Well, not a whole lot to report this week. Sunday I went out with the girls for Valentine's day. We went and saw a dumb movie and then went to Pizza Hut. They had amazingly bad service for Valentine's day evening. And they weren't even very busy. They were also out of a lot of their food. I don't know who orders that stuff, but they did a terrible job. After that we went bowling. That was really fun. I think I got my highest score ever. 143!! The busses stop running really early on Sunday s so we had to walk to a bus stop to take some other bus. The lady at the bowling place told us to walk up this ridiculously huge set of stairs and then follow the fence line. We did, but there were no lights and I'm pretty sure no one was suppose to be up there. We walked along the fence until we got to some brush and couldn't go any further. We then had to turn back and call a cab. But of course we didn't have a cab number. We finally tracked down a number and ordered 2 cabs. Then a cab showed up really quickly and took half the group. When the next cab showed up he said that the next one was behind him. We said, no, it already came, but apparently that guy had scammed us and told us he was there to pick us up when he wasn't. But the other guy was cool and didn't make us pay for two or anything.
Monday I had class. We were learning about paleopathology this week. People with skulls that fuse too soon and are really small, people whose skulls get really big because of increased cranial pressure, cleft palate, scoliosis, osteoarthritis, stuff like that. It was pretty cool to see it. Tuesday we started learning how to make a database to record our animal bone assemblage. Its actually not that hard once you know what you're doing. And it makes recording and retrieving your info way easier than using excel. And to think I had never even heard of access until getting to England. Wednesday Stine and I went to lab. We started in the human lab to review some of the basic identification stuff that we'd forgotten. I don't know what I'll do when looking for a job and not having been in the lab for months. I won't remember anything :s
Thursday I went to a coffee shop to study. I didn't actually get a whole lot of studying done though. Whenever I go with Stine I just end up talking to her and not reading. But I do learn about Norway, which is cool. This week I learned that they have a lot of problems with immigration too. They also have crazy/stupid politicians who don't know how to use their brains. So its nice to know it isn't just America. Then Thursday night I had people over for apple crisp. I'd been wanting some but knew I'd just eat the whole pan if I made it, so I invited people over and we finished it off that night. It was pretty delicious.
Friday I woke up with a bit of a cold. I went to class and was feeling worse after so I came home and went to bed. When I got up I felt even sicker. I fell asleep again and was slightly better when I woke up. Saturday I still didn't feel great, but I got a lot of reading for my dissertation proposal done. There is some interesting stuff out there, but nothing from Britain in the Iron Age so I guess that's good, but it also leaves me without many super relevant references. I'll have to explain why the middle east is appropriate as a reference for Britain. Oh well. Today I just have to go to the grocery store and try to get some writing done on the proposal. Its due a week from Monday, but I'd like to have it in on Friday. Don't know if that will happen though. Well, here are the pics from the week. Talk to you later!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Dorchester Trip Weekend
Well, another week has passed. On Monday we had our human anatomy class as usual. The lab demonstrator was back from New York and was in a bad mood as usual. My group asked her to help us with sexing our skeleton to make sure that we were right and she yelled at us for not doing it earlier even though we had and were just asking for confirmation. Then later in the day the whole class got an email from her yelling at us for someone having put a pair of muddy boots in the lab. She claimed that micro-organisms from the mud could have gotten out and into the boxes of bones, which is weird because we all go in there all the time with our shoes that we wear outside, sometimes in the mud, and there is no protocol for keeping dirt out of the lab. And to top it off, she followed it up with another one the next day saying that if we are in the lab we are suppose to monitor who else is in there and be sure they have permission. Since when do the students have to monitor that kind of thing. There is a lock on the door. If the person in there has the code I assume they are allowed. I'm not going to start questioning everyone who enters the lab. How ridiculous.
Tuesday we had a butchery demonstration in our animal class. A guy who did his master's here in 2002 came in to show us how to butcher a deer. He was a butcher before starting grad school so he was interested in seeing how butchery shows up in archaeology. It was very cool to see because you never really think about someone actually chopping up the animal, we just look at the marks on the bones. But really, a good butcher would leave almost no marks because hitting the bone with the knife just makes it dull. So that was a really cool day. My friend Stine took pics, so I may get some of them from her and put them up next week, but I don't have them for this week. Sorry.
Wednesday I went to lunch at the Thai restaurant in Poole with a couple of friends. As we were walking over there it started to snow. It was crazy! It would snow for awhile then the sun would come out and then it would snow again. Really weird.
Thursday I didn't do a whole lot. A book I ordered was being delivered so I had to stick around my flat waiting for that. The front desk won't accept packages so if we aren't here when things are delivered we have to wait for them the try to deliver it again. This place is really stupid. I don't know what they pay that front desk lady for. She doesn't do anything.
Friday I got one of my papers back. I was a bit disappointed with the score so I think I'm going to try to talk to the teacher this week. It wasn't a bad score, but his comments on what I could do better didn't really make sense. He suggested that I should have covered 4 additional topics, but we only had 4.5 pages to work with so I don't know how I could have fit any more information into the space allowed. Then Friday night I stayed in and painted my nails and watched a movie.
Saturday I went with AWESOME Day Trips to Dorchester, which is a town about an hour northwest of Poole. AWESOME Day Trips was started by some friends from Corfe house so that we could plan places that we want to go. So it ended up that 10 people went. It was a bit cold when we left, but by the time we got there is was a bit warmer and the sun had come out. There are a lot of museums in Dorchester, but it turns out that they are all pretty expensive for the tiny places that they are. So we didn't want to go in any of them. Instead we headed for the path along the river. It was a bit cold, but I think in the summer it would be really nice. Then we headed for the Roman villa. That was pretty cool. It was excavated in the 30's I think it said. The cover over the top isn't original, but was put there to protect the murals that are still on the floor. After looking at the villa we were a bit cold and hungry so we decided to head to a pub for lunch. The one we ended up in was pretty nice and had a really good lunch.
After lunch we decided to head for Maiden Castle, an Iron Age Hillfort outside of town. We didn't have our map anymore, but Kevin, our "guide" (a Canadian who lives down the hall from me) said he had onein his head so we followed him. So we followed a man wearing a red baseball cap over the hood of his sweatshirt and ended up in a new subdivision being built. So I don't think we were anywhere near where we had planned to go, but we did see a very cool old fountain and a closed chocolate shop. Then we tried again to head to the hillfort. After walking for about an hour though we decided that maybe we didn't want to see it so much afterall :) So we headed back toward town to go to the nearest pub. A few of us stopped at Maumbury Rings as we passed them so that we could say that we'd at least seen one cool thing ;) That was very cool because the way it is built if you stand in the middle and talk in a normal voice people around the outside can hear you. Plus its Neolithic which means it was built using antler and bone tools. Those huge mounds were built without shovels or buckets. Amazing.
Well, I suppose that is about it. We didn't see a whole lot, but it was a fun day. Today some of my friends and I are going to a movie and bowling. So that should be fun. Well, here's the picture link. Enjoy and I hope to hear from you soon.
Tuesday we had a butchery demonstration in our animal class. A guy who did his master's here in 2002 came in to show us how to butcher a deer. He was a butcher before starting grad school so he was interested in seeing how butchery shows up in archaeology. It was very cool to see because you never really think about someone actually chopping up the animal, we just look at the marks on the bones. But really, a good butcher would leave almost no marks because hitting the bone with the knife just makes it dull. So that was a really cool day. My friend Stine took pics, so I may get some of them from her and put them up next week, but I don't have them for this week. Sorry.
Wednesday I went to lunch at the Thai restaurant in Poole with a couple of friends. As we were walking over there it started to snow. It was crazy! It would snow for awhile then the sun would come out and then it would snow again. Really weird.
Thursday I didn't do a whole lot. A book I ordered was being delivered so I had to stick around my flat waiting for that. The front desk won't accept packages so if we aren't here when things are delivered we have to wait for them the try to deliver it again. This place is really stupid. I don't know what they pay that front desk lady for. She doesn't do anything.
Friday I got one of my papers back. I was a bit disappointed with the score so I think I'm going to try to talk to the teacher this week. It wasn't a bad score, but his comments on what I could do better didn't really make sense. He suggested that I should have covered 4 additional topics, but we only had 4.5 pages to work with so I don't know how I could have fit any more information into the space allowed. Then Friday night I stayed in and painted my nails and watched a movie.
Saturday I went with AWESOME Day Trips to Dorchester, which is a town about an hour northwest of Poole. AWESOME Day Trips was started by some friends from Corfe house so that we could plan places that we want to go. So it ended up that 10 people went. It was a bit cold when we left, but by the time we got there is was a bit warmer and the sun had come out. There are a lot of museums in Dorchester, but it turns out that they are all pretty expensive for the tiny places that they are. So we didn't want to go in any of them. Instead we headed for the path along the river. It was a bit cold, but I think in the summer it would be really nice. Then we headed for the Roman villa. That was pretty cool. It was excavated in the 30's I think it said. The cover over the top isn't original, but was put there to protect the murals that are still on the floor. After looking at the villa we were a bit cold and hungry so we decided to head to a pub for lunch. The one we ended up in was pretty nice and had a really good lunch.
After lunch we decided to head for Maiden Castle, an Iron Age Hillfort outside of town. We didn't have our map anymore, but Kevin, our "guide" (a Canadian who lives down the hall from me) said he had onein his head so we followed him. So we followed a man wearing a red baseball cap over the hood of his sweatshirt and ended up in a new subdivision being built. So I don't think we were anywhere near where we had planned to go, but we did see a very cool old fountain and a closed chocolate shop. Then we tried again to head to the hillfort. After walking for about an hour though we decided that maybe we didn't want to see it so much afterall :) So we headed back toward town to go to the nearest pub. A few of us stopped at Maumbury Rings as we passed them so that we could say that we'd at least seen one cool thing ;) That was very cool because the way it is built if you stand in the middle and talk in a normal voice people around the outside can hear you. Plus its Neolithic which means it was built using antler and bone tools. Those huge mounds were built without shovels or buckets. Amazing.
Well, I suppose that is about it. We didn't see a whole lot, but it was a fun day. Today some of my friends and I are going to a movie and bowling. So that should be fun. Well, here's the picture link. Enjoy and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Week 3: Shower Aaaaahahahahaha!!!
Well, this week wasn't all that exciting, but it had a few fun points. Plus I settled on a dissertation topic, so that's exciting! Monday was class as usual and our statistics paper was finally due. Its nice to have that completely out of my hands now. Tuesday we were suppose to see a butchery demonstration during our applied zooarch class but the demonstrator couldn't make it so we're doing it next week instead. (I'll explain more about it then.) So instead we got our bone assemblages that we'll be working with for the rest of the term. For now we just have to do a preliminary sort and see what we generally have in our box. Then we have to write up a paper about the potential of the assemblage to produce results if further work is done on it. We each only got one box out of an assemblage that our professors worked on a few years ago and is really huge. My box is pretty full and has about 6 or 8 contexts in it. The context is the area of the site that was being dug that the bones came from. For example some of the stuff came from roads, some from areas that were filled in by the people living on the site and some from sandy areas. Sometimes you get different amounts or types of bones in different contexts to its important to look at that kind of stuff. It was pretty exciting to actually get to start a project that's related to real world work.
Wednesday I had to run to the pharmacy for calamine lotion for my flatmate who has come down with chickenpox. Apparently in Indian it isn't endemic so not everyone has had them. I kind of would have thought that the British government would have insisted on a vaccination for it before coming, but I guess not. So she has locked herself in her room and refuses to come out. Everyone else in my flat has had it so she can't infect us, but she doesn't come out anyway. At first she was making us just leave things outside her door, but at least now she'll open the door and take things from me when I'm there. But her parents are freaking out too, so that doesn't help anything. Oh well, hopefully she feels better soon. Then later on Wednesday I went to campus to work on my assemblage. I got almost all of it sorted, so that was good. I also had my first appointment with the National Health Service. And it was great. Actually I had gone in the day before because I needed my prescription refilled and they could have gotten me an appointment 2 hours later. No 3 month crap like everyone is always saying in the states. But because my prescription is from the US they didn't really know what it was so I had to bring in the info packet about it so they could look it up. They didn't have it, so they gave me something else instead. But when I was there I was talking to the nurse and she was asking me about American health care. She told me that after they started the NHS people in Britain actually got healthier because they started going to the doctor. They still have problems with obesity and smoking, but overall they are healthier than they were. I don't know when the NHS started, but she was an older lady so I guess she has probably seen some of that happen over the years. I was telling her that my prescription is $200 for 3 months with no insurance and she was shocked. Here prescriptions are either free or about 7 pounds a month depending on what it is. So there is my rant. I realize taxes here are crazy high, but at least they go to something useful.
Thursday I didn't do much of anything. I read some stuff to clarify what I wanted to do for my dissertation and then went shopping. I mostly wanted some new tights but ended up with a really cool necklace too. Then on Friday I met with my adviser and hashed out my topic. I'm going to do a survey of the sheep metapodial awl/gouges from sites from the Iron Age in Southwest Britain. One report that I read categorized the ones from their site into 5 categories so I'm going to use those categories and find all the similar tools from other sites and try to fit them in to their system. It will be mostly a literature based project, but hopefully I'll get to go and see some of the actual tools in some of the museums around the area. Mark knows some of the museum people and I think Ellie does too so hopefully they'll let me in. I would like to actually get to touch some of them after all the research about them I'll be doing. So yeah, it should be cool and Mark said he thinks its a good topic and not just a waste of time as most people don't do overall surveys they just talk about what is at one particular site. So it will be interesting to see if similarities and differences can be seen across sites. Friday night a few of us went to see Nine. The show numbers were awesome, but the movie as a whole was a bit confusing and weird. At least it was something to do though.
Saturday I went with Melissa to Westbourne, another little subcity in the area. We go by it on the bus when we go into Bournemouth and always see some cute looking shops. There actually weren't as many shops there as I imagined, but there were a lot of restaurants and cafes. We went into one that was called chocol8. They only had 4 tables, but we got one and got some delicious hot chocolates and really good cake. They make those fancy cakes that you see on tv that look like handbags and shoes and stuff like that and they also make chocolates. Our cake wasn't the fancy kind, but it was very tasty. And on the foam of the hot chocolates they made a heart out of hot chocolate mix. It was really cute. We want to take all the girls back there sometime so they told us that if we called ahead we could reserve a table for all of us. So that should be a fun trip some weekend. Then Saturday night Sytske and I went to the Lighthouse for a concert of John Williams songs by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. It was really good. But it was really weird at the end because I think we applauded for about 10 or 15 minutes. But this was just seated applause, no standing ovation. But we clapped and the orchestra stood up and then the director left, then he came back and each individual section stood up and we clapped some more and then he left and then he came back again and they all stood up again and we just kept clapping. I thought for sure there would be an encore with all his coming back but there wasn't and finally we all stopped clapping and left. Me and Sytske gave up clapping eventually because our hands hurt. It was really weird.
Today I'm going to buy a swimsuit so that I can start using the pool at the gym. They have some water workout classes so I might try out one of those, but mostly I just want to swim laps I think. Running is good, but it gets boring after awhile. So I guess that's all I have for this week. Here's a link the the couple pics I took in Ashley Cross last week that I didn't get up then. Have a good week and I hope to hear from you soon.
Wednesday I had to run to the pharmacy for calamine lotion for my flatmate who has come down with chickenpox. Apparently in Indian it isn't endemic so not everyone has had them. I kind of would have thought that the British government would have insisted on a vaccination for it before coming, but I guess not. So she has locked herself in her room and refuses to come out. Everyone else in my flat has had it so she can't infect us, but she doesn't come out anyway. At first she was making us just leave things outside her door, but at least now she'll open the door and take things from me when I'm there. But her parents are freaking out too, so that doesn't help anything. Oh well, hopefully she feels better soon. Then later on Wednesday I went to campus to work on my assemblage. I got almost all of it sorted, so that was good. I also had my first appointment with the National Health Service. And it was great. Actually I had gone in the day before because I needed my prescription refilled and they could have gotten me an appointment 2 hours later. No 3 month crap like everyone is always saying in the states. But because my prescription is from the US they didn't really know what it was so I had to bring in the info packet about it so they could look it up. They didn't have it, so they gave me something else instead. But when I was there I was talking to the nurse and she was asking me about American health care. She told me that after they started the NHS people in Britain actually got healthier because they started going to the doctor. They still have problems with obesity and smoking, but overall they are healthier than they were. I don't know when the NHS started, but she was an older lady so I guess she has probably seen some of that happen over the years. I was telling her that my prescription is $200 for 3 months with no insurance and she was shocked. Here prescriptions are either free or about 7 pounds a month depending on what it is. So there is my rant. I realize taxes here are crazy high, but at least they go to something useful.
Thursday I didn't do much of anything. I read some stuff to clarify what I wanted to do for my dissertation and then went shopping. I mostly wanted some new tights but ended up with a really cool necklace too. Then on Friday I met with my adviser and hashed out my topic. I'm going to do a survey of the sheep metapodial awl/gouges from sites from the Iron Age in Southwest Britain. One report that I read categorized the ones from their site into 5 categories so I'm going to use those categories and find all the similar tools from other sites and try to fit them in to their system. It will be mostly a literature based project, but hopefully I'll get to go and see some of the actual tools in some of the museums around the area. Mark knows some of the museum people and I think Ellie does too so hopefully they'll let me in. I would like to actually get to touch some of them after all the research about them I'll be doing. So yeah, it should be cool and Mark said he thinks its a good topic and not just a waste of time as most people don't do overall surveys they just talk about what is at one particular site. So it will be interesting to see if similarities and differences can be seen across sites. Friday night a few of us went to see Nine. The show numbers were awesome, but the movie as a whole was a bit confusing and weird. At least it was something to do though.
Saturday I went with Melissa to Westbourne, another little subcity in the area. We go by it on the bus when we go into Bournemouth and always see some cute looking shops. There actually weren't as many shops there as I imagined, but there were a lot of restaurants and cafes. We went into one that was called chocol8. They only had 4 tables, but we got one and got some delicious hot chocolates and really good cake. They make those fancy cakes that you see on tv that look like handbags and shoes and stuff like that and they also make chocolates. Our cake wasn't the fancy kind, but it was very tasty. And on the foam of the hot chocolates they made a heart out of hot chocolate mix. It was really cute. We want to take all the girls back there sometime so they told us that if we called ahead we could reserve a table for all of us. So that should be a fun trip some weekend. Then Saturday night Sytske and I went to the Lighthouse for a concert of John Williams songs by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. It was really good. But it was really weird at the end because I think we applauded for about 10 or 15 minutes. But this was just seated applause, no standing ovation. But we clapped and the orchestra stood up and then the director left, then he came back and each individual section stood up and we clapped some more and then he left and then he came back again and they all stood up again and we just kept clapping. I thought for sure there would be an encore with all his coming back but there wasn't and finally we all stopped clapping and left. Me and Sytske gave up clapping eventually because our hands hurt. It was really weird.
Today I'm going to buy a swimsuit so that I can start using the pool at the gym. They have some water workout classes so I might try out one of those, but mostly I just want to swim laps I think. Running is good, but it gets boring after awhile. So I guess that's all I have for this week. Here's a link the the couple pics I took in Ashley Cross last week that I didn't get up then. Have a good week and I hope to hear from you soon.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Week 2: Bath
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.
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.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
First week of classes
Well, this week was slightly more eventful than last, but not by a lot :) This paper is killing me. So Monday I had class all day. We have lecture in the morning and then have 5 hours to kill until lab time. Its quite annoying, but hopefully as the term picks up I can get a lot of work done during that time. We were looking at ancestry this week in human anatomy. The books that we had during lab weren't very good, but we did our best to pick out the ancestry of the different skulls we were given to look at.
Tuesday was another long day. We have zooarchaeology in the morning for 2 hours and then a class on human use of animals in the afternoon for an hour. So we have to be on campus from 10-3 with a two hour break between classes. Again, hopefully that will turn into a work time and not a waste of time :)
Wednesday I spent almost the entire day reading articles for my various classes. They were actually pretty interesting. For my zooarch class we have to read the English Heritage guidelines for archaeology, which are based on the laws about archaeology here. Kind of like the section 106 laws in the US. We are also talking about what role we play in rescue archaeology and other private archaeology contexts as zooarchaeologists. So that's pretty interesting. Then I also went to the store to get some gifts for my friends whose birthdays were this weekend. I ended up with some pretty cool stuff too.
Thursday I went to campus to meet a guy in my class to work on our stats assignment. Since we're doing the same site we thought maybe if we worked on it together we could get a bit more done. We were pretty much wrong, but I did come up with one idea to present when I had my meeting with my prof so I didn't look like a complete idiot. That was good. After that we went into Bournemouth and had dinner at Coriander. Its a mexican place and everyone told me how great their sweet potato stuff was, so I wanted to try it. It was good, but didn't really taste mexican, so it was a little weird.
Friday we had the humans and animals class at 9am. We had to bring a calculator so that we could make some graphs. So I had purchased a calculator on Wednesday when I was out, but hadn't actually tried it out. When I tried to use it instead of giving me an answer when I tried to divide to numbers it just showed them to me as a fraction. So I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure that out and then ended up having to get out my computer to do some silly little calculations. I have now conquered the calculator, but it took about 30 minutes of work yesterday with the users guide. Ridiculous! After class we had our meetings with Mark (our prof) about how to do our stats paper. So now I'm on my way to finishing that. He gave us worksheets on how to do some stats tests and told us which ones would be useful. So that was awesome. Then Friday night my friend Danielle cooked dinner. She made alfredo sauce from scratch with broccoli and peppers. It was really good. And she gave me the leftovers for lunch the next day :) Then we headed up to beer pong for awhile.
Saturday I went to the gym and then worked on my stats stuff all day. I got a bit more of the paper written and got one stats test completed. So woo hoo! Then I had a birthday party for Sytske and Stine. We had cupcakes and presents and wine and then headed out to Poole to go dancing. The place we went has pretty much the worst dj ever and some reliably bad music, but it was fun. Its really loud in there though, so we ended up only staying a couple of hours. Ah well, it was fun.
Today the plan is to run the other stats test and start writing up the results and get the paper pretty well underway. Hopefully that gets accomplished. Next week I'm going to Bath so there should be some pictures to put up. We're taking the train up there, so that should be exciting! So until next week, take care and hope to hear from you soon.
Tuesday was another long day. We have zooarchaeology in the morning for 2 hours and then a class on human use of animals in the afternoon for an hour. So we have to be on campus from 10-3 with a two hour break between classes. Again, hopefully that will turn into a work time and not a waste of time :)
Wednesday I spent almost the entire day reading articles for my various classes. They were actually pretty interesting. For my zooarch class we have to read the English Heritage guidelines for archaeology, which are based on the laws about archaeology here. Kind of like the section 106 laws in the US. We are also talking about what role we play in rescue archaeology and other private archaeology contexts as zooarchaeologists. So that's pretty interesting. Then I also went to the store to get some gifts for my friends whose birthdays were this weekend. I ended up with some pretty cool stuff too.
Thursday I went to campus to meet a guy in my class to work on our stats assignment. Since we're doing the same site we thought maybe if we worked on it together we could get a bit more done. We were pretty much wrong, but I did come up with one idea to present when I had my meeting with my prof so I didn't look like a complete idiot. That was good. After that we went into Bournemouth and had dinner at Coriander. Its a mexican place and everyone told me how great their sweet potato stuff was, so I wanted to try it. It was good, but didn't really taste mexican, so it was a little weird.
Friday we had the humans and animals class at 9am. We had to bring a calculator so that we could make some graphs. So I had purchased a calculator on Wednesday when I was out, but hadn't actually tried it out. When I tried to use it instead of giving me an answer when I tried to divide to numbers it just showed them to me as a fraction. So I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure that out and then ended up having to get out my computer to do some silly little calculations. I have now conquered the calculator, but it took about 30 minutes of work yesterday with the users guide. Ridiculous! After class we had our meetings with Mark (our prof) about how to do our stats paper. So now I'm on my way to finishing that. He gave us worksheets on how to do some stats tests and told us which ones would be useful. So that was awesome. Then Friday night my friend Danielle cooked dinner. She made alfredo sauce from scratch with broccoli and peppers. It was really good. And she gave me the leftovers for lunch the next day :) Then we headed up to beer pong for awhile.
Saturday I went to the gym and then worked on my stats stuff all day. I got a bit more of the paper written and got one stats test completed. So woo hoo! Then I had a birthday party for Sytske and Stine. We had cupcakes and presents and wine and then headed out to Poole to go dancing. The place we went has pretty much the worst dj ever and some reliably bad music, but it was fun. Its really loud in there though, so we ended up only staying a couple of hours. Ah well, it was fun.
Today the plan is to run the other stats test and start writing up the results and get the paper pretty well underway. Hopefully that gets accomplished. Next week I'm going to Bath so there should be some pictures to put up. We're taking the train up there, so that should be exciting! So until next week, take care and hope to hear from you soon.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
First week back
Sorry I'm posting so late. I almost forgot to do it at all. Eeek! Anyway, not much to tell about this week really. School hasn't started, but we had assignments from last term that are coming due so I've mostly just been doing that. We had an extension on our assignment due on the 11th, but I finished it by the 12th, so that I didn't have to worry about it anymore. I have another one due on the 25th that I've been working on. Its doing stats and since i haven't really done any since high school it is going to be very difficult. I've been trying to learn stats from a program that the school put up online, but I'm convinced that parts of it are incorrect and mostly it just bores me to sleep. I fell asleep over my computer yesterday while working on it. Boo!
So Monday I went to school and worked on my paper most of the day. Then I went to pick up the paper I had turned in before Christmas and it wasn't there. That put my into a panic as I was convinced that I had failed and that's why they didn't have my paper. But then I talked to some of my classmates and theirs weren't there either, so I was slightly less worried.
Tuesday I stayed home and finished my paper. I was gonna go to school, but I don't think they turn the heat on there. Its always freezing.
Wednesday I went to school and turned in my paper. Then I started trying to learn stats. It was depressing. That night one of the other flats was throwing a New Year's Eve party since we didn't all get to celebrate it together. So I did that and it was fun. I was pretty wiped though, so I left shortly after midnight.
Thursday I again stayed in and worked. Didn't get a whole lot done though.
Friday I went to school again to work because I wanted to try for my paper again and I had to pick up my financial aid check that had finally come in. They were all delayed due to the terrible weather issues. Anyway, I should have money in a few weeks. Woohoo! And I got my paper back and got a 70! My lowest score to date, but still a distinction! Yay!
Then Saturday I went over to the coffee shop to study for awhile. I also got tickets to an orchestra concert that is featuring the music of John Williams. Its in February, but the tickets were selling out so we wanted to get some before they were all gone. For dinner my flatmate made us an Indian chicken dish. It was really spicy, but very good.
Today I went shopping and to get milkshakes with a friend. It was nice to do something out of the flat and not studying (even though I should have just studied. I'm way behind on my reading and the term hasn't even started :() . Then I came back here and have been reading ever since. Its just so dry and mind numbing to read about stats. Plus I generally don't know what its talking about, so I have to refer back to about 50 tables and graphs and previous pages. Its no fun at all.
Okay ranting over. Sorry for being late. And how much does it suck that NBC screwed Conan? See you here next week when I'll try to be on time :)
So Monday I went to school and worked on my paper most of the day. Then I went to pick up the paper I had turned in before Christmas and it wasn't there. That put my into a panic as I was convinced that I had failed and that's why they didn't have my paper. But then I talked to some of my classmates and theirs weren't there either, so I was slightly less worried.
Tuesday I stayed home and finished my paper. I was gonna go to school, but I don't think they turn the heat on there. Its always freezing.
Wednesday I went to school and turned in my paper. Then I started trying to learn stats. It was depressing. That night one of the other flats was throwing a New Year's Eve party since we didn't all get to celebrate it together. So I did that and it was fun. I was pretty wiped though, so I left shortly after midnight.
Thursday I again stayed in and worked. Didn't get a whole lot done though.
Friday I went to school again to work because I wanted to try for my paper again and I had to pick up my financial aid check that had finally come in. They were all delayed due to the terrible weather issues. Anyway, I should have money in a few weeks. Woohoo! And I got my paper back and got a 70! My lowest score to date, but still a distinction! Yay!
Then Saturday I went over to the coffee shop to study for awhile. I also got tickets to an orchestra concert that is featuring the music of John Williams. Its in February, but the tickets were selling out so we wanted to get some before they were all gone. For dinner my flatmate made us an Indian chicken dish. It was really spicy, but very good.
Today I went shopping and to get milkshakes with a friend. It was nice to do something out of the flat and not studying (even though I should have just studied. I'm way behind on my reading and the term hasn't even started :() . Then I came back here and have been reading ever since. Its just so dry and mind numbing to read about stats. Plus I generally don't know what its talking about, so I have to refer back to about 50 tables and graphs and previous pages. Its no fun at all.
Okay ranting over. Sorry for being late. And how much does it suck that NBC screwed Conan? See you here next week when I'll try to be on time :)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Long Time
Well, it has been quite awhile since I posted on here, so I'll try to keep it short. Before flying home to Wisconsin for Christmas I went to London to spend a couple of days going to the museums there. I had planned to leave here on Friday morning then spend that afternoon at the Victoria and Albert and then all day Saturday at the British Museum. Thursday, though England started to get snow and therefore started to get panicky. I wasn't sure if my bus would be running the next morning. But luckily it was. So I was on my way to London. We were dropped at the bus station and then I had to find my way to the city bus that I needed to take to get to my hostel. It wasn't too hard to find and neither was the hostel, which was good, because I was hauling my suitcase along with me. So I got checked in and then headed out. I was staying just north of Hyde Park, so I walked through there on my way to the Victoria and Albert museum. It is really a ridiculously large park to be in the middle of a city. And to think that there are a whole bunch of these parks is just crazy. Really nice though. So anyway, on my way through the park I saw a really nice lake and the remains of the tiny amount of snow that they had gotten the night before. Then I ran into a huge statue of Albert and the Royal Albert Theater. I kept wandering and eventually made it to the museum. It was an alright museum just filled with all kinds of stuff. There was a pretty neat exhibit of fashion there. Some old stuff and then some stuff that students at a nearby fashion school were doing. Then lots of statues and such. I stayed almost until it closed and then headed back to my hostel.
Saturday I got up early so that I could wander a bit more around Hyde Park before starting the long trek to the British Museum. I know I could have taken a bus or the tube, but I like walking and getting to see all the sites. So I wandered by some fountains and Queen Anne's Alcove and past some horses that were doing some sort of training. Then I started off for the museum. I was walking down the main shopping district area, so there were stores everywhere. It took a lot longer than I expected to get to the museum, but eventually I did. It is an amazing sight when you first walk in and see the hugeness of the inside of it. The first thing I did was go to the special exhibit of Moctezuma that they had. You had to pay to get into it, but I spent two hours in there so it was well worth the money. (Most museums in London are free. This one is as well, it was just the special exhibit that had to be paid for.) After that I headed off to see the famous sites. I saw the rosetta stone first. I really thought that it would be bigger. Then I went into the Egypt room. It was ridiculously large and there was stuff everywhere. Same with the enlightenment section. It was really just overwhelming and gaudy. I found myself hating it. By the time I got to the British archaeology section, which I should have been paying attention to, my mind could barely take it anymore, there was just too much to take in. I headed to see the Elgin marbles last. Apparently they all used to be brightly painted when they were up in Greece, but, a classmate informed me, someone along the line in England decided they would look nicer white and scrubbed them all clean. There are still microscopic traces of paint on them so parts can be reconstructed on videos playing near the displays, but not off of it can be. Overall the museum wasn't that great of an experience. I think you need to go there just to look at one section and close your mind to the fact that almost all of it was stolen from the countries that it originated in, which is sad.
Sunday I headed early in the morning to the airport and went home. It was a long day of flying (London to Chicago to Green Bay), but I got to have mexican food when I got home, so that was good. It took me a couple of days to get unjet-lagged, but eventually that sorted itself out. I had a nice Christmas with the family and then went to Appleton for New Year's Eve with some friends. After New Year's I had to start working on my paper, but I really didn't get a whole lot done.
Wednesday I went to Olive Garden with mom, dad and erik and then went to the airport. There was snow again in England so I was a bit worried that I might have some flight problems. Getting out of Green Bay was fine, but when I got to Chicago they told me the flight the night before hadn't been able to leave Dublin, so there was no plane to take us there. They had leased a plane and a crew from another company, but the flight that was suppose to leave at 6:50 wouldn't be leaving until 10pm. Turns out we didn't actually leave until 11pm, which meant that I was going to miss my connection in Dublin. I was also on the most rickety plane I've ever seen. On take off one of the luggage compartments on the side opened. Then on landing on of the ones in the middle that drops down opened. I think it scared the crap out of the guy sitting under it. Then the bathroom door didn't really close right and the whole thing just had the ambiance of 1970.
We finally landed in Dublin and I went through immigration and then straight to the desk to see about rearranging my flight. They had already rescheduled me on a new flight, but told me to watch it as it might also be delayed due to weather. Apparently one of the airports in London was completely closed and the other was very backed up. So my flight did eventually take off, but about an hour later than they said. When I got off the plane in London I walked down the hall but ended up straight at the baggage claim. I got my bag and kept walking. Then I passed by the nothing to declare line of customs and never went through immigration. So I may be back in the country illegally, but I have a student visa, so all should be fine. Very weird though. I looked it up later and apparently there is some kind of deal with Ireland that you don't have to go through immigration when coming from there. So if you want to sneak into England, that's the way to go. Then I had to head up to the bus station. I had already missed the bus that I had booked, so I had to buy a new ticket, but the line to ask about reimbursing my old one was too long to bother with for 18 pounds. Anyway, I finally got back to my flat about 9:30pm on Thursday night, about 32 hours after I left. Almost double what I had anticipated.
Friday I went to school to try to get some work done. It had been closed on Wed and Thurs due to bad weather (half an inch of snow). I didn't get much done, but at least I was forced to stay awake and try to get back on a normal schedule. Friday night we had welcome back beer pong and I got to see almost everyone that I usually hang out with. So that was fun. Saturday was mostly a waste and today I tried to work on my paper again. It was suppose to be due tomorrow, but we got an extension until next Monday due to the bad weather. I think I should be able to finish it tomorrow, but need to finish by Tuesday at the latest as we have another assignment due on the 25th that I haven't even started yet and I also need to start cracking down on my dissertation reading. Well, I suppose that's all. Sorry it got so long. Here are the links to the pictures. Museums. Home.
Saturday I got up early so that I could wander a bit more around Hyde Park before starting the long trek to the British Museum. I know I could have taken a bus or the tube, but I like walking and getting to see all the sites. So I wandered by some fountains and Queen Anne's Alcove and past some horses that were doing some sort of training. Then I started off for the museum. I was walking down the main shopping district area, so there were stores everywhere. It took a lot longer than I expected to get to the museum, but eventually I did. It is an amazing sight when you first walk in and see the hugeness of the inside of it. The first thing I did was go to the special exhibit of Moctezuma that they had. You had to pay to get into it, but I spent two hours in there so it was well worth the money. (Most museums in London are free. This one is as well, it was just the special exhibit that had to be paid for.) After that I headed off to see the famous sites. I saw the rosetta stone first. I really thought that it would be bigger. Then I went into the Egypt room. It was ridiculously large and there was stuff everywhere. Same with the enlightenment section. It was really just overwhelming and gaudy. I found myself hating it. By the time I got to the British archaeology section, which I should have been paying attention to, my mind could barely take it anymore, there was just too much to take in. I headed to see the Elgin marbles last. Apparently they all used to be brightly painted when they were up in Greece, but, a classmate informed me, someone along the line in England decided they would look nicer white and scrubbed them all clean. There are still microscopic traces of paint on them so parts can be reconstructed on videos playing near the displays, but not off of it can be. Overall the museum wasn't that great of an experience. I think you need to go there just to look at one section and close your mind to the fact that almost all of it was stolen from the countries that it originated in, which is sad.
Sunday I headed early in the morning to the airport and went home. It was a long day of flying (London to Chicago to Green Bay), but I got to have mexican food when I got home, so that was good. It took me a couple of days to get unjet-lagged, but eventually that sorted itself out. I had a nice Christmas with the family and then went to Appleton for New Year's Eve with some friends. After New Year's I had to start working on my paper, but I really didn't get a whole lot done.
Wednesday I went to Olive Garden with mom, dad and erik and then went to the airport. There was snow again in England so I was a bit worried that I might have some flight problems. Getting out of Green Bay was fine, but when I got to Chicago they told me the flight the night before hadn't been able to leave Dublin, so there was no plane to take us there. They had leased a plane and a crew from another company, but the flight that was suppose to leave at 6:50 wouldn't be leaving until 10pm. Turns out we didn't actually leave until 11pm, which meant that I was going to miss my connection in Dublin. I was also on the most rickety plane I've ever seen. On take off one of the luggage compartments on the side opened. Then on landing on of the ones in the middle that drops down opened. I think it scared the crap out of the guy sitting under it. Then the bathroom door didn't really close right and the whole thing just had the ambiance of 1970.
We finally landed in Dublin and I went through immigration and then straight to the desk to see about rearranging my flight. They had already rescheduled me on a new flight, but told me to watch it as it might also be delayed due to weather. Apparently one of the airports in London was completely closed and the other was very backed up. So my flight did eventually take off, but about an hour later than they said. When I got off the plane in London I walked down the hall but ended up straight at the baggage claim. I got my bag and kept walking. Then I passed by the nothing to declare line of customs and never went through immigration. So I may be back in the country illegally, but I have a student visa, so all should be fine. Very weird though. I looked it up later and apparently there is some kind of deal with Ireland that you don't have to go through immigration when coming from there. So if you want to sneak into England, that's the way to go. Then I had to head up to the bus station. I had already missed the bus that I had booked, so I had to buy a new ticket, but the line to ask about reimbursing my old one was too long to bother with for 18 pounds. Anyway, I finally got back to my flat about 9:30pm on Thursday night, about 32 hours after I left. Almost double what I had anticipated.
Friday I went to school to try to get some work done. It had been closed on Wed and Thurs due to bad weather (half an inch of snow). I didn't get much done, but at least I was forced to stay awake and try to get back on a normal schedule. Friday night we had welcome back beer pong and I got to see almost everyone that I usually hang out with. So that was fun. Saturday was mostly a waste and today I tried to work on my paper again. It was suppose to be due tomorrow, but we got an extension until next Monday due to the bad weather. I think I should be able to finish it tomorrow, but need to finish by Tuesday at the latest as we have another assignment due on the 25th that I haven't even started yet and I also need to start cracking down on my dissertation reading. Well, I suppose that's all. Sorry it got so long. Here are the links to the pictures. Museums. Home.
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