lindoland

Frequent Update FAIL

2010-12-14T00:15:00.013Z

Terrible. Just terrible. And this isn't even a proper update. It's only a vague sort of promise that a more complete one will be coming soon...

Briefly: I am back in Bristol - hooray! I've been here since the end of September staying with my friend Aisling and her flatmate (and friend as well) Maxime. They have been kind enough to lend me their "annex" in exchange for sweeping and dish-washing duties. In a convenient albeit tragic turn of events, Maxime will be moving at the end of January, so I will be moving across the hall into a room with a bed! And a closet! And a window! Can you tell I'm a bit excited? Like Aisling, Maxime is working on a Ph.D. in archaeology at the University of Bristol but is transferring to Liverpool following the departure of his faculty advisors.

In other news, I have a job! After a month of wandering through an array of part-time positions, I successfully interviewed with the University of Bristol Students' Union (hereafter UBU) and am in my third week as Democracy & Campaigns Intern ('intern' in this case meaning that it's a newly created position with a sixth-month potentially extendable contract). So far, I have been evacuated from the building, taken part in several student protests including a "Death of Education" rally (oh yes, we had a coffin) and a field trip to lobby MPs in London, and done slightly less thrilling work preparing for the student elections in the new year. I also have a desk. And a name tag. Business cards coming soon...

Well, this wasn't quite as brief as I intended. Too many exciting things going on. I might even post a few photos. Oh, the shock! The horror! The horror!

Ok, pictures. The one up top is our gate-way - we're the basement flat so the entrance is down the side and around the back. Very confusing for the Pizza Hut delivery dude. Just beneath here is the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Clifton is the area of Bristol in which I reside and the bridge (over the Avon River gorge) is one of the main attractions.

Above: Me, clearly, and Aisling (pronounced 'Ashling' for those who care to know), my lovely Irish flatmate. Below: Zombified (me/Dónal and Mike) for the Halloween Zombie March through the Bristol city centre. Further below: The UBU crew (plus intense police presence) in London to protest the Parliament vote for increased tuition fees.

What's that? A Whole New Year?

2010-06-01T23:53:00.006+01:00

It's fitting that this update follows the thrill of a new apartment with the leaving of it. I should include a photo of the abandoned, empty (but squeaky clean!) room, but that would be a bit depressing and such excitement lies ahead (and I forgot to take such a picture). I refer of course to helping people win money off the ponies at Canterbury. And to a month spent enjoying pure sunshine and laziness in Michigan followed by several days of Irish-American adventures (I hope you like bizarre foods-on-sticks, Dónal, because we're definitely visiting the State Fair.) and, oh yes, that lovely little plane ticket to England for the end of September. The 24th, to be precise. Followed by lots of wonderful visits (Yes, that's a hint, friends and family). Details (and more parenthetical comments) to come!

A few random photos of recent events:

Above: First Target Field experience! Go Twins!
Below: Beavers are hard at work in Wolsfeld Woods.
Below: Just a taste of the strangeness.

New Apartment!

2009-10-07T04:22:00.004+01:00

The view from my kitchen window. Hello, Minneapolis!

Look, a kitchen!

Yes, the walls are pink.

Happy August

2009-08-11T19:16:00.003+01:00

So now I'm technically 24 years old. Only technically, because I don't mentally age until Allie's birthday a week from now. That's the proof, you see. For two-and-a-half weeks a year I get to party in birthday limbo...

In less weird news, I'll be at the preschool again in the fall (more hours, hooray!). That job plus scrabbling together a few more hours at the Caribouniverse plus (fingers crossed) a shift or two at the horse track should put me in a semi-stable position for apartment hunting. If I the schedule-madness doesn't drive me insane first. Anyway, exciting! The summer has been lovely... snatched a week in Michigan, spent a great weekend at my friend Collin's cabin, passed the Caribou shift supervisor "sexual harassment awareness" online exam. Go me. I've also managed to maintain a quite respectable tan for two solid months. Thank you, outdoor pool at Lifetime Fitness.

Um, that's about it. Since it's sunny, I'm going outside now.

PS. I'm now on twitter. We'll see how it goes. Link is to the left above new link to facebook.

Employment! At Last!

2009-02-09T05:37:00.004Z

I finally have a job... two jobs, that is... oh, wait, three jobs... okay, three-and-a-half. So much employment is a bit overwhelming. Most officially, I'm a Team Member at a Caribou Coffee tucked away in the corner of a massive grocery store. It's a very boring job title, but the work itself is mostly fun (or at least bustling along): I greet people, make coffee, scrub out whipped cream containers, restock multiple varieties of plastic cup lids, etc. I'm also working at a preschool twice a week in the morning; I help out with the three-year-olds, which is mildly frustrating at times but generally entertaining. It's hard to get too annoyed if they cover themselves in paint when they're so darn adorable. I'm also technically still employed at the horse track (on an as-needed basis that is rapidly turning into if-I-have-any-spare-time), and I'm directing the confirmation handbell choir. Now that's a whole new bag of crayons. I eventually figured out how to conduct in 3/4. About the fifth time we practised that particular song. Good times all around, though. I just need to come up with a more efficient way to answer the "Now, where are you working?" question.

Mission Accomplished

2008-12-19T17:27:00.002Z

A fantastic update: I just received the final marks for my courses and dissertation and... I passed! The graduation ceremony isn't until February (I hope I can attend), but what a relief to know!

:)

Update

2008-09-22T20:18:00.002+01:00

After two wonderful but somewhat hectic final months in Bristol, I've returned to Minnesota. I'm living with the parents (and Leo), job hunting, and still trying to find a home for all the stuff I brought back from England. Good times!

A Triumphant Return

2008-07-24T22:42:00.012+01:00

I'm now back in Bristol after a month at home in the States following my adventure in Turkey. To the great delight of all, Allie came across with me to visit for a week :). We went to London, took in the sites, visited my friend Collin, and went to see "Hairspray" (completely fantastic!). In Bristol, we saw all the main attractions: the Cathedral, College Green, various restaurants, and, of course, the Suspension Bridge. We even had time to make a day-trip to Bath including a pilgrimage to the Jane Austen Centre. For those of you keeping track, that makes my third such pilgrimage. I really like Jane Austen. Anyway, Allie and I had a marvelous time and the whole Bristol crowd was sorry to see her go. We nearly tied her to the single chair in my cubby-hole of a room to prevent her departure.

And now, Photos!

Allie and I and my flatmate Caryn who rescued us when we were delayed overnight in Newark. We went to Benihana... yum.

Allie at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

(2 above) Having fun in the caves near the Bridge... I'm creepy and Allie's fierce.

Sight-seeing in London.

We are sooo good at taking pictures of ourselves!

The Shaftesbury Theatre where we saw "Hairspray".

Inside the Bristol Cathedral. We were appropriately quiet and reverent.

Such a lovely time!

Turkey - Part 5 (PHOTOS!)

2008-06-13T14:32:00.032+01:00

right View over Ankara from BIAA hostel.

left Atatürk Bulvarı, a main road in Ankara.

right The Yacht Harbor in Antalya.

left The Theatre at Termessos.

right At the Düden waterfalls near Antalya.

left Derek smoking the "water-pipe" at our Antalya hostel.

right Hellenistic Gates at Perge.

left Street in Kaş.

right Harbor at Fethiye.

left Colonnaded roadway at Patara.

above The Butterfly Valley.

right Rock-cut tombs at Tlos, near Fethiye.

left Saklıkent Gorge.

right The Library of Celsus at Ephesus.

left The Temple of Apollo at Didyma.

right Inside the Haghia Sophia.

left Istanbul.

right From the courtyard of the Blue Mosque.

left Atatürk's Mausoleum in Ankara.

Turkey - Part 4

2008-06-07T12:06:00.002+01:00

I am now safely back in Ankara having visited Selçuk and İstanbul since my last post. Selçuk was a very nice town, and I was able to tour the Artemision, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (not so much now, sadly) and the site of Ephesus, a bit overrun with tourists but cool nevertheless. I also undertook a complicated dolmuş journey to the town of Didim, which contains the Temple of Apollo at Didyma. The temple was wonderful with columns huge beyond belief although the equally complicated trip back to Selçuk was not quite so much fun.

Derek and I took another over-night coach to İstanbul (a 10-hour journey), and spent a few days there visiting the fabulous archaeological museum, the Haghia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and admiring the Grand Bazaar and the seaside fish markets. We also watched a performance Whirling Dervish at a little outdoor cafe and had a bit of fun with the other, mostly international, students and tourists at our hostel. We took an afternoon bus to Ankara on Thursday (only a 7-hour trip), and will probably spend our remaining time finishing up research in the British Institute library. Derek has another week or so here, but I'm returning to Bristol this coming Tuesday and then going on the States on June 16th.

Turkey - Part 3

2008-05-30T16:19:00.002+01:00

I know, I know, still no pictures... they are coming as soon as I get back to my own lovely computer. I'm currently in Fethiye, a fairly major tourist town down on the southwest Mediterranean coast. Unfortunately, the city museum is closed for restorations and it's been a bit difficult getting transport to all of our 'key' sites, but Derek and I have managed to stay optimistic (with the help of a boat tour at Ölüdeniz and a hike through the Saklıkent Gorge, both completely fantastic). Tomorrow morning we move on to Selçuk ('Sel-chuk'), which is the city adjacent to the ancient site of Ephesus, an important site for my research, and close to ancient Didyma, another important location. After that, it's off to İstanbul for a few nights and then back to Ankara for some concluding research and perhaps a visit to Gordion, the site of a Phrygian city ruled by, allegedly, King Midas (he of the golden touch and the ass's ears).

Turkey - Part 2

2008-05-25T13:24:00.000+01:00

From Ankara, Derek and I travelled by overnight coach to the seaside city of Antalya. It was beautiful - completely Mediterranean - and our hostel was very friendly and picturesque. We ate dinner there during our 3-night stay and got along very well with the Turkish owner and several fabulous German tourists who were the only other guests. While in Antalya, I visited the Archaeological Museum (much larger and more relevant than the one in Ankara) as well as Termessos (an ancient city high up in the mountains with an utterly breathtaking theatre and several temples dedicated to the goddess Artemis) and also Perge (another ancient city site with very well-preserved Roman baths and a long colonnaded roadway).

From Antalya, Derek and I caught a 'dolmuş' aka mini-bus to another coastal town, Kaş. It is west and a bit south of Antalya, and from here (it's currently our first day here) we can visit several sites containing Lycian rock-cut house tombs (the subject of Derek's research) before going northwest along the coast to Fethiye, a larger city close to several important sites as well as a 'Butterfly Valley'. spiffy. Well, as our hotel in Kaş has a pool, I'm off for a dip and some text-reading in the sun before the storm clouds that are hanging menacingly over the mountains behind me decide to descend into the town.

And don't worry, those of you who do, I'm not badly sunburned yet... just a lot more freckled with pretty pink shoulders and knees. :)

Turkey - Part 1

2008-05-17T13:18:00.003+01:00

Greetings from Ankara! It is day 3 here, and I still cannot find the apostrophe key. It is also mildly difficult to type the letter i because the Turkish ı is where the English i usually is. Tricky, tricky. So far, Ankara is an interesting city. A bit messy, with lots of hills and uneven sidewalks, but it has some beautiful modern buildings and sculptures, lovely parks, a very impressive replica of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and crazy winding bazaars. Derek (my partner in archaeological crime) and I have visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and spent quite a long time in the library of the British Institute, which we are affiliated with while staying here. We hope to visit Gordion next week - the site of the tomb of King Midas - before leaving for Antalya in southern Turkey on Thursday.

Brief Update

2008-05-07T22:46:00.002+01:00

I know that I'm awful about adding to this and that a short summary will not quench the curiosity of my avid readers (all five of you), but more details and photos are coming, I promise!

In the meantime, I am loving Bristol in the spring aside from the humidity that settled over the city the moment the sun came out. Good thing we have a constant breeze going on. At any rate, it's probably much cooler than Turkey will be when I arrive there next Thursday. Hooray! I'll be in Ankara for a week and then travelling up the south-west coast visiting such significant archaeological sites as Ephesus and Troy. Expect an update on the trip when I return in mid-June, since I won't have my computer along. I will try to toss off a few posts along the way, but who knows if that will work.

On to 2008!

2008-02-02T10:33:00.000Z

So far, the best events of the new year include my successful baking of a tasty carrot cake, our team winning a local pub's Quiz Night (we went from an awful second-to-last one week to first the next) and my friend Mike's birthday (he would be Chemistry Mike, but he's the only one). Since he has a particular aversion to corduroy, we naturally decided to make his birthday present entirely out of corduroy. The brainchild of my flatmate Caryn and dorm-mate Aisling, this marvelous idea expanded to involve a pair of corduroy boy scout shorts, a corduroy bow-tie and elbow-patch set, an utterly fabulous corduroy princess hat complete with tassel, a pair of corduroy Y-fronts (for effect and not meant to actually be worn), the Corduroy Ninja, and a corduroy Anthropology Tom. Mike was a bit baffled but on the whole quite pleased with this array of corduroy-tastic items. The photos are: "The Process," "The Evolution of Mike's Amusement," and "The Corduroy Ninja and Tom." I'm particularly proud of the Corduroy Ninja, my big contribution to the collection (except for the sword - we had to ask Cody, our resident video game and weaponry expert, to make that).

A Break from Bristol

2008-02-02T10:19:00.000Z

I went home on a nice long holiday break (mid-December to early January). Lots of fun to be done including an outdoor ice-skating expedition with Janna, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," that nice little holiday called Christmas, adventures at St. Olaf with Alan, and many other such excitements. There was a fabulous New Year's party involving many Oles and a birthday cake for my friend Maura with a very silly horse on it. Boys being boys, there was a lot of computer- and Wii-related fun (second photo is Ian, me, Paul, Jenna, Dan). And yes, I did cut my hair.

My sister's friend Joe came to visit, and of course we went out the Benihana and (not quite so "of course") we had an adventurous night of bowling at the Medina Ballroom. Joe won. By a lot. Good times were had by all, though. :)

Christmas Parties!

2008-02-02T09:56:00.000Z

We had an Archaeology/Anthropology Department party that required a costume: dress as something archaeology-related, dress as something holiday-related, or dress as something cocktail-party-related. It wasn't really much of a "requirement". First prize for costume might have gone to Ian who dressed as an irate farmer, except that my friend Susie came as a Christmas tree, and Rob was in full pirate gear. Very eclectic. A more serious requirement was the presence of Pringles. Archaeologists MUST have Pringles.The above photo is Gareth, Cody, and Annelise. You'll notice how focused they were on the archaeology/general trivia quiz, completely not distracted. We (the MAs) did take second place, only beaten by the PhD/Professor team. Quite well done on our part.

We had another, non-official, holiday party at my friend Anthropology Tom's house. His title is to distinguish between him (also sometimes called "Harry Potter Tom," but he's not so fond of that one) and Chemistry Tom. First photo is Kara, Cody (again) and Pringles (again). Next is Tom (our host), Mike, and Kara. Then there is the result of a Risk-like game called "War on Terror" - if you lose all your territory, you become a terrorist and get to wear the mask of Evil. Needless to say, we all liked wearing the mask. Danielle, Tom, Aisling, and Cody were all particularly fierce, but Mike won as the fiercest and the most evil of all.

Still Here!

2008-02-02T09:48:00.000Z

Sorry for the hiatus... it's been a busy few, well, months. oops. Anyway, were was I? December. right. Here are a few photos of Bristol in winter, to please the eye of those in Minnesota where I recently heard it was - now what was it? - oh yeah, -18˚. First a view of the City Centre and then a nice, artsy shot of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe:

Mom's Visit Part 3

2007-11-28T17:18:00.000Z

AND we went to Glastonbury to visit the abbey ruins, pay homage to the alleged site of King Arthur's grave, wander through various New Age spiritualist shops, and be surprised by a crazy-fun festival swarming all around us. Lots of strange hats. We also ate lunch in the slowest cafe in the world and had to wait forever, as mentioned before, for the 3:12 bus that finally arrived around 4:25. 4:35 if you ask Mom. But we do not dwell. :)
Side note: we had to switch buses in Wells, a quaint little town where apparently the bulk of the filming for the movie Hot Fuzz was done. Sweeet.

This is King Arthur's grave. His original burial site was discovered by monks a little ways away, and he was re-buried here.

Mom's Visit Part 2

2007-11-28T17:16:00.000Z

We also went to Bath, partly in order to shop at the Edinburgh Woolen Mill, but mostly to take tea at the Jane Austen Center and track down the elusive BathAqua glass-blowing factory. It was a bit cloudy.

Mom's Visit Part 1

2007-11-28T17:03:00.000Z

On November 13th, my mom arrived for a week-long visit, and we did everything worth doing in Bristol, Bath, and Glastonbury. Well, we did many cool things, at least. We got to spend time with Aunty Rachel, eat in fabulous restaurants, enjoy two movies (In the Shadow of the Moon and Beowulf), shop (of course!), and wait around forever for the slowest bus in the Southwest.
Some pics from Bristol:

Here (again) is the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Always worth a visit. :)

And here on the left is the City Museum right next to the Will Memorial Building, which houses the law department of the University of Bristol.

Remember, Remember...

2007-11-28T16:51:00.000Z

Happy November 5th! (better late than never)
In honor of Guy Fawkes, Bristol staged a bonfire/fireworks, carnival extravaganza up on the Downs that attracted, believe it or not, around 20,000 people. If failing to blow up Parliament means this much notoriety, just imagine what succeeding... well, better not imagine. :)
Anyway, photos!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T13:45:00.000Z

Don't worry, posts regarding Mom's visit are coming soon. I'm just backing up my hard-drive (that's right Dad, on my external thingy, whoo hoo!) and I don't want to jumble up the process. In the meantime:

Picture of Me

2007-10-30T00:36:00.000Z

In order to please a certain special someone who suggests that too many of my photos are of trees or buildings instead of people, especially of myself, this post is entirely devoted to pictures taken by other people and belatedly gathered from facebook, email attachments, other websites, etc. I will be in all of them, proving that I have in fact visited the places mentioned elsewhere on this site, so if you don't particularly like looking at me, you should probably avoid reading more of this post.

(left top) practising EDM (electronic distance measurement) at Myrtleberry.
(right top) also on Exmoor, standing around a 20th century metal war... thing.
(left bottom) out for the Rugby WC, with my camera-shy flatmate, Caryn.

London

2007-10-29T20:09:00.000Z

The requisite photo of Tower Bridge.

And here is Collin dressed up as "A Package From Home" complete with bubble wrap and candy.

The Rugby World Cup

2007-10-29T20:05:00.000Z

Danielle, Cody, Debbie, and Bjarke: fellow post-grads in the Archaeology Dept.

This is Caryn hiding shamelessly behind her South African Springboks scarf.

Rugby and London and Gingers, oh my!

2007-10-29T19:35:00.000Z

Since my last post, there have been several major happenings: the Rugby World Cup, my successful navigation of the National Express and the London underground, and a Halloween party at which I dressed up as a Ginger Kid. For those unfamiliar with the South Park episode, just know that there exists a theory involving the satanic, soul-devouring characteristics of redheads. Check http://www.gingerkids.org/ for more details. I'm told that my costume was extremely creepy.

But my romp through the wild realms of "gingervitis" was actually the most recent happening (it was last Saturday night at Collin's London flat, well, it really overtook his entire building) so I'll back up a bit. The Rugby World Cup was quite exciting - England was in the final for the second time in a row (they won in 2003), playing against South Africa. If you remember, my flatmate Caryn is from South Africa, so we had a great time infiltrating a pub down the hill, grabbing a couch seat right in front of the biggest TV screen ever, and cheering ourselves hoarse. I'm sorry to report that England lost, but it was a fantastic time and we did beat France in the semi-finals so there's still a bit of bragging power.

As for London, I took a coach on Friday afternoon in order to spend the weekend visiting Collin at his Maida Vale flat. He lives with a whole crowd of other Americans involved in his internship/MBA programme, who were very nice to meet. On Saturday, Collin and I explored the Borough Market (located underneath rail tracks and stocked with all the cheese, bread, fruit, veg, cupcakes, mulled wine, and dead pheasants you could ever desire), wandered over London Bridge, and ate kebabs for dinner, which are worth mentioning because unlike American shish-kebabs, they don't come on a stick. Imagine a gyro (or a pita) that's very very yummy and very very messy. On Sunday, we visited Collin's work place (UBS) and the Barbican art gallery to see an exhibit on the representation of sex in art. Don't worry parents, it was very informative and tasteful. There was quite a bit of Greek pottery, so I should be able to write the trip off as a university-related expense, right?

That's all for now... halfway to the horizon is a arch/anthro Halloween party in the dorm common room, a field trip to Gloucester on Thursday, and Guy Fawkes next Monday, and on the horizon is a visit from Mom, so there's plenty to anticipate.

Around Bath

2007-10-12T15:32:00.001+01:00

(above) The River Avon and the Pulteney Bridge.

(right) The Bath Cathedral.

(left) The Bath Aviary.

(right) The Royal Crescent.

Around Bristol

2007-10-12T15:28:00.001+01:00

(right) The Bristol Council House.

(left) A somewhat creepy
example of Bristolian graffiti/art.

A quick dip and a trip down the rabbit hole

2007-10-12T15:10:00.000+01:00

Recap! Saturday Oct. 6 : Molly, a friend from St. Olaf, visited from Germany. We walked around the University district and the city centre, discovered the most fabulously adorable and expensive shop in the city, and went out to dinner with my flatmate Caryn to a restaurant/bar called Las Iguanas. On Sunday we caught a train to Bath (it's a whopping 13-minute trip) and made a pilgrimage to the Jane Austen Centre and did a bit of shopping. Sometimes it's just way too much fun to be a girl. :) We stopped by the Bath Cathedral for evensong before travelling back to Bristol in time to visit the Suspension Bridge despite my inability to efficiently navigate the bus system. Molly left for London on Monday morning, and a reciprocal adventure in Germany is definitely called for.

This week I've had my first classroom classes... not too frightening despite an impressive stack of books to read before next week. Caryn and I attended the International Students Welcome Party last night at the city science museum; I must admit, wandering around the museum for free, crawling through tunnels in the "Alice Through the Looking Glass" exhibit, was much more interesting than the speakers, although the Lord Mayor of Bristol was wearing about 4 tons of bright red robes complete with gold braid and a large feathered hat. They do seem to enjoy a bit of dress-up around here.

The End of the Exmoor Adventure

2007-10-05T19:16:00.000+01:00

(right) Not to be left out, the "Alligator of Exmoor." Or maybe it's a crocodile, I never remember the difference.

(left) This is a lovely example of Exmoor's "mini-lithic" stone monuments - it's less than a foot high.

(above) The view from the top of the hill was spectacular. The hill is semi-officially called "Hangman's Hill," although I think that if you made a criminal climb all the way up there, he'd probably tie the noose himself just to save the effort of catching his breath.

(right) Rob made use of all our much-appreciated rest stops to point out possible prehistoric features such as terracing.

Exmoor Out of Breath

2007-10-05T19:09:00.000+01:00

(above) Our Med/MALA group at Combe Martin beach on a lunch break. Just after eating, we climbed a very very very big hill to explore a previously unexplored site. Such is the life of a dedicated archaeologist.

(right) A bit more of Combe Martin - the water is salty because the Severn Estuary widens quite a lot before merging with the Atlantic.

(left) Yes, we hiked up that hill. The sheep also thought we were crazy, but at the top is an unsurveyed potential prehistoric site (see next post).

Exmoor in the Sun

2007-10-05T18:53:00.000+01:00

(left) Sunshine at last! Exmoor includes uncultivated moorland, farmland, and fenced-in areas for sheep and cow grazing.

(right) Myrtleberry, thought to be a prehistoric hill fort. We attempted to survey the site using both older techniques (tape measures, control poles, and a hand-drawn pencil map) and newer EDM (electronic distance measurement) technology.

(above) I'd just like to point out that this photo was not edited in any way. Spiffy.

And a little less misty now

2007-10-05T18:45:00.000+01:00

(above) Porlock Beach on the Severn Estuary, home to a very changeable tide and (allegedly) many flint shards.

(left) Our trusty Land Rover: it never failed us despite the many hills, sharp turns, bumpy roadways, and the world's dumbest pheasants.

Exmoor in the Mist

2007-10-05T18:37:00.001+01:00

(above) Rob and part of our group standing around a stone circle at Hawkcombe Head. The mist was fairly constant for the first two days and then, quite miraculously, cleared away for Thursday and Friday.

(right) Exmoor is misty and wet as well; we searched these puddles for pieces of flint, which is not native to the area and is thus evidence of ancient activity.

Exmoor

2007-10-05T18:19:00.000+01:00

I've just returned from a 4-day excursion to Exmoor and, for the record, I'm strongly tempted to give up the Mediterranean all together and just wander around Britain for the next 20 years climbing over Mesolithic barrows and tripping over "mini-lithic" stone rows and circles. Exmoor is southwest of Bristol - on the map, you travel down along the south side of the Severn Estuary to the almost-invisible green patch. It doesn't have monuments as well-studied or as dramatic as Stonehenge, but I learned a lot about identifying subtle earthworks (mounds, banks, ditches, etc.) and general surveying techniques.

All of the Archaeology/Anthropology programmes went along and split up to study different aspects of the area, but our group - the Meds and the MALAs (MA in Landscape Archaeology) - was by far the best. Our instructor Rob works for the Exmoor conservancy as a resident archaeologist and somehow managed to make us see building platforms, roads, and hill forts (and over-lying medieval ridge-and-furrow agriculture) in a landscape that at first glance looked vaguely bumpy with perhaps a few scattered rocks.

So, combine vigorous trampling over the moor with group dinner at the Exford pub every night with the opportunity to explore Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age sites, and we had, to quote the department head, an utterly "fab" field trip.

Neil Gaiman

2007-09-28T17:15:00.001+01:00

Here is my dad with writer Neil Gaiman who happened to be signing books at a Waterstone's in central Bristol. I was off at Int'l Orientation, but Dad is such a swell guy that he attended in my stead.

A Tribute to Leigh

2007-09-27T20:19:00.000+01:00

Apparently Leigh owns quite a large tract of land just west of Bristol through which all should drive carefully. This is very unlike the rest of England - there is a lot of whizzing 'round roundabouts, merging from "slip roads" and "filters" from the LEFT, and generally ignoring the fact that many roads barely wide enough to accomodate half a car are officially open to two-way traffic. Also, there are no road signs.

P.S. I know that the cinched-up hood and rolled-up jeans look silly but, as is often the case in England, it was raining.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge

2007-09-27T20:04:00.001+01:00

Dad overlooking the bridge, which spans the Avon River Gorge
- the same river that flows through Stratford-upon-Avon.
Clifton is the area just west of the Bristol city centre.

Ah, the Rellys

2007-09-27T19:50:00.000+01:00

From left, Aunty Rachel, Dad, Grannie, Me, Gillian, and Uncle Bill.

Day 6/5

2007-09-27T18:48:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Day 6, England / Day 5, Bristol. Dad and I arrived last Saturday morning and spent our first hours in the UK renting a car and driving to Bury St. Edmunds (northeast of London) to spend two nights with my aunt and uncle. We managed to haul one of my 49.5lb suitcases (there were three) up to Aunty Rachel's third floor guest room, and then took a much-needed nap before meeting my grannie and godmother for dinner. Much fun of the reserved British type ensued until the second bottle of wine, and then much more fun began.

Sunday afternoon, after more heroic wrong-side-of-the-road, ah! a roundabout! driving by Dad, we arrived in Bristol (southwest England - I'm posting a map for the directionally-challenged). Since then, we've done lots of shopping (including an expedition to IKEA), moved me into my dorm-flat, got lost as little as possible, and sampled lots of Bristolian beer. I've met three of my four flatmates: Caryn from South Africa, Abby from China, and Mathew from India. All of us are curious about our fifth living companion; hopefully it's someone who knows how to pick the lock on the door in our flat that says "Roof Access." Honestly, that's just asking for trouble.

Tomorrow is international orientation day, Saturday is a trip to Cardiff (the capital of Wales) with Dad, Sunday is for laundry, Monday is course registration, and Tuesday is a field trip to Exmoor (southwest of Bristol, a big, windy, wet, moor with that is archaeologically important and has at least one pub). I'm looking forward to it all, of course, and to a visit from Molly next weekend. Fingers crossed I'll find a good nightclub by then. :)

UPDATE:
Have met final flatmate: Harris from Cyprus.
Our little family in flat 29 is now complete.