Orientations, Walking, and Cemeteries

Farm entrance on the road to the village

Today I did a few hours of research for Nina in the morning (still working on the Travel Writing field school field study wishlist from yesterday) and then helped her with the Field Studies orientations in the afternoon. This is orientation weekend for all 100 newly-arrived students: today was admin stuff (intros to field studies, the library, student services, the gardens, musicians in residence, plus lots of paperwork) and then tomorrow they're gone all day on a bus tour of the local area (Eastbourne, Birling Gap, etc). 

There wasn't much to actually do to help Nina; she did three separate sessions (one for the regular summer students, one for the law students, and one for the Global Health program students) and I just handed out info sheets and handled the safety waiver signature process. I also got to answer some questions, since Nina introduced me each time as her intern and a former castle student. 

At dinner I got to meet the two Queens research fellowship students: as I mentioned, one of them is working for Dr. Scott. They both arrived yesterday and will be here until early August like me; the last summer students leave on July 18, so it's nice to know I'll have some company in those quiet last few weeks! Like me, they both fall through the cracks a bit here, in that they're not students but not staff. They asked me to show them where a few places in the castle were (library, pub etc) so we did a quick castle tour after dinner, which was fun. 

Since I was free after dinner and it was nice out, I walked to the village in the evening (my second time today; I go in the mornings too). Here are a couple of photos:

There are a few public walking trails like the one in the above photo which branch off from the road. I don't know where they go, and I look forward to exploring them in the coming months. I'm hesitant to do so right now because they're very narrow and uneven, whereas the route to the village is a flat paved road. I'm allowed to walk on my sprained ankle and weight-bearing isn't a problem, but I have no ready access to non-emergency medical care here so I really want to be responsible and not risk re-injury. I still can't dance because I can't point my toes on that foot properly or bear much weight when my heel is off the ground; so, since walking is one of the few forms of exercise I can do (my usual summer running "learn to run 10K" routine, along with pretty much everything else, is still off-limits), I'm trying to do a lot of it (hence the 8 miles of village roundtrips today).

On my way back to the castle after my evening walk, I wandered into the All Saints Herstmonceux churchyard. It's a beautiful little area just 2 minutes from Bader Hall. The gravestones range from barely-readable 1800s ones to 2012 burials. I find it really interesting to read the inscriptions and learn a little bit about the people who have made up the local community.

Speaking of graveyards, Dr. Scott told me something really interesting yesterday: the next three years of summer archaeology field school at the castle (2014-2016) will be devoted to excavating at the Pevensey church. Pevensey is a nearby town (see my earlier posts about Pevensey Castle) and their church has run out of room in their graveyard; they need to expand, but they're situated on top of/adjacent to an Anglo-Saxon church, and this needs to be excavated before new burials can be interred at the site (so, they won't be excavating burials, just the Anglo-Saxon church next to the current cemetery to clear the way for its expansion). Anyways, it sounds like such a cool project!