OK, folks. Well I know this will not be a proper update but I realized I have been neglecting my posting since classes started and thought I'd give a quick update of what I can remember from the last two weeks. Beginning of classes was great. I love talking about historic buildings and living w/ ppl who have similar interests. Sometimes we sit in the kitchen and talk and debate about random things (like Viking combs) for no good reason. Last week I attended one of the weekly lectures from a visiting scholar. It was about Viking mortuary practices and using texts to corroborate archaeological evidence. It was pretty amazing, and it was presented by one of the authors of a text I had read that day, so it was good timing. I think his name was Neil Price? Probably wrong but...
Lime: I had my first praticals module last week, this time it was on lime-- its uses, source, etc. Basically a testimony session of lime. The guy in charge of the conservation practicals is Indian and my friend and I had a long discussion afterwards about his seemingly unethical definition of "restoration." Long story short, he replaced a mud brick wall on a watch tower gate at the Taj Mahal with brick covered in lime and called it a restoration... I think not. But aside from that, and our 9-5 day of lectures on the virtues of LIME, the lime practical day was awesome. I already knew some of it (a lot of it), from the workshop I attended in Ephraim last year, but it was cool to hear things from a craftsmans' perspective. We went on a field trip for the day to a small town called Malton, to York House. We painted walls with a lime wash, gutted cement out of walls and repointed with lime mortar, learned to apply plaster to walls (very tricky, embarrassing and also MESSY), slaked lime and I can't remember what else. The house was really neat and dated to the medieval period. It underwent a few additions but nonetheless, it was freakin' SWEET. The guy in charge of lime washes deserted his post to slake lime so when we got there, instead of painting the walls, we decided to explore the house. So I took the lead and we went into the attic and talked about the crumbling beams, and pest damage, then we headed down into the basement/cellar to look at how it was holding up (very nicely as it appears). There were no lights down there and a sign on the door saying "authorised personnel only" but what does that mean to us, really?
Anyway, mmmm, had stake conference on Saturday night and Sunday morning. I keep neglecting to read the bus timetables and end up missing my bus by 5-10 minutes and having to wait for like 30 minutes and then I get off at the wrong stop and end up missing things because of it. I will figure it out eventually, for some reason I just don't feel the urgency to be on time...? I'm always like "aah, I'll get there in time" and then I'm an hour late, but whatev, right? Thought that counts...
Finally made it to FHE. I've never been in a ward that had elders before, apart from my mission, so it was pretty interesting. Elders are just big kids, for real. The one guy (elder) who taught FHE sounded like he was talking to non-native English speakers. he had this weird cadence he kept repeating. I remember hearing in the elders in Korea, maybe it is an Elder thing? Anyway, was driving me crazy. Oh, that and the lesson lasted like an hour (I was 40 minutes late and thought I would miss the lesson and just skip right to the activity, no such luck, I got 20 minutes of it... elders...) Anyway, so in the two wards there are about 6 YSA. Two males, one is 45. Four girls, don't really know them yet but they seem alright. We played indoor hockey with the elders for the activity and my team schooled the other one, was lovely.
Second week of classes: now I am officially kicked in the pants. We got a lecture on all the resources available for Buildings Archaeology and now I'm thinking "crap, my research actually has to be good and well supported"... it will work out. Don't worry, we only have one assessed assignment per class and that equals to 10% of our overall grade for the MA. I'm not stressed... if only I would start working instead of "running errands" or "cleaning my room"... ah well, it will work out.
Anyway, York is a great place. You should come visit. I will try to write more frequently.
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