Oh Dear....

Well, we just finished the last full week in August. I thought that I was way ahead of the game, but now I'm not so sure. I have about half the length of my paper written, but it is in rough shape. I've started the results section, but as I haven't actually done the statistical tests yet there is only so much that I can say along those lines. So this week will be a hardcore week of maths. I must get the statistics done so that I can finish writing the paper the following week and then have a week for editing and then a week for printing and binding and hand-in and drinking and then I'll be back in the US. Crazy!

So this week was another rather boring one. I spent Monday and Tuesday at school working. Wednesday I stayed in Poole and went to a pub in the morning and then the local library in the afternoon to work. I have to be out of my flat to get any work done, but I don't like having to go to school everyday, so I try to change it up a bit now and then. Thursday I was back at school.

Friday one of my flatmates was leaving to go home, so I stayed home so that we could clean the flat. It took a few hours, but we scrubbed out the oven and washed out the refrigerators and most of the cupboards. So now we just have to try to keep it fairly clean so that there isn't too much to do on Friday when the last two of us leave. The other two leave on Monday.

Friday night I also had dinner with my friends. It was kind of an anything you have left party, so I made chinese bbq ribs again as I still had a few in the freezer from when my parents were here. We also had mac and cheese and salad and apple pie. It was a really nice night.

Yesterday I did some more studying in the morning and then wandered around the shops with a friend for awhile. Then I made chicken tacos for dinner with a few friends as I had some taco seasoning and chicken. So that was another nice dinner. After dinner my other friend came over as she had just gotten back from Denmark where she was looking at skeletons for her dissertation. It sounds like she had a really nice time there and we had a really nice time hanging out. It is starting to get sad that I will probably never see some of these people again. Some that won't be so bad, but others I will really miss.

I am also now expected to make a trip to Asia at some point to visit my friends in India. I am very scared of Asia, so that will be a challenge for me. I don't know why I have a fear of Asia, but I do. At least I would have some chaperones in India though, so I guess it will be okay. I'll just have to start saving money as it is super expensive to get a plane ticket there.

Today I am packing in the morning and then going to a cafe in the afternoon with a friend to get some work done, hopefully. Tomorrow is a bank holiday, so the library won't be open. I may just lay out all my work on the living room floor and start my giant math undertaking...we shall see. Wish me luck.....

Also, we are look for the word one would use to describe when you have been on a quest and you are done with it. What would you say? I have ____ my quest. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Have a nice week.

Sorry

Sorry this is late, but I really don't have much for you this week. I spent almost the entire week at the library. I got my outline approved by my adviser and started writing. I am at almost 5000 words of 15000. I think it will end up being too long, but I'll just edit it down at the end. I feel like I'm in a pretty good place at the moment and plan to do a lot of writing this week so that next week I can have my advisers read a few parts of it and get some feedback. Hopefully I will be able to finish it then in the next few weeks so that I have another couple of weeks to work on the formatting and verb tenses...blah!

I went to the Bournemouth airshow this afternoon, but it was rained out...so that was disappointing, but I had a nice coffee/lunch with some friends. I guess that's all I have. Sorry to bore you to death. Have a great week!

Hmmm.....

Well, let's see. This week was suppose to be entirely boring as I was suppose to be at museum stores all week looking at bone tools. But let's start with Sunday. I went with my friend to a castle nearby for a tour. She is doing some of her dissertation research there and I wanted to do something fun so I went along. It was a really pretty building on the outside, but had been burned down in the 60s by some business men who wanted to tear it down to build a new development. It is on the coast and has a beautiful view of the sea. So the inside is mostly gone and they are slowly trying to fix it. Money is hard to come by though, so it is a slow process.

Monday I went to Winchester to look at bone tools. The man there was really helpful, but there wasn't as much there as I expected as a lot of it is apparently on display at the museum, so I was able to get home relatively early. Then on Tuesday I went back to the Dorchester stores to look at another site. It took a really long time to find the box of tools there and it finally took the retired curator, who happened to be there, to find them for us. So that was good to get. I had wanted to climb Maiden Castle, a hillfort, while I was there, but it was raining, so I didn't get to. Wednesday I went back to Winchester to look at a few small sites from the area. I looked at about 3 sites and finished by about noon so I got a chance to explore around town in the afternoon.

Of course I went to the cathedral. Jane Austen is buried there. Then I went to the ruins of the castle that the bishop lived in. Apparently he built himself a castle at some point. Then as I was heading to the train station I found the real castle. In there I saw The Round Table, of Arthur fame. It is hung on a wall and apparently weighs a ton. It is from the 1200s, but really not all that impressive.

Wednesday night I got to hang out with my other friend who just got back from Norway. She was there doing a dig for the summer. I ran into her on my way home as she was on her way to the store. So that was exciting.

Thursday I spent the day at school and then we had Dutch pancakes for dinner.

Friday I was at school again and then we had a really nice dinner. I baked a chicken, and the other girls made potatoes, veg and dessert. It turned into a really fun evening.

Today I got some studying done in Poole and then ran some errands. I also tried to bleach the dirt and sunscreen out of my dress. It kind of worked, but also turned a bit of the green embroidery yellow...so that was unfortunate. It also didn't get all of the dinge out. Oh well, it isn't too noticeable. Tomorrow we are taking the day off from work. We are going shopping in the morning and then making scones and having a cream tea in my kitchen. It should be nice. Then it will be back to the grind on Monday. I am hoping to have a very rough draft of my dissertation by the end of the first week in September. I think I could go on with analysis for ages, but I'll just have to pick the most important things and focus on those. Well, I suppose that's it. Pictures! Have a nice week!

Museum and Boringness

Well, I'm going to apologize in advance for the next 5 or 6 weeks worth of posts. It is getting to be crunch time here for my dissertation, so I'm not really doing anything fun anymore. Plus I have no money, so all fun is over :)

Anyway, Monday life got back to normal and I went to the library all day to start writing and to look up a few site reports that I needed some more info from. Then on Tuesday I got to go to a museum to look at bone tools that they have in their stores. That was pretty awesome. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I got a sample, and at this point that what I'm going for. I go back there on Tuesday to look at another site.

The rest of the week I spent inputting data, writing and starting initial analysis of the data that I have. It wasn't going all that well, but I really started rolling on it on Friday. Hopefully it will give some interesting results when I actually do a few statistical tests on it. I really wish we'd had a statistics course during this program so that I knew what I was doing, but I'll figure something out.

Last night we had taco night to celebrate one of my friends getting back from her placement. She spent the last 5 weeks living in a castle. Today she and I are going to a castle around here. Her dissertation is about castles. I'll have pictures next week from this adventure.

Well, I suppose that's all. Sorry this was short and boring, but that's just how my life is right now ;) Have a nice week!

Okay, Let's Finish This Up

Friday my parents and I got back to Poole in the early afternoon. It was too early for them to check into their hotel yet so they came with me to Bournemouth to pay the deposit on the place that I will be staying in September when I have to move out of my current place. They got to see the common areas but not the particular room I am getting, although it is nothing special, really. The place as a whole is pretty awesome though and is right by the park, so it should make for a nice last few weeks in England. After paying we came back to Poole to check them into their hotel. Then they rested for awhile before we went out for fish and chips on the quay. After that we called it an early night because they were pretty tired and we had to get up early the next day for Stonehenge.

My friend Danielle came to Stonehenge with us as she hadn't been there yet. We had to leave fairly early because we had to take a bus to Bournemouth and then another one to Salisbury before catching the tour bus out to Stonehenge. It worked out pretty well though. We also got to see Old Sarum, which is where the city of Salisbury originally started, up on the hill. It gave an excellent view of the current town. Then we went back into Salisbury for lunch, as we were starving at this point. We ate in a fancy-ish pub and mom got a steak and ale pie. We sat there for a really long time and then headed to the cathedral to see it and the Magna Carta. After that we headed back to the bus station as we had a two hour ride home ahead of us. The bus from Bournemouth was quite entertaining though as there were some kids sitting in front of us that were quite interested in us being Americans and Canadians (in Danielle's case).

Sunday was pretty calm. We wandered around Poole and then got Thai food for lunch. It was good and my parents really enjoyed it. Then they went to the Poole museum and wandered around town while I did laundry and got dinner ready. I made Chinese BBQ ribs and chicken wings and invited some friends for a dinner party. They brought mac and cheese, vegetables and dessert. It turned out to be a really nice dinner.

Monday we again headed off early to go to Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight. It is where Queen Victoria lived with her family. We had to take a train, a bus and a ferry to get there, but it was pretty nice. I thought it might rain, but the sky cleared and it was a pretty nice day. The view from that house is amazing. I can see why she would want to live there.

Tuesday we headed into London. We took the coach and then had to take the tube to our hotel. Mom did not like that. We got checked in and had to change quickly and then head to dinner. We ate at a Brazilian BBQ. I thought it was good, but I'm not sure how much my parents enjoyed it. Then we headed to the theatre to see The Phantom of the Opera. I thought the girl that played Christine was really good, but the rest of the cast was only ok. And Raul seemed too old. Oh well...

Wednesday we stayed close to our hotel and went to the Science and Natural History museums. They didn't open until 10 so we walked up to Hyde park and wandered around for awhile. The Science museum was pretty nice, but wasn't my favourite. The Natural History museum had some nice stuff, but it was very hard to find your way around in there, despite the map. We ate at an Indian place for lunch and then had pizza for dinner.

Thursday we took the tube down to the Tower of London right away in the morning and did a tour with one of the beefeaters. Then we walked through all the different areas. Saw the crown jewels and all that stuff. The funniest thing was that a couple of the coronation batons were off display with signs saying "in use" as if Charles II was being coronated while we were there....After the Tower we went to the Tower Bridge and went up to the upper walkway. That was pretty neat. Then we got to see the old engines that were originally used to open the bridge. After that we went searching for lunch and ended up at a Greek place. It was really good. Then we walked down past the Eye and by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. After that we were pretty tired so we decided to head home for a rest before dinner. For dinner we just went to a place near our hotel. Nothing fancy, but it was good.

Friday we headed to the British Museum in the morning. We spent a few hours there and then set out to find lunch. We looked for Covent Gardens, but never made it. We found a nice cafe for lunch though. From there we wandered over to the Horse Guards area and saw the horses and saw them change the guard. Then we walked up to Buckingham Palace and saw a small changing of the guard there too. Then we looked for Hyde park and had a bit of trouble finding it, but we did see most of the embassies. Finally we found the park and walked through it until we got to the road our hotel was on. Then we went back to our hotel to get a cab to the hotel that we were going to stay in by the airport. Mom and Dad decided that they didn't want to have to take a train in the morning and would rather be near the airport so we went over there. We ate dinner at a bar and grill there that was American themed. It even had a Green Bay Packers pennant and Dad's old Transam. Red with a black bird on it. Me and Dad had more Indian food and it was pretty good.

The next morning we had to be up really early to get the shuttle to the airport. Checking in had a really long line until we realized that no one was using the self check-in machines so we headed to them and got that done fairly quickly. Then I left them at the airport as they went through security and went to find my bus back to Poole. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long and I was back in Poole by about 10am. So I got some stuff done around my house since I hadn't been there in awhile and had an early night. This week I have to go to a museum to measure bone tools and try to get a ton of work done and it is starting to get to crunch time. So that is it for now. See you next week and here are the rest of the pics.

Part 2 of the Long Absence

Monday we set off early for the vatican. We stood in line for a long time but eventually made it in. Really all we wanted to see was the Sistine Chapel so we headed almost straight there. It was a disappointment. I don't know why people think it is so great....and really the whole vatican just put me in a bad mood thinking about all the riches that are stored there and how much money it cost to build in the first place. I think god and jesus would be very upset to see how the Catholic church takes money from people and doesn't give it to the poor. Then we found out that the pope doesn't even stay in the vatican in the summer. He has a summer house somewhere in the country. That made me even more angry. People shouldn't be paying for a second residence for the pope when people are starving and dying all over the world. Ridiculous. Needless to say, we didn't stay at the vatican muesum very long and went on to St. Peter's Basilica. It was amazing, but still didn't really feel nice, knowing that the marble was stolen from the Colosseum and its obvious show of the richness of the church. It was quite beautiful though.

After seeing the church we had to catch a bus out of town to see the catacombs. The internet said that there were still bones at the one we were going to, but we were disappointed. The catacombs had to be built outside of the city walls because people could not be buried in the city. This meant a bus ride and then searching for them. But we found them pretty easily. We didn't get to see any bones inside though. Apparently there are bone, but only in the parts that aren't accessible to the public. We just saw holes in the rock where bodies would have been. Oh well, it was nice and cool down there :)

After the tour we headed back to the bus and went home. We got some pistachio and chocolate gelato and it was delicious. Pistachio is my favourite kind, I think. We got pasta for dinner and then went and sat in a piazza near our hostel until it started to get dark. It was a very relaxing night. Then we went home to sleep before our last train ride to Pisa in the morning.

We got to Pisa after a 3 hour train ride and found our hostel fairly easily. We got to choose between an air conditioned room or one with a private bathroom. We chose the air conditioning, although Pisa turned out to be the coolest city we visited. We headed out to see the stuff around the tower and take pictures before our 8pm climb up the tower. We got done with our sight seeing and photo taking early so we decided to get dinner before climbing. It was pretty cool because we had a view of the leaning tower from our table at the restaurant. A very nice way to finish our trip.

Climbing the tower was weird. You could feel the lean as you went up the spiral staircase. You could also see the wear in the steps from people walking from side to side as the tower leans. Going up was okay, but coming back down the lean made me feel like I was going to topple down the stairs. It was pretty slow going for me :) The view from the top was really nice though and I'm glad we saved Pisa for last. It was a relaxing way to end the trip. The next morning we had to get up pretty early to catch the bus to the airport to catch our plane. Then we had a two hour delay because the air traffic controllers in France were on strike. We had to apply to Belgium to fly over France. At least we got home though. We heard from the taxi driver that some flights out of Bournemouth had been canceled.

When we got back I had to run to the library so return a book and pick up some new ones that I had on reserve. We also bought some CDs so that we could have copies of each others' pictures from the trip. The next morning we left fairly early for London. We got there around 12 and headed to our hostel. We left our stuff and then headed down to the river. We walked along it until we got to the London Eye. It looked like a really long line, but it was actually pretty quick. The eye was nice, but nothing that great really. It is a giant ferris wheel that you go up in to see the entire city. We could see almost everything from up there, but being enclosed in a bubble was a bit weird. From there we headed over to the Tower of London to meet our Jack the Ripper tour. It was fun, but not as good as I imagined that it would be. The tour guide didn't really seem to know anything beyond her script and when I asked a question she didn't really have an answer for it. Oh well, it was something to do at least.

Friday morning we had to go to the airport to meet my parents and drop Sara off. I didn't realize how long the underground would take and then we just missed the earlier train so we ended up being late to meet my parents, which of course freaked my mom out. But we got there and go Sara checked in and through security and then headed off. We got tickets for the coach and sat down to wait to go to Poole.

TBC....

Second set of pictures.