Sunny Days and Academic Idols

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So remember when I mentioned those research seminars that all go to the pub after the building staff kicks them out of their seminar room? I went to my first one on Wednesday -- it was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

I went to the talk given by Cassandra Pybus -- which was completely amazing. She's from the University of Tazmania, but her focus (currently) is slaves who went over to the British side during the American Revolution, and where they subsequently went when they were granted their freedom. From what I heard about the topic, I am going to get the book as soon as it comes out, and I would suggest you all read it too -- its called Epic Journeys. Forthcoming...

So while she was giving her little speech, I had all these questions for her about her methodology, and how she can manage to write a scholarly book and make it sound so good -- she's such a great writer!! Absolutely amazing stuff. When the Q and A session started, though, I just didnt feel comfortable standing up in front of all those people and putting myself out there. I just don't really know how it all works here yet. So I still listened to everything she said -- absolutely enthralled -- and wished the seminar could go on a lot longer, or that she'd read the entire book to us right there -- but 6PM came and we did indeed get kicked out of the room.

I HAD to follow everyone over to the pub, just to get a chance to maybe talk to Dr. Pybus. Lucky me -- Vince, Brian, and I were the only students who headed over there. And I got to talk to Dr. Pybus one on one -- for like 45 minutes. She's totally my new academic idol -- I want to BE here when I grow up. She was SO interesting, and SO jazzed about history. It just makes me so excited to meet women who are successful in this field, who write really awesome stuff, and who are respected. So I had a drink with her and talked about how to tackle tricky sources, and how to weave a story while writing truthful history, and how to do this AND maybe be commercially successful. I think she liked me. I was so proud of myself -- here I was holding the attention of an historian -- a respected historian at that. I mean, who am I -- I'm just a student. But she seemed really interested in what I had to say and I learned SO much. I was just bursting when I left -- it was one of the most exciting academic moments of my life.

That's the coolest thing about being here by far -- I get to actually talk to these people and learn from them. I mean, everyone has published here -- EVERYONE. They are all doing exactly the kinds of thing that I want to do, and it is so nice to be surrounded by history nerds every day -- people who totally validate you in your desire to learn about Nazi women or propaganda or even less sexy subjects like collective memory and representation. I mean, these are people who devote their entire lives -- not to mention 400 page books -- to one speech or one town or some completely obscure topic. I met some guy yesterday who is doing his PhD on internal resistance to the British in the Indian Army. And that's OKAY -- you can do that -- and no one here will say "well, that's great, but what kind of marketable skills do you have..." I don't know, History is like a religion or something -- we all just want to go out and preach to the masses about how cool it is. :-)

In other news, I would like to refute a long held misconception -- the weather here is spectacular. Sure, I am well aware that we have not hit the winter yet, but in the three weeks that I have been here, can you believe that we have only really had one miserable rainy day? Yes, it usually rains every day, but it rains for about 15 minutes, and then it is sunny and spectacular all over again. And its been quite warm too. I love it -- I love it! Ten Thousand times better than NYC!!

Okay, I have demonstrated my nerd-ness quite enough for the day. :-)

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