Fri Jun 27 2008 19:53 Zurka: Finally I met the other students at Azbukum. Until today I had only met one. There are four others in total, two Americans, a Brit and a German. They are all about my age except for the American girl. She is 16. 16! This seems crazy to me. I can't imagine my mother letting me go off to Serbia for a month alone when I was 16, and my mother was pretty liberal about what she let me do when I was 16 (probably because I didn't get up to much!). Also NATO was bombing Serbia when I was 16, but that's beside the point. Maybe she has family here.

After a very difficult class where I had to fill in the correctly declined pronoun in sentences, I had a game class with the others. They are all beginners so I was the most advanced, which was pretty surreal! Anyway I invited them all over to my flat, since I am lucky enough to live along, for a bit of a party. They seemed quite keen so we'll see if anyone shows up. This weekend I am going to work on winning the hearts and minds of the local population. Hopefully I'll meet up with the best friends of Kent fame, plus some other peeps. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Thu Jun 26 2008 12:53 Well that's a record: Day 4 in Serbia and my shoulders are now pink. YES I am wearing sunscreen.

Wed Jun 25 2008 15:21 U Novom Sadu: Today was my third Serbian lesson and I am improving by leaps and bounds. I am able to follow the second level book which really pleases me as actually it's pretty advanced. three times during the lesson my teacher said what a good student I am, she could see how quickly I am learning. This is great, sometimes I feel like there is so much I don't know and it's going very slow, but in fact I have made huge progress in just three days so I'm really pleased. I never thought I was good at languages, I always struggled so much with French and when I first started to learn Serbia. But maybe I wasn't applying myself. Or maybe, contrary to all the rumors, grad school does make you smarter!

(1) Mon Jun 23 2008 16:37 Hello to all that: Sooo... here I am. Apologies for lack of communication skills. I will try to do better, especially now that I am living in what my sister calls a "third world country." so here is the dealio:

I have returned to Novi Sad for what amounts to 9 weeks of Serbian classes with a two week break. By the end of it I hope to be really really good. yay. I flew in yesterday from London on a BA flight. The flight was ridiculously early, so after packing up my crap on Saturday with the help of the lovely Jenn, I headed out to my friend Molly's and her husband John took me to Heathrow on his way to work (he was really early for work.) What amazing friends I have! Unfortunately I am saying goodbye to some of them as they are returning to states etc, which made me very sad. I will also miss my friendies and future flatmates very much but at least a few of them are coming out. It was really weird for me not to be uber excited about coming to Serbia because I have been every other time, leaving Bakersfield, but I suppose it is good as it does me that my life in London is great & happy. Hopefully everyone doesn't forget about me! And even though I was so sore about leaving now I am glad I'm hear.

I got into Beograd about noon and Novi Sad an hour later, since I didn't want to deal with bus-train/bus-bus so I splurged on a car to pick me up. only £27! (Serbia is still cheap, even if not as cheap, what with the dinar rising against the dollar (I know right?!) and all prices being quoted in euros.) My friend Kent, who I met at Azbukum previously, had been here all year and just vacated his flat which worked out really well for me (although I was sad not to see him again) so I took it over. Which means no old Serbian ladies who hate me and won't let me do laundry! It has internet and everything! And, perhaps, more importantly, air conditioning. It is hot, hot, hot here, about Bakersfield hot, but with the constant house-car-store-pool air conditioning. Oh well. I am used to it -- right? buck up, California girl. the flat is about 15-20 min walk from the nicest parts of novi sad and about 30 min from the language school. I am thinking about a bicycle if I can get one cheaply. There are bike lanes on all the big roads so it is pretty safe.

There are I think about 5 other students at Azbukum this week. I have met one and seen two others, and the one I met said he is living with an American history student. Imagine! Right now, however, I am the only one at my level, which is means I get private lessons, at least for this week because a bunch of students are coming next week. Awesome! That makes it 3 hours a day instead of 4 for the same price, but I think it works out favorably. I will be having the same two teachers as last year which is great as I really like them and am comfy with them. Today I had a little test which I did ok on and then a lesson. It's great to see how quickly the language is coming back to me because I was afraid it wouldn't, but I really did learn a lot last year.

(1) Sun Jun 15 2008 10:33 Email from BA:

Dear MS RICHARDSON, With less than a week before your journey begins[...]

Sorry I have been so MIA lately. I am still bitter with my computer and I think my subconscious way of dealing with it is to spend as little time with it as possible. Today is a lovely day, surprise surprise, which is great luck as I've planned a picnic on Hampstead Heath with my palsies. Rumour has it there will be kites involved. Afterwards I am meeting up with an old friend from UCLA days. I can't believe it's almost time for me to go to Serbia and I have to admit I'm feeling rather ambivalent about it as London is turning out to be such fun now that the weather is nice. Oh well. Serbia will be fun too and at least there will be good, fresh, cheap produce there!

(2) Fri May 30 2008 18:31 Technology wants my memories to vanish: My little computer is slowly dying, but I took him into the apple store and asked if there was anything they could do to make him run any faster. The guy suggested I do an erase and install which I did, and now I suppose my computer is running faster, probably due to the fact that NOTHING IS ON IT and NOTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE. Something went horribley wrong with the backup I did before the erase (eiiii) and now I'm missing my latest firefox profile with my updated bookmarks and zotero with all my notes! (Okay so I have a version from the beginning of April. GREAT. I hope it's all in the docs, too... but all that organising gone to waste. I cannot believe hoe stupid I was to not CHECK and MAKE SURE everything I needed was all up to date and THERE) My emails for the last 7 years appear to be missing, AND my pictures from Athens are COMPLETELY GONE. Just, gone. Go figure, I had additional backups of everything else... I thought they were still on my camera but noo.... =( The good thing is I do have Jenn's photos but she was only there for half the time I was. Not only that Quicken has vanished, and Word of course, though I think I can reinstall it, and those updated versions of iPhoto and iWeb that I went through such great lengths to obtain. I seriously cannot believe it. I copied over my entire library, how did it manage to just vanish? Ick ick ick.I want to curl into a ball and cry but ugh, I've agreed to go Karaoke tonight.

(2) Tue May 27 2008 21:10: I kept meaning to write about Eurovision because it was the best time ever, but as usual I manage to fail entirely at things I want to get done, but maybe later today. Amanda is here right now with her bf and they have completely crashed at this point being very jet-lagged. She brought some Ricks Steve's guidebooks with her so we made a reservation for a cheap hotel in Paris and went on a walk from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Sq by way of Westminster. Then we got falafel at my favorite place in Soho and I went to a seminar while they came back here.

In other news things are really falling into place for my trip to Serbia this summer. I booked a flight and I'm going out June 22. My friend Kent of Azbukum fame is leaving this week, which is unfortunate as I won't get to see him again, but at least it does mean that his flat is free so I am going to live in it for the summer. It should be really great, in the meantime I an doing half a dozen other major projects such as finishing a chapter draft etc etc... It's all a good time.

(1) Wed May 21 2008 10:26 Exciting dreams: involving secret meetings above a kebab shop. Ideas much?

I went to Oxford yesterday to go to a seminar. What a nice town! It's so pretty! I guess I'd forgotten. It turned out to be a really helpful and interesting seminar and I met lots of nice people who are also doing FWW. All in all very refreshing. Other recent adventures include Karaoke with the nanoers and a mysterious illness that struck me on the way home from Athens and rendered me various stages of useless all week. Jenn was flat/dogsitting at a nice place in Chiswick and I went down there this weekend. We spent a good day vegging out watching movies, episodes of Gilmore Girls and Arrested Development, and old Mariah Carey music videos on Virgin Music on Demand, while I wondered whether eating brie and chevre was a good idea in my delicate condition. Probably not, but a good time all around.

(3) Fri May 09 2008 10:32 The luck of the Greeks: I know some of you have (not least myself!!) been on as many pins and needles about this funding.... we can all rest easy now.

(3) Mon May 05 2008 18:06 All in a day: My cousin Laura is here visiting, so yesterday was quite an adventure. It might not be possible to "do" London in a day but we certainly tried. We took the tube into Green Park, walked through to Buckingham Palace, over to Westminster to see houses of Parliament, up to Trafalgar Square, where we stopped in the Waterstones to settle some small point on Harry Potter, being the nerds that we are. There was some kind of Sikh festival going on at Trafalgar Square so it was really crowded, music and free food! That was a real spot of luck. We were chilling on one of the fountains eating our free lunch when I noticed a media crowd and along walks Boris Johnson!! He was walking through the crowd shaking people's hands and stuff. I didn't put out my hand to shake because I don't really like him and also I was a little bit in shock. It was pretty random. He doesn't like so goofy in real life. Anyway so that done we poked our heads into the national gallery to look at some impressionists and then crossed charing cross bridge and walked along southwark... and walked and walked. We stopped at the Tate modern to go up to the top floor to admire the view and use the toilets, and an a pizza express that had set up a gelato stand. And also at the globe, hoping to buy tickets for today but sadly there is no show! We continued to walk and walk till we got to Tower Bridge, which we then crossed, and examined the tower from the outside. From Tower we hoped on a bus which took us through the city, down fleet street and strand, through picadilly circus and oxford circus and down oxford street to marble arch. We had seats at the front of the top so had a pretty good view of all these things. Got off the bus finally and entered Hyde park to gawk at speaker's corner and sit on the grass and eat a picnic of pb&j. Then walked along the serpentine to the peter pan statue (I remembered, Aly!). Up to Lancaster gate where we got the tube to Tottenham Court Road. We walked all the way down tcr then Euston rd to King's Cross for traditional platform 9 3/4 pictures. After much confusion and ado, we met up with some friends for fish and chips in a greasy spoon. Then finally, exhausted and defeated, home. We walked miles. I must have worn poor Laura out; I know I wore myself out, but it was great fun.

It is one of the first really nice days we have had so far and it felt wonderful to be running around in a t-shirt only, light out till almost nine. Everyone was out, and in such a good mood because it's a holiday and the weather is fine. So nice to stroll along the Thames or sit in the grass at hyde park with so many other people who are in just as good of a mood. I wanted to skip (and I sometimes did) just for the joy of fine weather. One thing living here has certainly taught me is to not take it for granted.

The weather has changed just in time; I'm going tomorrow to pay a visit to my friend Aleks in Greece and "get some sun." But hopefully it will be even better there; I'm going to bring my swimming suit and hope for the best. Today I am just staying in, cleaning, grooming, packing and thinking, thinking, thinking. I am so glad it's sunny, both literally and figuratively.

It's cinco de mayo, so if you have to go on a desperate mission to save France, be prepared. Last year this time I was thinking how strange it is that the world continues to turn when it seems like, for all intents and purposes, it should have stopped. Now I am feel it more than ever, but am starting to feel it might not be such a bad thing. Please let this feeling stick!

(4) Mon Apr 28 2008 11:53 And whiskers on kittens: On Saturday night I went to see The Sound of Music at the Palladium. As my siblings will (fondly I'm sure) remember, this was my favorite movie growing up, at least until I saw The Little Mermaid, so I was really excited about it. Well, it was pretty good and I enjoyed it. Some of the actors were better than others, unfortunately these were usually the supporting actors who were better. Max and the Baroness for instance, although Max was a lot older than he is in the movie so that threw me off! I have to remember the play came before the movie. There were a couple of songs that weren't in the movie, some of them quite good. But there was very little chemistry between Captain von Trapp and Maria, also Maria looked quite a lot like Hillary Clinton which was distracting. Also there wasn't as much development of their relationship as there is in the movie. I suspect a lot of that is those scenes they added in the movie would have been very boring on stage.

Overall it was really enjoyable, though. The main thing that struck me was how overtly political it was; much more so than in the movie. The Nazi question is central in the relationship of several of the characters, for instance it is actually the reason why the Baroness and Captain hastily end their engagement. The von Trapps' flight from Nazis becomes even more clearly the climax of the story; though, to be fair, my muddled view of things from the movie might have to do with those compulsive re watchings at the age of four, when I had no idea about anschluss or Nazis or anything like that. During the music festival scene, all these Swastika banners came down from the sides and the ceilings of the theatre, a very powerful evocation which made me a little bit uncomfortable! Also Rolph. In the play he actually doesn't betray him, but becomes compliant in their escape. A bit unfair on him then! Well, I actually think it works better but the logistics of theatre wouldn't have allowed for the heart-in-throat chase that ensues. Which is too bad because the nuns with the car parts are pretty much the best part of the whole movie.

Anyway a good time was had by all (me) and now I think I should work in a few more plays before the summer. It's globe season again!

I also realized that the Captain von Trapp would have been serving very near by stomping grounds during the FWW. Hmm...

(2) Tue Apr 22 2008 23:39 I miss you: Not a day goes by when I don't, to give truth to that old cliché; but today, especially today, I miss you.

Sun Apr 20 2008 12:35 Opps: I thought I felt something poking me in the night and when I woke up I discovered I'd been sleeping on my iPod shuffle. It must have been in my kangaroo pocket and fallen out. Hopefully it is no worse for the wear!

(2) Fri Apr 18 2008 15:27 Publishing and history collide:

“Oh, Rachel, this should interest you,” says one of my coworkers, pouring over a copy of The Bookseller. “In ‘history, politics and war’... ‘What is was like being a woman in the Balkans, First World War.’” He was joking of course, but I read the preview section anyway. No need to worry, there’s still a unique place in the historiography for my work. In fact, there was not one book on non-western fronts, unless you count "a concise and authoritative account of the entire course of the First World War, with analysis of decisive encounters and landmark engagements. It describes every major battle..."

The entire course of the war? Just the very book I would argue is impossible to produce. A definitive account of the First World War? EVEN if it’s just focusing on military events? (They never come out and say this outright, you have to infer it yourself from the description of battles, etc, but I think it’s a deplorable assumption in this day and age of social and culture [not to mention economic and political] history that a book on a war by default means military history. But anyway.) Let’s just consider the scale of the event. But then, these are publishers, not historians.

What other gems does The Bookseller line up for us? How about one on Marie Antoinette’s daughter? "It includes previously unpublished evidence that lays earlier conspiracy theories to rest." Previously unpublished evidence??? Who ever heard of such a thing? How exciting, really. Except that finding and interpreting primary source evidence is, um, yeah, the job of historians.

One book drew my attention, seemingly about the foundation of the Imperial War Museum and the end of the First World War. Since I spend a fair few of my days at the good ole IWM a book about its first days was intriguing to me. But – go to the Amazon link and lo and behold!: “Including archive material published here for the first time…” Why is this such a big deal? Not only that, it looks like I got the wrong impression from the Bookseller. Just another book on remembrance….

Now don’t get me wrong, remembrance is all well and good (and important)… However since Jay Winter it has been done over and over, and in one section of my thesis I remember (haha) arguing that this over-emphasis on remembrance might be just another way of our co-opting First World War experience for ourselves and devaluing the experiences of those who actually lived it.

(2) Wed Apr 16 2008 14:56 Just me then?: I wonder if everyone frequently has post-apocalyptic dreams.

Mon Apr 14 2008 20:11 Delicious tuna wrap:
1 tortilla
1 can tuna
handful of spinach leaves
5-10 thin cucumber slices
1 tablespoon hummus
1 tablespoon pesto
3 tablespoons plain yogurt.

Spread the hummus and pesto on one half of the tortilla each. Place the spinach leaves in a layer on top, and arrange the cucumbers in strategically placed rows on the tortilla. Drain the tuna, stir in the yogurt, and spread half of it as best you can on the tortilla. Roll up tortilla, cut in half and place in sandwich Tupperware. Retain rest of tuna for tomorrow's lunch.

Thu Apr 10 2008 13:52 Success and failure: I'm working from home today, so I went out exploring some more of the West Indian grocers on a nearby street. Finally I found some black beans I can cook, which is good news for burrito time. I love cooking black beans because for a little more than the price of a can you get 4 times as many, plus you can make them however you want and it's really not the much effort. I just can't bring myself to buy a can for 50p knowing the beans are saturated in salt and will only make about 3 burritos. I have been pretty much living off of lentils recently so this will make a nice change. I've been craving protein since I started running.

I also found some white vinegar and baking soda in containers bigger than tiny. But they were still quite expensive. £2.79 for 900 grams of baking soda and 79p for a bit more than half a litre of vinegar. I wanted to start using them for cleaning as we use up our current stash of cleaning supplies, and I guess it is still cheaper than buying more but it's not really the huge savings it would be if there were a smart and final around.

In other news I found a place that has henna just off the tube stop, so now I'm a red head again. As are my flatmate and my friend Jenn. 99p and enough henna for all of our hair. Once again I recommend henna to all who want to dye their hair red.

(3) Thu Apr 10 2008 12:44 QOD: What's more important, buying free trade or buying organic?

Discuss. Link me. Just don't tell me it's all a sham. I'd like to hold onto some of my idealism.

(1) Wed Apr 02 2008 23:27 The Ulimate Contest: BL vs. NA:

National Archives perks:
Free internet
Better and cheaper food
picturesque area
quick(er) document delivery time
higher ratio of cute guys to general reader population
no pound coin required to operate lockers (seriously what is the point of that?)
no undergraduates
You can take in a camera! they even have camera stands so you can photograph documents
Less stringent rules about ids required to get a reader's ticket

British Library perks:
Newer and nicer building
Not on the other side of the world
Greater likelihood of running into friends and thus an excuse to escape to the cafe for a break
Or for that matter your supervisor so she will see for herself how hard you are working
Fewer dragons pacing the floor to make sure you are not mauling the documents

BUT BL put "Ms R" on my card and NA put "Miss Rachel." Guess which I prefer. I went to my friend's flat in Wimbledon for dinner (which, coincidentally, means that I transversed London from zone 3 to zone 1 three times today, but you know, it was okay, I had a Julia Quinn novel) and we had a long discussion about the importance of titles in this country.

Tue Apr 01 2008 21:47 Dear National Archives: Your catalog sucks! What the hell does "Scope and content: Serbia. Complete." mean???

Sun Mar 30 2008 02:10 COME BACK, HOUR: I was going to use you!

(5) Tue Mar 25 2008 23:40 My weekend, an essay, by me. : This weekend was a double bank holiday. I think it's so weird that here we have Good Friday and Easter Monday off work and in the US, where people are much more religious generally, there's no holiday at all. Separation of church and state I guess. Go figure.

This weekend was also my first paid time off ever! I normally work Tuesdays and Fridays but last week I was so sick I didn't even think about it till I went in for the first day on Thursday. But they just said not to worry about it since I would receive bank holidays in proportion to how much I work anyway and sick leave too! WOW! This whole getting paid not to work is totally new to me.

To celebrate the bank holidays and also make up for the fact that Christina fell ill so her visit and our joint birthday celebration in Prague fell through, I went with my friend Jenn to stay at her parents house in a small village in Norwich. Her parents work at a DODDS school at a nearby USAF base. This is very exciting because it meant we could go there and buy American things. Technically, that shouldn't happen, so I won't tell you about the iPod shuffle (for running! Galinda dies after about 20 minutes these days), pair of jeans, enormous jar of Skippy, bags of cheetos, and other American goods that I didn't buy, in dollars and tax free. Yippee! It was kinda like being in a really crappy stateside mall, but you know, beggars can't be choosers. Actually it was really great. Being in an American grocery store and knowing I could buy whatever I wanted and not have to carry it on a plane. Wheat Germ, Cream of Wheat, hot sauce, goldfish, etc etc etc.

I spend most of the weekend meeting random people, easter dinners and pampered chef parties, snuggling with Jenn's dog, watching Pride and Prejudice and reading Julia Quinn novels. All very healthy activities I assure you! We had big plans about running and bike riding but it snowed all weekend so it wasn't really good weather for stuff like that. The snow as the most amazing snow I've ever seen! I always thought the snowflake image was some kind of myth but actually... these snowflakes were huge!! Inches big! I've never seen anything like it! But I am from California and easily impressed. Charming I'm sure. It was really nice to be in a home for a while, with yearbooks and 10th grade English projects lying around, baths and endless cups of tea. It was also nice to be surrounded by yee merrie green hills of england with charming village greens and stone churches and cute pubs and what not. I loved just gazing at the woods as we drove through them. Jenn kept saying it wasn't the prettiest time of year to be there but it was beautiful to me! I mean, I love London but all this constant citying makes me really appreciate countryside and open skies when I see them. I guess growing up in the middle of nowhere I can't really do without that for too long. It's like sunshine. I always took it for granted when I lived in California. Being here makes me appreciate it soo much more. I really notice when the sun is out.

Unfortunately for us they tend to use bank holidays for engineering works, so we had to take a circuitous route to get back to London. However ten minutes into the train journey and the ticket lady told us our tickets weren't good since they were through Cambridge and because the rails are privatized (boo hiss Thatcherites) it's a separate company operating the route we were planning on. But the line from Cambridge to London was being worked on! So in the end we had to get off at Ely, sit on a rail replacement bus for 2 hours, and then get on another train at Royston which took us to King's Cross. Actually it wasn't too bad. The bus wasn't anything luxurious, just a requisitioned double decker but because we got on at Ely with one other person instead of at Cambridge with the rest of the population of London, we hoped up to the top and had the fun front top seats so had a great view of the country lanes we twisted and turned through. Or as much as the headlights showed. It did end up taking like 2 hours longer than it should have.

What with our frantic commissary purchases and all of Jenn's stuff she was bring back (one of her flatmates moved out and took the entire flat with her) we had two heavy suitcases plus some so I took the bus with her to help her and then just stayed the night, going back after work to get my stuff. So all in all I didn't get back till this evening. Pretty adventurous stuff. I really had a great weekend. The one bad thing about relaxing holidays is you never want to leave. When you are frantically busy sightseeing or whatever the thought of going home has some appeal to you but when you are laying in a conservatory reading romance novels with a dog at your feet it is hard to want to go back to London. However here I am and I think my laundry is ready to hand out now.

(2) Tue Mar 18 2008 21:43 But do you have footnotes?: Yes as Susie so keenly observes, I am alive. Barely.

In the depths of sickie, hoping to be inspired, I picked up a book that was delivered (or not, I had to run to the post office twice to get it. RUN. TWICE.) via parcel force from my loving sister, who may or may not have "opened in to make sure it was what she ordered." Yes! The long-awaited fourth installment of The Pink Carnation series. Once again I am struck by jealousy of not only Lauren Willig, who seems to be able to churn out novels and get them published while completing JDs AND PhDs in History from Harvard and holding down jobs in law firms (explain that one to me) but her heroine Eloise, who manages to succeed in areas where I can hardly hold a candle, including dressing cutely, getting grants, exposing secret agents in dusty archives, convincing good-looking heirs to allow research weekends in their family archives in charming Sussex estates, and landing dates with said good-looking heirs. But I am getting closer, people. I spent ALL DAY in the British Library. (I went to a training day for history postgraduates). I HANDLED Sylvia Pankhurst's toilet paper roll! (On which she wrote letters to be smuggled out of prison.) The manuscripts curator happened upon that little gem in their recent acquisitions. I might not be Eloise Kelly, but I'm a hell of a lot closer to it than I was 3 years ago when I first picked up the advanced reader copy of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation in the break room at Russo's.

(2) Fri Mar 14 2008 18:32 So close yet so far: MY CHEETOS ARE TRAPPED IN A POST OFFICE THAT CLOSED ONE MINUTE AGO!!!

Also: Review of Lonely Planet's Berlin Encounter Travel Guide

(1) Thu Mar 13 2008 16:40 La la la la la : So far my day has consisted of: opening Amazon packages, very very exciting; working on my proposal revisions, not quite so exciting; maybe a little tiny bit of lazing about. Possibly a nap. It is my birthday after all.

When I finish revising I'm going to go for a jog/walk, then get ready to meet Jenn for dinner in Camden Town. We're going to a ceilidh! Should be fun.

Hm I've just noticed the time stamp thinks its daylight savings time in the UK. It isn't yet!