It's been three weeks since I arrived in England for the spring term, and I sadly only have three more weeks last. Alas. That said, I'm still around and I haven't posted anything because I don't have access to Adobe Photoshop here, not to mention that I don't have time.

Here's a brief list of some of the more interesting things I've been up to over the last while though:

1. Finally saw the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles at the British Museum yesterday. My life is complete.

2. Went on my first archaeological dig today with my HIST 289 (England Since 1851) tutor (ie. professor), which was at the site of a medieval house in Wartling. Spent the morning doing some digging and found a rocks and shards of pottery, then spent the afternoon washing finds.

3. During the first week, I went on a tour of the Houses of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, and it was absolutely GORGEOUS on the inside, especially in the House of Lords side of the building.

4. Went to the Imperial War Museum on Friday for a history field study and loved it, though it was extremely depressing as well. I only had time to look at the exhibits for World War I, World War II, D-Day, and the special Children's War exhibit about WWII from the perspective of British children, but the last one is definitely a tear-jerker, though very very good and it's too bad it's only a temporary exhibit.

5. Other highlights so far include a day trips to Birling Gap and Brighton, field studies at Trafalgar Square and the Victoria & Albert Museum, a random visit to the National Gallery, riding on the Underground for the first time on Friday, and generally going to classes in a castle, though the novelty has worn-off by now.

Tomorrow, I'm tagging along with a trip to Knole, a gorgeous country house, even though I'm not in the class for that field study, which is for HIST 287 (Early Modern England). I love my classes, especially IDIS 304 (British Studies I; best class I've ever taken), though I'm not too happy with CLST 206 (Roman Britain) because it's a little disorganized and our trip to the British Museum got canceled (it's the museum's fault), but eh.

The only field studies I have left are a Jack the Ripper walking tour of London, Fishbourne Roman Palace, Barcombe (for an excavation), and Pevensey Castle, and then a midterm overnight trip to Dieppe in France., and then it's all over. That saddens me.

On Thursday, I'm leaving to go and study for six weeks at a castle in the English countryside Unfortunately, I do not get to live in the castle itself, but I'll get it to walk to it to take classes four times a week (Friday and the weekends are reserved for field studies, usually to various locations in London like the British Museum or to ancient Roman villas). Insert obligatory Harry Potter comment here.

I'll be keeping track of things at a LiveJournal here, in case anyone is interested in following it. Feel free to add it as a Friend if you have an LJ. I won't really be writing about it here on deviantART, and as I don't know whether there's Photoshop at the castle's computers (I don't have it on my laptop), I probably won't be drawing anything for a month and a half.

Yep, that's about it. Now, I haven't been on a plane since I was five years old, so does anyone have any tips on avoiding popped ears? I've generally got advice to chew gum, which is great for me as I'm a compulsive gum chewer (but does gum count as bringing food across the border, and therefore not allowed?).

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Behold.

And now back to studying for the exam that I am absolutely screwed for.

EDIT (April 27): The rules are now available.

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I'm tempted to host some kind of contest for the 'Class of the Titans' newsblog, with the prize being the winner's choice of the Iliad or Odyssey (or whatever -- I haven't thought about it too deeply yet, and hey, gotta spread the love), but I have no idea what would be a good contest idea.

I don't want to do a fanart one, nor do I want to do fanfiction because there's no way I'm reading a lot of fanfic to judge, nor would I want the judging to be by voting. I was thinking of a trivia contest of sorts, but that opens it up to people looking-up things on the internet.

So yeah, any good ideas? I'm not sure when I'd do this, but it seems like a fun possibility.

Also, here's a summary of the latest important newsblog news so far, since I'm still really busy (augh, I don't want to think about my statistics project that I've given-up on by now, as well as Tuesday's huge exam I haven't begun studying for yet):

1. 'Class of the Titans' has been nominated for another award, this time being one of the ACT 2007 Awards of Excellence. Winners to be announced on May 31, 2007.

2. Two more crew members have blog -- Kenny Park, who was the character designer for Season One and is pretty much responsible for the look for the show, and Lyn Hart, who does storyboard stuff. I'm particularly enamoured by the latter's two storyboard sketches from the Morpheus episode.

Anyway, back to studying. At least it sounds like I got an A+ on my CLST 311 (Greek and Roman Epic) essay on how Aeneas and Turnus (of Vergil's 'Aeneid') are both like Homer's Achilles and Hector, rather than each one being one or the other entirely? I'm assuming my professor didn't get me mixed-up with another student and actually read the thing (y'all know I had no time to proofread the thing).

EDIT: There is also now a poll regarding prizes. I'm interested in seeing which choice would be the most popular one. (For the record, I voted for the 'Aeneid', which I love, even for all its Augustus propaganda.)

EDIT2: What about a short essay contest? Re-write a brief scene from the show in a Homeric-style? Most hardcore/obsessive fan?

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I won't copy and paste the announcement I just wrote, but if you're a 'Class of the Titan' fan who follows the newsblog, you may want to read the fairly important announcement at [link] (it's the most recent entry). Just as a heads-up, it's not good news, so brace yourselves.

EDIT: The specific announcement itself is at [link] if it's not clear.

THIS WAS AN APRIL FOOL'S DAY HOAX. THE NEWSBLOG IS NOT SHUTTING-DOWN, BUT IT VERY WELL MAY IF PEOPLE KEEP STEALING THINGS FROM IT.

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For information about requests, art trades, etc., please read this.