The South

Recently one of my friends blogged about place-ness I've had some similar moments myself- most recently yesterday afternoon as I was walking Rusty. It had just rained and it was misty out and humid of course- but not unpleasantly so. It also didn't hurt that I was walking by Bassett Hall which is where the Rockefellers stayed when they began restoring Colonial Williamsburg.





The mistiness shows up a little bit better in this picture at the golf course-



And here is the obligatory picture of Rusty- here he is trying to sneak over to greener pastures- I'm not sure what he saw over there but it must have been very intriguing.



I've been dreading summer here. I've never been a fan of summer- the weather part not the vacation from school part (at least not since I can remember) and it's been even worse since I've lived here- summers here can be quite miserable. I had hoped to spend much of this summer at home but alas- one must work- and work I will. This summer is going to be an exceptionally busy one. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough money to pay the bills let alone cover luxury items- you know, like food. So in order to avoid standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign reading- "will lecture you in history for food" I signed on to 4 different teaching gigs- assuming that one or more of them wouldn't work out. Well right now it looks like they all are going to- I'll find out tomorrow for sure. I am really excited about the opportunities but I am also a little worried about managing it all!

Sorry- I got side-tracked there. I was going to say that it was nice to have such a pleasant walk and to enjoy living in the south. I will try to remind myself of that during the miserable summer months ahead.

Pirate Golf!

It only took me two years to get there- but I finally played pirate mini-golf at Pirate's Cove. Here is another reason for you (readers who know me) to come visit Williamsburg- so I can kick your a** at Pirate Golf.

Ok, not really. I came in third (a.k.a. last) when I played my sister and cousin during their recent visit- so you can come to Williamsburg and have a boast to your self-esteem when you beat me at pirate golf.

It was fun and educational- I learned a lot about pirates while enjoying a lively game of mini-golf. I didn't have my camera with me so the pictures (taken with my phone) aren't the best quality but you get the idea-


One of the holes was in the cave- it's hard to make out- but cool anyway.








can you see the pirate in the above picture?

Thoughts on NIAHD (and Keio too)

I have been busily grading papers for NIAHD (I only have 2 left!!!) and setting up my online class (only NINE weeks to go!!!) so I haven't posted anything here in a few days. Trust me, I'd rather be sharing pictures with you than grading papers.

Keio starts next week and I am a little sad I won't be working for them again. I am not sad that i will have some free time and will be able to visit with some family and friends who are coming to Virginia and to possibly work on my dissertation- oh and to teach the online class of course- but I am sad I won't get to hang out with some awesome students (because if this year's Keio students and even half as great as last year's it is going to be a good time).

NIAHD was a great experience. It was very different from Keio- for me the best part of Keio were my amazing students but I didn't really get to know the students with NIAHD because I was kind of like a substitute teacher- but I still had fun and I got to see a lot more of Virginia. Virginia is an amazing place to study history- the 'field trips' were totally worth suffering through the incredible heat and humidity well, mostly worth it (seriously it is disgusting here this summer- we have yet another heat advisory today- my family and friends who are coming to see me don't know what they are getting into to- no one is going to want to leave my air-conditioned apartment- I certainly don't want to. Ever. So gross). I also got to work with some amazing people. I love american studies but it was nice to get back to my history roots. And the one useful thing about the disgusting weather is that I think it really helped the students realize how difficult life was for a lot of our ancestors- especially the millions of Africans who were brought here as slaves.

All that said, it is really nice to be able to sit on my couch, with my faithful dog snuggled next to a me, and to waste some time on the internet. (Inside. Where its air-conditioned).

On to Jamestown

I have kind of a strange job with NIAHD- I am a fill-in or floating instructor- so I am here if one of the instructors is ill or cannot teach a class for some reason and I also fill in one day for each of them so they can have a day off and I can get some experience working directly with the students. So it is a very different experience than Keio where I got to know my group of students really well. I haven't had to fill in for anyone yet so I have just gone on the field trips and then get to go home- I feel a little guilty because I haven't had to work all that hard yet and have had fairly short work days.

Anyway- the whole point of me mentioning that I am the floating instructor is to say that there won't be a natural timeline- or progression of the sites I visit. Some days I go with the Colonial group (which focuses on American History from Jamestown to the Revolution) and other days I go with the Civil War group (which focuses on American history from the Revolution to the Civil War).

Yesterday I went with the Colonial group to Jamestown Island - which is the actual site of the original Jamestown Fort where there is an ongoing archeological dig. Part of the fort's remains have been eroded away into the James River but about 3/4s of the land where the fort stood is still there and it is an incredibly active and rich site. I have been there before, last summer, and already shared those pictures so I tried not to post duplicate images- fortunately the dig has moved from where they were last summer so there are new things to see and we were allowed to go into the vault where they keep a lot of the remains they have found.

We were also incredibly fortunate with the weather- it was the perfect day to go there, apparently almost every other year they have had students who have passed out on the Jamestown Island day because it is usually so miserable (hot and humid) when they go there- and it has been a very hot couple weeks but we lucked out and went while the weather was not only bearable but actually quite lovely.

This building wasn't there last summer (at least I don't think so).




Here we are standing around a site in the fort that is actually both a Civil War site and a Jamestown Fort site- meaning CIvil War soldiers (Confederates if I am not mistaken) built some earthworks here on the Jamestown site. And the statue you can see is on John Smith.



In this picture you can see the church, one of the digs, and the obelisk in the background.



And these two pictures are from inside the "vault."

The Wren Building

For our first NIAHD field trip we toured the Wren Building on campus (can you call it a field trip if you don't leave campus?) Apparently it is the oldest college building in the United States- see I am already learning stuff. I didn't take a lot of pictures but here are a few- I took some better ones but they had some of the students in them and I didn't feel right about posting their pictures on the internet (though the backs of some heads will be featured here- exciting I know).
















And the fanciest room of all....

Park City (a.k.a even more Utah-love)

While in Utah I also had the fortune to spend the afternoon in Park City with my sister, brother-in-law, 2 of my nieces, and some cousins.

First my sister, her family, and I walked Historic Main Street.















Our cousins were vacationing in Park City so after walking Main Street we headed over to the resort where they were staying- which was amazing...

NIAHD

I am working for NIAHD (National Institute of American History and Democracy) this summer- and it started yesterday. We had our "opening ceremonies" in the brand new School of Business Building. I took a couple pictures, I should have taken more- the building is ridiculously beautiful- meanwhile the American Studies building is being de-aspestosized this summer. Remind me again- why did I go into the humanities?





I could use some of that Business School money about now- here's my car being towed away for the second time in a week...



Here's Rusty in yet another loaner car- he doesn't look too happy about it.

Monticello

Just when you thought I was done talking about summer I bring it up again.

I went to Monticello, for the second time, with my friends Laura, Amy, and Anna. They came to DC when I was there a couple years ago and we spent their last day there at Mount Vernon so we decided to make it a tradition and go to the home of another president on their last day here. Since it was my second time visiting Monticello and I was still suffering from KES I wasn't all that into it-nothing against Monticello- it's an amazing place- my friend Jenel says she understood Jefferson much better after visiting there (well, if I remember correctly, she was talking about his motivation for slave owning, but I digress...). Anyway, I only took a couple pictures- sorry you'll have to refer to my first post about Monticello or go there yourself if you want more.

Yorktown... I think

So I think this picture is from Yorktown- maybe Laura, Amy or Anna will comment and correct me or fill in the story behind this house. I was kind of checked out the day we went to Yorktown- I blame Keio Exhaustion Syndrome (KES) perhaps that also explains my current procrastination and lethargy.

More Summer Photos

Forgive me I still have catching up to do....

Here are some more pictures from my friends trip out, these are from our trip to Historic Jamestown, my first trip there- it was very pretty and worth the trip out- I'll have to take my next visitors there too.

another trip to CW

The same day my sister left a few of my friends arrived for a short visit. We spent there first day here at Colonial Williamsburg. Here are some of the pictures, they'll look familiar because I have been there too many times!