| Jenni's Whereabouts: Archives |
| March 2003 Well, the first half of March was taken over by the group project. Then we had our exams, and before you can say "Bob's your uncle" (that's a really stupid expression by the way - where on earth did it come from? Answers on a postcard, please!) we were sent on our placements. This is where my life gets confusing, and people actually end up asking me which country I am living in when I phone them up�Anyway, so I moved to Cardiff (that's the capital of Wales, for anyone who doesn't happen to know), 'cause I was doing my placement at the Museum of Welsh Life, which is actually in the village of St Fagans, just outside of Cardiff. It's a fantastic place to work. Check the 'Museum Mania' page for more information. Cardiff was great too. More impressions of my time there and plenty of photos to follow soon. February 2003 February wasn't very memorable, to the extent that I can't really remember anything special happening. Lots of hard work at the department, everyone very overworked, tired, and stressed. I think we spent a lot of nights hanging out in the pub, drowning our sorrows�I am joking, of course (about the drowning sorrows bit, not the going to the pub bit!) Dissertation proposal forms were due (yuk), then there were exam briefings (double yuk), and the first week of our group project. The group project was going to turn out to be the most challenging part of the course yet. Basically, we were divided into groups of 8, to develop a 'toolkit' for community groups wanting to put on exhibitions in Leicester's New Walk Museum. However, no one really seemed to know what to do, despite numerous briefings. Sigh! And our group had the extra challenge of having only one native English speaker (yours truly�well, almost native). With two Greeks, four Taiwanese, one Japanese, and German Scot in the group, we spent the first few days just trying to communicate to each other what we thought our brief was, never mind carrying it out. In the end we pulled through, and learnt a lot of lessons in communication, patience, and team work in the process. Maybe that our group was 'Thalia' - the comedy muse - helped us to keep on the sunny side of life. We certainly turned out to be a fantastic group in the end� January 2003 I began the new year in Birmingham, England. My sister, Joanna, and her boyfriend, Thomas, were visiting Thomas' uncle there. I took the train through from Leicester to join them for Hogmanay (New Year's Eve). Afterwards they came through to see me in Leicester for a few days before returning to Germany. I spent the remainder of my Christmas holidays attending a conference on European Ethnology at the Open University in Milton Keynes, giving a paper on "Culture and Religion in Expatriate Congregations: The German Speaking Congregation in Edinburgh". January also heralded a new term at the Museum Studies Department. We sure got around, having classes at the Guild Hall, Jewry Wall, and New Walk Museum in Leicester. For me, this included being freaked out by medieval role play session, and testing out the accessibility of Jewry Wall in a wheelchair. That was a quite humbling experience. If I ever have to do it again, I hope I get a better driver! It was a busy museum month in general, as I also did some volunteer work at Newarke Houses and Jewry Wall for two special events they had. I even won second prize in the "wild and woolly jumper" competition, even though I wasn't even wearing a jumper (my T-shirt had sheep on it, which apparently got points for originality. Also, no one had really entered the competition, so they were giving out the prizes to the volunteer staff). January's highlight must have been the Burn's Night Supper we had at my friend Sarah's house. All in all there were two Americans, one Canadian, one Taiwanese, one Japanese, and yours truly. This is possibly the most interesting Burns Night I have ever celebrated so far! |
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