Busy, me, never...;0)

Sorry that I have haven't posted anything in awhile. I had to finally give in to the harassing e-mails and facebook messages I was receiving from unnamed parties. Geesh you all are demanding lol Life here has been cr-azy! I am now sick, again, for the second time in 3 weeks woo *sigh*. Other than that I have been going to class. Got all jazzed up for a "Fancy Dress Party," here meaning costume party not pretty clothing, last weekend but it was a bust because the people we were supposed to go with, well they didn't answer their phones so we went out for our buddy Josh's 28th Birthday Bristol bash. (we all, Leanne, her roommate Katy, Lisa, Jeanne and I stayed for about 20 minutes of before everyone else ran out the door and we all went to hang out in my flat.) Later that night, or rather the early the next morning Josh had appendicitis and was not so speedily rushed to the hospital, where he got to talk to 10, yes you read that right, different doctors before going into surgery. So needless to say his birthday could have been better lol poor guy. He is doing alright now but not sure when he will be back in class.

This week has been activity filled. We had a full Monday, though I don't remember what all we did, so apparently nothing exciting. Tuesday, I used my oven for the first time. Wednesday, fun day, we were off to Avebury, really cool place plus I got this picture of Mark Horton directing traffic. In addition to a few other classic Mark photos. He is such a kick! Then it was on to the BAARS (Bristol Archaeological and Anthropological Seminar, or something like that) meeting, which meant free wine, hurray! Then to Hawthorns (pub) with the crew and professors, and finally to Hivery Volts (also, pub). It was a great day and night as Wednesday's normally are, though there were some casualties the next morning. On a side note, just to clarify, all the field trips are with all of Archaeology, not just MAASM (my group), as are all activities that follow, BAARS, etc. This includes, Maritime, Landscape, Conflict, Historical Arch, and...I feel like I am missing one, but anyway you get the idea, there are a lot of us.

Thursday was uneventful, other than us (in this case MAASM) getting our first stab at editing films, which was time consuming but not as bad as I had originally anticipated. Today was good. I finally got a winter coat and some medicine for my sickness lol (just a cough, no one get too excited). I made myself some homemade chicken soup, not the best but it was decent for a first attempt and not having all the ingredients. Not sure what is on tap for tonight yet, but I am sure if anything it will be fun. I have loads of pictures from Avebury but it takes a really long time to organize them on here so maybe when I am feeling a bit more chipper.

Love you all loads! Miss you too!

XXXX Katie

P.S. I love e-mails.......hint, hint, nudge, nudge..

The MH Walking Tour

Monday commenced a really long week of classes, as I have previously related and given the schedule for. Friday I woke up and felt sick but none the less went on The Mark Horton power walk through the streets and docks of Bristol. We started at the Clifton end of the Bristol suspension bridge. Up we walked to the Camera Obscura on the top of the hill, to get a really good view of the number one suicide location in Bristol, built by the second most famous Britain in History, Brunel. Mark took us to the rockslide, which has been polishing backsides for the past 300 years or so. Only three people went down. My friend Liam, Leanne, oh yeah and of course I did it too! Let the Brits have all the fun, please! Lol Then it was out to the Bristol Locks, which until yesterday were run by a hydraulic system, which they are now in the process of replacing, not because it doesn’t work, it works just fine in fact, but because they believe that an electric computer run system will be more reliable. I say if it has worked for 200 years and isn’t broken why bother replacing it? That’s just me though, I am just a kid what do I know.

Mark took us down to the hydraulic pump site then around to an area that said “no public access past this point.” From there we went into another restricted access area to meet his yacht builder. Then Mark commandeered a tour boat and conducted a river Fume tour. Mind you, there were other people on the tour boat that Mark commandeered, who had paid for this boat tour, poor people they had no idea, and Mark did actually pay for us all to go on the boat tour, just to get that straight. He just paid as we were getting off the boat, after he had taken it over lol.

Well that is where the excitement of the morning really ended. Our tour of Bristol lasted 3 hours in total (9:30 to 12:30). The MAASM’s went and got lunch and then headed out to Documentary Histories and Context, which since I was feeling absolutely horrible, was an excessively long class that I got absolutely nothing out of except that I had homework for it. I got home at 5:30PM after attempting to collect my ID card for the third time, unsuccessfully, they say it will be ready by Tuesday but I don’t really believe them. I took a nice shower and then hurriedly got dressed to meet Jeanne and Lisa to see “We Will Rock You,” musical based on some of the band Queen’s greatest hit songs. The play was alright but the music was brilliant, of course it was it’s Queen!

After the show, I skipped out on a night out with Jeanne, Lisa, and the archaeology crew, so you know that I was feeling like poop. I woke up Saturday morning and felt a thousand times better. Must have been the 24-hour flue. Anyways, that is all from my end of the pond. I will try to keep up more efficiently with my blog but having about 31 hours of class a week makes that very, very difficult. Hope that you are all well and I will talk to you later.

XXXX Me

Exmoor Finale and Bath

Day 4: We were told to be ready to go at “half eight” (8:30AM) to take a walk and see some WWII memorial paintings that were found on the inside a barn just down the way from our hostel. The area of Exford and Exmoor during WWII was the home of many American military boys, training up and moving out to the east to fight; it is no real surprise that such murals exist in this area. It was quite nice but we didn’t leave the hostel until after 9, so much for being ready early.

MAASM (MA in Archaeology for Screen Media, which is my group) (left to right Top Row: Big C, Terri, Ellie and Phil. Bottom Row: Avantika, Devika, Karen, Ros, Pods, Leanne, Me and Rubie) were with the landscape archaeologists for our last day, which meant no Mark Horton. However, we got to listen to Dr. Paula Gardiner, who is just a wonderful lecturer. She took us down to the beach, just off the moors where we got to see a submerged forest. It was low tide, which made it possible to see them but you had search for the trees, none the less they were there! (Leanne and I got cream tea at lunch! I think we found the most expensive one in all of southern England but it was worth it!)

Then it was up on to the moors for prehistoric rock circles and Bronze Age sites. The weather started to turn bad just as we were packing into the Landies and mini bus to leave. Four days of beautiful weather and no rain, amazing!

On our way home, we got lost, turned around, missed our exit(s) off the M5, made a mini bus tour of the outlying area of Bristol and finally got home an hour later than our fellow classmates.

I went home after our lovely and overly long ride home, took a shower and then went out with Jeanne and Lisa. Saturday morning I woke up late (10AM), got dressed, did some grocery shopping and then met up with Lisa and Jeanne to go into Bath.

Our day in Bath was lovely. (These two were really quite good at drumming). I got a cream tea and we walked the city enjoying the buildings and the mystic of walking the same roads as Jane Austen. I saw the place where they filmed Persuasion so I was a very happy girl, cream tea and Jane Austen, almost a perfect day. We went home and Jeanne left us. Lisa and I met up later and went out…as usual. (Turns out that Jeanne, having been sick for the better part of two weeks had the flue, possibly swine flue, at least that is what the doctor that she went to see thought and decided to put on a full biohazard suit to examine her. Lol a bit much, no?)

DAY 3

These next three posts are going to be in rapid fire sucession.

I know, I know, this is the longest, most drawn out tale you have ever had the misfortune to listen to. I will make quick work of Day 3 and 4 though, then I will tell you about the magnificently, marvellous Mark Horton march around Bristol.

Day 3: Off we went on Day 3 to a village about an hour away from our hostel. Not sure what the name of the place was, can’t be bothered with things like that, haha. We stopped to see a memorial to the soldiers of the village who had lost their lives in all the major wars from WWI to the present day. One of their boys died about 2 years ago in Iraq and he had his very own special spot on the memorial.

We then quick like bunnies scurried down the street a little ways to see a very old, some what derelict house built for one of the town tobacco trades men in the early part of the 1600’s. We thought that we were just going to see the outside, but since it was such a large and completely conspicuous group of us all traipsing around the front of the house, the heritage manager of the house came out and invited us in to have a quick tour of the place. Mark and his normal tour leader self were having a bit of a lay in and so the lady was able to conduct the tour herself. After our tour, our group met up with Prof. Mark Horton at a church just down the road to take a look some rather nice stonework detailing the shipping and tobacco industry of the town.

After taking a peak inside the church, it was back to the mini busses and Landies (Land Rovers). With our trusty Greg at the gears, we wound our way around and landed our vehicle of adventure to go into a fully restored smithy shop. Run by water wheels the tour guide (again not Mark, he was working on his computer at this point) was very informative and gave us a demonstration of the iron press and showed us how to make a shovel.After our tour, we all got to sit down and relax for the first time all day and have a “spot of tea.” Leanne and I were, at this point on a mission to find some cream tea (Cornish curdled cream, jelly, a scone, served with tea. It’s amazingly tasty!). The smithy shop had a teahouse and cream tea but they were very expensive so we opted out for the time being.

Back to the Mini bus we went once again; on to the coalmines and Morwellham Quay, a heritage site that is now officially “in administration,” closed. We arrived for Morwellham Quay's final day, very sad to see such heritage go away but as Nick Saunders keeps telling us, it just means a new leaf for archaeologist to explore and think about. In its heyday, Morwellham Quay would have been a really fun place for families to visit. We even got a mine tour! It reminds me greatly of the heritage sites that line the East Coast of our United States, James Town, Williamsburg, Mt. Vernon, and Plymouth Plantation.

We made our last stop of the day at a house just up the road from Morwellham Quay, for details about this apply to the author of this blog. We packed it in after eating fruitcake and drinking tea with the owners. Mini bus fun continued as we spent 3 hours playing 20 questions. Our mini bus got lost….again.

Adventure, Adventure

Day 2:

Hurray I have gotten sometime to write about the second day of the Exmoor trip! Quickly!

We got up and out of the hostel by 9:30AM. Driving on the road around the English countryside is always an interesting experience, especially where we were. Imagine the narrowest roads you can and then think about cars trying to come down and pass two mini buses and 4 Land Rovers……welcome to our morning :0) “Exciting stuff!” (Per Mark Horton). We made our way to the town of Bideford, where all the major voyages for exploration to the America's made port before setting sail. Here we got to climb aboard on of the last wooden schooner in the world, the Kathleen and May. We saw the sails go up, some of our maritime MA’s and MAASM (MA in Archaeology for Screen Media) students pitched in a hand to get them up and down, some even were so lucky as to get to climb the rigging. Then it was on to the church yard, where the first native American brought to England was buried, as well as Sir Walter Raleigh and Grindell (founder of the town). (Excavation of this area might be possible over the summer, WOOOO!).

Onward, we went to the Mayor of Bideford's offices and the Mayor himself gave us a guided tour of the cabinet rooms and the mayor jewels ("very impressive"). Along we all went with the Mayor and Mark as master and commander through the streets of Bideford. After a long tour of fun filled facts and Mark playing traffic warden we finally caught sight of our beloved vehicles (cough, cough) and set out for more fun adventures with Mark at the helm.

Much later than we had originally anticipated, we arrived at the Burrows, not sure what the name of them was, but they apparently they were the staging area for the American troops during WWII. Here the US troops did dry runs for their invasion of the beaches on the Normand coast (D-Day Invasion). An of you know that fun fact? Or that they used live fire and ammunition during the test runs and killed many of our own boys in the process? I didn't. Funny thing isn't it how history changes depending on who is writing it; they can add and omit information as they see fit. "Crazy ol' world i'n it?" (Johnny Depp- Jack Sparrow). Continuing on, we found remnants of barbed wire and jeep tracks. We, also, found old jeep parts and tires, German style barricades, foxholes, and cement crossing stations. About eight of us got lost while trying to find these things, of course. Mark was leading with a hand held GPS and we still couldn’t find our way back, mostly because Mark couldn’t figure out how to use the GPS lol Oh Mark. We walked on and on, until we finally came to a trail and thankfully it was the right one; leading us back to the rest of the group. After meeting up, we all walked back towards the vehicles, mind you Mark was in the lead, in the wilderness….we got lost. We some how ended up in the live military training zone and yes they had guns and live ammunition, not good. (Mark suggested that we tell them that the war was over and they should pack it in and go home. Not sure that would have been the best idea and nor did any of the other professors lol Mark is a bit of a handful but nothing is as much fun without him around. He brings the level of seriousness down so much and makes us all feel much more at ease. Its great to have him as a mentor). Anyway, we did eventually find our way back. We got in our respective vehicle and began the 2-hour drive home. Of course, our mini bus got lost, due to suboptimal navigation, over zealous chattiness with the driver and dark roads. We made it home an hour after everyone else, which was really lame, but in the grand scheme of things, it made very little matter.

Ok well all, that is it for now. I have class again in the morning and I have to get some reading and prep for the rest of the week, on top of ordering textbooks and doing laundry. Love you all lots and I am sorry that it is taking so long to get this entire story out but the important part is that you will have it all eventually. Miss you all!! BYE XxXxXx

Timed Out....

Had class today and tomorrow is going to be the longest day all semester, I think. I have class from 10am to 1Pm. Then I have a meeting with the rest of my classmates at our Drama department directors office for Lunch and a meeting at PM, then back to class until 5PM. 5:15PM starts my second class and that goes really until whenever it ends. So probably no new posts up until Thursday, because Wednesday is an equally long day (see below). I will get day 2 thru 4 up, but you will have to wait. I am very sorry, but my schedule is a bit crazy right now, as you can tell. Below is a list of what my schedule looks like for most weeks.

Monday- 10AM-12PM Materialities

2PM - 5PM Materialites

Tuesday- 10AM - 1PM Production in Pratice

2PM - 5PM Production in Practice

5:15PM - Documentary Histories

Wedn.- 10AM-12PM Materialities

2PM - 5PM Materialites

5:30PM Lecture/Seminar (Guest Speakers)

Informal Discussion (Pub with Profs. and Speaker)

Dinner

Thurs.- 10AM - 1PM Production in Pratice

2PM - 5PM Production in Practice

Friday- (TBA) Documentary Histories

Materialities Field trips? (Some but not all Fridays)

First of Many

Day 1:

Met Mark Horton of TIME TEAM, Bonekickers, and Time Flyers. He is the most unreal person in the world. He is really enthusiastic about everything and seems to have more knowledge in his one brain than most people put together! He is fantastically fun to be around and completely cool.

I tried to find a video of him for you but no such luck. Just take my work for it, he is unreal.

We started off at an Abbey (Cleeve Abbey), ordered by King Henry the 8th to be shut down in the 1500's. It turned into housing and then into farm buildings. It was acquired by the English Heritage in the 1950's and has since made its way to its present state.

After that it was on to find the lost town of Clicket. Lead by Mark Horton and Nick Saunders and a 200 year old map of the area (survey map made in 1890) we hiked down into a valley, across some farm land, through some bushes, over streams and finally started to see remnants of buildings that once made up Clicket. It took some deducting and Mark to tells us what these buildings had actually once been but at least our guesses were not completely wrong. We guessed that one was a house, it was, sort of. It was a Quaker meeting hall. That's pretty close, right? Some of them we had no idea what were, like the leat house (Definition: Leats generally start some distance (a few hundred yards, or perhaps several miles) above the mill or other destination, where an offtake or sluice gate diverts a proportion of the water from a river or stream.)We kept hiking down the valley until we found the lime kiln and the mill house. Then we found our way back to the mini buses and Land Rovers and hit the road again.

We made it to the Youth Hostel by 6PM, about an hour later than we had intended, and unpacked the food that was picked up for us while we were all traipsing through the wilderness of the English southwest. We got our room assignments and headed out to the pub for dinner. We watched Mark's documentary on Clicket and then an Episode of his show Bonekickers (in which there is a brilliant archaeologist who is a bit crazy and completely politically incorrect, modeled after Mark himself. lol Only Mark).

The End, for Day 1. Day 2, 3 and 4, along with my trip to Bath yesterday will be coming shortly but right now I have to go out and get some stuff for class and a book that my sister keeps buggin' me about. (Kris: I tried to get it yesterday and some how the book shop I ended up in was an all Christian book store lol they really need to mark these things more clearly.)