What Hours Spent In The Library Can Do To An MA Student

10:00- Wake up begrudgingly after going to bed late from a long night of researching

10:15- Finally convince yourself to get out of bed

10:20- Rummage for food

10:40- Get ready to spend a glorious day indoors in the library with 100 of other people suffering to write     papers as well.

11:15- Meet friend to go to library

11:30- Arrive at library

11:45- Grab food to keep you awake and to munch on

12:00 - Look for a seat to set up camp

13:05- Grumble that someone is sitting on "your" couch that you always occupy and monopolize

13:15- Everything is finally set up for you to start working!

13:16- Get on facebook

14:00- Realize facebook is sucking your life away

14:01- Check email

14:03- Grumble that your professors sent you MORE reading... like you didn't have enough already

14:05- Get on facebook

14:06 Get off facebook and scold yourself

14:07- Stare around the room to see if anyone else is procrastinating like you are

14:10- Open a book

14:20- Talk to friend who just walked in the room

14:30- Silently panic  because they're talking for too long and ruining the roll you had been on with researching

14:35- Pick up the same book you had before and pretend to be trying to get back to reading so they will hopefully get the point

14:40- Finally start concentrating on research again and force yourself to at least read a page before getting distracted again.

15:15- Feel slightly accomplished

15:16- Facebook

15:23- Hunt down books. Curse whoever has taken out the books you needed. Your research is more important.

15:35- Force yourself to do more research so you don't have to carry the 9 very large and heavy books you just found all the way back home

16:30- Glare at the person loudly whispering

16:31- Read more

16:32- Wonder when you have ever read this much in your entire life

16:45- Think of ways to murder the random man who won't stop sniffling obnoxiously and wonder why he hasn't gotten a tissue after incessantly sniffing for an hour.

16:50- Work!

17:05- Realize you've read the same paragraph 3 times and you have no idea what it said.

17:10- Dinner!

18:00- Stare at the computer willing your paper to write itself

18:10- Still staring

18:11-Mentally hate everyone leaving the library bragging about how much they got done

18:17- Facebook... yet again

18:18- Get offended that not a single person is online and you have zero notifications to distract you

18:20- Begrudingly decide to start paper

18:22- Stare at screen and realize you have no idea where to start

19:00- Congratulations, you finished writing the bibliography instead of working on the actual paper

19:20- After writing 3 sentences, you decide to take a walk to try and wake up and regain some sanity

19:25- Do anything but work: hum to yourself, drum on your desk, day dream, play with pens, check email, etc

19:35- Work

20:00- After 8 hours straight in the library you question your sanity

20:05- Realize you're making odd noise reactions to everything that is frustrating you about your paper and life in general and people are starting to wonder where the noises are coming from

20:06- Stare absentmindedly into space.

20:15- Realize that  you've been staring at someone like a crazed person and are making them feel uncomfortable

20:16- Look yearningly out the window wishing you had done more work

21:00- HOW IS IT THIS LATE ALREADY?

22:00- Refuse to concede to the fact that you're brain has slowly turned to mush and has recently gone on strike and then go back to work.

22:30- Decide banging your head on the table will not help brain function.

22:40- Halfway through your paper. OH YEAH!

22:35- Doodle

23:00- Give death stare to loud person who just walked in.

23:45- Look at person who works in the library like they're insane. "WHY are you kicking me out? What do you mean the library is closing? I live here damn it."

23:59- Walk home looking and feeling like a zombie.


My point? Prolonged periods in the library affect a student's sanity.

 (I do not own these two pictures)

Hadrian's Wall

For those of you who regularly read this... if there are any... I'm sorry I've been way too busy to update this. I will try to keep these weekly as best I can from now on.

Hadrian's Wall. Everyone has heard of it, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the world has no idea 1. how expansive it is and 2. how many more sites, forts, outposts, turrets, etc are associated with it.  On my trip (October 27-29) We visited around 7-9 different sites along the wall. We started, all 12 of us, at Arbeia. It was a fort along the wall and all that remains is the reconstructed gate and the outlines of the rooms around the area. This was no ordinary gate! Oh no. It was reconstructed and turned into a museum so you could go in it and see what it was like to be posted up there. We toured the barracks and got to see all of the different layouts that were possible, since no one really knows. How typical of archaeological sites!

We then ventured on to see a part of the wall that was built back to it's original height... upwards of 26-30 feet. If I was a Scottish barbarian I would be slightly discouraged... not to mention the archers waiting to shoot me while safely behind a stone wall and the spikes coming out of the ground that would have acted as barbed wire. Not exactly the most welcoming of sites, but today it is pretty cool!  The whole wall stretches 81 miles across England. We started at one end and made it about 40 miles inland, by car of course.  

The first night there, my friends Mike and Angelo took a night walk with me. Those of you back home may not realize what dark means until you go to North Umberland. When they say dark, they MEAN dark. I had to flash my camera to actually see if I was still on the road. It was something out of a horror movie, but with a better ending in my case. However, on our way back we were vocally attacked by a cow. We were walking along minding out own business and then Voldemort was reincarnated in this cow. It... moo-ed at us... but it was the most demonic moo it could possibly have uttered. Scared the living crap out of 2 men and then me. I have a weird feeling farmers up there secretly train their cattle and sheep to haunt passerby in the middle of the night. Must get a kick out of it.

After the excitement, we decided to walk back, but we couldn't help but stop and stare at the stars. I have never seen so many in my entire life. For the first time in my life, I saw a shooting star. There's just nothing like it.   So of course being the educated MA students that we are, we decided to lay down in the middle of the road to watch them. Unfortunately, someone was driving full speed down the road and we scrambled to jump into the ditch. I really wonder what the person in the car thought was going on. He saw us run from the road and then as he passed Angelo was waving like nothing had happened, I was halfway up a tree gripping on to it for dear life, and Mike was in the ditch with his butt in the air because fell over.... I'll just leave you with that mental image.

The next day was spent exploring more forts and then we walked along the wall for 5 miles. Seems like a simple enough task. Mother nature decided the steep hills and cliffs weren't enough for us archaeologists. She added some wind, rain, and extreme cold for us as well! The view was unimaginable. I wish my pictures did it justice. I will post a few but WOW. It is definitely not a site to miss if you ever get the chance. I hope to hike the entire wall one day! Yes, all 81 miles!  The walk was so wet that my shoes dyed my feet blue and yellow.... Yep, definitely wished I had listened to my Dad and brought along my hiking boots. Oops.

To get a little deeper.... Hiking the wall in those conditions, which was typical of Northern England, really put into perspective how it used to be not just manning the posts, but also what it was like to haul that much stone which was extremely heavy, that far. The hills there are no joke. It was a tough climb, definitely rewarding, but I couldn't imagine doing it over and over carrying literally tons of rocks. It gives you a whole new appreciation of the past. They were very dedicated to this project and it gives a whole new interpretation to putting blood, sweat, and tears into an undertaking.