Wild Wood Wanderer

Home again home again. Nothing like sitting in a Panera with free wireless access, enjoying a cup of coffee and an everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese. Actually, there’s just nothing like being home.

This morning, as I was getting dressed, I noticed something move on my jeans and looked down to find a giant spider moving across my hips. GROSSSSSSSSSS! I’m not that squeemish, but I don’t go around attaching myself to them, so they should afford me the same courtesay. “Where did it come from?” and “How long was it on me?” were the questions I pondered as a beat it into oblivion with my flip flop. Now, for the rest of the morning I have felt phantom legs creeping all over me, kind of like getting out of a pool on a hot day and feeling the water dry up on your skin. It’s a little disconcerting. It makes me think that all ghost sitings are really just the mainifestation of guilt. i.e. I feel guilty about killing the spider and now imagine ghost spiders are attacking me. This is completely nuts and will only end in tears when I once again take off my flip flop and starting beating myself while walking down the street. Maybe I could put a hat out on the sidewalk in front of me and then blend in with all the other “entertainers” on the street.

Here I am sitting in the Elephant House, with a plate cleaned of a chilli baked potato and several bags full of souviners on the floor. I am two days away from being back in the U.S. and three days away from being home. It is too soon to give my final verdict on Edinburgh, but I’m leaving with the feeling that it is a tourist’s city, meant for tourists, and meant for perhaps only a week’s visit. But maybe that’s me. The charming city that greeted me a month ago is oh-so-different from the one I’m leaving now. After battling my way down the streets, where people stop so abruptly that your only choice is to hit them or step off the sidewalk and be hit by a double decker, I find myself tired of making excuses for the city. It is profiting from a good economy and tourists who live in a good economy and travel here to spend money. And that’s really what it comes down to, because there is absolutely nothing that doesn’t cost money, and a lot of it. (Actually, that’s not quite true. I’ve found a spattering of good museums that I take advantage of for their exhibits, cool temperatures, and (most of the time) free toilets.) Even to make copies at the archives cost a dollar per page. So instead of paying that, I spent a few days that I can never get back tucked inside at a table transcribing entire files.

I know this is a whole lot of complaining from someone who just got paid to stay here for a month. I’m also sure that once time gives me a little perspective, I’ll look back and think what a great opportunity this trip is. Right now though, I’m content to wallow in self-pity, especially because the data for my thesis is only half found (the other half waiting in some other archive in Baltimore) and I’ve not yet begun to write. (Perhaps this is what Patrick Henry actually said while penning a nice little poem, but through an ill-fated mistake found himself battling it out with the Brits).

Here are some tips for doing research in the field:

1. Have a plan.
2. Have a phone, so when the plan falls to pieces, you can call home and cry. Also good for contacting people to interview, which I have not been able to do except to step into the smelly phone booths (read: toilet alternative) and deposit a dollar worth of coins.
3. Have easy access to internet. (def Easy: not more than a mile away from the place where you are staying, and not requiring a purchase of a 5 dollar latte in order to get it for free).
4. If it is sunny in the morning, for god’s sake take a rain jacket with you and do not under any circumstances wear a skirt that is easily blown up by the wind.
5. When doing research in the U.K., simply double the price of everything in order to convert it to dollars. For example, the every popular pannini costing 3.50 pounds would actually be seven dollars, and frankly, who likes pannini anyway?

I have only one more week to go (well, mostly)! I think I’ve just about run out of things to research, even though I know I’ll find holes in my info when I get back. I have contact info though, so I think it will be okay.

I have never been looking foward to going back to the hot, muggy summers of VA more than now. I’m sure the image of laying by a pool all day with a book is perhaps a little too far-fetched, but I’m going to try and make it happen!

So now, I’ve been working half days and thinking the rest of the day. (Yes, the two are mutually exclusive). I’ve also been watching the English version (the first version) of The Office. I wish they’d just run their version in the U.S. - it’s so hillarious.

This weekend, I’m going to take one last trip out to my favourite beach here, and then blow a bunch of money on souviners. After that, only a bit more time and I come home.

Have I mentioned I’m excited to come home???

I can’t wait to go home.