Good morning! This week has been a pretty good one. I did some exciting and fun stuff and I got some work done. The best of all worlds. On Sunday our Easter dinner turned out really great. We made ham by boiling it in coca cola and then smothering it in molassas and baking it in the oven for a half hour. It was really good. Monday I didn't have any plans because it was a bank holiday. I'm never sure what will be open or what buses will be running on bank holidays so I try not to have anything to do. I did do some work on my dissertation prep and figured out what I needed to do to analyze my skeleton.
Then on Tuesday I went to the train station with Danielle in the morning to book our tickets to Edinburgh! We're going next Friday and coming back on the following Tuesday. It should be super fun! Then I had to take a bus to school so that I could look at the skeleton that I have to write up a report about. The university buses aren't running during break so I had to take a different one and had to pay the normal price for it, which sucks all the more because the university bus that goes into Bournemouth is running, just not the one to Poole. Boo! But I made it to school and got copies of the forms I needed and then got to work analyzing the skeleton. I have a pretty interesting box. One almost completely whole skeleton, some extra bones from another human, a rib from a cow and a piece of ceramic. Whoever did the sorting wasn't very good. I got through counts of all the bones and did a little bit of analysis of them.
Wednesday I went back to the lab again. This time I measured all the bones so that I could figure out the stature of the guy during life. I also tried to determine his age and racial background. Then I laid out all of the bones and took some photos of him. I'd show you, but we're suppose to use the pictures for "academic purposes only" so they might get mad if they found out. He is pretty awesome looking though.
Thursday I went shopping and got some new jeans. Nothing too exciting there. I also finally got back to the gym. I don't know how long it's been since I was there, but it was nice to get back. Then for dinner I made lasagna. I had to make half vegetarian because my flatmate doesn't eat beef, but it turned out pretty good. I added carrots, parsnips and broccoli and then only put beef in half of it. It was going really well until it started bubbling over the pan and making the over smoke. Then I thought I was going to set off the fire alarm, but I didn't.
Friday me and my flatmate, Baitalikee, went to Christchurch. That's a town about a half hour away by bus. They have a priory there that was Catholic until the reformation under Henry VIII when it changed to Anglican. And apparently Jesus helped to build this church. The story goes that when they were building there was one carpenter that worked but never showed up for pay or during meal times. Then one day they were going to move a big wooden beam into place and they realized that it had been cut too short. They were pretty upset because big pieces of wood were hard to get and had to be shipped in from far away. So at the end of the day they all went home very upset. The next morning they came back and the beam was in place in the roof and it was too long! They never saw the other carpenter again after that. So that meant it was Jesus (and that he isn't very good at measuring, apparently). You can see the beam sticking out of one of the walls in the church. I guess they never cut it down to size since it was a miracle beam, and all. Anyway, that's why the town is called Christchurch. We couldn't take pictures inside the church, but I have a lot of the outside. It was a pretty standard church though, nothing too exciting beyond a random beam sticking out of a wall.
After going around the church we walked along the river to the ruins of the castle that had been the town center. This is best seem through the pictures that I'll put up the link to at the end. It was pretty ruined, so there wasn't a whole lot left to see, but part of the moat that they had built around it was still there, so that was pretty cool. Then we had Thai food for lunch, shopped for awhile and headed home. Then, because it was so beautiful out, we wandered around Poole for awhile in the afternoon.
Saturday I had a haircut in the morning. Just a trim, nothing major. Then I came home and read a book for awhile. Then in the afternoon we walked around Poole again. It has been so nice the last few days we all just feel like we have to spend time outside. Then me and Baitalikee cooked a chicken for dinner. It turned out pretty good.
Today I have to work on my skeletal report. I have another lab session tomorrow morning and I need to know what I still have to do, so I have to write as much as I can today. I'm hoping to get outside for awhile though, because its beautiful and sunny out again. Well, I suppose that's pretty much all I've got. There will be no blog next Sunday because I will be in Edinburgh and won't be back until Tuesday night so I'll just do a two week one the next Sunday. So here are the pictures from this week. Enjoy and I'll talk to you soon. Have a great week!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
End of Classes and London
This was a really fun week. It started off a bit stressful with an exam, but ended really well. Monday we had our human pathology spotter test. We didn't really know what to expect, but we did expect more description of actual bones and less knowledge of what organisms cause diseases. So I think I passed, but I don't think it will be me best test ever. It is over though, and that's what is great! Then Monday night my friend made us apple pie. She makes pretty much the greatest apple pie ever and was suppose to make it for Easter dinner, but decided to go home, so she made it on Monday instead and it was delicious as usual. And it gave us a chance to all hang out without stress before everyone started leaving for home.
Tuesday we had our very last class for our master's degree. That seems ridiculous as I don't feel like I know nearly enough to be half done. After class I came home and me and Danielle went looking for hams to cook for Easter dinner. They have stuff called gammon here, which looks kind of like ham, but isn't exactly right. We really wanted the bone-in ham that you find in the US, but couldn't find it in two different stores, so we finally ended up with some gammons with less fat around the outside. And we found a cool recipe where you boil them in Coca Cola so we're going to try that. The recipe also told us that gammon is uncooked meat and ham is what it becomes after you cook it. Interesting I guess... For dinner on Tuesday most of my classmates and I went out for dinner to celebrate being finished. We went to an Indian place that one of my classmates always raves about. It was good, but not as mind-blowing as he always describes it. Then me and Stine got a ride home, which was nice because the bus there didn't run after 7 so we would have had to get a cab.
Wednesday I did pretty much nothing of use. I went to McDonald's for lunch with some friends because I had been craving it. Then I attempted to get some work done for my dissertation, but didn't get very far. Then I met some friends for dinner at KFC and then we went to see How to Train Your Dragon. It was AWESOME!! I recommend that you see it. After that we came home and I had to pack for our trip to London the next day.
Thursday I had to get up really early because we had to catch a bus to school at 6:15 to get to school for 6:45 which was when the buses were suppose to leave for our field trip to London. Of course they didn't leave anywhere near on time, but we got there in plenty of time. We were going on a field trip for our human anatomy class to the Hunterian and Wellcome anatomy museums at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The Hunterian museum is made up of the comparative collection of John Hunter, who was a surgeon in the late 1700s. He collected human and animal specimens and preserved them in jars or kept there bones. It was a huge collection and was apparently bigger until part of it was destroyed in the bombings during WWII. I always find it weird to think about how scary WWII must have been here with the actual threat of being killed hanging over your head all the time. You see little signs of that everywhere and when you read descriptions of things it sometimes mentions it. Very different from the US where it's just there in history, but you don't really feel it in your day to day life. Anyway, it was cool to see the animal specimens with the human specimens so you could see how they were alike and different. There was also a giant human skeleton that was 7'7" I believe. Crazy. The Wellcome museum was less cool as it was only human stuff and a lot of it was soft tissue. Some of it was very neat to look at, but it wasn't particularly relevant to me, so it was more just browsing around. For lunch we walked down the street to a Dutch pancake place. (crepes, basically) I figured it wouldn't be anywhere near filling, but I couldn't even finish the whole thing. It was really good though. I had pepperoni, chorizo and cheese. It was kind of like a thin pizza.
After we were finished at the museums me, Stine and Melissa stayed behind. We got a cab and headed to me and Stine's hotel. We were suppose to be sharing a room, but they had had some sort of mix up so we each got our own rooms. That was nice, but they were the smallest rooms in the history of the world :) They were pretty comfy though. We hung out there for awhile and then headed out for dinner. We had a reservation at a Brazilian BBQ place for 7, but we were pretty early. They gave us a table though and we got drinks. Melissa's friend was meeting us for dinner but wasn't going to get there until after 7 because he was at work. So we vowed just to get some salad and eat slowly, but it's an all you can eat place where they bring different cuts of mean on skewers to your table and cut pieces off for you. So at first we turned them away, but eventually we couldn't resist and just started eating. So by the time he got there, we had eaten quite a bit. But he caught up. It was delicious. We were there for probably about 4 hours and then headed down the street to a bar. We got some drinks there and then finally headed back to the hotel about midnight. It was a really fun night out.
Friday me and Stine got up around 8 and then got breakfast in the hotel. Just rolls with butter and jelly and coffee, but it was free, so it was fine. We decided to head to Camden to look around the market there since it wasn't raining. We got tube tickets and headed out. We weren't super early, but early enough that not everyone had all of their stuff set up yet. Stine wanted a dress at one booth and the guy was talking to us about it. Then he asked where we were from and when I said the US he said that he always wanted to marry an American girl, so he would give Stine the dress and he would keep me. Not bad, 10am and already a marriage proposal :) We kept wandering and I tried on a coat, but didn't love it so I didn't get it. The market was really cool though because it is built in old horse stables and an old train station I think. It is a very cool area. When we were on our way out of the market and heading for lunch we had to cross a bridge over a river. We'd crossed it on the way in and saw some old locks. I had figured they were no longer used, but on the way back there were boats in them being raised. I made Stine stand in the rain with me and watch them work. They were old, so people had to push the gates open and shut and then turn a level to let water into the lock to raise the boats. Then they had to open the gates again to let the boats out. It took a long time for as small as the locks were, but it was so cool to see them in action in real life! I took a whole bunch of pictures of it.
For lunch we went to a Sushi restaurant. It was cool because they had raised the floor so you sat on the floor on a cushion, but your feet hung down under the table as if you were sitting on a chair. But it looked like you were just sitting on the floor eating. Now, I am not a fan of fish so I got a Bento of chicken teryaki and tempura shrimp. But it came with some salmon sushi rolls. So I tried them and they weren't too bad. I think it's more the idea of sushi that I don't like because I would eat one and think, "that isn't too bad" but when it came to putting the next one in my mouth, I would hesitate and think, "I don't know, I don't really like fish..." So yeah, it was interesting and I'm glad I tried it. After lunch we headed down to the Thames to sight see. We thought about going on the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that lets you see the whole city, but it was expensive, Stine doesn't like heights and the line was really long. So we wandered around the city instead. As we were walking the strap of my purse broke. Luckily I felt it fall and caught it. But that sucked. So I had to just carry it around the rest of the day.
We were pretty beat after all the walking so we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before dinner and going out. I actually fell asleep and didn't wake up until about 8:30 or 9. So we decided to go find some food and have an early night. Stine had a flight the next morning at 9, so she was going to have to be up early to get to the airport. We found a Lebanese restaurant that was delicious. The only problem was that their door didn't close properly so every time someone went in or out the door wouldn't shut and a breeze would come in and we would freeze. We stayed there for a long time though and didn't get home until about 12.
Saturday I had a coach booked for 1 so I got breakfast at the hotel, checked out and then went to the mall down the road for awhile. Then I had to find my way by tube to the bus station. This would have been easy, but one of the lines wasn't running so I had to take a different one that required changing trains partway through my journey. I got there with plenty of time though. When I got back to Poole I went to the store with Danielle to get the last of our ingredients for Easter dinner since the stores aren't open today. Then we had Thai food for dinner. We also watched the new Doctor Who!! It was so great. I love that show. We also started looking for a hotel to stay in when we go to Edinburgh at the end of break.
Today we are having Easter dinner for all the people who didn't go home. Me and Danielle are cooking two hams and I'm making green bean casserole. Everyone else is suppose to bring a dish as well. So it should be good. So I suppose that's all. Here is the link to the pics. Talk to you soon and Happy Easter!!
Tuesday we had our very last class for our master's degree. That seems ridiculous as I don't feel like I know nearly enough to be half done. After class I came home and me and Danielle went looking for hams to cook for Easter dinner. They have stuff called gammon here, which looks kind of like ham, but isn't exactly right. We really wanted the bone-in ham that you find in the US, but couldn't find it in two different stores, so we finally ended up with some gammons with less fat around the outside. And we found a cool recipe where you boil them in Coca Cola so we're going to try that. The recipe also told us that gammon is uncooked meat and ham is what it becomes after you cook it. Interesting I guess... For dinner on Tuesday most of my classmates and I went out for dinner to celebrate being finished. We went to an Indian place that one of my classmates always raves about. It was good, but not as mind-blowing as he always describes it. Then me and Stine got a ride home, which was nice because the bus there didn't run after 7 so we would have had to get a cab.
Wednesday I did pretty much nothing of use. I went to McDonald's for lunch with some friends because I had been craving it. Then I attempted to get some work done for my dissertation, but didn't get very far. Then I met some friends for dinner at KFC and then we went to see How to Train Your Dragon. It was AWESOME!! I recommend that you see it. After that we came home and I had to pack for our trip to London the next day.
Thursday I had to get up really early because we had to catch a bus to school at 6:15 to get to school for 6:45 which was when the buses were suppose to leave for our field trip to London. Of course they didn't leave anywhere near on time, but we got there in plenty of time. We were going on a field trip for our human anatomy class to the Hunterian and Wellcome anatomy museums at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The Hunterian museum is made up of the comparative collection of John Hunter, who was a surgeon in the late 1700s. He collected human and animal specimens and preserved them in jars or kept there bones. It was a huge collection and was apparently bigger until part of it was destroyed in the bombings during WWII. I always find it weird to think about how scary WWII must have been here with the actual threat of being killed hanging over your head all the time. You see little signs of that everywhere and when you read descriptions of things it sometimes mentions it. Very different from the US where it's just there in history, but you don't really feel it in your day to day life. Anyway, it was cool to see the animal specimens with the human specimens so you could see how they were alike and different. There was also a giant human skeleton that was 7'7" I believe. Crazy. The Wellcome museum was less cool as it was only human stuff and a lot of it was soft tissue. Some of it was very neat to look at, but it wasn't particularly relevant to me, so it was more just browsing around. For lunch we walked down the street to a Dutch pancake place. (crepes, basically) I figured it wouldn't be anywhere near filling, but I couldn't even finish the whole thing. It was really good though. I had pepperoni, chorizo and cheese. It was kind of like a thin pizza.
After we were finished at the museums me, Stine and Melissa stayed behind. We got a cab and headed to me and Stine's hotel. We were suppose to be sharing a room, but they had had some sort of mix up so we each got our own rooms. That was nice, but they were the smallest rooms in the history of the world :) They were pretty comfy though. We hung out there for awhile and then headed out for dinner. We had a reservation at a Brazilian BBQ place for 7, but we were pretty early. They gave us a table though and we got drinks. Melissa's friend was meeting us for dinner but wasn't going to get there until after 7 because he was at work. So we vowed just to get some salad and eat slowly, but it's an all you can eat place where they bring different cuts of mean on skewers to your table and cut pieces off for you. So at first we turned them away, but eventually we couldn't resist and just started eating. So by the time he got there, we had eaten quite a bit. But he caught up. It was delicious. We were there for probably about 4 hours and then headed down the street to a bar. We got some drinks there and then finally headed back to the hotel about midnight. It was a really fun night out.
Friday me and Stine got up around 8 and then got breakfast in the hotel. Just rolls with butter and jelly and coffee, but it was free, so it was fine. We decided to head to Camden to look around the market there since it wasn't raining. We got tube tickets and headed out. We weren't super early, but early enough that not everyone had all of their stuff set up yet. Stine wanted a dress at one booth and the guy was talking to us about it. Then he asked where we were from and when I said the US he said that he always wanted to marry an American girl, so he would give Stine the dress and he would keep me. Not bad, 10am and already a marriage proposal :) We kept wandering and I tried on a coat, but didn't love it so I didn't get it. The market was really cool though because it is built in old horse stables and an old train station I think. It is a very cool area. When we were on our way out of the market and heading for lunch we had to cross a bridge over a river. We'd crossed it on the way in and saw some old locks. I had figured they were no longer used, but on the way back there were boats in them being raised. I made Stine stand in the rain with me and watch them work. They were old, so people had to push the gates open and shut and then turn a level to let water into the lock to raise the boats. Then they had to open the gates again to let the boats out. It took a long time for as small as the locks were, but it was so cool to see them in action in real life! I took a whole bunch of pictures of it.
For lunch we went to a Sushi restaurant. It was cool because they had raised the floor so you sat on the floor on a cushion, but your feet hung down under the table as if you were sitting on a chair. But it looked like you were just sitting on the floor eating. Now, I am not a fan of fish so I got a Bento of chicken teryaki and tempura shrimp. But it came with some salmon sushi rolls. So I tried them and they weren't too bad. I think it's more the idea of sushi that I don't like because I would eat one and think, "that isn't too bad" but when it came to putting the next one in my mouth, I would hesitate and think, "I don't know, I don't really like fish..." So yeah, it was interesting and I'm glad I tried it. After lunch we headed down to the Thames to sight see. We thought about going on the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that lets you see the whole city, but it was expensive, Stine doesn't like heights and the line was really long. So we wandered around the city instead. As we were walking the strap of my purse broke. Luckily I felt it fall and caught it. But that sucked. So I had to just carry it around the rest of the day.
We were pretty beat after all the walking so we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before dinner and going out. I actually fell asleep and didn't wake up until about 8:30 or 9. So we decided to go find some food and have an early night. Stine had a flight the next morning at 9, so she was going to have to be up early to get to the airport. We found a Lebanese restaurant that was delicious. The only problem was that their door didn't close properly so every time someone went in or out the door wouldn't shut and a breeze would come in and we would freeze. We stayed there for a long time though and didn't get home until about 12.
Saturday I had a coach booked for 1 so I got breakfast at the hotel, checked out and then went to the mall down the road for awhile. Then I had to find my way by tube to the bus station. This would have been easy, but one of the lines wasn't running so I had to take a different one that required changing trains partway through my journey. I got there with plenty of time though. When I got back to Poole I went to the store with Danielle to get the last of our ingredients for Easter dinner since the stores aren't open today. Then we had Thai food for dinner. We also watched the new Doctor Who!! It was so great. I love that show. We also started looking for a hotel to stay in when we go to Edinburgh at the end of break.
Today we are having Easter dinner for all the people who didn't go home. Me and Danielle are cooking two hams and I'm making green bean casserole. Everyone else is suppose to bring a dish as well. So it should be good. So I suppose that's all. Here is the link to the pics. Talk to you soon and Happy Easter!!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Bazaar, Teaching and Scholar's Reception
Well, this was a rather interesting week. I don't have any photos as there was nothing particularly spectacular that happened, but a lot of things were going on. Monday was assignment hand-in. My paper got finished and I think it was pretty good despite not having many tables and figures. I didn't feel like it needed them, but it sounds like everyone else had a lot of them, so hopefully it's okay. Then we had classes as usual. We had a guest lecturer who talked about mass burials that she has excavated in the Andes. She was talking about how to go about this since people are strew on top of each other and you want to keep the bones of individuals together. Many of the burials in that cemetery were also inserted into the tomb as mummy bundles so as they decomposed the bones fell in different directions so you had to be careful about whose bones were whose. It was very cool. Then when we showed up to lab at 1, our prof announced that the forensic people had a lecture at 2 that had been rescheduled. Now, I can understand having to reschedule a lecture, but the forensic people are in my lab and the various lab times run from 1-4. The program leader scheduling a lecture in the middle of another teacher's class seems pretty bad form. And then making that person announce it. Wow.
Tuesday we didn't have class in the morning but had to go in at 11 to prepare for our day of teaching the first years on Wed. The first years were going to have a day where they went around to different little teaching stations and learned how to do archaeology stuff. They spent a half hour at each session and there were nine groups. So it was an all day thing and there are only 2 zooarch profs and there were 4 sessions for zooarch so a few of my classmates and I volunteered to help out. Later on Tuesday we did have class and then headed to Bournemouth to hang out until the International Bazaar started later. We were meant to be studying for our test on Monday, but mostly just watched cricket and chatted. We finally headed to the bazaar and it wasn't anything good. A few booths of random stuff and they were having music, but there was no where to sit. So we left pretty quickly. From there we headed to The Goat and Tricycle, a little pub that my classmate knew about. It was very nice and they had a selection of random beers from small breweries. So that was a fun but unproductive night.
Wednesday we did the teaching. Me and Stine were teaching metrics, which is measuring different parts of the bone and then doing some simple calculations to find out things about the animals the bones came from. I was teaching withers heights of sheep. So we were measuring the length of various sheep bones and then converting those measurements to shoulder heights of sheep. Stine was teaching cattle size. You have to measure the cattle metacarpal and then look at an index to see if it is cow, steer or bull. We were pretty nervous, but it actually went really well. Half the first years didn't show up, but the ones that did were generally pretty good.
Thursday I had a scholar's reception to go to in the evening, but I needed to go to lab for awhile to study for my exam. So I ended up deciding to go to lab dressed up so I didn't have to come back home before going to the reception (which I felt that I had to attend because they gave me a scholarship to come to school here). So I felt like a bit of a tool. Oh well. On the bus into Bournemouth for the reception I met one of my friends from Corfe who was also going so I was very relieved to know someone. When we got there they gave us a certificate and a medal. So that was weird. But it turned out they were for the photo session that they did later. So mostly it was a publicity thing for them to put up pics on the website, but they had drinks and small foods, so it was okay.
Friday I had class in the morning and then a meeting with my adviser about my dissertation. Then I spent a few hours in lab looking at bones and not really making much progress in knowing what diseases they had. They have boxes of diseased bone to look at, but all of the bones are mislabeled, so it is really frustrating to try to learn stuff. Then Friday night we went to the Slug and Lettuce to drink red wine and study. We did get some studying done, but spent a lot of the time talking, so it was nice.
Yesterday I went to the lab again for a couple of hours. Then I came home, got fish and chips and hung out in my room alternately studying and watching tv. Later my friend came over with a birthday present which was a chocolate covered scorpion and a vodka sucker with a scorpion in it. I haven't eaten either yet, but I kind of want to. I'm debating it.
Today I don't have much going on. More studying and that's probably all. Perhaps a trip to the grocery store, but I'm leaving for London on Thursday and won't be back until Saturday so I don't need all that much food for the week. Well, I suppose that's all I have. Have a good week and talk to you later.
Tuesday we didn't have class in the morning but had to go in at 11 to prepare for our day of teaching the first years on Wed. The first years were going to have a day where they went around to different little teaching stations and learned how to do archaeology stuff. They spent a half hour at each session and there were nine groups. So it was an all day thing and there are only 2 zooarch profs and there were 4 sessions for zooarch so a few of my classmates and I volunteered to help out. Later on Tuesday we did have class and then headed to Bournemouth to hang out until the International Bazaar started later. We were meant to be studying for our test on Monday, but mostly just watched cricket and chatted. We finally headed to the bazaar and it wasn't anything good. A few booths of random stuff and they were having music, but there was no where to sit. So we left pretty quickly. From there we headed to The Goat and Tricycle, a little pub that my classmate knew about. It was very nice and they had a selection of random beers from small breweries. So that was a fun but unproductive night.
Wednesday we did the teaching. Me and Stine were teaching metrics, which is measuring different parts of the bone and then doing some simple calculations to find out things about the animals the bones came from. I was teaching withers heights of sheep. So we were measuring the length of various sheep bones and then converting those measurements to shoulder heights of sheep. Stine was teaching cattle size. You have to measure the cattle metacarpal and then look at an index to see if it is cow, steer or bull. We were pretty nervous, but it actually went really well. Half the first years didn't show up, but the ones that did were generally pretty good.
Thursday I had a scholar's reception to go to in the evening, but I needed to go to lab for awhile to study for my exam. So I ended up deciding to go to lab dressed up so I didn't have to come back home before going to the reception (which I felt that I had to attend because they gave me a scholarship to come to school here). So I felt like a bit of a tool. Oh well. On the bus into Bournemouth for the reception I met one of my friends from Corfe who was also going so I was very relieved to know someone. When we got there they gave us a certificate and a medal. So that was weird. But it turned out they were for the photo session that they did later. So mostly it was a publicity thing for them to put up pics on the website, but they had drinks and small foods, so it was okay.
Friday I had class in the morning and then a meeting with my adviser about my dissertation. Then I spent a few hours in lab looking at bones and not really making much progress in knowing what diseases they had. They have boxes of diseased bone to look at, but all of the bones are mislabeled, so it is really frustrating to try to learn stuff. Then Friday night we went to the Slug and Lettuce to drink red wine and study. We did get some studying done, but spent a lot of the time talking, so it was nice.
Yesterday I went to the lab again for a couple of hours. Then I came home, got fish and chips and hung out in my room alternately studying and watching tv. Later my friend came over with a birthday present which was a chocolate covered scorpion and a vodka sucker with a scorpion in it. I haven't eaten either yet, but I kind of want to. I'm debating it.
Today I don't have much going on. More studying and that's probably all. Perhaps a trip to the grocery store, but I'm leaving for London on Thursday and won't be back until Saturday so I don't need all that much food for the week. Well, I suppose that's all I have. Have a good week and talk to you later.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Stress and More Stress
Well, I was really late last week, so this week I'm going to be really early. It's technically Sunday here already, despite what the time-stamp on this is going to tell you. So Monday was officially my birthday. We didn't start class until late because we were having a guest lecturer come in. So I got to sleep in and have a leisurely morning of eating breakfast and opening presents. I got some new ranch dressing from mom and a really pretty bracelet and I got a book from my godmother. Then as I was sitting at my desk my phone rang and it was the front desk ringing me to tell me that the mailman was there with a package for me. This was a miracle in itself because they never call us to tell us when we have a package. They always just tell the mail person to leave a card and then we have to go to the post office to pick it up. So anyway, I got a package from Grandma on my actual birthday, which was really exciting. And she got me a really pretty pair of silver earrings. Eventually I headed off to class and we had our guest lecture on infectious disease. Pretty interesting. But after that I had to start working on the assignment that was due on Friday. Luckily a good portion of it was done as we had been working on it in class, but since I hadn't done anything the week before I was a bit stressed about it. So I worked for most of the afternoon and evening and then my flatmates made me a chicken dinner and got me a cake, so all in all I had a really nice birthday. So thanks everybody :)
Tuesday we had class as usual. Nothing particularly interesting there. Wednesday I went to school and spent a few hours working on my assignment again. Then I had it pretty much finished by Wednesday evening I think. I just had to go back to school and edit and burn a CD on Thursday to be able to turn it in.
But that didn't end the stress because we have another assignment due on Monday that none of us had really started as of Friday. So at least we were all in the same boat, but that didn't make any less shitty of a boat. To be fair, we had given a presentation a couple weeks ago and this is just a paper based on that, so a lot of the research was already done, but there was more to do and a lot of collating to do. So after class on Friday I spent the rest of the day on campus and then worked for a little while when I got home.
Saturday was very cool. I went to a conference in Weymouth, which is a town about an hour to the west. They are putting in a road for use during the 2012 Olympics and while they were digging it they found a burial pit of 55 bodies that had been beheaded and 51 heads. They also excavated some sites from other time periods before the road went through, but their main draw was the burial pit. I actually thought that the Iron Age site they talked about was more interesting, as they had structures there as well as burials, but everyone else mostly just wanted to hear about the pit. So they just got the isotope and dating info back and it turns out that the people in the pit were probably viking raiders during the Saxon period. They also seem to have been thrown into the pit naked after having their heads chopped off with a sword. Some heads are missing so they speculate that they were probably taken away as trophies or put up on spikes or something. It was funny how everyone in the audience was suddenly an expert archaeologist when the question/answer session started. All kinds of suggestions about who they were and how/why they were killed. One man was also quite insistent that they try to perform DNA analysis on them despite that fact that the researchers told him that it would serve no real purpose at this point because the isotope analysis has already told us that they are from all over Scandinavia and therefore, unlikely to be related to each other.
We walked around Weymouth a bit during our lunch break. It's a really cute seaside town, but it was kind of rainy today, so it wasn't at its best. I'll be going back sometime when it's nice to see it in a better light. We got home about 6 and I worked on my paper all night. It is in a very rough draft right now, but it's technically finished. So I'm off to bed now. No new pictures this week, but here's the link to the ones that I got up late last week. Hope to hear from you all soon!
Tuesday we had class as usual. Nothing particularly interesting there. Wednesday I went to school and spent a few hours working on my assignment again. Then I had it pretty much finished by Wednesday evening I think. I just had to go back to school and edit and burn a CD on Thursday to be able to turn it in.
But that didn't end the stress because we have another assignment due on Monday that none of us had really started as of Friday. So at least we were all in the same boat, but that didn't make any less shitty of a boat. To be fair, we had given a presentation a couple weeks ago and this is just a paper based on that, so a lot of the research was already done, but there was more to do and a lot of collating to do. So after class on Friday I spent the rest of the day on campus and then worked for a little while when I got home.
Saturday was very cool. I went to a conference in Weymouth, which is a town about an hour to the west. They are putting in a road for use during the 2012 Olympics and while they were digging it they found a burial pit of 55 bodies that had been beheaded and 51 heads. They also excavated some sites from other time periods before the road went through, but their main draw was the burial pit. I actually thought that the Iron Age site they talked about was more interesting, as they had structures there as well as burials, but everyone else mostly just wanted to hear about the pit. So they just got the isotope and dating info back and it turns out that the people in the pit were probably viking raiders during the Saxon period. They also seem to have been thrown into the pit naked after having their heads chopped off with a sword. Some heads are missing so they speculate that they were probably taken away as trophies or put up on spikes or something. It was funny how everyone in the audience was suddenly an expert archaeologist when the question/answer session started. All kinds of suggestions about who they were and how/why they were killed. One man was also quite insistent that they try to perform DNA analysis on them despite that fact that the researchers told him that it would serve no real purpose at this point because the isotope analysis has already told us that they are from all over Scandinavia and therefore, unlikely to be related to each other.
We walked around Weymouth a bit during our lunch break. It's a really cute seaside town, but it was kind of rainy today, so it wasn't at its best. I'll be going back sometime when it's nice to see it in a better light. We got home about 6 and I worked on my paper all night. It is in a very rough draft right now, but it's technically finished. So I'm off to bed now. No new pictures this week, but here's the link to the ones that I got up late last week. Hope to hear from you all soon!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Birthday Weekend
Sorry this is so late this week. I've been very tired today. I also don't have any of the pictures from the week up yet so you'll have to wait until next week for those. So let's get to it. Monday we classes as usual. More bone diseases to look at. Then on Tuesday we moved our afternoon class to the morning because our professors had to go to a meeting in the evening and had to leave early to be able to get there. In my second class we looked at animal teeth and discussed how we could use loose teeth to think about animal ageing even though we usually try to work with teeth that are still in the jaw. So that was interesting to think about and gave another source of at least partial information when trying to find out something about the assemblage you are looking at. Having class in the morning left the whole afternoon free, so I managed to to almost nothing as we don't have another assignment due until the 19th. I did go to the grocery store and get the last of the ingredients for my BBQ night though. Wednesday morning I went to see Alice in Wonderland with a couple of my friends. It was pretty good. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but entertaining. What was even more entertaining was that while we were on the bus, we stopped to let someone off. Then as she was going out the door, a man from the back of the bus got up and went speed walking up the length of the bus, got off and continued speed walking up the sidewalk. It was just so abrupt. Everyone still on the bus was staring at him through the windows. It was very strange and very hilarious. After the movie I came home and started cooking the meat for BBQ night. I cooked a pork roast and a chicken. I also made coleslaw, baked beans, brussel sprouts and crescent rolls. It turned out pretty great. I had southern bbq sauce and some regular bbq sauce and I converted the British baked beans (which are in a tomatoey sauce that isn't sweet) into American style ones by adding brown sugar and mustard. The pork didn't pull as nicely as I had hoped, but the chicken turned out wonderfully. I cooked it in one of those oven bags and it was just falling apart. Amazing. I made way too much food though and still have some of it in my fridge.
Thursday I went shopping for a dress to wear out on my birthday. I found a really nice one for that and I also found 2 others that I really liked so I ended up with 3, but 2 of them were on sale, so that worked out well. Plus I have some things that I have to go to in the next couple of weeks that require dresses, so I'll get to use them. After shopping I tried to get some work done, but I have just been really unmotivated all week.
Friday I had class in the morning and we had a guest lecturer who is a PhD student at the university. She helps out in our human lab and really knows her stuff. She lectured on the use of DNA and isotopes in archaeology and how they are starting to help us look at things from a different perspective than was possible in the past. It's funny to think that we can do these kinds of tests now and people in the past could never have even dreamed of such things. Makes you wonder what kind of stuff will be thought up in the future and how much of that info we will have destroyed with our current excavation and curation methods. I stayed after lecture and got some reading and writing done for some assignments. Then I came home and my Indian flatmate Baitalikee was watching cricket because the big Indian cricket tournament was starting. So I watched that with her and learned a bit about how it works. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but at least I have a basic idea now. It was actually pretty cool. Her team started off really badly, but ended up winning the game. Then they won again today. For dinner on Friday Stine and Sytske made taco pie. It was pretty tastey. Then I went to the weekly beer pong tournament for awhile. There was hardly anyone there this week so I didn't stay super long, but it was fun.
Saturday was my birthday celebration day so I did pretty much nothing once again. I did have to go to the store to buy alcohol though. I had tried to go on Friday, but when I showed my license at the store they told me it wasn't a form of ID that they recognized and wouldn't sell to me. So I was really pissed and walked out of the store without buying anything. So Saturday I went to a different store and bought the same alcohol. They also IDed me but didn't say anything about my license. On my way home a lady stopped me and asked if I wanted to taste-test yogurt. I said sure and ended up trying chocolate flavored yogurts. It was pretty interesting. And I got a pen for participating.
That night we had a party in my flat with cake and presents and then went out to Bournemouth. We went to a club called V that is in a church. They sold the church at some point and rather than knocking it down and building something new, they just took out the pews and put in a bar. So it was kind of weird because it still looks like a church and you're in there drinking and dancing. We got there really early, so it wasn't that fun at first, but it got better as more people showed up. But then there were a couple of huge fights and the bouncers had to drag people out of the club. So, while it was an interesting experience it is not one that I will be repeating. The music wasn't that good and some of the people were kind of creepy. After we left we walked up to another club to meet someone and while we were waiting I got a kebab, which is meat sliced up in a pita with some veggies on top. And you usually eat it with a fork because it's too messy to pick up. British people usually only eat them when drunk, but I think they're really good and would eat one anytime, even though that is uncool :) Then we caught the night bus home and made it in by about 3:30 or so.
Today I've been doing nothing mostly. I have worked on my database a bit, but haven't made the progress that I thought I would. I keep doing things and then realizing that I want to change them so I have to start again. It's getting a bit annoying, but it will be worth it when I actually have to use the database if I take the time now to make it really easy to input data. So that was my week. I was too lazy to put up pics today so I'll have them for you next week. Have a good one! Actually, here they are if you are just reading this :)
Thursday I went shopping for a dress to wear out on my birthday. I found a really nice one for that and I also found 2 others that I really liked so I ended up with 3, but 2 of them were on sale, so that worked out well. Plus I have some things that I have to go to in the next couple of weeks that require dresses, so I'll get to use them. After shopping I tried to get some work done, but I have just been really unmotivated all week.
Friday I had class in the morning and we had a guest lecturer who is a PhD student at the university. She helps out in our human lab and really knows her stuff. She lectured on the use of DNA and isotopes in archaeology and how they are starting to help us look at things from a different perspective than was possible in the past. It's funny to think that we can do these kinds of tests now and people in the past could never have even dreamed of such things. Makes you wonder what kind of stuff will be thought up in the future and how much of that info we will have destroyed with our current excavation and curation methods. I stayed after lecture and got some reading and writing done for some assignments. Then I came home and my Indian flatmate Baitalikee was watching cricket because the big Indian cricket tournament was starting. So I watched that with her and learned a bit about how it works. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but at least I have a basic idea now. It was actually pretty cool. Her team started off really badly, but ended up winning the game. Then they won again today. For dinner on Friday Stine and Sytske made taco pie. It was pretty tastey. Then I went to the weekly beer pong tournament for awhile. There was hardly anyone there this week so I didn't stay super long, but it was fun.
Saturday was my birthday celebration day so I did pretty much nothing once again. I did have to go to the store to buy alcohol though. I had tried to go on Friday, but when I showed my license at the store they told me it wasn't a form of ID that they recognized and wouldn't sell to me. So I was really pissed and walked out of the store without buying anything. So Saturday I went to a different store and bought the same alcohol. They also IDed me but didn't say anything about my license. On my way home a lady stopped me and asked if I wanted to taste-test yogurt. I said sure and ended up trying chocolate flavored yogurts. It was pretty interesting. And I got a pen for participating.
That night we had a party in my flat with cake and presents and then went out to Bournemouth. We went to a club called V that is in a church. They sold the church at some point and rather than knocking it down and building something new, they just took out the pews and put in a bar. So it was kind of weird because it still looks like a church and you're in there drinking and dancing. We got there really early, so it wasn't that fun at first, but it got better as more people showed up. But then there were a couple of huge fights and the bouncers had to drag people out of the club. So, while it was an interesting experience it is not one that I will be repeating. The music wasn't that good and some of the people were kind of creepy. After we left we walked up to another club to meet someone and while we were waiting I got a kebab, which is meat sliced up in a pita with some veggies on top. And you usually eat it with a fork because it's too messy to pick up. British people usually only eat them when drunk, but I think they're really good and would eat one anytime, even though that is uncool :) Then we caught the night bus home and made it in by about 3:30 or so.
Today I've been doing nothing mostly. I have worked on my database a bit, but haven't made the progress that I thought I would. I keep doing things and then realizing that I want to change them so I have to start again. It's getting a bit annoying, but it will be worth it when I actually have to use the database if I take the time now to make it really easy to input data. So that was my week. I was too lazy to put up pics today so I'll have them for you next week. Have a good one! Actually, here they are if you are just reading this :)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Sun!!
Well, yet another week has passed and it's finally getting nice out! It has been sunny almost every day this week and in the upper 40s. Everyone has been in pretty good spirits due to this :)
So on Monday I turned in my research proposal. It wasn't my best work, but I did what I could with the information that I could find and get ahold of about the topic. Hopefully I do okay and the idea at least is good. We also had class on Monday. We were continuing with diseases that leave marks on bone. There was one disease that makes extra bone form in the marrow cavities of your long bones so the bones get really heavy. I wondered if this caused you to become anemic, but my teacher said no, in adults red blood cells are mostly produced in flat bones like the pelvis and skull. So if you get really severely anemic as an adult your body may expand the bone in your forehead really high in order to be able to produce more cells. We also looked at bone scars from severe sinus infections. And the lab assistant told us that your sinuses can't drain until they are completely filled because the hole is at the top. So if you have a cold you should stand on your head to drain your sinuses.
Tuesday we had a troubleshooting session for the database that we are making to record our bone assemblage. We are using Microsoft Access, which I had never even heard of before coming here, but is actually really awesome. I was asking one of my archaeologist friends from home if she uses it and she said no and she doesn't think it's in common use in the US. So my life's work will be to spread the use of this program ;) After classes were finished I went for a walk around Poole because the weather was so nice. I took a few photos and I'll post the link at the end.
Wednesday I worked on my presentation for Friday. We each had to present about a topic in funerary archaeology. More specifically animal bones in human burial contexts. Mine was sheep. It was really hard to find info on any of the topics so most presentations weren't too in depth. Which was good because I'd been feeling like mine was exceptionally bad, but it wasn't.
Thursday I again worked on the presentation. I had to go to school for a short time to return some books and get another one. I also had to print off the notes for the presentation.
Friday was the presentation and I got to go 5th. So it was good to get it over with soon, but I'd drank a bunch of coffee so I was pretty jittery through the whole thing. Oh well, it wasn't graded. We're going to get notes about it and then have to write a paper based on the presentation. But that isn't due for 2 weeks. Then Friday afternoon me, Stine and Mieke went for a walk around the Poole area. We started going through the park and ended up just wandering semi-lost through a neighborhood. We eventually made it to Ashley Cross and then wandered up a street we hadn't been up before. At the top we found a church with a really cool churchyard. We also found a nice looking coffee and juice shop whose owner was really nice even though we didn't buy anything. I think we will definitely be going back there.
Saturday Melissa, Stine and I went to a talk about the Poole logboat at the Poole museum. The logboat is an Iron Age (~295BC) boat made out of a single log that was found in the Poole Quay. It's 10 meters long. So that was very interesting. It was about how it was found (during dredging of the quay) and how it was preserved (in sugar water). Then me and Melissa went and saw It's Complicated that evening. It was really funny.
Today I'm doing lunch and dinner with friends and rounding up my flatmates to clean the kitchen because it's disgusting. No one ever cleans up after themselves so it gets gross really fast. I'm hoping if we clean it really well today and have a talk about being adults and cleaning our messes maybe we can solve the problem at least a little. But it's sunny again today, so that's awesome!
Here's the link to the pics from the week. And next weekend I'm going out for my birthday on Saturday night, so my post on Sunday may be late. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause :p
So on Monday I turned in my research proposal. It wasn't my best work, but I did what I could with the information that I could find and get ahold of about the topic. Hopefully I do okay and the idea at least is good. We also had class on Monday. We were continuing with diseases that leave marks on bone. There was one disease that makes extra bone form in the marrow cavities of your long bones so the bones get really heavy. I wondered if this caused you to become anemic, but my teacher said no, in adults red blood cells are mostly produced in flat bones like the pelvis and skull. So if you get really severely anemic as an adult your body may expand the bone in your forehead really high in order to be able to produce more cells. We also looked at bone scars from severe sinus infections. And the lab assistant told us that your sinuses can't drain until they are completely filled because the hole is at the top. So if you have a cold you should stand on your head to drain your sinuses.
Tuesday we had a troubleshooting session for the database that we are making to record our bone assemblage. We are using Microsoft Access, which I had never even heard of before coming here, but is actually really awesome. I was asking one of my archaeologist friends from home if she uses it and she said no and she doesn't think it's in common use in the US. So my life's work will be to spread the use of this program ;) After classes were finished I went for a walk around Poole because the weather was so nice. I took a few photos and I'll post the link at the end.
Wednesday I worked on my presentation for Friday. We each had to present about a topic in funerary archaeology. More specifically animal bones in human burial contexts. Mine was sheep. It was really hard to find info on any of the topics so most presentations weren't too in depth. Which was good because I'd been feeling like mine was exceptionally bad, but it wasn't.
Thursday I again worked on the presentation. I had to go to school for a short time to return some books and get another one. I also had to print off the notes for the presentation.
Friday was the presentation and I got to go 5th. So it was good to get it over with soon, but I'd drank a bunch of coffee so I was pretty jittery through the whole thing. Oh well, it wasn't graded. We're going to get notes about it and then have to write a paper based on the presentation. But that isn't due for 2 weeks. Then Friday afternoon me, Stine and Mieke went for a walk around the Poole area. We started going through the park and ended up just wandering semi-lost through a neighborhood. We eventually made it to Ashley Cross and then wandered up a street we hadn't been up before. At the top we found a church with a really cool churchyard. We also found a nice looking coffee and juice shop whose owner was really nice even though we didn't buy anything. I think we will definitely be going back there.
Saturday Melissa, Stine and I went to a talk about the Poole logboat at the Poole museum. The logboat is an Iron Age (~295BC) boat made out of a single log that was found in the Poole Quay. It's 10 meters long. So that was very interesting. It was about how it was found (during dredging of the quay) and how it was preserved (in sugar water). Then me and Melissa went and saw It's Complicated that evening. It was really funny.
Today I'm doing lunch and dinner with friends and rounding up my flatmates to clean the kitchen because it's disgusting. No one ever cleans up after themselves so it gets gross really fast. I'm hoping if we clean it really well today and have a talk about being adults and cleaning our messes maybe we can solve the problem at least a little. But it's sunny again today, so that's awesome!
Here's the link to the pics from the week. And next weekend I'm going out for my birthday on Saturday night, so my post on Sunday may be late. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause :p
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Proposal Week
Well, not a whole lot to report again this week. Our dissertation proposals are due on Monday so everyone has been working on those. Last Monday we didn’t have class because all of the forensic instructors went to a conference in Washington state. I thought that included the prof from our class but he was around, so I’m not really sure why we didn’t have class. But I did manage to get a start on my proposal so it worked out all right. Tuesday we had classes as usual. We are learning to use Microsoft Access to make databases in which to record our bone assemblages. I had never heard of it before, but it’s actually a really useful program. It can make lists like Excel, but then you can sort through them and put things into separate tables, but they are all linked so all the info can be searched and cross-referenced. I’m impressed.
Today I’m trying pilates for the first time. My friend Stine goes every Thursday and loves it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Hopefully it’s not too hard as I’m still a bit sore from yesterday. Then I don’t have too much planned for the rest of the day. I need to start work on my presentation about sheep in human burials that I’m giving on Friday. Boo to that. At least it isn’t assessed. We get notes on the presentation and then have to write up a paper that will be assessed. So hopefully I can get that started today. No new pics this week, sorry. Well, hope you had a good week and hope to hear from you soon.
Wednesday I went to campus in the afternoon and got quite a bit of work done. I printed a few of my sources, of which there are very few. No one has really done much work on bone tools. Hopefully that doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time and just means that the sample is small and no one has bothered. Guess I’ll find out soon enough ;) After writing for a few hours I went with Melissa to the international movie that they play every Wednesday for free on campus. It annoys me because they always start it late and can never figure out how to use the computer system in the room. This week after they finally got it started it played for about 10 minutes and then the screen went blank. You could still hear it but couldn’t see it. So we decided to leave. There is only one bus per hour back to our flat and it was about to come so rather than mess around we decided we’d just rent the movie some time.
Thursday I went to lunch with some friends. We tried a new Chinese buffet right on the quay (pronounced key, if I haven’t said that before). It was a dreary and rainy day so the view was a bit bleak, but it would be really nice on a sunny day. The food was really good too. And then we had banana fritters and ice cream for dessert. Yum! After that I had to go looking for a present for my flatmate whose birthday was Friday. I ended up getting her some bracelets. I think she liked them.
Friday we again had class. After that I stuck around and finished my proposal. I had be procrastinating really badly all week so I just needed to finish writing it so that I could later edit it and be done. Another guy from my class was also there and he told me about this place near here called the Ancient Technology Center where they use ancient technology to build stuff. Right now they are building a longhouse and making all of the shingles by hand. I guess it’s mostly for school children, but they have open days sometimes and volunteer days. So I may try it out sometime if I have time and can get there. I don’t know exactly where it is, so I may need a car in order to get there. But I did finish the proposal and get it printed so that I could edit it over the weekend. When I got home we had a quick birthday thing for our flatmate. She was off to have dinner and a party with her friends, but we had gotten her a cake, so we made her eat that and open her presents before she left. Then later that evening one of my friends made dinner for everyone. It was a really good pie of some sort. She makes delicious crust and then filled it with chicken and veg and all kinds of spices and things. It turned out really nice. We then headed up to beer pong for awhile, but everyone was smoking up there so I didn’t stay long.
Saturday I went to body pump class and then made a salad for lunch. My flatmate from India was scandalized that I was going to eat broccoli without cooking it. I made her try some, but if she gets sick now I know she’ll blame me and my broccoli. She said in India they never eat raw food. They would always boil or fry it. So that was interesting because I’ve seen her eat and she does always cook everything, but I didn’t realize it was because she won’t eat it raw. So after lunch I went grocery shopping and then went to wander around the mall. I didn’t buy anything though L In the evening I edited my proposal and wrote the title page, so it is completely finished now. I’m not sure all the rule about titles so it’s pretty boring now (An overview of the Bone Awls on the Iron Age sites of Wessex and Southern Britain). Hopefully I can spice it up a bit for the real report. We shall see.
Today I’m trying pilates for the first time. My friend Stine goes every Thursday and loves it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Hopefully it’s not too hard as I’m still a bit sore from yesterday. Then I don’t have too much planned for the rest of the day. I need to start work on my presentation about sheep in human burials that I’m giving on Friday. Boo to that. At least it isn’t assessed. We get notes on the presentation and then have to write up a paper that will be assessed. So hopefully I can get that started today. No new pics this week, sorry. Well, hope you had a good week and hope to hear from you soon.
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