Meanwhile, back at the castle...

I'm finally finished posting about the Geneva/The Hague trips, so now it's back to the castle :) I've been working more for Dr. Scott since I got back, to make up for the 2 weeks I was away staffing those trips (which counts as working for Nina). More cleaning and processing archaeology finds and working in the archives, but I've also been spending a lot of time working on plans for the archaeology field school's end-of-term trip to Salisbury, Newquay, and Bath. Nina had booked the accommodations long ago and Dr. Scott had a list of sites to visit during the trip (these are the sites that I was making history handouts about for the students back in May), but there was no itinerary yet. So I spent a lot of time on Google Maps calculating how long it would take to get from place to place, and building an itinerary from that info combined with the opening hours of the sites.

Now there's a student handbook to write, maps of each destination to make, research to do on where the coach can drop us off and park at each site, and many other related things to do before we leave in a month!

(Above and below) One of the first things I did when I got back was to sort out all my money and expense reports. I was given subsistence (food) money in three different currencies and separated by trip, and also had separate taxi and excess baggage float money. I had kept all my receipts but it still took a while to sort everything out!

It's been mostly nice weather since I've been back at the castle, so I've been trying to make sure I take the time to walk around and take some photos most days.

I see these rabbits on the path between Bader and the Castle almost every day!

Shakespeare garden

New flowers in the butterfly garden

New flowers in the butterfly garden

A temporary Zimbabwean Shona stone sculpture exhibit by artist Hilary Manuhwa has taken over the castle grounds until August 12th! Here's a few on the lawn next to the garden entrance and archaeology room.

Friday evening was the end-of-term celebration for the regular and Global Health summer students, so I got to attend with the rest of the staff and faculty. There was a nice dinner, some short speeches, and then several solo and group musical performances from some (incredibly talented!) departing students, including two opera singers. 

On Sunday and Monday, a traveling production of Taming of the Shrew from Shakespeare's Globe in London performed outdoors at the castle. I didn't see it myself (it was a ticketed event) but it drew lots of outside visitors to the castle. 

The field school students arrived Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning I went to their first class for all the introductions, and then that evening there was a wine and cheese night for all the field school students, faculty, staff, and visiting speakers. 

Monday evening was my course registration time for UBC, and I got all the ones I wanted, which definitely makes life easier! Greek and Roman Art, Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, Archaeology of the ancient Near East, and Seminar in Classical History.

(Above) These were waiting for me when I got home to the castle from Geneva the second time. Family and friends, mostly from the Irish dance community, had written me postcards for my bulletin board, and my mom had collected them and mailed them all together in one envelope. Thank you so much, it was a lovely surprise!

Many hours here required. This is the Bader gym, where I dance when I'm at the castle. The ankle that I sprained back in March stopped improving a while ago, but when I returned from Geneva I hesitantly practiced anyway and found that my ankle at least didn't get worse from it. So, that was a green light to go ahead and start training again- with the knowledge that, if I misjudge and am sore, I won't have to be walking all day the next day staffing a field study in a foreign city (which had held me back from trying this earlier). I still can't point my foot properly so that aspect of technique is out the window for now, but hopefully some physio when I get home can help with that. This was the longest I had gone without dancing in the 15 years since I started, and I have a daunting amount of work to do. I'd been incredibly lucky before this injury-wise, so I've never had to rebuild technique and stamina after an injury before; this will be a new and challenging learning experience!