So far...

After Blickling Hall my life was boring.  Taylor did return from Canada, but we both had the flu when he returned so it wasn't anything special.  In April I had two papers due within a week of each other so I had no life.  And for the majority of May I had an 8,000 word paper to finish in 20 days.  I went a little crazy for those 20 days, I'm not going to lie.  But, I got the paper done early and got a damn good mark on it.  After the assignment was due I had a week of freedom before I flew home to Toronto for a wee vacation.  In Toronto I had a blast! I got to see all my friends and family, there was sunshine and nice weather, I got to snuggle my cats and most importantly, I got to meet Ms. Ruby.

How could you not fall in love with that adorable face?! As Taylor can tell you, I had my reservations about meeting her.  I was either afraid I wouldn't care about her (because she wasn't Luna) or that I would look at her and see the Goo-Goo.  Luckily, this wasn't the case.  She doesn't look like Luna, she is more lizard like in appearance.  And no offense to my darling Luna, Ruby wasn't as crazy and Luna was as a puppy.  So I fell in love with her and we are now BFFs.


When I returned to Norwich, two hours after my arrival Hanna showed up! We were both exhausted from being awake for 24 hours and jet lagged.  So we spent the day doing nothing, except going to the grocery store (she appreciated the giant aisle of British chocolates).

Afternoon Tea!

The first couple of days were spent wandering around Norwich.  I took her to Biddy's for afternoon tea and she fell in love.  She is now obsessed with scones and clotted cream (who wouldn't be). We visited Elm Hill (the street where all the buildings are from the 16th century), went shopping, ate at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, saw the Cathedral, went to a pub and basically just enjoyed ourselves.  On one of the days here we randomly discovered a new oddities and curiosity shop we have never seen before.  We walked in and I knew it was the place for me.

Taylor began talking to the young guy who owns the shop and in the backroom Hanna spots an owl.  Now, I thought she meant a stuffed owl.  But when I looked there was a real, giant owl (tethered on a long piece of rope) in the back room.  We found out the owl is 29 years old and the guy who owns the store grew up with the owl. It made the best noises....

Next time...our trip to London!

Blickling Hall

I'm in the beginning stages of researching for my dissertation, so I'm going a little crazy and decided I might as well post about my placement.

For our program we are expected to do a 14 day placement at a museum or heritage site of our choosing (with a very long management plan about the site to follow).  Because I couldn't afford to go to London for two weeks, I figure the next best thing was the National Trust Property Blickling Hall.  Blickling Hall is a 17th century property on roughly 5,000 acres of land.  The original building was in fact the site where Anne Boleyn was born and spent a few years so it's a famous site. In fact every 19 May(the day Anne Boleyn was executed) tons and tons of visitors show up to witness Anne Boleyn's headless ghost return to the site in a carriage pulled by a headless horseman.  Yeah, there are a lot of ghost stories about this site, but I sincerely doubt any of them are true.

  

 

The travelling to the site every day in March (when it was still freaking cold here in the UK) was difficult, I began by walking to the bus stop to take a 30 minute bus ride through the country.  The bus stopped at a small market town called Aylsham.  From there I then walked 25 minutes.  The walk began through a cemetery, then I walked along country roads with cars flying by and then for the majority of the journey I was on a dirt/grass horse path.  Sometimes along this journey pheasants (I'm terrified of birds in case you forgot) would randomly cross my path and I had to stop, walk away, until the bird wandered off.  So yes, that was my twice a day (unless one of the employees gave me a ride to Aylsham) daily commute. 

The Great Hall

Anyways, I greatly enjoyed my two weeks there, every day I was doing something different (from working with  marketing, to shadowing the house steward, dealing with volunteers, cleaning and configuring a 18th century dinning room setting, and dealing with daily conservation).  I also got to see rooms that the public doesn't view, learn little secrets and get really close to the beautiful objects.  The placement was probably the most useful (in a career aspect) part of my program.