were left of the renovations that were done later by the British. At some point the water level was much higher as well and you can see that on the walls. The baths and their surrounding features also used to take up a lot more space than they do now. There was a whole religious complex associated with them and the Abbey is built over part of it. The baths are fed by a hot spring and it was worshiped in ancient times because the water was so warm and bubbled up out of the ground. People worshiped there before the Romans came and the Romans even worshiped there in addition to bathing.
After the baths we went to the fashion museum. It was only 3 extra pounds for a double ticket to that and the baths so we went for it. It was okay overall, but the really cool part was that they had corsets that you could try on. So we did. It was pretty hilarious.
Then we went to the Abbey to look around. There wasn't a guide so we didn't get much info about the place, but it was beautiful. Especially the ceiling. That was really cool. It was also weird that the plaques on the floor seemed a bit uncared for. Some were cut and other had things built right over them. I had thought that the bodies were buried under them but I think they must just be plaques and not gravestones.
After the Abbey it was starting to get dark so we went into a shop to get some coffee and hand made chocolates. They were pretty delicious. Then we went to take some pictures around town even though it was a bit dark. It made for very pretty pictures of the Abbey. We had some time to kill until our train at 6:30 so we headed into a pub for a drink. The one we went into was really small and all the locals looked at us funny, but we sat there awhile and then headed to our train.
We made it onto the first train fine but when we got on the second one they announced that a faster train to Poole would leave in 15 minutes. We were already on ours so we figured we'd just stay on. When we got to a tiny town half way home they said our train was going to sit there for 15 minutes but a quicker train to Poole would be leaving in 7 minutes. So we got off and went to the other platform. Then they announced that that train was late and wouldn't arrive for 15 minutes. We were mock outraged as that meant we could have just stayed on our other train, but it actually only came about 2 minutes late. We got back to Poole about 9:30 and figured we'd head to Subway since we hadn't eaten dinner. But then when we got to Subway it was closed. So we had to come back and eat chicken nuggets and fries here. So the end was kind of sad, but the day was really fun overall.
Friday I had class again and then had some people over for dinner. We made tacos. A coupld people had never had them before! Scandalous! But they enjoyed them.
Saturday started with brunch that Melissa made. It was called Dutch babies and was kind of an eggy pancake that you cook in the oven. It was really good. Then later I walked up to Ashley Cross, which is the next little township over. I don't think its really a separate town, but I'm not sure how things work here. It does have its own post office. We pass it everyday on the but to school and have been talking about going forever, but today finally me, Sytske and Melissa did. It was a nice walk because it was really sunny today. We wandered around there for awhile and then stopped in a cute little Italian restaurant and had coffee and croissants. Then we headed back home were I got almost nothing done. Just a small bit of reading for my dissertation. I really need to narrow down a topic quick because the proposal is due March 1.
Today I'm making dinner for my flatmates. Chicken alfredo. Except my one flatmate has decided to be vegetarian this month so I have to have the chicken on the side. That should be fine though everyone else can just mix the chicken into theirs. Well, I suppose that's it. The new picture is me in Bath pretending to use a phone in a British phone box. And here's the link to the rest of the pics.
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