Tricia's Roman Holiday: Durham: Fun with the students

We have another great group of students--they're smart, funny and everyone gets along with each other. Currently, we're residing in a dormitory. Everyone has his or her room with a sink. Notice the omission here: there are no en suite bathrooms. Instead we have a bathroom room and a shower room. And they're coed (with lockable doors)! So it really is a good thing that we all get along together.

When Hastings went out of business earlier this year, Bill decided to pick up a bunch of cheap movies on medieval subjects. We also learned from a waiter in town that we could access our Netflix account from the UK. We have had several movie nights already.

We watched these movies from the Conference Room in Holgate Hall. We were supposed to have this room and before that we were supposed to have access to the Common Room, but the LMS (London Mathematical Society) people (persnickety and stodgy mathematicians) claimed both, posting numerous signs that virtually said "no trespassing." On our last night in the Conference Room we played two rounds of the Name Game.

Katherine, Ricky and Haley

Allie, Rachel and Maggie

Sara and Mike

Victor and Hunter

Andrew and Ricky

I had to guess that I was the Taco Bell Chihuahua by asking Yes/No questions. At least I didn't get Ke$ha. I still don't know who she is (I think she's a she).

As you can see, everybody was having a great time.

Of course the real reason all of us are here (well, except for me--I'm merely a hanger-onner), is to study Medieval literature and history. We are very fortunate that the Lindisfarne Gospels are on display in Durham. Normally, they are housed in London. I can't show you pictures of the exhibit because it was so tightly regulated that only a few of us were permitted in the exhibit room at any given time, but I can show you the hands-on exhibit that was upstairs.

Rachel

Here are Eric, the TA who is assisting Bill (and who taught an awesome class yesterday on the Bayeux Tapestry) and SiRandal. Both are working very hard on their respective projects.

As they say in Arkansas, this appears to be a real "poser" for Eric.

Two sets of hands are always better than one when you're coloring.

Eric was so proud to show off his signed work of art.

Here he is with Lamarise, SiRandal and Forster.

Robert captured the happy faces of Rachel and Danny after they had constructed a stone pillow wall.

Of course, nothing galvanizes a group like a common enemy, and for us that would be the LMS "delegates." They have signs everywhere.

For mathematicians, they seem to lack sound logic. What is a "private common room"? The "delegates" also have signs to designate their tables in the very large dining hall that we share.

When we went to dinner later than usual because of a site visit to Lindisfarne, some of our students overheard them complaining about us being in their dinner line. Really! They think they own the place! Anyway, that evening we were relegated to the Pub instead of the Conference Room, so we made the most of it.

Here are Logan and Andrew playing darts. Logan, incidentally, scored a bulls eye on his first throw. I tried darts and while I was pretty good 45 years ago, it appears I've lost my touch. I could have easily misfired a shot and hit one of the LMS people sitting to the left, so I bowed out.

The guys even kept score, proving that we could do "maths", too!

Meanwhile, the rest of us sat around tables and plotted how we could make the lives of the LMS people even more unpleasant. The favorite suggestion was to call the hogs at breakfast the next morning. (We didn't do that because we're mature adults.)

Bill wasn't very happy when he learned that the second of two common meeting areas had been closed to us because of the mathematicians, so he fired off a note to the events coordinator. The following morning he received a favorable reply that our classroom could be used as a meeting area for our students. In fact, the powers-that-be brought in comfy chairs for us.

It should be noted that these common areas are not only important for group activities, but they are linked with Wi-Fi which enables students to Skype with family members back home. Also, our students are really, really nice people, and our presence should not have ticked off the LMS people who, in my opinion, are just a little too curmudgeonly.

Having won the right to our own designated space, one of the students had gone there to use it and upon entering found three more LMS people parked there! Squatters, they are! Aargh, the nerve! They were very nice to him (as they should have been) and he to them, but when I heard about it, well, I went ballistic (in a cute and mild way). Bill went down to the room and explained nicely that this was the space designated for our students. Realizing that signs mean the world to the LMS folks, we asked the receptionist/porter to print up a sign for us.