Most people know this, but I've finally made it back to Milwaukee. Today and tomorrow will be spent getting myself back in order, and on Monday it'll be back to Marquette to continue getting myself back together. One of the major things I need to do is re-gather my library books. This time though I'm going to try to stick to only the ones I'm currently working with. We shall see how that goes.
It's hard to believe that I've been gone nearly half of the semester. It feels like I've missed out on so many things going on on campus, and around town in general. For example, I walked into Anodyne this morning (one of my favorite places to read-write) and it looks half empty because they have moved the roaster and equipment over to the new store already. I knew this was going on, but it looks so different. Likewise, when I got back to my apartment yesterday, I discovered that the management had redecorated the entryway with new carpet and a new color on the walls. It took me a minute to realize why things looked different. This I did not know was going to be done while I was away.
Don't get me wrong, I had a great time in the UK, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to spend that time in the manuscript libraries. However, back in the real world, I'm going to have to spend time doing paperwork, catching up on meetings, putting together a conference paper, going back to the gym (any bets on if I can still walk on Tuesday?), and finding out what everyone's been up to in my absence. Then there's the real work of trying to come up with an argument out of the 100s of photos and entire notebooks of notes, not to mention researching any ideas that come from said notes and pictures.
Now for a few random observations generally regarding culture shock:
1) I have no idea when the last time was that I have gone 5 weeks without tv. There was a physical tv in my London studio, but as previously mentioned the only station it got was "security camera in stairwell and hallway". I have missed several episodes of shows that I like, and now I have to figure out how to catch up. On the other hand, I might still have to follow the YouTube channel I discovered staring Sylvester the Talking Cat. I recommend it (not for kids though, since the kitty likes to curse). A time or two on the drive home yesterday, when about to be stuck in traffic or behind stupid drivers, I caught myself thinking in Sylvester's voice "Fuuuu**!". And yes, I do tend to curse in my head, a lot more than I do out loud.
2) Food. I had none in the fridge. This was intentional; I cleaned out the fridge before I left. Now though, I have to restock, and the realization that I now have access to some things I missed (most anything by Morning Star Farms for example), and I will be missing things that I could get there (Irn-Bru for example).
3) Computer stuff. I used Mom's computer while in London (Thanks Mom!). It had a European keyboard, so now I have to re-remember where the @ is, and that spell-check now needs to be payed slightly more attention. On the other hand, I no longer have to deal with Windows 8. That revision of the Windows platform is extremely irritating for a non-mobile device user. I have a smart-phone, but even so, I do not like Windows 8 on a computer, and I bet I wouldn't like it on its intended devices either.
This post is getting long, so I will conclude for now with this final note: I will continue to chronicle scholarly and other endeavours here. So once again, to be continued....
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Last Post from the UK
Tomorrow morning I will be heading to the airport, and I should be back in the US mid-afternoon (local time). Yesterday (Tuesday) was the last day of research. I was back at the British Library Monday and yesterday to recheck a few things for some ideas I came up with. It's interesting that I was able to see everything on my list the first time I was at the library, but now one of them has a super special permission tag on it. It's possible that this particular book is undergoing repair or is being put into a display, but I wonder...
There was one time early on when I went to the desk to get a book, and the person who handed it over to me looked at the request slip and said that it was a little strange that the real book was out when there was a microfilm, but then they looked at the slip again and apparently the microfilm had gone missing. If someone found that microfilm, then I must have gotten really lucky because being able to see a manuscript that's been reproduced is far more difficult than getting to see one that hasn't, and microfilm is no fun to work with. This is especially true when the manuscript in question has unique qualities which this one does. It has some large and really creepy-interesting illustrations, and all the texts seem to concentrate on death.
Today I did some last touristy things. I went to the National Portrait Gallery to which I have never been, found the main BBC building (they have a life-sized TARDIS in there- pictures were taken), went to my favorite bubble tea place one last time, agonized over the weight of my suitcase and trying to get things to fit into my carry on (I really hope the cute felt hat I got doesn't get too squished), and of course one last dinner traditional British dinner at the local Kebabish. Fried food at its best-worst, depending on how you look at it.
There was one time early on when I went to the desk to get a book, and the person who handed it over to me looked at the request slip and said that it was a little strange that the real book was out when there was a microfilm, but then they looked at the slip again and apparently the microfilm had gone missing. If someone found that microfilm, then I must have gotten really lucky because being able to see a manuscript that's been reproduced is far more difficult than getting to see one that hasn't, and microfilm is no fun to work with. This is especially true when the manuscript in question has unique qualities which this one does. It has some large and really creepy-interesting illustrations, and all the texts seem to concentrate on death.
Today I did some last touristy things. I went to the National Portrait Gallery to which I have never been, found the main BBC building (they have a life-sized TARDIS in there- pictures were taken), went to my favorite bubble tea place one last time, agonized over the weight of my suitcase and trying to get things to fit into my carry on (I really hope the cute felt hat I got doesn't get too squished), and of course one last dinner traditional British dinner at the local Kebabish. Fried food at its best-worst, depending on how you look at it.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Short random thoughts that have little to do with scholarship
I saw these in a coffee shop in London:
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I don't know about the 'new big thing' part. I would have tried them too, except that I am unwilling to pay approximately $7 for glorified pastry.
Instead, I ended up going to this place:
Random observation 1: I remember not liking Wine Gums candy last time I tried it. I must have been around 14 or so. I remember thinking they had a weird bitter aftertaste. I decided to try them again last week. They are in fact quite tasty, although they do not taste, as the name might suggest, like wine.
Random observation 2: Grown-up scholars are every bit as bad as students when it comes to habitual seats. In the reading rooms I was in multiple times, everyone seemed to take the same locker (mine were BL 575 and Oxford 10) and sit in roughly the place.
Instead, I ended up going to this place:
Random observation 1: I remember not liking Wine Gums candy last time I tried it. I must have been around 14 or so. I remember thinking they had a weird bitter aftertaste. I decided to try them again last week. They are in fact quite tasty, although they do not taste, as the name might suggest, like wine.
Random observation 2: Grown-up scholars are every bit as bad as students when it comes to habitual seats. In the reading rooms I was in multiple times, everyone seemed to take the same locker (mine were BL 575 and Oxford 10) and sit in roughly the place.
Cambridge and more
Today marked the last new library of the trip, Trinity College Library, Cambridge.
Cambridge in general is not particularly easy to navigate. It feels more canyon/maze-like than Oxford. I think the problem for me was that a lot of streets were only labeled on one end, and usually not the end which was where I was needing to access them.
I ended up going the wrong way a lot, and retracing steps a lot. If I hadn't been trying to make an appointment, it wouldn't have been too bad. For example, I went by here by mistake:
Finding the college library was harder than finding the university one though.
Here's the Cambridge University Library:
I must have gone through and around the Trinity College area twice before a helpful stray kitty showed me that there was in fact a second square of the college, which was where the entrance to the library is. It was a very friendly kitty, possibly Siamese if there's a variety of the breed with all dark fur(?). Then I had to ask a person which of the various unlabeled doors was the library, since the sign that said 'Library' and pointed did not say which door, just which general direction to to head around the square. I finally made it half an hour after the library opened. The cool thing about the Wren Library (that's the Trinity College library) is that it still uses the classic old reading room for manuscript study. If I did have a picture of this, I wouldn't post it because it would have been illictly obtained. You can photograph manuscripts with permission, but there are signs outside the room saying 'No Photography'. It's possible this refers to tourists and not scholars, but still...
A final observation about Cambridge. This place has much more of a large town feel with a university off to one side, as opposed to Oxford which feels like it was a university first, then the town was built around it. For example, I never saw anything like this kind of vandalism at Oxford:
It's hard to tell in the photo, but the road sign says "Bat man Road". If you look closely at the sign you can see that there was an 'e' that someone decided was not required.
Also present at Cambridge was a main street that did not run through the university. I think this most of all made Cambridge feel like less of a medieval university town, for which I forgive it exclusively on the basis of that main street containing:
That is not a coffee shop. Instead, it is the Ooshi Bubble Tea shop. One of the best so far in fact. It might even have an edge on Up...T in London because Ooshi had little bowls of flavored mochi on the tables (yes, this one actually has seating unlike many of the other bubble tea places).
Cambridge also has coffee shops. Here is the best one I tried:
It should not be overlooked simply because it shares a building with the Tourist Info office. It it actually quite good.
Tomorrow it will be back to an old haunt, the British Library, where I will review some things that I wasn't able to get to before. It's hard to believe there's less than a week left before I'll be home.
Cambridge in general is not particularly easy to navigate. It feels more canyon/maze-like than Oxford. I think the problem for me was that a lot of streets were only labeled on one end, and usually not the end which was where I was needing to access them.
I ended up going the wrong way a lot, and retracing steps a lot. If I hadn't been trying to make an appointment, it wouldn't have been too bad. For example, I went by here by mistake:
 |
| King's College |
Finding the college library was harder than finding the university one though.
Here's the Cambridge University Library:
 |
| This is the path that leads to the CUL. Note that there is no signage. It is pretty though. |
 |
| Also on the way to the CUL, and also not labeled. |
I must have gone through and around the Trinity College area twice before a helpful stray kitty showed me that there was in fact a second square of the college, which was where the entrance to the library is. It was a very friendly kitty, possibly Siamese if there's a variety of the breed with all dark fur(?). Then I had to ask a person which of the various unlabeled doors was the library, since the sign that said 'Library' and pointed did not say which door, just which general direction to to head around the square. I finally made it half an hour after the library opened. The cool thing about the Wren Library (that's the Trinity College library) is that it still uses the classic old reading room for manuscript study. If I did have a picture of this, I wouldn't post it because it would have been illictly obtained. You can photograph manuscripts with permission, but there are signs outside the room saying 'No Photography'. It's possible this refers to tourists and not scholars, but still...
A final observation about Cambridge. This place has much more of a large town feel with a university off to one side, as opposed to Oxford which feels like it was a university first, then the town was built around it. For example, I never saw anything like this kind of vandalism at Oxford:
Also present at Cambridge was a main street that did not run through the university. I think this most of all made Cambridge feel like less of a medieval university town, for which I forgive it exclusively on the basis of that main street containing:
Cambridge also has coffee shops. Here is the best one I tried:
It should not be overlooked simply because it shares a building with the Tourist Info office. It it actually quite good.
Tomorrow it will be back to an old haunt, the British Library, where I will review some things that I wasn't able to get to before. It's hard to believe there's less than a week left before I'll be home.
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