October 5

Lots of exciting things to report on!

-I have running shoes! Tomorrow Alan and I are going on a run. We've picked a circle route that is exactly one mile and mostly uphill. It'll be a really great way to get out of the apartment and take a break from all of our readings.

-CHRISTMAS MARKET!!!!! There huge here and we are going to one for the first week of our break! We'll go to the one in Sheffield of course, but there are a few bigger ones around the UK. We've chosen Birmingham because they partner with Frankfurt, so it'll be really fun! We are only staying three days, but we  figured we could explore the city, explore the market, and hit a few museums (there's a living industrial museum that we are going to).

-Halloween! Sheffield does a festival at the end of October, so that'll be fun! They love festivals here :)

-Most museums are free, but for those that aren't, they are usually connected to the English Heritage or National Trust. So, Alan and I got a young membership for the year, which lets us go to places like Stonehedge or that museum in Birmingham for free. We've also gotten a National Student Union card, which just recognizes us as students all over the EU and UK, so we can get student discounts on hotels or airfare and trains, etc. Pretty nifty ideas.

-Today I met with my module director about dissertation ideas and some field trip ideas for the CHM students (as I am the graduate liaison for it). This weekend we are going to an industrial museum called Abbeydale and Kalem Island. We are hoping to plan a trip down to Oxford for the Pitt Rivers Museum and another archaeology museum. Not sure if it'll happen, but that'd be amazing if it did!

-After my meeting today, I went with Sophia (one of the other CHM students) to a gallery down by the city center while Alan finished up class. There was an exhibit of some of the fine wares that Sheffield produced (steel and crystal). It was a lot of fun!

-I am the Cultural Heritage Management Graduate Student Rep, which means I have to go to meetings with archaeology and the management school to give input on the program. We only meet a few times, but its really great and I'll get to learn a lot about management through it!

-In class, Alan has learned a lot about geology maps. I don't have anything too fun to report on for class, its all management stuff, which is good to learn, but not nearly as exciting to talk about :P

-We had our cleaning day for the apartment and everything is nice and shiny! We are going to make something fun for dinner soon!

Lauren and Alan