In no particular order

Anecdotes from the travels, like the travel pictures below, are somewhat disordered. Just like me.

-Great kindness of strangers moment: we missed the bus to the airport in Dublin--ran to catch it, but it left. A few minutes later, a woman in a car pulled up and said she'd seen us miss the bus and it was so awful that they didn't stop; would we like a ride to the airport? We were initially tremendously skeptical, but ended up taking her up on it. She was extremely nice and took us to the airport--turned out she lived near it and had been dropping her daughter at a friend's house. She lamented the growing "rudness" of Dubliners and certainly left us with a sense of Irish hospitality.

-Dinosaurs! We went to the Museum of Natural History, which is a beatiful building:
...and they had an awesome dinosaur exhibit! We had to drag ourselves away, though, because the museum was closing (we'd already been to the British Museum and the V&A that day, not to mention Harrod's), and because we were going out to dinner at the Orrery, a really nice restaurant. The dinner was a birthday gift from my parents, and it was extremely nice. Salmon, tomatoes, pastry, and a wine that reminded me why I like wine.

-Oh, I signed a lease today for an apartment in Indiana! Yay! I think it'll be good.

-I'm officially in Birmingham for about 50 hours between the Andy trip and the family trip. We're going to London, Rome and Berlin. I'm very excited, but I'm still quite tired from this last trip, and with all the rain and the cold weather, I have a bit of a cold. So I'm giving myself something of a break work-wise. I'd planned to come back and get some solid working in before heading out again, but I think I'll do some solid R&R instead... and maybe a bit of work tomorrow.

That's all for the tidbits for the moment.

a yoga mat on the Thames. Which I think would be a great book title. 

the Famine sculpture on the Dublin Quay 

a gazebo in the grounds of Nottingham Castle 

the Houses of Parliament as seen from the South Bank by the Jubilee Bridge 

the Gravity Bar at the top of the Guiness Storehouse--great beer, great views, and Joyce quotes! 

the Lower Lake. It's funny, in these pictures, it looks like it wasn't raining. I guess that's because I didn't take out my camera hen it was too wet. 

St. Kevin's Cell 

Glendalough--the "city" from afar 

Glendalough--beautiful monastic area outside Dublin 

Lots o' travelling

I forgot to mention the Oxford trip, partly because there were no pics b/c I forgot my camera. :( Hopefully there will be some soon. There was punting! It was awesome! We saw Maeve and Renata, which was lovely.

Then there was much travelling around the Midlands, and then there was Dublin, then London. Andy and I said goodbye in Victoria Station this morning, and now I'm back in Brum and he's on an airplane. :( But I'll see him again in three months! :) Although that will mean my time in England will be over. :( But in the meantime I have lots of fun in store, including trips with my family! :) Watch this space.

I'll post more about Andy and my travels; right now I'm quite tired. I might even nap, although I need to go grocery shopping...The short version was that there was much rain, but there was much fun as well.

Train station from Laura's Tower 

view of the castle from Laura's Tower 

At Shrewsbury Castle: Laura's Tower 

Darwin's birthplace, which is now an office 

More outside of the Abbey 

Shrewsbury

Andy and I went to Shrewsbury because a) it's in Shropsire, which is pretty, selon my supervisor, b) Darwin was born there, and c) it's where the Brother Cadfael mysteries take place. Yes, yes I'm a dork. Ok? :) (See this post for a collage based on the TV series)

And Shrewsbury was really fun!

Here's the abbey fron the inside. It was really pretty:

And the Brother Cadfael window:

Outside of the abbey:

More Peak Pictures!

 

Cheadle!

Maeve and Meg visited me this weekend! We rented a car (!), which I drove (!!!) to Cheadle, which has a church known as Pugin's Gem that Maeve wanted to see. While we were in the area, we went to the Peak District National Park, which is absolutely lovely. It comprises bits of Derbyshire and neighboring counties, and has recently been termed Pride and Prejudice Country: http://www.visitprideandprejudice.com/ . We got a little wet (as in completely soaked) but had a good time walking among hills and sheep and ridges and ancient stone structures. And we had dinner in Buxton (at a Pizza Express), which is where I went to a Gilbert and Sullivan festival in the summer of 2004. Generally, I think a good time was had by all. My driving initially caused some concern, but evened out rather well (I even drove back in the dark in really intense fog on windy roads with no streetlights and almost no guardrails--on the LEFT side of the road). Hypothermia was not contracted.

Oh, and on Saturday we explored Bham city center. I finally went to the city art museum, which has a well-known Pre-Raphelite collection. It was fun to go with Meg and Maeve; we re-lived bits of our Victorian History class...

In other news, this morning I officially finished taking notes on Charlotte Bronte's letters! Now... uh.... I still have to do thesis work, but it's a little less straightforward. I should probably start writing, but I'm a bit tired....

Here are some pictures.

Pugin's Gem

Its doors

the CAR I DROVE.... it was really nice.

Peaks!

Happiness

It's feast or famine with me and blogging, but here's a little snack.

The last couple of weeks have been quiet, productive, social, and surprisingly happy. For a couple of days in a row, when people asked me how I was, I said, "Surprisingly happy." Why surprisingly? I guess it's a big relief to finally have the PhD stuff settled and the big essays in. Oh, that reminds me--I need to ask when I'll get my marks. Not that it really matters; they'll get them to me when they're good and ready. For now, I'm plodding along on my dissertation. This morning, I sent off an outline and the beginning of an introduction to my supervisor. :) I feel pretty good about the outline... I'm trying not to freak out about when I'm actually going to get the thing written...

Basically, I have another week to work on the thesis, then I have an amazing vacation planned that will take a little over a month (watch this space for photos!), and then I have two months to work on the dissertation, at the end of which I'm going home. Then driving to IU. And starting my PhD.

On the one hand, it's not a lot of time; on the other, it's only 12,000 words. And I'm doing pretty well on my current goals, which are to finish an outline and finish reading CB's letters before Andy comes.

Hmmm.... this started out as a post to say how relaxed and happy I am, and has disintigrated into me worrying about my time frame. I shall now breathe, finish writing up my notes for the second volume of letters, and have lunch. Not necessarily in that order.