Week 18 January 31, 2010

Monday: Had a nice presentation from a master’s student from last year. She did her work in Columbia on human rights issues and made an excellent film. So she just took us through research workflow. Also her name is Ruth Krause. I think we are related. She is tall with curly hair, from Germany, and likes to ride bikes. We also dress the same.

Tuesday: One Intro to Social Anthropology seminar. Will talk about what we did below, but this a new group for me and they are extremely intelligent. I am excited to have them for the rest of the term.

Wednesday: A very frustrating day today. We had a terrible seminar for my Advanced Visual Anthropology where we were basically taught to start an online photo account.

Thursday: Had a full day of seminars starting with Intro to Social Anthropology. Our article that week was about symbols, so I decided to have them play Pictionary to get them thinking about how things are represented and used. Worked pretty well. Mostly the drawing part as none of them had read the article so I had to redefine everything they were supposed to discuss. Ah well. Also had my first Anthropology and Eating seminar and I think it is going to be really fun! There are 20 people in the seminar, and all of them are women. It completely changed the dynamic, in  positive way. I also made cookies for everyone and passed out the recipe and they were totally excited about it. They have to give a presentation at the end of the term surrounding the history of  recipe with the choice of actually making the dish for the class, and all of them were already talking about what they are going to make.Very cool.

Friday: Covered my friend’s seminar for her, just another Intro to Social Anthropology class. We played Pictionary again to talk about symbolism, and one of the words ended up  being the USA. One person in the class would not stop ranting about how much he despised America. So much so that I had to tell him to stop talking. Gets old hearing all the usual comments. Then proceeded to head home and be very glad that I was done with the week.  Stayed in to work on an essay.

Saturday: Finished up an essay I had been working on. Finally and just in time to celebrate my flatmate James’ birthday. Turning 27 and in the final year of his PhD. He moves quickly. I was in charge of making the carrot cake, and I went to the grocery store to grab carrot baby food, but it does not exist in England. What they do have is mini versions of full meals in a jar. One of them was even called “Grandpa’s Sunday Lunch” . But mostly the naming is very similar to dog or cat food: “Peas and potatoes covered in chicken gravy” or something… So I was able to find a last minute recipe online that turned out very well. Grating 3 cups of carrots takes a long time I found out as well.  Then had a nice dinner and then headed down to our favorite bar The Farmhouse. It is pretty much the only place in Canterbury that plays interesting music. Lots of funk and soul. Their decor is fun too with mostly mid-century modern stuff.

Today (Sunday): Waiting on a few people to head over to make breakfast. All the usual stuff : fried potatoes, french toast, eggs etc… Should be good.

Weeks 15, 16 and 17 January 27, 2010

Sorry it has been a long while since I have posted. Really not a whole lot going on except for reading, writing and getting organized.

Let us see….

Week 15:  After spending an extra day in London, I finally decided it was time to get back to work in Canterbury. Started the design and implementation of my thesis website. You can see it at www.appliedanthrodesign.com. Obviously it is a work in progress. Trying to do a little each day till April, so as to not stress myself out.

Week 16: Just more work on the web stuff. Taught my friend how to develop black and white film in the dark room. She has been wanting to learn for years, but just never had the chance. So it was fun to teach someone who was so excited.

Week 17: More work. Celebrated my friend Laura’s birthday as well as Jessica’s. Still not everyone was back, but a good time for sure. Also on Friday, the Turkish men in our dorm decided to throw a traffic light party, where you wear green if you are single, yellow if you do not know, and red if you are in a relationship. Amusing because we all know each other already anyway, and maybe two people wore their appropriate colors.  Probably choose a different theme next time…Oh and someone thought it would be cool to lock their bike to mine. Not really sure what makes you think it is okay. Add that to my list of reasons why biking in England is a pain in the butt.  Took them a week to unlock it.

Starting my Anthropology and Eating course tomorrow, so gonna go make cookies for everyone!

Sorry no photos this time around either.

Week #14 January 3, 2010

I can’t believe that time is going by so quickly! I feel like I have too many things to get done.

This week was my last of relaxation, and now I am back to work preparing for my thesis.

Monday: Walked into town just to take a look at the crazed shoppers and get some exercise. Left pretty quickly.

Tuesday: Not sure I did anything productive today. I think I mailed some stuff. Woo.

Wednesday: Organized and cleaned my room. Had dinner with two British friends and two Slovenian friends. The Slovenians wanted to make us lasagna. I am constantly surprised what “lasagna” is in each country. Apparently in Slovenia it is butter, cheddar cheese, sour cream, noodles and vegetables. Tasted nice and salty and delicious, but very different.

Thursday: Had a nice slow morning as to not be too tired for the New Year. Got on the train in the late afternoon to meet my friend and her sister to watch the fireworks at Big Ben. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO COLD IN MY LIFE. We waited on the bridge for about four hours waiting for the fireworks. There was music and dancing and a lot of people. Midnight was beautiful, everyone was in a good mood, and it even started snowing right after the fireworks. We slowly made our way back to the hotel, had some champagne, discussed going out again, but fell asleep pretty quickly as it was already 3 am.

Friday: Walked all over London again, particularly in Notting Hill. Lots of artsy shops and tiny restaurants. Getting a bit touristy, but the neighborhood is very pretty. Great day as well, perfectly clear and crisp. Attempted to buy a pair of boots that I had been wanting for  a very long time (Pride and Prejudice style booties http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=19551&storeId=12556&categoryId=175036&parent_category_rn=175013&productId=1543291&langId=-1) However most British women’s shoe stores don’t make over a 42 which is about a size 9. Lame. But oh well. Didn’t need ‘em anyway. Managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the National Portrait Gallery which had a great photo exhibit from a portrait contest that had just finished up with a large range of styles and backgrounds. http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site09/index2.php Ended the day grabbing a quick dinner and drink with a friend from the hostel and headed back to sleep.

Saturday: Decided to do a quick walk around London before I left so I went to the Borough Market again and got a spinach empanda, apple cranberry juice, and some more honey nut cashews and pecans. Finally got on the train around 3pm and headed home. My flatmate James arrived  at the same time so we made a quick dinner together and watched some Arrested Development which we haven’t done for a long time because of all of our work. Did a bit of organization and feeling a bit sick from staying up in the cold, watched an Australian film called Murial’s Wedding. It is on Youtube is interested/bored. Pretty entertaining film from the early 90’s about a girl who desperately wants to get married.

Sunday: Slept in. Flatmate was waiting for me to wake up to go get groceries. Did that. Decided instead of cooking Italian as my default “I have nothing to eat food” it is going to be Indian. Grandma Krause sent me a few good ones from her PCC classes, so I started with Kaddu Subzi which uses butternut squash and bunch of spices. Turned out really well, so I am quite excited to continue on with it! Most of the day was spent updating my computer and planning the website I need to build for class.

Weeks 12&13 December 27, 2009

Heya everyone!

Great last couple of weeks. A lot of work, but a lot of fun stuff as well. Glad to have it over with for awhile. So yeah. Here we go.

Week 12

Monday: Had our last Contemporary Issues in Social Anthropology class. No academic discussion in this one, but  instead; wine, some treats, and talked about anthropology gossip for the full two hours.

Tuesday: Went to Canterbury Cathedral for the carol service. There were multiple choirs, an orchestra, and each person in the Cathedral holds a single candle. It was quite beautiful, a lot of people came, and afterward we went out to eat. Great place called Café Amis with delicious pseudo Latin/French food.

Wednesday: Had the anthropology department holiday party. It was great! Lot of food and dancing and hanging out. Got to see one of my favorite professors Salsa, and then everyone joined in. Americans are so boring with their dancing. I feel like everyone else in the room knew how to salsa or meringue or belly dance or something. Really good time though.

Thursday: We all went out to an amazing (and cheap) Thai restaurant for my professor’s birthday. Great conversation, good food, and the best fruit dessert ever! He doesn’t eat sweets, so we asked for a fruit platter and the cook made this amazing fruit display with apples cut into the shape of horses and just really fresh fruit. Afterward we went dancing again. I only stayed for a short while as I had to go finish an essay. I will try to get photos of this fruit platter though. It was seriously awesome.

Friday: Lots of errands, went into town for last drink of the term at our usual bar, The Unicorn. Good fun. So snowy and icy! Very pretty though.

Saturday: Had a potluck with some friends and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, Kingdom(typical American movie), and When Harry Met Sally (people hadn’t seen it before). Nice and relaxing. Ate way too much food.

Sunday: Sat at a café, had cinnamon tea, graded some papers. Went home graded more papers. Takes a long time!

Week 13

Monday: Worked on grading more papers at the same cafe. I think people were getting suspicious of me. Tried more teas. Still think they taste like boring flavored water. I always finish with a hot chocolate. Love the cafe though. It is called Coffee and Corks, and the same people go there every day. Saw a few people even come in to take naps who were not homeless.

Tuesday: Finally finished the papers. Didn’t fail anyone, but it was difficult to remember what my intellectual level was as a freshman in college. It was cool to see some of the students do really well and surprising how many who spoke well in class, wrote terrible essays. Positive experience for me as well, as it reinforced my own essay writing skills. Today I also used the school dark room to print a few photos I have taken. Nice and relaxing to be in there by myself for a few hours.

Wednesday: Decided to head to London for Christmas Eve only to get to the train station and learn that all trains had been canceled because of poor weather conditions. Odd considering the snow had melted. I can’t believe how unprepared England is for any sort of weather. Walked back home, then had a walk down a hour later when trains were back up, but they broke again. So the station found a double decker bus that looked like it was from 1962 to transport us to a station where we could leave from. Worked out fine in the end and made it to my hostel early enough to grab drinks with my friend who I met in Australia, tour around the funky, vintage area of Camden, grab some canned pumpkin at Whole foods and end by taking a trip downtown to see the Christmas lights on Oxford Street and have dinner a place called Wahaca (they know it is supposed to be Oaxaca). Wahaca is super trendy and cheap Mexican food. They made some great guacamole as well. Much needed.

Thursday: Walked around an area called Shoreditch and Brick Lane. Wonderful Indian vendors, grocery stores and restaurants mixed with cute boutiques. Probably my favorite place I have visited in London. I have a delicious samosa and something that was basically an Indian doughnut.  A few great markets littered around the area as well. Afterward, visited the Borough Market just in time to find some AMAZING honey cashews and pecans. I should have bought more. Thought I was going to head home this day, Christmas Eve, but ended up at a train station that the internet said was correct, but the station guard would not allow me on. So I just decided to stay for the next two nights. Great choice. A bunch of people in the hostel got together to watch some Christmas movies, then headed out to a bar for some dancing. Really fun time. Definitely a different type of Christmas eve.

Friday: Took a nice 2 hour walk around the city, particularly in Regent Park. NOTHING is open or runs in England on the holidays. No trains, buses or shops. You are stranded. I like it though. The hostel put on a great Christmas dinner for us that consisted of pumpkin soup, brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, nut roll, and some holiday mince pie dessert(gross). Also me and 7 other non native English speakers played Pictionary, so that they could work on their vocabulary. It was pretty funny the amount of times we had to choose different cards, because they just didn’t know what to draw. All of them had a great sense of humor about it though. An Italian guy was complaining that Americans are difficult to understand because we always “eat the end of our words”. I liked the phrase, and I suppose it is true.  Later that night everyone just hung out in the hostel bar downstairs and chatted and when everyone finally got tired we went upstairs to watch Home Alone.

Saturday: Failed to realize that no trains run on this day either because it is Boxing Day, so stayed on another night at the hostel. Was glad though, as I got to relax a bit more, read my book, and take a trip the greatest Korean half store, half restaurant called Hanna Supermarket. My friend James recommended it and he was spot on. They have a 2 things on the menu, one with meat and one vegetarian. It only costs 4 pounds and you take your receipt to the back of the store, down some very steep steps and into a room filled from top to bottom with black and yellow video cassettes, all neatly labeled. On the other wall is about 20 vhs players. Not a clue what they are for. Food was amazing with vegetables, kim chi, miso soup and nice large helpings.  After the meal I decided to brave the Boxing day shopping mess just to see how bad it actually was. It is bad. People line up outside of stores, pushing at each other, items end up getting auctioned off and people are just generally stressed out. Seems very not British. I left quickly. Went out again to Brick lane to have curry with some people. All the restaurants have people outside trying to entice you with special offers and show you all the awards they have won. Turns out everyone has won “Best Indian Food in England”. Ended the night at a very cool Latin bar, that was nice and cozy and had a few people dancing Salsa.

Sunday: Finally made it home after visiting the Tate Modern. Amazing installation http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unilevermiroslawbalka/default.shtm. Really messes with your senses. I had to have my hand on the wall while I was walking because I kept getting dizzy. It is a giant black hole basically that subsumes you within your first step even though the entrance is wide open. Had a great dinner with all the others still left on campus. I made my fake turkey roast again, as well as snickerdoodle cookies. And now I am really tired.

Weeks 11 &12 December 14, 2009

Finals time, sorry for no post last week. Thought I better do it tonight, before I finish off my last busy week of the term.

Monday: Had the most horrible in class essay I have ever experienced. The topic was something like  Do we study agents or systems? Everyone freaked. Afterwards we went to grab a drink at the campus cafe only the find that it was comedy night and there was one improv group that actually was really good. The rest would have been better if our crazy anthropology professor had not been there heckling everyone and yelling “Bravo!!!” every couple of seconds. Good way to forget about the essay though.

Tuesday: Class and seminars. The usual.

Wednesday: Had a great visual anthropology session going though everyone’s work so far. Things were slow going in the beginning, but I think now we are all getting the hang of the equipment and what not.

Thursday: Essay.

Friday: Worked on essay. Watched some Glee.

Saturday: Freaking out about essay a little bit. Went to friend’s birthday party. I had given my oatmeal cookie recipe to another girl on campus and we both brought the same cookies. It was hilarious, because she had never made cookies before and for some reason thought it would be okay to halve the recipe amounts half way through, and then add milk to make the cookies more moist?? Anyway, we were dropping them on the table because they were like rocks and wouldn’t break. Next time we will make them together I think.

Sunday: Attempted to start on essay, but too nervous about preparing for meeting with Police.

Monday: Not sure.

Tuesday: Had meeting with the Kent Police Department. The trip out there took over 2 hours, but it was a beautiful day, got to see some more English countryside (I really want an English cottage) and took a walk though the Maidstone. Maidstone is not so nice, but they have an incredible cemetery which enormous tombstones and amazing landscaping. The shapes of the bushes and trees were almost Mario World like. The meeting with the police was great as well. I am going to be creating a Flash (Multimedia) project for them. The topic being safety for minority groups in on the University of Kent campus. Not sure of the details yet, as this was our first meeting. Great guys though and really forthcoming.

Wednesday: Essay all day. Rediscovered Nutella on bread. Thought it better to have one Nutella sandwich than a whole pack of cookies.

Thursday: Spent the whole day agonizing over the essay again. Turned out okay. Topic: Do anthropologists study people or systems? The recursive public of Free Software. See http://twobits.net/ if you are interested in open source stuff.

Friday: Head out for an anthropology creativity exercise. We had a shaman/anthropologist come from Cambridge and he set up 3 yurts for us. There was an eating and talking yurt, changing yurt, and a sweat lodge yurt. It was meant to help us find our way in our graduate studies. I wasn’t too into the mind expansion, but it was nice to hang out in the of the woods in England and basically sit in a steam room for a few hours. My professors were totally into though. Free style chanting and all that. Very Seattle.

Saturday: Went into town to sit at a really nice cafe called Coffee and Corks. Delicious hot chocolates. They can add lots of different flavorings. Nighttime, went out a bar with the CUTEST shaggy dog who let me pet it all night. Then when people started leaving he just jumped up on the bar’s couch and fell asleep in the front of the fire.

Sunday: Headed to the grocery store to grab lots of baking supplies. Everyone is demanding cookies from me at the holiday parties. I am also going to make one pumpkin pie. Everyone thinks that pumpkin pies only exist in American films for some reason. Send me your recipe if you have a good one!

Wk #10 November 29, 2009

Busier than usual this week, lots of social events going on!

Monday: Went to see Laura Gibson (http://www.myspace.com/lauragibson) a bar called Bramley’s (http://www.bramleysbar.com/main_site.html). The music was quaint and the bar was very retro with lots of vintage decoration. Definitely a good find for Canterbury. Both acts were from Portland which was fun and were very typical of the music scene there.

Tuesday: It was the DICE 20th birthday party. DICE is the  conservation side of the Anthropology Department. Great time, excellent Indian buffet, and very good speakers. http://www.kent.ac.uk/dice/

Wednesday: Got through reading Marx and then had our usual ethnographic film screening, but afterward, we all ordered Indian takeout in the Anthropology research room together. Someone ordered a meal that came with a sauce that was actually hot pink. We are still trying to figure out what it was called. Please tell me if you know what it is.

Thursday: Decided at 3pm to make Thanksgiving dinner, so we didn’t eat till 9pm, but it was one of the best dinners I have ever eaten. I raced around on my bike trying to find everything we needed and ended up have to push my steel bike up the hill with like 30 pounds of groceries. Totally worth it. We had brussels sprout salad with Lancashire cheese and a lemony dressing, sweet potatoes with pecans and brown sugar. very well seasoned and buttery mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits and a vegetarian turkey(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Thanksgiving-No-Turkey-Turkey/Detail.aspx?src=etaf) that consisted of stuffing, garbanzo bean gravy, and fake meat. Oh! And we had pumpkin pie. Had to use a pre-made crust, but it turned out fantastic. We were pretty proud of ourselves. I have never cooked such a huge dinner before, and it was certainly frantic.

Friday: Classes. Had an exercise in my research methods class where we were meant come up with a fake research topic. My group decided to combine aspects of our own heritage and came up with “How do 2nd generation Italians feel about stereotypes of the mafia in Trenton, New Jersey”.  Turns out we had the least serious topic and everyone had used real world examples. We got laughed at, but it was good fun and that was our more serious choice. Had Thanksgiving leftovers with a few friends, did some work, and went to bed. Long week.

Saturday: Read all day. Ate more Thanksgiving leftovers. Discovered I really like peanut butter on celery. Went to a “Maltese party”. Not really, but half the people there were from Malta, the other half just from the Anthropology department.  Really nice, cozy and met a person from Belgium who knows more about dark chocolate than I could have ever imagined and we finished off an entire Cadbury chocolate box.

Wk #9 November 23, 2009

 

Same format as usual. I can’t remember what happened unless I go backwards one day at  a time.

Monday: No idea.

Tuesday: Had meetings with all the Anthropology and Computing people to talk about my thesis. Got a lot of information. The office of one of the professors is absolutely amazing/disgusting. I walk in and there are 3 bottles of whiskey to the left, shelves to the ceiling filled with what looks like garbage and old computer equipment, there is only a 1 foot wide path leading directly to his desk, the whole office smells like cigarettes, and every time he coughed he took a drink of his coca cola.  Turns out he retired from computer programming work, and decided to do anthropology. Super smart and informative guy. Really funny as well.

This night we also had our Anthropology Stirling Lecture, which is the largest lecture of the year. Pretty fun, good food afterwards, and a bunch of us went to the pub later on. The speaker had done a study on the culture of in vitro fertilization.

Wednesday: Had a film making session to practice camera use. We had to film a question, an answer, and a number of different styles of shots. We worked in groups of three, but we all had to figure out our own short story. Eda filmed me running over our other partner with a bike, Dominic filmed another classmate spying on our teaching, and I had Eda steal a book (I asked permission beforehand) and had Dominic run her down. Wish I had a copy. We were laughing hysterically.

Also had our visual anthropology ethnographic film night. Dead Bird by Robert Gardner (Old white dude from Harvard who thinks he knows everything). I slept through half the film. But woke up in time to provide (hopefully) what was an intelligent comment on why I hated it so much. The director had someone narrating the entire film, none of the subjects said anything, and many of the images didn’t even provide evidence for what the narrator was saying. Guh. Terrible.

Thursday: Had meeting with my advisor and got a lot more reading to do for my thesis.

Friday: Showed everyone in my Visual Anthropology course this music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc . We also had an interested discussion on the goal of soap operas in other countries. Particularly in Egypt where they are used for political purposes and reinforcing greater social messages. I haven’t watched soap operas in America but I gather there isn’t much more than ridiculous drama. OH. And I went to see Twilight: New Moon. That was an experience. A theater full of 16 year old girls screaming, gasping, and sighing at every stage in the film. I also totally enjoyed it. Not sure how good the films are for the young girls…. but certainly entertaining.

Saturday: Read. A lot. Had Italian dinner with a bunch of girls and ate way too much. Walked into town and met some friends, and walked back, still soooo full and took some notes.

Sunday: Woke up. Took notes. Went to the anthropology lab. Printed things. Came back. Made tofu tikka masala. Friend came over to eat the rest of the brownies and have hot chocolate. Took more notes. Read. Bed.

 

Have a good Thanksgiving! I am jealous!

 

Here is a photo of Sandy and I at our Professors welcome party.

Week #8 November 17, 2009

A quick one this week. Tired of writing after finishing up my essay! Finally.

Tuesday: Had my teacher training workshop to learn how to better deal with students. Pretty successful. Free food. Also interviewed the leader of the diversity society on campus. It went really well and I got to learn how to use the new HD video camera.

Wednesday: Started Final Cut Pro workshop. Really fun. Very long though. 8 hours. Then had my birthday. Made everyone bring a drink and some cookies.  I had a really good time!

Thursday: Spent the whole day learning Final Cut Pro, a film making program with a fabulous instructor who really knew his stuff and was totally enthusiastic. Each time we watched a film clip as an example he was standing up, clapping or shouting at the screen.  I had a really good time. http://alandmiller.net/

Friday: Went to a fantastic Brazilian 10 string guitar concert in Whistable. It began with a documentary about the guitar and ended with a performance. The whole thing was  in a beautiful church and the crowd was just really  nice. I thought it was funny that they didn’t want women waiting in line for the bathroom, so they gave both bathrooms to the women and asked all the men to go outside in the yard. They had umbrellas for them. http://83.170.97.93/brazil/content/violeirosdobrasil.pdf

Ended the night getting on the wrong bus and having a nice hour and half tour before making it home and having a few drinks with friends. We stayed up talking till about 4am. We have no idea how that happened. Very fun.

Saturday: Worked on my essay most of the day, but met a few friends later just to hang out.

Sunday: Had the MOST amazing Italian dinner! Two of the students from the Anthropology Department invited us over for a real Italian dinner. I failed to remember however that Italian dinners take a  long time and I still had work to do. I arrived at 6pm, but had to leave at 10pm and think I got a few dirty looks.

Today: Great discussion in class then went to dinner on campus cause we had 2 for coupons. Good chilli.

 

Week 6 and 7 November 7, 2009

Sorry I missed last week!

I can’t remember anything from the first half the previous week. My memory is getting overloaded I think. I was able to ride my bike a lot though as it has been beautiful outside recently. Nice and crisp.

Thursday: Had a great time at my friend Dara’s birthday gathering. Lots of cookies and cake.

Friday: I have no idea. Went to 3 classes from 10am to 5pm. Visual Anthropology theory, Social Anthropology and then Social Research Methods

Saturday: Did some work, put on a lame “I am a person from the 60’s” costume, and went to a friend’s place for Halloween and then out into town to a few pubs. We did some dancing, participated in a quiz night and laughed at all the non americans try to bob for apples.

Sunday: Was invited over to have a German dinner with a bunch of people. Lots of pickled things, potatoes, and pasta salads. Quite good, but it seemed like I was eating a bunch of side dishes. Was probably the vegetarian thing.

Monday: Work and then class. Contemporary Issues in Social Anthropology is the class, and we have been creating really fun discussions the past couple of weeks. Turning out to be very helpful.

Tuesday: Just had class and tried to get things organized. Oh also went to dinner with the rest of the anthropology students at a Mexican restaurant that turned out to be REALLY good! I had a triple decker tostada basically. Very nice.

Wednesday: Got to watch our professor’s documentary on club culture in London. It was really excellent, and I think we are going to try to do a showing of it for anyone on campus. We also were introduced to the slightly fancier cameras we get to use for some of our coursework. It is fun getting to learn how to use a video camera, but I keep forgetting that is is not a regular camera and I keep messing around with the settings mid shot forgetting that it is recording. Ah well. We also had to show our own video diaries to the rest of the class. Mine was deemed too apathetic and I will have to increase my enthusiasm on camera. I have no desire to film myself, but it is an assignment.

Thursday: Today is my teaching day. The article the students were supposed to read was scanned smaller than it should have been. It WAS readable, but almost all of them used it as an excuse for not having read the article. So I had them split up into pairs and gave each group one word to define and present to the rest of the class. At least they should know 7 words from the article now.

Friday: Had a really good discussion in my visual anthropology theory class about what sort of films really work as ethnography or as documentaries. Later on in the evening a bunch of us went to a pub in town. Got to see a few elder British folk get their groove on. I am yet to see a British person who can dance to the beat. Very fun to watch.

Saturday: Going to dinner at my friend’s apartment today. Apparently she is making some delicious southern food and we are all bring a small dessert. Should be really good.

My friend Dara’s birthday!

German Dinner!

Dinner with a bunch of people from the Anthropology department.

Week #5 October 27, 2009

A crazy time this past week.

Tuesday: Anthropology and media seminar based on breakups that happen over Facebook. “Unfriend my heart”. Pretty funny presentation and some good information too. The author got verbally attacked by an old British man who hates Facebook. We all went to dinner afterward at a great Caribbean restaurant called ‘Papa Yums’. Cheap and delicious. I am liking how whenever you order rice in England it comes mixed with peas too.

Wednesday: Lots of reading.

Thursday: Spent the entire day with Ethnographic filmmaker Marcelo Fiorini (http://www.ac.aup.fr/~a67925/pages/pagetwo.html).  He took us on a field trip to take photos of people belling dancing at a local community and then critiqued our photography styles. It was a fun, but long day. When we got back we also went to the premiere of his new film on the Nabikwara and Levi Strauss. It was excellent. The same professor who attacked the speaker, did the same thing to Marcelo as well. He also proceeded to snore though his entire presentation and the movie. NO ONE woke him up and I was stuck right in the middle of the movie theatre feeling so embarassed for him. Painful. British people are too polite.

Friday: Had a few friends over and we cooked an Asian dinner. Miso soup, spring rolls, and stirfry. Turned out really well.

Saturday: All the Americans in the dorm cooked Mexican food for a bunch of our friends. Turned out really well. It is amazing how many people do not know how to eat tacos though. They were rolling them without closing the ends, trying to bite into the middle of the taco, and just generally failing at putting the taco together. We had to teach them. Also, most everyone was amazed that we eat black beans. Dunno.

Sunday: Worked on my paper.

Monday: Worked on my paper.

Tuesday: Went on a bike ride, had class, and then went to a seminar on Archaeology and Cave Art in Britain. Ugh. So boring. Same old British professor caused a scene again. At least he was in agreement with this speaker though.

 

That is it. Below are photos of the Masters research room, my personal space, and a bit of campus.