Hey guys! So one of the posts I wrote got posted to the museum's FB page! I send them to the Communications Officer and she (or one of the curators) decides what gets posted.
Woohoo! It's freaky seeing that up all official looking. I almost never post on my own facebook page, much less this.
I'm sure y'all won't embarrass me. :P Hehe! Guess which one's mine...
https://www.facebook.com/greatnorthmuseum

ALSO: I saw a Fiji Mermaid at the museum today! It was being photographed for an exhibit coming up in a few months, and it's insane! It's a young monkey upper body attached to a wooden carved middle and a fish tail, all taxidermied to look like a mummified mermaid. It is FREAKY. It will haunt my dreams. And yet... It's amazing! I mean, this is a crazy bizarre object and I just ran into it in the hallway in my work! I spent about half an hour after seeing it researching it. I had to know why it existed and then I just got interested. It's so cool! I feel like I could spend all my time exploring the stores, and writing stories about their bizarre histories. I just love this job.

So these mermaids were created by the Japanese, and the oldest is kept by Shinto monks at the base of Mt. Fuji and is nearly 1400 years old. Other specimens are kept across Japan in temples and collections, and across the world in oddities collections and museums. PT Barnum of Barnum and Bailey's Circus had one of these! He tricked people, with a fake backstory, and even the "scientist" who found it. He manipulated all the local newspapers into massive publicity over and over in multiple cities. In the southern tour, he nearly caused a riot and a duel! I could go into so much more detail, but to be honest, it's after 8 and I haven't started dinner! I'd better get going

edit: If you're interested, the Horniman Museum tested their Fiji Merman to see how it's made, of what materials, etc. They CT scanned it and DNA tests, the whole shebang! It's a really interesting read! (At least for me. :P Maybe don't read if that picture above freaked you out. <3)
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/collections/unmasking-the-mysterious-merman

<3 Can't wait to be home for Christmas! 8 more days! Ahhh!  xoxoxoxo

I finally have photos! SO MANY PHOTOS!

First, last Thursday, Michael and I went out for a "Thanksgiving" dinner at a local restaurant, a burger place that does sort of over the top "Americana" food, like extravagant burgers, etc.
This meal was ABSURD, guys. ABSURD. It started with a big pile of super spicy buffalo sauce turkey strips. Then a burger and sweet potato fries, but oh that freaking burger. GIANT burger. GIANT. Made with really nice beef. But then, candied bacon... yes, CANDIED. With tons of onion jam and swiss cheese. On a cronut bun. That's a donut made of croissant dough. Yep. I didn't even know that existed til then. All this stuck through with a candy cane. PLUS an oreo malted milkshake (although this was not a milkshake, it was the british version, made with milk, no icecream, which was probably a mercy to the diner's arteries) and THEN a peanut butter cookie with vanilla icecream. However, Michael is allergic to peanuts, and by the end of the set menu (flat price for the whole "Thanksgiving meal") I was stuffed, so we got them to sub lemon sorbet for me and a FANTASTIC brownie sundae for Michael. Absolutely swimming in salted caramel sauce, all of which he ate. I couldn't finish a single of the courses, and Michael ate almost all of my leftovers too! It was unbelievable! I thought he was going to die. Just for an idea of the craziness of the this meal, I took a photo of the burger.

Then, last friday, I helped set up a new display in the Student Centre building! I helped a bit with the display stuff, and found some photos, but it was mostly another curator's work. She and I had to figure out stands for all the strangely shaped objects, and it was so absurd. We balanced things on blocks taped together and weighted stands with other stands so they couldn't tip over. It was like MacGyver! It was pretty fun, though, finding solutions to weird objects.

I took photos while we were working for documentation. The museums likes to put behind the scenes stuff up on the blog and keep records of how things were laid out and what objects went on display, in case something happens.

I sort of forgot to take photos until we'd been working for about 30 minutes. We started with this case. 

Now y'all can see what we do when we arrange an exhibit! 

Caaaaaarefully positioning labels and whatnot. 

One of the MacGyvered stands, this one holding up an Australian Indigenous shield. Christo ingeniously figured this one out. 

Me putting stuff in the case. All red-faced and windblown from going in between the museum and student services building. 

Check out our awesome stands! These were such a battle. Just about every item needed us to track down extra bits and tape things together, or weight them, or pad them, or all of the above. 

Setting up the signs and interpretation panels. 

The display is done! Woohoo! Forgive the giant antismoking poster. 

And THEN! On Saturday I had the BALL! There aren't a lot of candid photos, I think everyone was too busy having fun. It was a great night!

Here are all the pictures Alex (my flatmate) took with his big fancy camera for everyone. It was FREEZING outside where we took the photos. FREEZING! And with an occasional biting wind. The guys were having a good old time, but the girls were all frozen. I think our smiles sometimes look at bit stiff, which it probably our mouths starting to freeze solid. :P

LOOK AT THE CASTLE! Y'ALL I'M AT A BALL IN A CASTLE!

I look a foot shorter than everyone, since I'm the only one not in super high heels. I didn't think how it would look until I saw these lined up pictures. But I ended up hurting my foot pretty badly that night anyway, so it was definitely a good thing I wore the comfy flats. 

My dress was waaaay too big. Dad mentioned to me a couple days before about trying it on, and I definitely should have done. But Michael and Jess (in picture below) helped me pin it on. We needed tons of safety pins, but by the end of the night, I think 4 were left in it. I hope no barefoot guests stepped on the pins on the dance floor or something.

 Michael and me. :3 Isn't his mustache awesome! Hehe :P

And check this out. We were eating in the room used to film the great hall! It's not as big as it looks in the film, but it was beautiful. My cell phone photos don't do it justice.

On Sunday I recovered and woke up to fine that I couldn't walk on my left foot. I was really careful with it for days, and while it's still sore and really stuff, I can walk around and wear regular shoes again. I have an appointment with podiatrist next week, so no worries. :)



I also got to see some of my friends from my course when they all graduated this Wednesday. Michael also graduated and his parents were over, but I got to meet my friends for a little while before I had to go home in order to get up for work the next morning. :P

I hope you guys like my massive picture dump. I had a great, but INCREDIBLY busy week. I felt like I'd been drained of blood by the end of this week. My foot is still pretty painful, and I never really got much of a chance to rest it, with Michael's parents in town and my friends. And sleep was of course in short supply. I'm so grateful for the weekend. I'm going to bed early and sleeping late and it's going to be amazing. :P

Oh AND.
AND.
I GOT MY VISA! I'm going home for Christmas and finishing my degree!!!! It wasn't likely that I wouldn't get it, but I'm still SO EXCITED to have in it my hands and know that my situation is stable for the next year. :) I CAN'T WAIT TO COME HOME! <3 <3 <3 <3
I love you all so much and I can't wait to go home and see everyone. <3 Hugs and kisses! xoxoxoxo

HAPPY THANKGIVING! (Or Thanksgivukkah!)
I love you all SO much and miss you all the time! I can't wait to be back home to Christmas and to see everyone. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. My family and friends are always in my thoughts. <3
Stay tuned for news about the BALL! (Happening Saturday.) Pretty dresses! In a castle! Lots of pictures, I promise.
Hugs and kisses! <3 xoxoxoxoxoxo

On an unrelated note, but because pictures always make a blog better- THAT'S MY MUSEUM!  (And Mom's, Michael's and my backsides. Russ was sneaky like that!) This is a picture from Mom and Russ's trip to visit me early this year.

The winters in the north are much more wintery than I'm used to. It's beautiful on clear days, freezing, but beautiful. It's only really light for 9-10 hours now, but it feels like the England I imagined as a kid. All sooty stone and brick buildings, black church spires above the rest, and leaves blowing everywhere. It's a kind of romantic starkness that I really like. Then there's the rainy days, which never seem light at all, and make everything in the world look monotone. They can be lovely if you're inside with a hot cup of tea and a blanket and no responsibilities, but not so great on workdays. But whether clear or rainy, the days are super short! It was almost dark by 430 today! It is positively strange! It feels like I've stayed up til 2 in the morning because it's been dark for just ages!
Although, despite the freezing temperatures, I am kind of looking forward to the first snow. I'll be a wreck, all freezing and slipping around, but I can't help getting excited for snow, at least at first.
And! (Dad) I got that squishy insulation tape for doorways for our back door, which has huge gaps all the way around it, and it made a big difference! We don't have much insulation and we have a fan that is just cut directly into the wall to the outside, which we'll have to cover also, but it is already noticeably better in our kitchen. It's warmer than the inside of our fridge, which is our goal for the time being.

I never seem to have enough time to say what I want to here. I'll tell y'all about my awesome time repackaging objects with conservation last Friday. It was so much fun! I learned how to package objects by carving the right size shapes into the plastic foam with a box cutter and setting the peices in them, and guess what I learned with. Yeah, learned. They just gave me the plastic and a box cutter and set me lose on ROMAN VESSELS. Tiny ones, even like, a paper-thin glass one that was already partly broken and I was terrified I'd break it. It was SO COOL! The whole time I was like, I'm literally just sitting on the floor, surrounded by intact vases more than 1000 years old, and then all around me in the rest of the room was roman stone carvings, just absolutely everywhere. And I'm just sitting on the floor carving up this thick plastic foam, like a kid in art class, with bits flying everywhere. It was surreal, but totally AWESOME! I cannot emphasize enough. Like, the conservation team laughed when I said that it had been really good fun and that I'd love to work with them some more on that store, but it really was wonderful fun, I was sweaty and dirty with masses of dust and dirt and bits of disintegrating cardboard and bits of plastic foam, and that in itself- a day working with my hands with objects, would be awesome by itself. But I love looking at new objects (Axes and vases and glass slides oh my!) and learning how to safely pack everything and talking to the conservation staff. It was great! I could do that every day forever (as long as I got a mask. I sneezed uncontrollably for a whole day after that).

Ok. It's after 10 now, I'd better get ready for bed.
Love you all! <3 XOXOXO

Yyyyyuuuck!

It's winter, alright. Woke up to frost on the cars and plants outside our flat, and an unbearably cold flat. We've given in and turned the heat on twice in the last 2 days. Our kitchen feels almost exactly like the inside of our refrigerator and our couch has so many blankets on it, the cushions are totally obscured. It's winter.

Going into work today, I had 3 shirts, a thick wool sweater and a jacket, with gloves, a scarf and big headphones (closest thing to earmuffs I could find). Two pairs of wool socks on under my knee-high doc marten boots, too. And it was still freezing! It's days like this I reeeaaaaallly miss Georgia.
... But I'm going HOME for Christmas! (I'm still excited! I don't even have a plan yet, I'm just so thrilled I'm going HOME!)

Off to bed ASAP! Up at 6. Woohoo! :P

I love you all! <3 XOXO

So I'm finally recovering from a flu I've had since Tuesday. Icky. I missed 3 whole days of work, which made me pretty worried, but I when I called me boss Wednesday to say I was too sick to come in, he just kept saying "you're doing the right thing" and "take your time" I think they'd rather me miss work than get the office sick.

But, yay! I'm on the mend. Michael swears that after one night of being as hot as he can stand, he's better, and it really does seem to work! One night doesn't seem to do it for me, but I spent two solid days in bed staying under alllllll the blankets in the house with a hot water bottle, and I think it did a lot of good. I haven't recovered this quickly from anything since I came to England. Today was the first day I was up to doing much of anything, though, so I'm way behind on absolutely everything.

But I'm still keeping super warm and avoiding going outside in the cold until I have to because the Rifle Club Ball is at the end of November and being sick is totally not an option. It's at Alwick Castle (where they filmed HARRY POTTER)! I'm so excited!

I'll post more soon, but for now I'm going to back to my super warm bed. :) Love you guys! <3 XOXO

So, the last couple weeks, I mostly alternated between the stores and the office, photographic and documenting objects in the stores, and confirming their identification or figuring it out in the office. I did spend about 6 hours one day sorting through buckets of tiny flints to lend for a mesolithic exhibit at another museum and installing an elephant from Kenya made of flip flops. It's name is
... Philippe Flip Flop...
Philippe Flop...
Oh my goodness guys, I laughed for like a whole minute! It's so cheesy, but it's great! One of my colleagues is posting about it on a blog, so when that comes out I'll link to it. :)

I'm working on a couple things to happen in the future, though. A facebook post for the museum's page, an entry for their blog, and a long-term research project.

The FB post is basically a paragraph with an image. I have an instrument called a pluriarc that I think could interesting, but its label says 'Caffir Banjo,' written when it was collected (I think 1922). That's a pretty offensive term, but it's written in big letters on the instrument. I might just show it so that the label is hidden and not mention that in the post, if they think it's a problem. Although I think it's of interest because it indicates the mentality of the collector- Western-centric and endemically bigoted (to name the instrument incorrectly after a Western instrument it resembles, although the actual instrument is a harp, and to apply a generic ethnically insensitive term to African instruments). At least, that's my line of thinking. We'll see.

The blog post was going to be about recreating ancient museum (Egyptian and Greco-Roman) with existing instruments that are very similar or even identical in modern day. For example, a West African instrument, the ngoni (a sort of ukelele-looking string instrument with hide covering the body and a few strings attached to a long smooth stick running through the body forming the neck) is virtually the same as an Egyptian instrument. I think that's really cool! But I found out that in the Newcastle University Classics department there is a researcher who recent reconstructed an instrument and played an ancient Greek song. My boss and I both thought it would be really interesting to maybe do a bigger research project on this topic, or something similar. I'm about to check out this researcher's most recent book and do some other research in journals to see what's out there and try to figure out what I might be able to do. I'm going to contact the Classics professor soon, but I want to have a better idea of what I'm thinking before I do. Otherwise, I'll just look like a babbling fool. I have all these ideas, but until I can do more research it comes out like gobbledegook.

No real news personally. I got a document for my visa that I've been waiting on for 6 weeks (6 weeks?!), which is good, because now I can try to get the other documents. I've got to get it done, and unfortunately that means missing some work. Banks are only 9-5, and the visa team with the university, through which I have to submit my application, have even shorter hours. And you have to go to the building to even make the appointment, so I miss time twice! It's not a time efficient system at all, but my visa runs out in January (although there's a short buffer, if for some reason it did lapse), but still, I've got to get it done ASAP.

What am I saying! Although anyone who reads this in Georgia probably already knows, I'M COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! Flights booked and everything! I'm so excited! <3

I love you all so much and miss you so much! XOXO

Time to get ready for bed. Being a grown up is hard! Hehe :P

Whew! I'm so grateful for the weekend. This week wasn't exactly fast, but I never had downtime at all. I intended to update my blog, and call folks, etc. I was asleep and drooling on the sofa before before 8, and could barely drag myself to the bed when I briefly woke up.
Today was all about getting our groceries and meals sorted out for the week. There's so little time in the evenings that we can't shop and/or cook every night. I've started doing crock pot meals that we can eat on for days, but that means I have to plan out way ahead of time.
I've always got more than enough work to be constantly busy. 
I don't think I should post my entire weekly journals, because there's a lot of notes to myself and technical specific stuff. My last entry is more detailed on the interesting bits than my school journal is. I've got to write my weekly journal for this past week soon, and I'll post the good bits here. :) I wish I could show you guys my objects. They're beautiful! And it's so exciting! But there are rules about photographs of objects. 
I'd better get back to work, but I'll post again in the next couple days with more interesting things. Promise!
More soon! <3 xoxo

Also- I'm catching up on emails and everything as fast as I can. I love you all! <3

So I'm spending Sunday doing all the things I'm supposed to do before the next week starts. Which is really a lot of things! Working around the house, getting my stuff organised for work next week, etc. I've got to write up my weekly journal entry about what I did last week and how it relates to developing my skill sets.
On Thursday I was instructed on blog-writing for the museum (I'll be setting up my profile monday and hopefully figuring out a good first entry. I have an idea, and I'll tell y'all about it, but I'm not sure it's actually allowed. There are a few rules, some for PR and some for legal or safety reasons. I'll have to follow them here too, which is part of the reason I can't post all the pictures I take. Without permission, I can't depict other people, or museum objects not on display, or the location or value of specific objects or set up of the stores. But, I picked a few of my pictures that don't break any rules (just to be really careful) but can still show y'all a bit of what my work area looks like.

So you go through a whole series of doors, and it's like a maze down there! I still have to wander to find the bathrooms or the exit. In fact, I gave myself a little scare when I accidentally went out different doors than I went in and I became totally convinced I was lost. In my defense, it was dim and all the doors are the same colors.
But here's a sort of generic hallway view. The machines and tubes you see are environmental controls for the rooms (humidity, temperature, etc). 

This is the inside of the Ethnography room.

Behind the shelves is a little desk and a laptop which is hooked up to the database system so that I can look for objects or look up ones that I find. 

 Yet more paper catalogues, boxes, etc.

These are a couple of the aisles in the stores. I'll try to take some other pictures later, but these are pretty illustrative. Stuff. Stuff everywhere! In boxes, laying on shelves, in storage bags, wrapped in bubble wrap or acid-free paper... stuff!

That signs says "Caution Potential Poisons" and the arrows have padding and covers on their points. 

And you want to know the best part?.... I GET TO TOUCH STUFF! 

(Ok, so not ALL the things. Obviously there are the potentially poisoned arrows, and more delicate things which I wouldn't unnecessarily handle.)

There is one other big exception, which is also what I'm thinking about writing my first museum blog entry on. But it might be considered controversial. There are Australian Aboriginal bull roarers in the collection (I know from the database, not from seeing them), but they are only meant to be seen by males in Aboriginal culture. The box has a warning label, but there are no official rules about whether or not female researchers can see them, the label only encourages you to be aware of the issues surrounding this.
I've read about this issue, which is really all about respect for the culture from the artefacts originate. And I agree with that completely. But now I know from the database that there are instruments in that box, and I can't document them as part of my job at the museum, or conduct research on them for a potential project or paper if I can't observe them. So, the question is, what do I do? Am I as thorough as possible, and do the same work on those instruments as I would on any others, or do I respect that culture and refrain from observing those objects?
I'm thinking of writing a museum blog post about it summarizing the issues. The public can comment on the posts, so we're not allowed to post controversial subjects. I'm not sure if this would really be allowed for me to post, but I'm just thinking it out for now. I want my first post to be a good one.

I think that's just about all for now. I'd better get back to work. I still have to write my weekly journal, and finish with the chores to prep for Monday.
When I finish up my journal, I'll post it here as well, but it's almost dinner time, so that might not be done in time to post tonight.

I love you all! <3 XOXO

Work is hard! I mean, obviously, but I don't know how grown ups fit everything into their days! I feel like I barely manage to get ready for the next day by the time it's bedtime, and it's not even 8 hours before I'm awake again and just barely getting ready in time to go to work. How do you guys do bills and cooking and cleaning and shopping and emails and friends and work at home, and sleep?! And that's just the things I can think of right now. I'm certain I'm forgetting things because I don't have the time to actually think.
Tomorrow's FRIDAY though! And then I can post lots of stuff (including my weekly journal and some photos of the ethnography store where I work). I'll get better organised and hopefully next week I'll be able to email and facebook and call people. And relax. And then I've got to figure out what the next step is in this placement. One week in, 31 left. No wasting time. :)
I love you all <3 Hugs!

I said I would post, but I fell asleep before I could even finish any of my emails! I had an early day today, and tomorrow starts at 9, but that's easier than today.
Today I got a tour of the stores, and I took some pictures with my phone, which I'll post as soon as I get permission from my boss. I didn't realize at the time, but I found out after that I need permission to show the objects. I'll ask him at work tomorrow. But the stores were SO COOL! I want to play down there forever. And their coolness cannot be overrated, because it made me ignore the smell of both rotting whale (not kidding, not at all, there's a whale part rotting in the bone room) and napthalene (mothballs) which smells like almond-scented death. Although the mothballs smell made me feel faint when I walked in the bug room it was so pungent. I need to start keeping my daily journals so I'll start posting them here. I've still been getting into the swing of things, so I've only got handwritten notes on my first two days, and honestly they don't say much. I've got to sleep soon, but I will theoretically be able to start writing my journals as soon as I get home tomorrow.
I'm really sorry there's not more to tell. My first day I helped take down and pack away a temporary exhibit created by my peers in the archeology class while my social history class was working in Sunderland. It was hard work! Lots of squats, to pick up and put down heavy boxes and to pick up objects on the lower shelves. And today was boatloads of walking between Discovery museum (where the stores are) and the Great North Museum (where I work), Windsor Terrance (my department's building) and the hospital for an allerigst appointment at the end of the day. More than 8 miles of walking just in between buildings today (although partly because I got turned around trying to follow google maps)! I'm so tired now, I just want to sleep. So that's my plan, some ibuprofen and a nice sleep. And a hot water bottle. :) My eyes are droopy just writing about it.
I love you all and will post again tomorrow. <3 Hugs!
Goodnight xoxo

Blogger seems to be letting me post again. I'm sorry about the long gap, I kept trying to post for the last couple days and the website would crash every time I tried to publish. Sorry! I'll give an update on my first day tonight. <3 *hugs!*

So I had my first meeting with my new boss and my professor in charge of my internship. The course will involve two large writing assignments, and neither are my strong suit. One is a case study of the museum work placement, and the other is a critical analysis. Both are meant to be almost entirely analysis based on theory. So far my lowest grade was in a similar assignment for my previous internship. So, I've got to really focus on studying theories of practice in different areas (like project management, collections management and documentation). At work, I'll be focused mostly on expanding the documentation of the musical instruments in the collection. My boss said in this meeting that my expertise in ethnomusicology would improve the collection's documentation [and I'm sitting there thinking "expertise?!" He thinks I have "expertise"!? I don't have expertise, I'm just a kid!). My professor explained that I need to be able to show experience and improvement in a wider variety of skills, like "leadership" and "project management" etc etc. My boss explained that everybody basically chips in with everything, but that I'd be able to do any workshop offered to TWAM (Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums), which include ones on archives databases, documentation, public engagement, etc. I'll be doing a workshop on Ke Emu, the archive database I'll be working with at the museum. I'll also get to work with other teams in the museum, like the learning team or exhibition team. I'm not sure what all my internship will involve. The meeting was a lot of ideas, but all were maybes or something-likes. It does look pretty certain that I'll be doing at least one display in the student centre with another intern currently at the museum, and later another of my own.

It's a lot less impressive looking to work mostly on the documentation. I can't show it off to people. But it is what I think I might like to do with my career. Collections management is really interesting for me- it's doing a lot of research and summarizing it into a structured database, for the most part. And you get to do a little conservation work, which I'd like to get much more involved in (but that takes yet another degree!). Also, you work with objects most of your days, and so far objects haven't stopped being interesting. I imagine that when you've cleaned and labelled your 20th roman coin for the day it probably palls a bit, but it's still like THESE ARE ROMAN COINS. I AM LITERALLY TOUCHING THINGS ROMANS TOUCHED. ACTUAL ROMANS. YEAH! And that sounds totally insane, I know, but that is exactly the kind of thing that goes through my mind with objects. It's still pretty surreal sometimes. And then there's objects that are modern history collections, sometimes as new as ipods. Those are the things that can sometimes not seem as interesting because they're so familiar, but it can be pretty interesting to take a step back and look at them as if they were historical objects and treat them in that way. It makes me think a lot about how we'll be remembered through our massive middens,  architectural ruins, and material culture. Actually, I think it could be a really neat children's exhibit to compare historical objects with our own equivalents, like hygiene implements and entertainment materials, and let the kids upload their own ideas of what people in another hundred years will think of the objects they'll find from us. (They have software for museums that will block anyone from posting rude words, which is the very first thing most little boys try to do.) Hah, sorry, that was a long tangent, but anyway-
Collections management- not very exciting to other people, but this will show me if it's really what I want to focus on long-term.

I'm still technically on vacation until Oct 6th, but I'm starting on some research on the instruments of the regions I know they have large collections from. Mostly Oceania, but I know their ethnography collection also includes Asian and African artifacts. I'm sure it contains a lot more, really, but I haven't seen that yet. I don't remember a lot from Oceania in my World Music classes, so I'm giving myself a refresher course. Fortunately, I do remember a lot about classifications of instruments and materials, etc. And each object will need to be individually researched for its history, specific relevance, etc.

Until work starts, I'll be doing that reading my free time, and working on catching up on all those other things I've been meaning to do for ages. I've got a list pages long, most of which probably won't get done, but I'm just chugging along ticking them off as I do whatever I can. The visa is a particular pain in my side because everything is urgent, but because of the time it takes to request different documents (and how long they stay valid) means everything is contingent on other things and it's a lot of hurry up and wait situations. My CV is another big pain. I have so much to add, but I'm terrible at writing in the right business-y style, and I'm never sure what to really say. But I really should get it updated before I start my next internship or it'll all pile up too high.

Still, it's been amazing getting good sleep, having the time and energy to take better care of myself. I've even been sleeping in, which feel wonderfully decadent. I can't remember when I last could sleep in guilt-free. Speaking of sleep, I've been writing for ages! It's past midnight! This post must be crazy-long.

I'm crashing at my desk right now, I'm going to get to sleep. Love you all <3

I'm back!

My dissertation is submitted and I am about to start on my internship with the Great North Museum. (Check it out! http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/great-north-museum.html) I am so excited! I have to admit, I wouldn't mind a longer vacation. There is so much I'd like to do! Finish decorating the bathroom (started almost a whole year ago now! The shame!), deep clean the house, use the sewing machine Michael got me (still haven't even opened it, despite a mounting pile of sewing projects), writing letters, and most urgently, apply to renew my student visa... a lot to do.

But I am so excited to start this new project at the GNM. Based on the last meeting I had with Andrew and Sarah, my (I think) bosses at the museum, I will be working with the musical instruments in the stores, from all over the world, most of which are not cataloged or researched, and may have the opportunity to create a temporary ethnomusicology exhibit in the museum, which would be AMAZING!

During the placement I will also have to be writing a daily journal of my work, as well as a number of writing assignments for university credit. I plan to share my daily journal on my blog, so y'all might get some totally uninteresting entries, but hopefully some cool stuff too.

So lots more to come, but for now, hello again from England! <3 XOXO

Grumbling below: 
I think I'm cursed. I just got over pneumonia not 2 weeks ago, when I went to Glasgow for 2 days to decide what museums to look at for my dissertation. Turns out, what I needed to be in the exhibits wasn't there. Almost at all. I'm basically back to square one with my dissertation. And I spent 2 days on my feet all day, carrying my backpack, winter coat and jacket, through museums, while taking notes. So, by the time I got home my back was really messed up. Then yesterday, I slipped and twisted my back wrong and hurt my back. It was so bad by this morning that I went to the hospital, hoping they could help with the muscle spasms. It really hurt, and all the waiting, and procedures in the hospital made it worse. But, by the time I'd been examined, x-rayed, and forgotten on a gurney in a hallway for about 45 minutes (I called to the nurse after I heard her shout across the hall asking if the Glasgow girl had left), they had given me some tramadol, and told me that I had a severe muscle spasm, but that since this was the emergency services, they didn't like to prescribe muscle relaxants because they don't know me, but my gp might be willing to if I go see him (of course, they don't open til Mon). So, they gave me tramadol, which I'm pretty sure is also addictive, so I don't get that logic. I don't need pain relief if the problem is gone, so wouldn't a muscle relaxant be a more effective treatment? I don't know. Anyway, *grumble grumble grumble*. 
However, I totally maintain my love of the NHS because I think it's a great program.

This is an old post that has apparently been sitting as a draft... I'm a failure at technology, I'm sorry! But, I finally fixed up my room here and I took pictures to prove that once, indeed, it was totally organized and clean. :P Not for long.

I've definitely got my own little area with lots of photos and cards and mementos and my little bunting decoration. It's nice, because I have all my papers in labelled files in cloth boxes, so I can just sit under the covers and stay warm while I work. It's so cold in the bedroom that's pretty much a necessity. I can't wait til it warms up!

Just thought I'd share my triumph of organization. It was terrible before. It still gets bad now, but we at least have organizational systems now. Mostly colored cloth boxes. They are a lifesaver.

It hasn't looked like this basically since the day I took the photos, but yay! Organization! :)

These are super late, but now that I'm actually recovering from being so sick, I'm functional again, so I wanted to post pictures from the ball early in February.

It was a fantastic night! Everyone really went all out with their outfits and masks, and it was good fun. :)

Back to catching up on all the work I missed in the last few weeks. <3 Update soon!