Colchester Castle

Today I visited Colchester Castle with some staff and volunteers from Ancient House and the children in the Museum Club and the History Club. These clubs both meet regularly at Ancient House where they work on projects, listen to guest speakers, and participate in various other activities. Sometimes they go on trips, like they did today.

There was one adult assigned to every three children. My children were Georgia, Hadyn, and Connor. Georgia wants me to move to England permanently, Hadyn looks like a Weasley (but isn't too mischievous), and Connor prefers the Greeks to the Romans.

We walked down to the parking lot to get on the coach. I wasn't sure how much room there would be so I sat in the seat next to Georgia. After I saw all the empty seats I was sure my kids thought I was lame for sticking so close to them. But I had a nice conversation with Georgia and she asked me to sit with her on the ride back so I guess I wasn't too uncool.

The castle has been converted into a museum, so we started out by exploring the first floor in our groups. My favorite thing was Boudicea's chariot. It is actually the chariot that was used in a movie about Boudicea.

After that we ate lunch, then we went underground where a woman from the museum talked to us about the Romans. Under Claudius the Romans took over the land of the Trinovantes, including the capital city of Camulodunum (which is now Colchester). They made the local people build a temple to Claudius after he died. The underground chambers we were sitting in were filled with sand to support the weight of the temple. When Boudicea led the Britons against the Romans they burned the temple to the ground and took Camulodunum. Later on the Normans moved in and built a castle on top of the temple ruins. They used Roman debris, making Colchester the only red castle.

The woman from the museum led us upstairs where the kids got to handle some Roman artifacts and try their hand at building a round house and a Roman villa. When they were finished we looked around at the rest of the museum. Then we came home!

Funny Bunny Day

The train trip to Thetford:

When I picked up my pre-booked tickets at the station I discovered it was only a ticket. I had somehow managed to buy a single to Thetford, but not a return back. I went into the ticket office to see about buying the return ticket and the woman was kind enough to refund my single and then sell me the whole journey at once, since it was cheaper that way.

The train was very crowded, probably because Easter break just started. I sat in a table seat with three other people. The table seat across the aisle from me had parents and their small child. During the train ride the child started coughing and sounded like he was going to throw up. Instead of hurrying her child to the bathroom, the mother put her hand in front of his mouth to catch the vomit. Needless to say, her one hand didn't even beging to cut it. The kid started coughing again and then threw up all over the table and floor. Thankfully, the Thetford stop came up soon.

Funny Bunny Day:

I was in one of the front rooms at Ancient House armed with my bunny books. The staff decided to provide me with a taxidermied rabbit in a plastic box. There was a hole in the box so that you could reach in and pet the bunny. They warned me that the bunny's paws were delicate and to encourage the kids to pet him on the head. Well, I told every single child to pet the bunny on the head nicely and almost every one tried to put a death grip on the paw. Like a magnet.

One of the books I brought was Antoinette Portis's Not a Box. It went over really well with the very little kids, one of whom had been playing in a box just this morning! On one page the bunny is imagining that his box is a burning sky scraper that he is putting out. A dad commented that this must be an American book based on the sky scraper and the "FD" on the rabbit's helmet for "Fire Department." Guilty as charged. Two of the three books I brought were American.

After the bulk of the visitors had come to hear me read, the staff asked me to help out upstairs because there was a unmanned craft table. So, I spent the rest of the day helping children make rabbit ear headbands, masks, and finger puppets.

The train ride back to Norwich:

The train was almost as crowded as it was this morning. I saw a man sitting alone at a table seat and decided that was as much space as I was going to get. I sat down accross from him before I noticed his dog under the table. It was a nice dog and really didn't bother me, but I could tell that the man was pretty tense for the rest of the ride worrying about how his dog was behaving.

John drove me to and from the train station. What a sweetie!

Hippy Dress

After getting up early the past two days all I felt like doing today was being a bum. Pathetic, I know, but I'm out of practice with that whole being a productive member of society thing.

Here is a picture of me in the retro dress I bought in London. I wore it for the 1960's event at Ancient House. It is a shame that you can't make out the two tiny braids in my hair.




















Peace out!

Storytelling at Ancient House

Yup, Ancient House events two days in a row.

Today's event was International Story Day. Each person was telling stories from a different part of the world. I opted to tell stories from America. I knew that this event would be a little bit of a challenge for me, because I am one of those people who really feeds off the energy of the audience and because of the nature of the event there was pretty much no chance of my having a large audience at any given time.

The first young man who wandered into my room actually turned out to be the most difficult. I asked him before I began my story if he was willing to participate. He said "yes." So I proceeded headlong into "The Foolish Frog" only to find that he was willing to participate, but not to sing. I, of all people, can't blame him for that, but I did feel a little awkward carrying on by myself.

After that I asked children if they were willing to participate, AND if they were willing to sing. (I did prepare more than one story, after all. No point telling one that didn't suite the audience.) The other children who came all had siblings, and I think that made them braver. I got plenty of singers and told "The Foolish Frog" a few more times with much better results. One girl actually said aloud during the story, "This is too funny!"

At the very end two boys who looked like they were school age came in and so I decided to try out my "older" story on them. It's called "How Jack Came to America" and I got it from a collection of Jack stories by Donald Davis. I planned to introduce the story by talking about how we have Jack stories in the part of the world I come from and also over here in England and why do you think that is? I thought the children might realize that people who moved from England brought Jack with them. But that is not the answer I got. I got, "Jack is a pretty common name." If you haven't told your audience what to say, you really have no idea what kind of response you are going to get.

All the kids who came in were really great listeners and were a pleasure to tell stories to. And as long as the audience is made up of listeners, it doesn't really matter how many of them there are.

1960's at Ancient House

After all that research, today was the day! I talked to museum patrons about '60s protests some of the time. But I did a lot of listening. I especially enjoyed talking with the ladies who lived in Thetford during the town expansion. This is actually the reason that the '60s are significant to Thetford and it was really interesting to learn more about it.

I was quite impressed that so many of the children understood the concept of making a protest poster. Once I said "think of something you don't like and talk about how you want less of it, or think about something you do like and talk about how you want more of it," they came up with some great posters. We had protests of baked beans, tomatoes, and hunting cheetahs, and we had kids promoting recycling, rabbits, guinea pigs, and flowers.

What's with the mustache? I finally recorded "The Ballad of John's LLM."



A small piece of advice: When doing a large recording and editing project, save often. Because if imovie crashes and you haven't saved, you might want to throw Lappy out the window. And that's not really good for you. Or the laptop. Or the window.

Posers

In further preparation for the upcoming '60s event I read the Communist Manifesto. I had learned that the people who participated in the debate "Students in Revolt" seemed to have Marxist leanings, so I thought I should read some Marx.

And I can't help but kind of laugh about the university students acting like they can relate to the plight of the industrial proletariat. There is an entire section of the Manifesto dedicated to describing Socialist groups who aren't true Communists. Posers, if you will. None of the groups described are actually made up of the proletariat, which makes me think Marx doesn't think you can really be a Communist without being a proletarian. These students of the '60s who seem to idolize Marx (they took a picture by his grave after the debate) are surely middle class.

I wonder if anyone saw the irony.

Swans

I went into Thetford today for a volunteer meeting at Ancient House. The meeting started at the same time that the museum opened and since I was there half an hour early (due to the train schedule), I couldn't get in. So I went for a walk by the river. There were several swans in the river and I was impressed by how they could stay in one place if they wanted to even though the current seemed strong. As I walked along I came upon a pair of swans that decided to follow me. They just swam along beside me. And one swan let out a short "merp" every few seconds to make sure that I had noticed them. Alas, I did not have any food so my friends eventually lost interest.

On anther note, now that the website is up and running I have arranged for http://www.voxfabularum.com to be the home address. If you have saved the address I was previously linking to, it will no longer work.

London Weekend

Thursday:
We traveled by train to London, Liverpool Street and took a cab to our hotel. Dinner at the Texas Embassy. After Texas gained independence from Mexico and before it was part of the US it was it's own country and had an embassy in London very near the location of the restaurant. So says the menu.

Friday:
The British Museum! We spent a long time in the Roman and Greek areas. I got to see the Elgin Marbles. After lunch we ran through the "must see"s including the Rosetta Stone.
Friday night was at the opera (in my black dress) to see La Boheme.

Saturday:
The Original Tour. Did you know that Trafalgar Square has no pigeons because a hawker and his hawk are there all day? Did you know that if you sit in the top of a tour bus in freezing weather for a long time your legs can get numb from cold without you realizing it until you stand up?
We added layers before going on the Thames river cruise. We also stopped by a retro clothing store we discovered and I got a dress for the upcoming 1960's Ancient House event.
Saturday night we saw Avenue Q. It spoke to me as a college graduate (especially a college graduate with a "BA in English.")

Sunday:
Leisurely lunch with Gray (a dear friend from UGA who is studying in London). We ate at a restaurant that serves dum sum. Shared food in small portions that keeps coming as long as you keep ordering. Perfect for catching up and reminiscing. Then the train ride back to home sweet home.

Pictures will follow after I unpack.

Penguins

I went to the library today to find some books on the 1960's (doing research for an upcoming Ancient House event) and saw penguins. Now you have seen them, too.

Feeling With Your Fingers

I went to Ancient House this morning to help out with another event. This was the third day of programs about blindness and mobility. There were several things going on today including learning about guide dogs, typing in braille, and feeling with your fingers.

I was in the kitchen with a bowl and a box of cereal. I encouraged people to close their eyes, then pour the cereal into the bowl without looking. Throughout the day many people of all ages came in to give it a try.

I went to a talk on stuff that blind people use in their daily life (like a device that tells you what color your clothes are!), and typed my name in braille. (You might want to click on the picture to see it up close.)
















I got John to walk with me through the park yesterday so I could take a picture of the sailboat pond (and then I forgot to post the picture). It has looked like this all week. I usually see it in the morning when I'm running, but I think it looks kind of magical in the twilight.

Weird Things That Really Happened

First Weird Thing
John stayed up really late last night to watch the national championship game. Sometime after he finally came to bed I heard him say, "Hey."
I wasn't sure if that was just a random exclamation or if he needed something, so I asked, "Do you need something?"
John: "Yeah, I need you to grill those things."
Me: "???"
John: "I need you to grill those things we skinned."
Me: "zzzzzz"
John: "zzzzzz"
Later in the afternoon when he finally woke up he had no recollection of this conversation.

Second Weird Thing
I was expecting a call from Ancient House this morning about volunteering this weekend. I was running and listening to an audio book. (I have taken note of the recommendations, but am currently listening to a random book I downloaded to test out how Georgia Download Destination works.) This audio book has jazzy music between the chapters. My phone plays jazzy music when it rings. The call came and I just listened to it ringing thinking it was the end of the chapter in my book! Then, when the book came back on and it wasn't a new chapter, I realized what happened. I called back, found out they do need me this weekend, and went back to listening to the book. The chapter ended after another minute or so, and the music that came on was totally the same riff that is my phone ring. Different instrument, but same riff, I kid you not.

Hymn to Mercury

I volunteered at another Ancient House event today. The program was called "Toys and Tales." I decided to draw on Roman mythology for my toy and tale by telling the story of Mercury's adventures as a newborn and making model lyres.

Here is what mine looked like. It is the brown and green thing in the middle of the table. (If you click on the picture it will enlarge.)














And the string side.



















Everyone had fun making lyres but most of the kids were too little to want to hear the story. Oh well.

But for you, here it is. I adapted my version of the story from Homer's Hymn to Hermes. I know, I know, I don't really like to give the impression that the Greek gods and Roman gods are interchangeable, but Ovid's paragraph long account of Mercury stealing Apollo's cows just didn't do it for me. It's not often that Ovid lets me down, but I guess when you create a sprawling mythological work like the Metamorphoses some stories are bound to fall through the cracks.

When Mercury was first born he walked outside of his cave and found an empty turtle shell lying on the ground. He said to himself, "This shell provided a strong and safe home for the turtle when it was alive. But now it can make music!" He took the turtle shell back into the cave and stretched strings across it. He tuned the strings so that each played a different note. He had just invented the lyre!
After a little while, he got tired of playing with his new toy. He hid it under the pillow in his crib and went out exploring. Soon he came to a large field that contained a herd of cattle. The field and the cattle happened to belong to his older brother Apollo.
Mercury started herding the cattle down the road. At first he brushed away their tracks but then he came up with a new plan. He made the cows walk backwards. As he was walking, he was also leaving behind footprints so he decided should disguise those, too. He wove himself sandals out of grass. He made the bottoms of the sandals very large so that he made monster-sized footprints.
As he was herding the cattle down the road backwards, and wearing his new sandals, he saw an old man working in his vineyard. Mercury called out to him, "There is no need for you to mention what you have seen here."
Mercury led the cattle all the way down to the ocean. He played with them on the beach until he got tired. Then he went home for a nap. When he got inside his cave he crawled into his crib and wrapped himself tightly in his blankets.
Soon, Apollo returned home and discovered that his cattle were missing. He searched all around and at first he could find no sign of them. Finally he discovered the backwards footprints. What was more, he saw that the creature herding the cows was enormous!
As he followed the footprints down the road, he came to the old man working in his vineyard. "Did you see who was driving these cattle?" Apollo asked him.
The old man answered, "I have lived a long time and seen many strange things, but I have never seen anything as strange as a baby wearing giant sandals driving a herd of cattle backwards."
Apollo remembered that he had a new baby brother, and if any baby could steal a herd of cattle, he was surely a son of Jupiter.
He hurried to Mercury's cave and woke him from his nap.
"Where are my cows?" He asked.
Mercury looked up at him sleepily. "How could I steal your cows? I'm just a baby."
Apollo pressed on. "I have a witness. I know it was you."
"I was only born today. Maybe I have heard stories about cows, but I've never seen one." Mercury answered.
Apollo was getting angry. He walked over to the crib, picked Mercury up, and glared at him.
Mercury did something very stinky in his diaper, and since Apollo was not used to babies doing stinky things while he was holding them, he dropped him.
Mercury looked up from the floor and said, "I think we should talk to Dad."
So, Apollo and Mercury went up Mount Olympus to see Jupiter.
"Dad," Apollo started, "Mercury stole my cows."
Mercury looked up at Jupiter innocently. "How could I steal his cows? I'm just a baby."
"I have a witness. It was him."Apollo continued.
But Mercury denied it again. "I was just born a few hours ago. I have never even seen a cow."
At this point Jupiter started laughing. "You know, from up here on Mount Olympus I can see everything. I saw you steal his cows. You are very bold to lie not only to your father but also the king of the gods. Now show Apollo where you put the cows."
Mercury finally had to give in. He took Apollo to the sea shore where he had hidden the cows. And he also decided that there should be no animosity between brothers so he gave Apollo the lyre as a peace offering.
Apollo now possessed a musical instrument like no other. And Mercury established himself as the patron god of thieves and tricksters.

If you haven't figured it out from the story and pictures, we made our model lyres by coloring paper bowls to look like turtle shells, and then stretching strings across the opening.

Christmas Under Fire

So this wasn't from the Ancient House event. John and I spotted the Rudolph bench in our own neighborhood. But since this is a Christmasy post, I thought I'd include the picture.

Now here's me in my 1940s Home Front Lady-Type Worker outfit.





















So, I think my playing and singing were okay. There were never any large groups that wandered into my area and I had a hard time convincing people to sing with me. Mostly John and I sang on our own, wandered around to see the other 1940s stuff, and talked with other volunteers.

One little girl agreed to sing with us, but actually just read along as we sang. I didn't mind since she was at least smiling the whole time. At the very end of the night a man came up to us while we were singing and joined in, then requested another song. He is from Hawaii and is currently living in Thetford. He was happy to meet some other Americans, and loves singing! I only wish he had shown up earlier.

Although I doubt I will ever truly see myself as a "singer," tonight was a sort of break-through for me. The last time I tried to sing in front of people; really sing, like in a singing voice, I choked. That has haunted me. It's hard to believe you can do something when you have proven to yourself that you can't. I had my moments tonight, but in the end I did it. And I'm very grateful to John, not only for being there for me tonight, but for loving my singing all the time.

I am exceptionally happy that the next time I go to Ancient House I will be storytelling, but I am glad I volunteered to do something a little different tonight.

Favorite Christmas Song Lyrics

I have been practicing Christmas songs on the guitar like a mad woman. I am playing for the 1940s Christmas this Friday and I am pretty nervous. I don't tend to feel very confident about singing in front of people (although working at the library went a long way towards curing me of that) and I have never played guitar for anyone but John.

When I was a kid I liked practicing songs on the piano that I could sing along to. It made them more fun. When I was in high school and got home before everyone else I usually used that time to play piano and sing (because of that whole not liking to sing in front of people thing). And I've found that playing songs on the guitar that I can sing along to is more fun, too. In fact, on guitar, I do something I never did on piano. When I sing, I'm usually playing chords, so I'm really playing one thing and singing another.

Practicing these Christmas songs, I have done a lot of singing, (well I had to practice that, too) and singing the same songs day after day, I've gotten to know what they are saying better than I did before.

I had never payed much attention to the song "The Friendly Beasts." Maybe I thought it was a little silly. I'm not sure. Anyway, I love it. It's so gentle and sweet. My favorite verse is the one about the doves:

"I" said the dove from the rafters high,
"I cooed Him to sleep that He would not cry.
We cooed Him to sleep, my mate and I."
"I," said the dove from the rafters high.

I think I like it because the other animals give really practical gifts like a blanket or bed, but the doves give the gift of song and a different sort of comfort.

I don't think I was previously very familiar with the additional verses of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" either. I really like the line, "Pleased as Man with man to dwell."

I hope that this Christmas we all sings songs of comfort and are pleased to live among men.

1940s

So, for this 1940s Christmas at Ancient House I need to look the part. I didn't bring my full wardrobe with me to England, so even if I own something 1940ish, its not here. I looked in a few thrift shops and even regular clothing stores and haven't found anything to my liking.







It occurs to me that dressing like Rosie the Riveter might be the easiest way to go, but maybe she's too American? I'm open to suggestions...or clothing donations.

Upcoming Performances

Friday December 5th: Christmas Under Fire!
Ancient House is celebrating Christmas 1940s style. I will be bringing my guitar to Thetford where I will try to get visitors to the museum to sing Christmas carols with me.

Friday January 2nd: Toys and Tales!
This is another Ancient House event. There will be stories and toys from the past. I'll be doing some Roman storytelling.

Saturday January 17th: So You Want to be President
I am doing an American themed story time for the children's library to celebrate the inauguration of our new president.

Nelsonesque

First things first. From this day forward John shall be known as John esquire because he passed the Georgia bar!!! (We haven't heard from Tennessee yet.)

I took another trip to Thetford today to observe what they do for "Ancient House Alive" days. I've observed a few different events since moving here but this was by far the most fun. I stood drinking tea amongst women in Roman and Iceni costumes talking about everything from Roman Briton to what the locals think of Thomas Paine. I really enjoyed being around the other volunteers and seeing what they do. They each designed their own station. There was Roman food in the kitchen, an olive tree, pipe cleaner torc bracelets, and paper mosaics. I'm looking forward to participating in the coming months and designing my own station! They also have some knitting events that I might go to so I can learn a few things.

As I walked from Ancient House to the train station it started hailing.

After lunch John wanted to go into town to buy some warm clothes and get an iphone. We had a very productive trip. On our way back to the flat we stopped at the co-op to get some candy. I put a pumpkin picture in the window so kids would know we were participating in Halloween. It was worth it because we did get one trick-or-treater. He had on a shirt with skeletons and a witches hat with stars. Not sure what he was other than cute. I think John and I will find a use for the left over candy.

Oh, and I'm wearing the spiderweb tights today with my black dress. Not quite a costume, but Halloweeny.

What do Boudicea, Thomas Paine, and Duleep Singh Have in Common?

Thetford.




















Today I traveled to another city. By myself. Using only public transportation.















I had an interview with Ancient House.



















I have been terrified of this interview. It involved travel and I wasn't really sure what to expect. But it turns out that Ancient House uses storytelling and other people-interactive-type-stuff with their exhibits frequently. And they think what I do is pretty neat. And they are focusing on their Roman collection this year. Really things turned out exactly as I wanted them to. I'll get to do classical storytelling at events that are already planned and it won't be so frequently that the distance will be prohibitive.

*Sigh of relief*