Wednesday, October 20, 2010

My First Days in York

     I arrived in York on Sunday, and was met at the train station by my Auntie Linda, which was a lovely way to be welcomed to my new city. After a walk through town and a nice lunch, she left me to get settled at the Ace Hostel. The Ace is a great place in the center of town, housed in a newly renovated Georgian building, with lots of amenities. I thought I might not like sharing a room with 10 strangers, but so far there has only been one or two other people (all women, by design) in the room. It is a bit strange, especially sharing a tiny bathroom, but everyone is very nice and considerate. All but one of my roommates has been from Asia and traveling around Great Britain on their own.
     Monday started with a meeting to review the course with Sarah Brown, the course Director, who was most apologetic for her fellow countrymen at the visa office. Apparently there have been a lot of recent changes in the law, to the extent that one of the course professors has not been able to come from India, where he is part of the team working to conserve the Taj Mahal. I definitely feel that I am in lofty company, as most of the professors share similar distinctions! Monday ended with presentations by all of the 2nd year students, detailing their summer workshop placements and experience; they inlcuded placements in Germany, Scotland, York, Canterbury, and MOMA in New York City.
     I won't bore you with the details of running around doing administrative things, but there have been a lot. Tomorrow should see me with a bank account and cel phone at long last, and I hope to see several rental properties before the day is over.
     Today was the busiest and most exciting day by far. I have been grouped together with 2 other students. Our task was to read several texts from the 1400s, which gave instruction on how to make stained glass windows during those times. Most were written by monks or other clergy, and included glass making, cutting, painting, etc. After reading the texts we had to try to reproduce the results using one of the texts as a guide. So I spent most of the morning and then the afternoon, creating a chalk-covered board on which we drew our design with a piece of lead, and then trying to cut a piece of glass using a RED HOT POKER! The chalk board was easy, but it took us about 4 hours to cut one piece of glass! It was a lot of fun!
     In the middle of the day we had a lecture by Dr. Peter Gouldsborough on the Philosophy of Conservation, which was very interesting and thought provoking, but not as much fun as playing with a red hot poker! and with that thought I will say Good night!