The Mo

This week has seen me once again in Norwich and Norfolk, this time to pilot a programme of educational activities at the Sheringham Museum, lovingly called "The Mo" after a girl named Morag who used to live in Sheringham. The Museum includes a great collection of lifeboats that used to service the fishing industry on Norfolk's coast, as well as a lookout tower and telescopes highlighting the Sheringham Wind Farm. We had a great time with a small but fab group of students on their Easter holidays and a lovely frolic about the coastal rocks. Jake (another Marshall Scholar) came back to Holt Hall again to reprise his role as Low Carbon Mentor.

I am heading back to London tonight to actually and properly move into the new flat - and perhaps even have an honest-to-goodness sit-down meal with the new flatmate for Easter.

I have no comment on whether or not the buoy makes Jake look like a Teletubby...

Moving Day

I moved in with a mate yesterday, albeit somewhat temporarily.

My family from Norwich are moving to London!!!!!! We spent yesterday afternoon (immediately after I dropped all my stuff off at my new place) looking at houses. Iorwerth drove me about Ealing in search of our favourite neighbourhoods:

I've moved because it made most sense to give up my lease on the initial place at the six-month mark. Happily, Alex has a spare room he was willing to have taken over whilst the family move is up in the air. Once they sign on a house, I'll likely be in between the two places all summer whilst frolicking about on various trips.

Many thanks to Alex for his gracious hospitality. Now that I've dumped all my stuff off, it's time to leave for Norwich to teach tomorrow at the Sheringham Mo Museum!

The last tutorials...

My teaching with The Brilliant Club for this term is already coming to a near end. 

After our launch trips, we go into schools for four tutorials. There's then a month+ break, during which the students write and I grade their final assignments. There's then one more in-school feedback tutorial to talk about the grades, get thoughts on the course, and talk about uni options. 

I'm traveling to Orpington this morning to give the last of their four tutorials; Hayes had theirs yesterday. Then I'm done until mid-April, when I'll do my first ever formal marking as I sort through their essays. But I won't see the ducklings until 6 May. And I'm gonna miss them; they're absolutely hysterical. Really fantastic students who are engaged and asking all sorts of fascinating questions...which is, after all, the basis of the course.

More about The Brilliant Club from "Ramblings with Rebecca": https://youtu.be/TovGV5ivFKA

More about the class I'm teaching: https://youtu.be/_aLuDE11ujw

AMENDS in Istanbul!!

I am very happily back amongst the AMENDS Fellows, getting reenergised and resource-swapping. We're based at Koç University in Turkey this year, having fun frolicking about Istanbul and debating the future of our Network.

As you can see here, we're taking things very seriously:

 We are staying in the gorgeous Fuat Paşa Hotel - directly on the Bosphorus, Turkey's beautiful strait forming part of the barrier between Europe and Asia. There are green, forested mountains surrounding the university campus. All in all, I'm utterly miserable. ;)

Hull, Round 2

Two years ago, I visited the English city of Hull, birthplace of William Wilberforce, to deliver a lecture on the Evolving Role of the US Presidency as part of the Marshall Scholars' Speakers' Bureau. This year, I went again to give a slightly different talk on the same topic with a different subgroup of Scholars. We purposefully got in early and left late in order to frolic about the museums a bit. Had a delightful time revisiting some places I had been before with more awareness about contemporary Britain, adding new perspectives via the other Scholars, and finding a few new places.
The talk went well, and we had a dandy time exploring! Our trip included stumbling on a club located within an old church building called "The Mission", where we had a rather epic foosball tournament...

 

Every museum really should include a dress-up section...

 

Pints below the stained glass...only moderately sacrilegious of us.

 

Paying homage to one of the UK's leading abolitionists.

 

The Church of the Holy Trinity reflected in a modern office building.

Norwich!!

I realise it probably seems that I am in Norwich every other week. But that never makes it any less delightful for me.

I went in to join a mate for her end-of-MBA and finish-of-job drinks, and conveniently managed to organise a lot of meetings for my UEA teaching and Norfolk County Council outdoor residentials.

This weekend, Anne-Marie and the family were hosting a pile of American tourists: her great-aunt, a cousin, and a mate. We had fun showing off Norwich to new Americans - even as Eamonn dealt with an all-time record of Americans in the house when suddenly Nina and her parents, also visiting, showed up...so suddenly we had nine Americans in the same room. And then several of the same pubs. Suffice it to say that we were loud. ;)

Friday night, we had theatre tickets to Austentatious - which I saw in Edinburgh as part of the Fringe Festival as well. A thoroughly delightful show every time, as a group of improv actors draws an audience-suggested book title out of a hat and proceeds to perform it, Austen-style, in an entirely made up fashion (http://austentatiousimpro.com/shows/).

Grand times were had by all.

Derby

The Marshall Scholar Speakers' Bureau sends us about various UK partner universities to speak on topics in American political and social life, U.S.-U.K. relations, and the like. Yesterday I got to do a day trip to Derby (pronounced "darr-bee", not "durr-bee" as in the Kentucky). I spoke to a first year undergraduate class on religion in American politics. It was a three hour session, so happily I was able to get them talking - listening to me ramble for a solid three hours couldn't possibly be a pleasant experience for anyone involved.

After the morning class, I took a wee wander around the industrial town, popping into several of its museums and a pub that dates to 1530AD. 

The train ride was lovely, as I was just starting to get into the Peak District. 

This weekend is Norwich once again for meetings.