The Adventures of a Novice Historian

 As you all may know, the world has been engulfed in a global pandemic. For this reason the blog has been put on hold. Travel is out of the question, it's just not safe out go anywhere, but when that changes the blog will return.  Stay safe out there!  Jenna

  This morning Veronica, her father Kelly, and I went to the Easter service at Norwich cathedral. This was my first time attending an Anglican church service, as well as a service in a cathedral.   While I am not a Christian, I can appreciate the history behind the pomp and circumstance of this kind of church service. Despite my own Religious/Spiritual beliefs, I did enjoy parts of the service. I enjoyed the music greatly. How could you not enjoy Handel's [1] Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah in a 12th century cathedral? I didn't, however, sing along to the words. It just didn't feel right to sing words that I don't believe, so I just hummed along to the music.    Because of my not being a Christian, I decided to go into this experience from an anthropological and historical perspective. I didn't want to automatically go into this from a place of judgement about anything I might hear.  I wanted to keep an open mind.  And I think I did....

In class yesterday, we covered Moorlands, Uplands, and Heaths.   When we think of moors and heaths, we conjure an image straight out of a Victorian Gothic novel. Scenes of barren and wind swept landscapes, but the truth is, they only look that way because of human interference. According to my professor, the landscape naturally wants to be wooded. Humans prevent  that by letting their livestock gaze  on the land.  Today, Mousehold Heath looks like this. Starting in the 19th century, parts of the land went through the process of enclosure. Now 182 acres are owned and managed by the City of Norwich.  I'd known for about a week that I wanted to go out and be in nature to celebrate Ostara (the Spring Equinox). So when  my professor told us about Mousehold Heath, on the edge of town,  at the end of our seminar, I knew I had to check it out.  I'm so glad I did because it was amazing! As a woman who has spent the last 20 years living ...

Google images The original plan for Saturday was to visit Stonehenge and Bath on a school excursion, similar to the Canterbury/Dover trip, but last Tuesday the trip was canceled. When I asked why, I was told the tour leader was sick. To salvage our much needed break, I looked for other things we could do. Things that were far enough away to make us feeling like it was an adventure, but close enough where we could do it in a day. We ended up choosing the SeaLife aquarium in Great Yarmouth. SeaLife Aquarium The aquarium was a great deal of fun. We learned a tremendous amount about the animals on exhibit. Sadly, the Penguins were not in residence, but we did get a free ticket to go back and see them when they return. I felt that was a nice gesture on the part of the aquarium. I think we will definitely do our best to take advantage of that.  Exhibit A I'm an extremely melodramatic person, so there were plenty of opportunities for Veronica and I, ...

This morning Veronica and I went to Norwich castle to see their new Viking exhibit. I was eager see it when we left UEA, but I came home extremely disappointed. Because of the experience I acquired while working at the Vance Birthplace last summer, I’m well aware that museum exhibits are written for an eighth-grade reading level, so I was excepting that from the information boards. What I was not expecting was that the whole exhibit would be aimed at elementary school age children. If your nine then this exhibit is amazing! The York Helmet Aside from the numerous artifacts on display, they had interactive stations that allowed you to row a long boat, spell words with runes, tie a knot in a piece of rope, or play a Norse board game called, “HNEFATAFL.” They even had a section where you could build Viking long boats out of Legos. They also had videos that you could watch that told you about the spread of the Norse language into Britain as the Vikings settled in the region, or...

Over the weekend,Veronica and I went on an exciting adventure to Cambridge. This was our first big trip, and boy did we learn a lot about the do's and don'ts about travel; from the planning stages to the actually going. For example, we booked a lovely Air b&b in the village of Willingham. Little did we know that it was 12 miles outside of Cambridge and a taxi ride would cost us 35 pounds, or that the bus from Willingham into Cambridge only runs every hour and a half to 2 hours. OR that the guided bus into Cambridge is in the neighboring village of Longstanton which is a 45 minute to an hour walk away. Live and learn! Despite these set backs, we enjoyed our trip. The Air B&B that we stayed in from Friday to Monday was called, "Willingham House." We were in the lodge, but the main house is part of Cambridge Melchior College which offers a a wide range of cultural exchange programs. Our room in the lodge was very nice: it was simple, nothing fancy, but I...