Anger Management

Alyson and I are anxiously awaiting tonight's conflict resolution, or, as one of our classmates accidentally called it today, anger management training. We figured that the two are pretty much the same thing. We'll see how that goes. All that the professors will tell us is that we're going to be best friends after this evening (that scares me, greatly!). Today was a fun day of classes. This morning we had Historical Organization Administration, in which we will learn about how museums, historic sites, and professional historical organizations run, as well as how to write research grants. I have a little bit of grant writing experience from my time at BYU, but for this class we're actually going to be helping a museum write a grant proposal. We were all assigned different museums, and mine is the Piatt County Museum located in Monticello, Illinois. I didn't even know there was a place called Monticello, Illinois, but it doesn't surprise me because in Natchez we decided that there must be a town named Monticello in every state. There's for sure one in Utah, one in Mississippi, one in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, New York, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, and now we know, Illinois. I guess that the Piatt County Museum is in the process of revamping its whole image. They've received a barn from the University of Illinois, and they're going to be giving barn tours in October. I have no idea what the proposed grant will be for, but I'll meet with the museum people to find out. Maybe we could buy some cows for the barn or something like that? (just kidding) It should be a really good experience!

This afternoon we had our Material Culture class, where we will be learning about decorative arts in America. I think it will be a super hard but super helpful and fun class. For class today, we met at a house belonging to some people who live just outside of Charleston. They have been collecting antiques for years, and so we had our first lesson in identifying wood type, era of production, and origin. I'm pretty good at identifying things made of walnut now. Dr. Reid teaches that class, and she seems like a really, really cool/knowledgeable person, so I'm excited for the course.

I found out in kind of a roundabout way, through the grapevine, that one of the other students in the program is a Mormon! BUT, she cannot know that I know she's a Mormon because she doesn't want people to know she's a Mormon. She's from Illinois, so she doesn't have the Utah factor as a giveaway. The difference between the two of us is that she wouldn't be caught dead in a BYU t-shirt, whereas I proudly wear my cougar gear. Also, her creative way of telling people she doesn't drink alcohol involves something about her family having a history of alcoholism and she doesn't want to take the risk of becoming an alcoholic. I find it's easier to just tell people that Mormons don't drink alcohol--end of story. Oh well, different strokes for different folks. I won't let her know that I know she's a Mormon unless she decides to tell me sometime. I thought it was kind of a coincidence, though, that we both ended up in the program at the same time. Well, I'm off to anger management--wish me luck!

My New Favorite Class

Hi everyone! I do have more pictures of the apartment, but I've got to run back over to campus in a little while, so I'll need to wait until later to put them up. This morning I had my Interpreting History for Public Audiences class, and I think it will be my favorite of them all--probably because it deals with historical research, writing, and other stuff I'm really interested in and have experience with from working in Natchez. Call me crazy, but I love writing papers, and so I'm excited about the research paper for this class. This class is also the one for which we'll be doing the Dudley project. I still have no idea what's going on with that whole thing, but I do know that by October we'll be having people lining up at the Dud's house to see something, so a lot is surely going to have to happen between now and then. I'm always up for a good challenge though :-)

Yesterday I forgot to tell you about making a business card holder out of paper in my museum exhibits class. Who knew that museum exhibit people do stuff like that? We were learning about scaling drawings up to larger sizes, and we had to measure and assemble our own paper card holder. Mine actually turned out pretty well, and I have it sitting here on my desk with business cards in it! Today I just had one class, but then tomorrow I have two again. The Baumans (from church) invited me over for dinner tonight, so that should be fun. Tomorrow night all of the students in my program have to go to something called Conflict Resolution training. Our professors told us that after working with each other for two semesters in such an intense program, we students are sure to get sick of each other, so we need to learn now, while we still all like each other, how to deal with other personality types. Everytime one of the professors talks about Conflict Resolution training, they get a big smile on their face, so I have no idea what this training will entail. They'll probably tie all of us up and throw us in a swimming pool to see if we can work together to get out or something like that (hopefully not).

First Day of School

Whoa! Today kind of felt like my first day of kindergarten all over again--a lot of uncertainty and anticipation. Now that the day is over, I am totally overwhelmed, but it's okay because I'm overwhelmed to the point that I don't feel overwhelmed. Does that make sense? It's like there's so much to do that I know I can't worry about it--I need to just take it one step at a time. (At least that's what I'm telling myself.) I think it will be a really good semester though--I'm sure to learn a lot and gain some valuable experience. This morning we had History Museum Exhibits for a few hours, then this afternoon we had Digital Applications for Museums. Tomorrow we have Interpreting History for Public Audiences, which should be especially interesting. After class today Alyson and I went over to the workout room here at the apartments to decompress a little. Now I'm going to eat some dinner and read, read, read!

My New Digs

Finally, here it is--the new bedroom! In the first picture you can see the area where I'll be spending most of my time: at my desk and in bed (probably more time at the desk than asleep). Then you can see my little hallway that goes into my ginormous bathroom, which is kind of hard to see the full effect of in the third picture, but as least it gives you an idea. Alyson is asleep right now, and I don't want to disturb her, so I'll wait until tomorrow to take pictures of the rest of the apartment, but I think you'll all love it. Also, I realized I hadn't put any pictures from the Michigan trip up yet, so here I am at Gerald Ford's grave on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in downtown Grand Rapids. I can't believe that was only a week ago--it feels like about seven months ago!

Lost in the Corn

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't put pictures up for a while, but I'll try to get some on the computer soon--also, my room is almost clean enough for me to take pictures of the apartment, so stay tuned. Today on the way to church I kind of got lost in the cornfields of Mattoon. My GPS knew where I was going, but I think I turned too early because then all of a sudden, according to the GPS, I was not on any real roads anymore. It was kind of like being in one of those Halloween corn mazes, but I finally found my way out, and now I know for sure where to turn, so it shouldn't happen again. At church today I was able to meet a few more people, and I got two dinner invitations! Hooray for food! The Lunt family, who has a daughter my age out in Utah at school, has invited me for dinner this evening. Then, the Baumans have invited me over for dinner on Tuesday. I guess that Paul Bauman (the dad) did my same HA program three years ago. He was telling me today that he never got along with Dr. Reid and that he argued with her every day in class and got a bad grade. Hmmmm, note to self: don't argue with the teachers every day in class!! Dr. Reid seems like someone I could get along really well with--I think that Brother Bauman and I have very different personality types. Also today, random of randoms, I was walking down the hall at church, and the four missionaries who are assigned to this area were standing out there. We started talking, and one of them said, "You look really familiar." Turns out that he's from the Orem/Provo area and went to my alma matter, Mountain View High School! He graduated a couple of years after me, but I guess he was a sophomore when I was a senior. It's definitely a small world.

This afternoon Alyson and I went to the Coles County Historical Society ice cream social at the Dudley House. We and our fellow classmates were by far the youngest people there, but everyone was very nice, and they served us some tasty ice cream. Well, I guess I'll go do some reading before heading to dinner at the Lunt's house. I hope that everyone is doing well!