Summertime and the livin' is breezy

To the tune of Barenaked Ladies Three Weeks: It's been three weeks since the England trip.  Turned my head round and I was comin' back.  

I could try to keep going with that silly verse, but my point is that it feels like just yesterday I had airport troubles(to the tune of a 9 hour delay between two airports) and then was uploading photos of my trip to Facebook.  I know everyone in my class has had work or school since returning- I haven't heard much from LH or AG especially(sad!)- and I myself have lost track of summer.  It's August 25th, with just over a week left before I moved back into my house in Rhode Island and already I have attended one wedding, one night of karaoke, one night of a 90s cover band, several girls nights(complete with popcorn!), had a few bottles of Pumpkinhead and Octoberfest, gone to a drive in movie for Despicable Me 2, several movies(Red 2, We're the Millers, The World's End, etc.) and so much more.  In the remaining week, I hope to visit my friend's camp, attend a fair, finish packing, finish my 15-20 page paper(yes, even I still have a little left.  But mostly the bibliography and like a page, so that counts for something) and drink plenty of pumpkin iced coffee.  

In the time that I have been back, I have shared many a story from my travels.  I have way to many photos- no one person(minus myself) has seen them all.  Paris contains almost 200, Scotland almost 600, and Harry Potter holds almost 700.  I think...  Many people love hearing my story about how I went on a date with a Scottish guy.  And I am glad that I did, I think it has given me some confidence and level of assurance that I didn't have before.  In fact, I have been chatting with a nice guy this month and find myself not thinking too far forward.  I miss London, there was so much to see and everything was very close- everywhere I have gone this summer has been 15-90 minute drive away.  Except Moosehead Lake, that was almost 4 hours.  But very fun and the kayaking story deserves to be told.

So it was out first full day there, out of three total days, and BC and myself decided to go kayaking.  Now while I don't own my own kayak(yet) I absolutely love it.  I only ride single, the doubles remind me too much of canoing- which I hate with a passion.  So we head out, I in the single and BC in the double, and go to a small island slightly off our shore.  We "park" and look around, BC asks me "where do you want to go next?" to which I look further from where we are and spot a nice island with big green trees and some landing rocks.  I say "how about that island?"  BC doesn't protest and we head out.  And we paddle.  More paddling.  We had some footage between us so neither one of us was sharing their idea that this island seemed a little too far and that the travel on the waves seemed much too easy.  We got there, eventually, but couldn't park because the waves were almost crashing our boats to the rocks.  So, we tried turning around and found the waves were pretty sizable.  We had to paddle a lot harder.  We went to the shore, on the opposite side of our camp, and discovered we must have been at least a mile or two from the camp.  With the large waves, it took us a lot longer to paddle back.  Apparently BC was swearing, again we were at a distance due to paddling, but I was the least of our worries that week(her grandmother is a little schedule happy and it got on her nerves).  However, it has been deemed that I am not to pick where we go again- hopefully this just means kayak-wise.  Its definitely one of those look-back-and-be-funny tales.

This year is going to be a busy one.  I quit Dunkin in May, before the summer hit, so that when I left for England I had two graduate assistanceships, three classes, and one of which is an internship.  When I came back in August, my boss from the spring told me my schedule was too busy to work for her.  So, I went down to one graduate assistanceship.  I am quite excited about this one because I like the people I work for and the project is cataloging- which I will have proper training and therefore learn tons by.  I am also excited for my internship, on digital literacy, which kicks off in my first full school week.  The classes might prove a challenge, but they pertain to public libraries and I want some class principles as well as first hand experience.  I have an interview lined up for a part-time library when I come back as well as communications with a public library I worked at last year on Sundays.  Needless to say, I am keeping a better daily planner this year.  I don't even want to think about spring, when its comps season and graduation.  Jinkies!

For now, I am going to eat grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, Octoberfest, and blueberries.  Ahh, summertime in Maine and the livin' is breezy.  I always hope for a breeze anyways, it keeps the mosquitos away!

British Studies: Day 12

Being in London forces one to learn their directions quickly.  Also, undergrounds at 8:30-9am are nuts.  This morning JD and I, my Scotland travel mate for the mini holiday, needed to purchase our unlimited passes.  In doing so, we left at 8:30 promptly, purchased them at Waterloo, bought coffee/bagel, and were waiting at our respective crosswalk(the one facing the station) and began waiting by 8:50 for our group.  Now, as I said before, there was tons of foot traffic and we were watching down the sidewalk, where we have always crossed at, for fifteen specific women.  By 9:15, these women did not come.  Beginning to grow frantic(it has been days since we went towards the British library so we didn't exactly remember how to get there) we doubled back to the courtyard to make sure no one was waiting for us.  They were, in fact, gone.  Luckily, JD has a data plan and can Google Maps like no tomorrow.  We figured that we had to connect from Waterloo(walking there once more) and to Euston, then a brief walk.  We did that, no problem and a few minutes before ten.  When we got to the area for the British Conservation Library(the behind the scenes of the British Library) no one was there either.  At this point I checked my phone, it has had shoddy reception/receiving abilities the whole trip(until seemingly this week) and I had a missed call from a classmate, telling me we had missed them in Waterloo.  This evening, we discovered, they had crossed to Waterloo several crosswalks up, thereby blending into the foot traffic we had been ignoring on the far side.  Like I said, quick moving.

Either way, we had made it and while people had no idea where were were suppose to meet our group, this was solved when we met them in the front entrance of the British Conversation Library.  Here our tour guide was Robert Brodie, the leader of the team.  He began by pointing out the architecture of the facility, north facing with much natural light, and no pipes.  They have a display here with many type face tools of which are impressive to have since they originally were headed for America on the Titanic.  Their photo center has a special water system that allows pure water- calcium and CO2 or something- and can hold many items at a time.  To work on a piece, one must enter a bidding and estimating process, this allows 66% of the collection, and items won in bidding might contain a 350 hour project.  There are teams used for this time, as they figure how long(estimate) and is sent to the head of the department where they give options that dictate the outcome of their proposals.  There are minimum interventions, high profile phases, frequent requests, and digitization that affect these proposals.  Typically they work in pairs.  Robert over sees some people himself.  Having taken a history of books and printing course, this was all fascinating to see up close.  They have special boxes for different items, office records and geneological items make up the bulk of the collection, and then we saw examples.  One such example was an office record with a decorative and practical look.  It had a spring back, marble pages, and if you rip out a page it leaves an opening.  Quite noticeable.  Another example was of a leather bound book that was rebound but used the original leather pieces.  Life the leather, reline the book, add new leather, put in the old, and set it.  Here they left the original innards, some manuscript notes that were in both front and back covers, and the work was from 1649.  If a work needed sewing, there are many different types of Japanese paper, including shusi and kuzu-shi.  

A nice entrance.

Our second guide was Chris of the PACCAR finishing department.  It takes years to learn this skill, of which much patience is involved and much knowledge of heating elements, leather/cloth reaction, and type face mishaps.  Their job is no freehand, but rather comes with specific instructions for typefact and gold from the others.  They use a stone to heat the type and a souffle looking item to cool it, so that the type doesn't punch through the leather.  Gold foil melts easiest but the spine must be washed first and then clamped down.  Gold leaf is used for leather and gold foil for cloth, which is interesting.  It has to be cut to size, the gold is cut on a cushion, and then pasted with an eggwhite glue to the area of the book.  The tools used vary by style and as Chris has worked at more decorative places before, he is quite good here.  Francis, a conservator, was very nice as well.  I asked if the Illuminated Manuscripts with gold gilded pages come here and indeed they do.  I am not sure what the process involves, but I imagine it is more time taking then other areas, however they told me that the works pretty much keep them selves up.  

That's gold foil.  On K's finger.

And don't worry, I am doing research in here.  I tried to see a document from the British Library(featured in their display Crime Fiction A-Z) today, but the readers card process was a little more technical then I anticipated.  Turns out, my drivers license does not have my current house address and I need to return later this week if I am to learn nothing about the display.  On the upside, I have an appointment scheduled with the Westminster Reference Library for tomorrow to discuss their huge Sherlock Holme s collection.  I am very happy about this.

In the evening, I hopped on a tube to Euston, a train to Watford Junction, and a "knight" bus to the Warned Brothers Harry Potter J&K stages.  Let me tell you, I haven't been able to afford going to Harry Potter World, but I know this was ten times better.  I can't wait to upload photos, as there are at least a thousand, but it was fantastic.  I went with a great bunch- thank you, you know who you are- and had the experience of a lifetime.  I was able to sit in/on Hagrid's motorcycle, walk acrros the bridge of Lupin(my favourite character) and Harry in that touching scene,, pose with chess pices that were larger than me, see the special effects of the cratures(oh yes, Aragog too), and drink Butterbeert with a souvenir cup to boot!  I think I will be reliving moments of this for a long time.  If you can g, do so.  Spend the money, it is highly worth it.  Make sure to have some time, bring some friends and just take it all in.  I did and it is the best night of the trip, I think this is safe to say.  And, as you have read by now, I have done quite a bit.  

LH & I, stealing a ride in Hagrid's motorcycle!