English Summer

Hello!

It's been awhile since my last post, sorry for the lack of updates on this end. I'm happy to report that while the first year of my PhD program here in the UK is officially over, it was a happy, successful and productive first year. I learned a lot, made some wonderful new friends and colleagues, and made good progress on my research. For several reasons, I decided to postpone summer fieldwork in Mexico until the fall, but that gives me all summer to write the first chapter of my PhD dissertation to prepare for my upgrade (to doctoral candidacy) in October. Even without fieldwork, the summer will still be a busy one. In addition to writing and research, I've got a wedding to attend, a couple of conference papers to prepare, and I will continue making preparations for the opening of the exhibition of contemporary Maya woodcarvings and accompanying scholarly symposium on tourist art studies I've been co-organizing at Northern Illinois University in September 2009. I'm very happy that the exhibition will also be traveling to Yucatan in 2010, and we're hoping that there may be other opportunities for it to travel elsewhere in the USA or possibly even the UK. Our website will be up and running soon, so I'll be sure to post it when it goes live.

One of the most exciting things that has happened recently is that Mom and Sarah came to visit me last month! It was so great to show them around the city where I live and introduce them to my friends, colleagues, and Bill and his family. They loved some of Norwich's historic sites and local fare, and Sarah had fun trying on (and purchasing!) some of Britain's latest fashions. If any of you are familiar with Coleman's Mustard, that is Norwich's claim to fame...born and bred right here in Norfolk. It's expensive in the states, but "cheap as chips" here. The girls also did a bus tour of the city on one of those red double decker buses --the same tour I did when I first arrived last September. If you are ever in England, I highly recommend them. They are usually run by true locals and it's the best way to see the city/town where you are.

Anyhoo, my other news is that I've recently moved out of my room on campus and into a house closer to the city. I'll have to post pictures soon, but for now I'll just tell you that it's a lovely little Victorian period 'terraced' house (kind of like what we would call a 'townhome'). I'm currently living with the three current tenants, but two of them will be moving out over the summer, one will stay and a new one will move in during September. So it's going to be kind of crazy for the next few months! But everybody's really friendly and I'm enjoying living off campus and closer to where all of my friends live.

Sorry this is a boring post...hope you all are well and enjoying your summers! More soon!