Archers, Ho!

Today was a day full of firsts. It was also a very full day in general.

My first event began at 7:20 this morning, when I attended my first meeting of the Exeter Southernhay Rotary Club. We had a nice breakfast, with a talk from the head of the Exeter Planning Commission. I now see where Northport (AL) got their philosophy on urban development.

As the saying goes, getting there was half the fun: It poured down rain on me the whole way to the meeting, and again from the meeting to the university. I was thoroughly soaked when I got to the meeting, and even more waterlogged when I reached the university. Ultimately, I reached the conclusion that my shirt was drenched to the point that I had to change. Luckily, I had another shirt in my backpack, wrapped in plastic. No, this wasn't excellent forethought on my part (that would have been using a raincoat and pack cover), it was just the rugby shirt that I bought yesterday.

At 11, my first postgraduate class began. Although not my favorite period, British Naval Power in the Era of Sail looks to be very promising. The reading list is a bit daunting, but should be manageable once I am able to lay hands on all the books.

Much of the afternoon was spend studying and running errands. However, my favorite part of the day did not come until 8 pm, when I went to my first meeting of the University of Exeter Archery Club. I hadn't used a bow in about ten years, so I was badly out of practice, but that didn't matter, as most of my fellow archers were complete beginners. I was assigned to "Fat Grouchy Rob" for training. Rob, to my mind, is neither fat nor grouchy, but I suppose he is both by British standards. Also in my group were Mark, John, Dave, and Holly, making us a group of widely varied experience. We had one aspiring stuntman (currently a drama undergrad), an aspiring competitive archer (who has his own bow and shoots for hours on end when he needs to think about something), and several of us who couldn't seem to get our grips right (although I think I've finally got it). The Archery Club is a very international group, with students from Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, the US, China, and Japan, just to name a few.

I'm very glad to be getting settled into an academic, and for the first time in years athletic, routine. I am signed up for a Rifle Club taster session tomorrow night, which I think will be fun. I'd like to do Rifle Club as well as Archery, but the two conflict, and there is no way that I'm giving up Archery, not least because I've already paid the membership fee! I also can't wait to get the Archery Club attire. What's not to love about a polo with the University crest, "University of Exeter," and "Archery Club 2008-2009" stictched on it?

Day One

Today was my school's (Humanities and Social Sciences) "Postgraduate School Day," the occasion in which all the new postgraduate students are welcomed to their departments and the school. All of the new postgrads in the history department (around 40 of us) were welcomed by the department's postgraduate adviser this morning. Intrestingly, there are no new MPhil or PhD students in the group; all of us are either MA or MRes students, which I thought was interesting. Our programs range from "Straight History" (the instutitional nickname given to the MA in History to distinguish it from the specialized ones) to Medical History to Maritime History to History of War & Society to Naval History (my personal favorite).

After our welcome to our department, we were welcome by the dean of the school. Fast forwarding past his speech, which wasn't particulary memorable, I met one of Amanda's fellow Fulbright TAs from Germany. She's now in Islamic studies (I believe her research interest has something to do with German Turks). It's quite a small world!

After that, we had a departmental buffet, with more of the interesting sandwiches that I first encountered back at Link Weekend. During the course of this lunch, I found out who my personal tutor is. I'm acquainted with his work from Dr. Selesky's Military History class that I toook senior year, in which we read Why the Allies Won. His name is Richard Overy, and his research interests are air power, World War II, and Germany. Needless to say, while we don't completely overlap there, we do have a good bit in common to discuss.

Having this behind me, I feel much more ready to begin my classes on Tuesday. Hopefully, I'll still feel this ready on Tuesday night!