Hilary Term, Here I Come

Hello, friends! Long time no write! In my last post, it seems I was still suffering from the delusion that I would have oodles of free time during my final weeks at Oxford to travel through England and update my blog with beautiful pictures of the countryside. As is most apparent now, that was not the case. My applications to grad school quickly sucked up a good chunk of that time, and before I knew it I was off to Bristol for the UK's annual Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference. From the conference, I went straight to Heathrow and returned home for the holidays. I did try to muster up the strength to write a post about TAG and my harrowing trip out of London, but with the holidays came a pretty severe bout of laziness. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish that post in the next couple of days.

My time at home was wonderfully relaxing. I got to enjoy all of my favorite things: the Denver Zoo, Mommy's homemade pumpkin and apple pies, and--yes--staying in my pajamas all day long. There's nothing better than that! Those couple of weeks passed by all too quickly--I felt like I had only just arrived when the time came to pack up and leave. But, before returning to the UK, I had the opportunity to visit Dumbarton Oaks for a few days and continue with the project I had been working on over the summer. My mentors and advisers Bill and Barbara Fash (i.e. two of my favorite people) were also in town for the Copan Workshop, so I had the chance to reconnect with them as well. It was truly a pleasure to be able to see everyone again and reunite with my fellow Pre-Columbianists. If there's one thing I have missed since my summer at D.O., it's the fascinating and thought-provoking conversations you can have when seated at a table with the experts in your field. Looking back on it now, I realize how incredibly lucky I was to have such an opportunity in the first place!

Speaking of being incredibly lucky, I am now back at Oxford, ready to embark on Hilary Term. My course for the term is on body and adornment in late medieval Britain (AD 1000 - 1500). The Ashmolean has extensive collections relevant to this subject, so I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to work with some of them. I'll also be sitting in on lectures concerning Anglo Saxon society and economy, the archaeology of modern human origins, and maybe something related to classical Greece. Maybe. And did I mention I will be going on a day trip to Stonehenge in early February? This will definitely be an interesting term, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Well, as I said, I will try to finish that pre-holiday post in the next couple of days. Until then, I hope all is well back in the States.
Alyce