Back to College

It's been a little nuts getting settled in, meeting everyone, shopping for groceries and other necessities, learning my way around town, registrations, etc. so I haven't really had time to post anything without feeling terribly antisocial. But I seem to have some down time so I thought I would write a little about the University.

Durham is a collegiate university like Oxford and Cambridge. Every member of the University belongs to a college, mine is Hatfield. The college really has nothing to do with academics, it serves more of a social service. It provides accommodation, has a dining hall, a bar (yes, every college has its own bar), and often a library, gym, and chapel. At Hatfield, all of this is located in one spot we call Main College and I believe many of the buildings are from the 1800s.


This is a picture from the courtyard of Main College. The tan pointy building in the back is Durham Cathedral built in the 11th century and is about a 1 minute walk. I actually live in a college accommodation about a 10 walk from Main College with about 40 other postgraduates but as a member of the college, I'm free to come and go within the Main College buildings as I please.

The Univeristy buildings, including the other colleges and lecture buildings are scattered around Durham instead of having a central campus. Where I live is about a 10 minute walk to the Science Site where my classes will be, the Library, Main College, and shops. The only problem is that no matter where you are going, it is always uphill. I have not figured out how this works, but I promise, it's uphill both ways!

As a postgrad, I'm a member of the Middle Common Room (MCR) of Hatfield, while undergrads belong to the Junior Common Room (JCR) and tutors and other faculty belong to the Senior Common Room (SCR). I have 3 tutors. I'm not entirely sure why I need 3 of them but they are all very nice. What is a tutor you may ask? To quote Douglas Adams, having a tutor means he has "charge of [your] general welfare, told [you] when the exams were and not to take drugs." And that seems about right. They are the people to talk to if you are having any troubles and occasionally they invite you to brunch in the Senior Common Room.

Stay tuned for more posts and pictures on facebook/flickr as time allows.

Pictures!

OK, not many, but there will be more to come, I promise. Eventually. Head to my facebook or flickr pages to see them (same pictures on both so you don't have to go to both). Let me know if you have any trouble.

Rain, Rain , Go Away...

It is currently about 11 am on Oct 2, and it is 48 degrees outside. And raining. And gale force winds are expected later today. I know it is officially autumn, but really, 48? You win this round Durham weather:

British Climate 1
Devon 0

An American in Durham

I have made it all the way to my new home sweet home and have finally registered so I can now have access to the internet. I'm slowly settling in (the first thing I did was put the sheets on the bed so a could crash at any time if needed) and unpacking, meeting a ton of new people.
I'll post more later and be on the look out for pictures on flickr but right now it is time for bed, I'm still kinda jetlagy.

Really, I'm Still Here

So I couldn't help but notice it's been a while since my last post. I figure it's about time to check back in with the rest of the world...Since my last post:

-Went out to LA (well, about 45 minutes north of LA) and Las Vegas for a couple of weeks to visit family and had a very nice time. Made a solo trip down to LA for a day and despite what you may think about driving on LA freeways, Atlanta is worse. Also on this trip it became painfully clear that I am a warm weather girl. I wore long sleeve shirts and slept under a heavy blanket while my aunt and several cousins complained about the heat. And when being asked how the 107 degree weather in Las Vegas was, I found myself replying something along the lines of "yeah, it was a little warm but not too bad."

-Went to my high school reunion. So I'm officially old now. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. It was nice seeing everyone and learning that just about everyone I went to high school with is a lawyer now.

-And perhaps most importantly, Durham is a go! I've finally gotten my official visa letter from Durham University which I probably could have made myself at home, it's just a sheet of paper with some info about start and end dates and a rubber stamp. No official seals or signatures, but if that's what the British government wants, I'm more than happy to supply them with it. And now that I have the letter, I've started the student visa process. First you submit an online application, then you get fingerprinted (heading to Birmingham this weekend for that) and photographed without smiling (very British, stiff upper lip and all, yes?), then you have to fill out a paper application mostly repeating everything from the online app and visa letter. Once they slap the visa into my passport, I can board a plane Sept 29thish and frolic around England for a year, oh and take the occasional class.

A Day in the Museum

I wanted to do something constructive with my summer since the university was essentially offering zero summer classes in anthropology. In weighing my options, I decided to volunteer for the Historical Society (www.historicpensacola.org). After a couple weeks of emailing back and forth with the volunteer coordinator, we finally met and I started my post. I am starting out working the front desk three days a week at the Wentworth Museum (well, the official name is the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum which I would never remember when answering the phone if it weren't painted on the wall directly in front of me). I was told it was a pretty boring post when I joined up. Since the museum is free, I don't have to run a register or anything, just give a spiel about the museum whenever anyone walks in, otherwise amuse myself with a book. But it turns out the mornings are pretty busy with upwards of 70 people coming in over a three hour period and UWF students** stopping by to hang out in colonial garb trying to avoid some other task they should be doing, such as manning the children's Discovery Gallery on the 3rd floor which is apparently a task worse than death.

The museum is in the old city hall building which is over 100 years old overlooking one of the parks in downtown and it's pretty cool if I do say so myself. It's a history museum, mostly focusing on Pensacola but also contains the collection of T.T. Wentworth who in my estimation could be described somewhere between a collector and hoarder since he acquired a mess load of really weird stuff which turns out to have its advantages. On my first day there, I learned a great way to handle children: when a kid asks "Do you have dinosaur bones, airplanes, etc?" respond "No, but we totally have a petrified cat!" and they make some sort of happy noise and then go running off in search of said flattened cat. In fact, I think if you ask anyone who grew up in Pensacola and went to the Wentworth on a school trip, the only thing they will be able to tell you about the museum is that it contained a petrified cat, I know that was I all could recall from my trips.

**One of these college students asked me if I was in high school, looks like I'll be getting carded for a few more years.

Durham, England, England Across the Atlantic Sea

So several weeks back, I decided to apply to Durham University in Durham, England because it seemed like an awesome program (and arguably the only Paleopathology program anywhere) and I figured I had nothing to loose seeing as how there was no application fee. Well, I'm happy to say I got accepted and it looks like I'll be starting the one year program in October. I say looks like because I am officially 1/3 of the way accepted. I received a conditional acceptance because supposedly something was wrong with my letters of recommendation and because FSU does not put GPAs on transcripts. Turns out there is nothing wrong with my recommendations and supposedly FSU has my GPA in the mail so as far as I'm concerned I'm 2/3 of the way accepted, just lack the email/piece of paper saying unconditional on it. The final 1/3 is getting my student visa that I can't apply for without an unconditional acceptance. Seeing as how there are no outstanding arrest warrants for me in the UK that I know of, I'm hoping the visa process will run smoothly. I'll keep you all updated on further developments.