So I am back from my first of two conferences, which are almost back to back. This first one was a conference organized for emerging scholars and was focused on material culture studies. It was very interesting, and very different from other conferences I’ve done, which mostly are anthropology/archaeology conferences. I got some interesting feedback for sure. Some useful, some I’m not sure how so much though given it was mostly historians commenting on our works. However I will use what I got to revamp this paper a little before the next conference. Actually it’s not really a conference, more like an informal symposium on Delaware Valley Colonial Archaeology.
The conference was at this fancy estate in Delaware, which as it turns out was the Dupont’s summer home. Yeah, fancy! No we didn’t stay there though. We were put up in the visiting scholar’s residences, which were the old farmhand’s houses. Not only were they creepy, they were quiet . . . really quiet. It was erie, and I didn’t sleep too well. The beds didn’t help, these old singles much like you’d find in a college dorm. But hey, it was free 🙂
We got a tour not only of the University of Delaware’s campus, which looked oddly like Williamsburg, but also a tour of the Estate, which is now a museum. It reminded me of the grandmother’s house from “Flowers in the Attic.”
Right now I’m feeling very drained. Conferences always do that. I’m not only mentally drained, but physically drained. I walked around all day with a backpack packed with things, including my laptop and a bunch of student’s paper’s I had hoped to grade. Needless to say I hurt, and the weather changes today didn’t help. Getting old sucks! I am planning to take a nice bath as soon as tonights TV shows are over.
On another note, I took the advice of many people and started reading the Percy Jackson books. I am liking them so far. Very much a Harry Potter ripoff in many ways, but then I’m sure Harry Potter didn’t invent the mold (Wrinkle in Time, Narnia Books, etc . . . ). I got the first for the kindle app on the iphone to try it out. It is nice to read in bed at night without having to turn the lights on, and after awhile it helps me get to sleep cause of reading off the phone screen. I’m not so sure if it’s great for one’s eyes, but then neither is looking at a computer screen most of the day 🙂