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| Summer 2012 |
I'm leaving on May 1st to live at Herstmonceux Castle in England again for the third time. I feel indescribably fortunate to have this opportunity, and am very excited to return to this place that means so much to me.
How this came about: while at the castle last summer I started thinking about possibilities for returning there in the future. The obvious answer is to apply to be an SLC (Student Life Coordinator); there are always 3 SLCs at the castle, usually people who have just finished their undergrad degrees. However, the SLC job requires you to be extremely outgoing and constantly interacting with as many of the 100+ students as possible; it didn't seem like a good fit with my personality.
One of my friends at the castle last summer, Erica, was there as one of 2 undergrad research fellowship students working at the castle (she was working as a research assistant for my history/archaeology prof, Dr. Scott). I looked into applying for this fellowship for this summer, but am ineligible since I'm not a Queens student. Around the same time last summer, I also talked to Kelsey's classmate Sean, an upper-year student from the Jan-Apr 2012 semester who had stayed on at the castle for the summer as an intern for Nina (the Field Studies Coordinator). I incredulously asked him how he had managed to score such a great position for the summer, and he shrugged and said "I just asked!". Combined with Dr. Scott mentioning several times last summer about how busy he was and how he needed an assistant, I started to think there might be a non-SLC route to returning to the castle.
After meeting with Dr. Scott and asking if there were any non-SLC ways to come back to the castle in 2013, he suggested that I could help him with an academic conference that he will be organizing for summer 2013, combined with helping out with the archaeology field school, helping him with his research, and interning for Nina in the Field Studies office. I wrote letters of intent and had various meetings about this while at the castle last summer, and finally received my formal offer for this mix of positions in January 2013.
I'll be at the castle until August 5th, then traveling within England for a week before flying home on August 13th. I'll definitely be visiting Durham, and have a long list of other places I'd like to go to if time permits (top of the list: Ely, Oxford, and Exeter, as well as spending more time in London).
More photos and stories to come! Thanks for reading.
