I have a vague plan to publish more online, and am thinking that WordPress rather than LJ gets the better overall coverage. I want to do something that reflects the fact that I'm still involved in Classics, but no longer as a professional, and have other interests and a wider worldview (I hope!). There's a couple of options, so I thought I'd ( Read more... )

In an effort to raise some beer money while I'm unemployed and hopefully make it to events this year, I'll be taking commissions for kit and formalwear while I'm out of work ( Read more... )

...Our intrepid heroine travels the south-west of Australia...

( Dophins and Kangas and Buses, oh my )

My teaching placement in Thailand wrapped up a week or so ago, and I bid a fond farewell to Takua Pa and Khao Lak. My last night in the south was spent at the pub quiz (we didn't win, but we beat the other volunteer teams, and that's what counts), and my last day on the beach sunning myself before the bus to Bangkok ( Read more... )

It's hard to believe I've been in Thailand nearly 5 weeks. The days sort of slip by seamlessly in a laid-back kind of haze. Life is good ( Read more... )

My last entry saw me newly-arrived in Varanasi as I began a 2-week temple-spotting tour through the centre of India. It's a fairly crazy place on the Ganges, filled with pilgrims bathing next to bodies burning next to cows taking a dump in the river...not the most hygenic place in the world, but apparently Lord Shiva loves it, and in Hindu ( Read more... )

I'm now nearing the end of the third week of my project. Nearly 4 weeks in India, and another 3 to go. At times it feels like I've been here forever, at times like I only landed yesterday. Things have kinda planed out into an approximation of normal daily routine - I've got used to the food, the dust, the washing in a bucket of cold water. I'm ( Read more... )

Travelling in India takes real effort. You don't realise, till you get here, just how *big* this bloody place is. And I'm starting to think that, after Morocco, I may be all travelled out already. Especially when nothing seems to run even vaguely on time, or be accompanied by useful things like English-language signs, staff of any description, or ( Read more... )

At the beginning of this week, I wondered what the hell I was doing here in India. On Monday morning, we had an empty room, four volunteers, a box of samosas and a couple of crates of books. By the end of the week, we were turning students away at the door because 55 kids in one room really *is* too much, and planning to work extra hours so we can ( Read more... )

So then Darrn, Mariko and I got to our home-stay and began to freak out. There's a toilet, but it took us an hour to find a shop in Old Faridabad that sold loo roll. There's no shower - or hot water. Ants are climbing the wall in the kitchen (although I admit that our kitchen in Mardling Ave was worse at times, and at least there's no slugs) and ( Read more... )