Oh yeah -- I'm at school

While I'm still logged in, I thought maybe I should tell people what it is I'm doing here.

I'm doing the MA in Medieval Studies course, a one-year programme culminating in a thesis of about 20,000 words. The year is divided into a fall term which ends at Christmas, a spring term ending at spring break, and a summer term which ends in June. Our degree results depend on the coursework (30%) and the thesis (70%).

In our first term we're required to take the core module, one options module (both of which are only for the one term), and two "skills courses" which run through both fall and spring. We are also "strongly encouraged" to audit the other skills courses on offer, according to our interests and other activities. In the spring term we take two options modules, and in the summer term we begin work on the dreaded thesis, the writing of which is achieved over the summer vacation. So, the programme lasts until late September of 2007. Throughout the year the Centre for Medieval Studies also runs a wide variety of lectures and conferences, at which our attendance is also strongly encouraged.

At the moment I'm taking the core module, which is divided into four sections, each of which we were allowed to pick according to our interests and previous experience. At the moment I'm doing some archaeology. In weeks 5-7 I'll be working more closely on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, then I'll have a seminar on Christina of Markyate, and finally a seminar on the Middleham Jewel (I'll say more about all of those later). For my options module I'm taking Textual Criticism and Codicology, but I missed our first class meeting this week because I was ill and my professor made me go home. For the skills courses I'm doing Palaeography and Advanced Medieval Latin for assessment, and auditing introductory courses in Old English, Old Norse, and Old French. All of these classes meet only once a week for two hours. Alas, whoever scheduled the language courses apparently thought it would be really funny to have them meet at 9.30 AM; and, due to reasons I'll discuss in a later post, that means I have to wake up at 7.30 Monday through Wednesday, which sucks. And, just for fun, my friend, a visiting student from the Netherlands, is trying to teach a few of us Dutch.

A little bit about York (with help from Wikipedia)

York is in nothern England, located at the confluence of the rivers Ouse (pronounced more or less like "ooze") and Foss. It is the traditional county town of Yorkshire (the Traditional County) and lies in the Ceremonial County of North Yorkshire, and anybody who comprehends the differences between the different types of British counties is a smarter person than I am. The city was founded by the Romans in AD 71 and called Eboracum; later on the Viking kingdom of Jorvik was centred here. It is still the seat of the Archbishop of York, Primate of England, head of the (now) Anglican Province of York. In 1996 the modern City of York, a unitary authority, was created, which expanded the city's borders beyond the walls; this unitary authority has a population of approximately 185,000, while the urban area has a population of about 140,000.

York lies within the predictably named Vale of York, a flat, green area of land consisting mainly of meadows and marshes. The rivers are prone to flooding; there are flood walls and other defences, but apparently these have not always proved effective.

The local economy is based chiefly on tourism and service industries, although its prosperity until the 1950s came mainly from the railways and chocolate-manufacturing. Nestle Rowntree is still a major employer, although it was very recently announced that they will be cutting 645 jobs at the factory in York.

The unitary authority is governed by a council, currently controlled by the Liberal Democrats; and it has four MPs, two Labour, two Conservative.

Aside from the University of York (about which more will be said later), York is the home of York St John University, an Anglican institution which just received university status this year (more on that when I figure out the exact difference between colleges, university colleges, and universities). York College and Askham Bryan College offer many further-education and foundation courses and some honours degrees, specialising in vocational subjects.

In addition to possessing the greatest concentration of medieval stained glass in Britain, York also has a surviving medieval town hall (the Merchant Adventurer's Hall); the largest Gothic structure in the UK (York Minster); the world's "largest static collection of railway locomotives" (at the National Railway Museum); a nearly complete circuit of medieval walls, which can be walked by the public (about 3 miles) encircling the city centre; and, evidently, a street seen in the first Harry Potter movie (The Shambles). The City has a football team, York City (who seem to be not very good), and a rugby league side, the York City Knights (also apparently not very good). York was home to Guy Fawkes, the Catholic conspirator who prepared the explosives for the Gunpowder Plot and was of course executed. And, according to Wikipedia, Dame Judi Dench lives in the city, but I'm more impressed by the fact that York was once home to a Viking chieftain named Ivar the Boneless.