My Big Adventure

Hi Everyone  =D 

           

I'm sorry that my blog a day didn't really happen, but 2 out of 4 days, for me, well it’s been worse.

The time has come for me to announce the news that I am sure you have been just dying to here, so here it is!!

Tomorrow, I shall be going on a 7 week adventure, were I will be exploring the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Peru and Bolivia.

I shall start off with 10 days voluntary work on the Galapagos Islands, where I will be part of a group that helps remove non-indigenous species of plant from San Cristóbal, the biggest of the Galapagos Islands. The aim of the Biological Research Station is to conserve native highland forests by eradicating invasive plant species and to replace them with native trees and vegetation. "Everyday new exotic and invasive species are being introduced to the island, through importation of vegetables and fruit. By helping with reforestation and replacing exotic invasive plants with native species, the Galapagos can be restored to its natural state" The voluntary activities range from, reforestation, station maintenance, organic agricultural activities, and learning about biodiversity, natural history and ecology of the island.

Some of the animals I hope to see:

Sea Lion

Giant Tortoise

Iguana

After leaving the Galapagos Islands, I head back to Ecuador, for a 35 day trip through Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The Tour which I am taking includes, visits to the Pachamanca ceremony in Nazca, Guided tour of Machu Picchu, 4 day Inca Trail Hike with a local guide, Amazon Jungle excursion from Quito, Colca Canyon, Lake Titicaca excursion with overnight family home stay.

The Trips which I have booked are everything that I wanted to do this year, and it hopefully will allow me to finish my gap year, on the ultimate high. 

I am hoping to try and blog some of the things that I do over the coming 7 weeks, but as you already know, my blogging skills whilst at home are rather lacking, so being away will either work miracles for this blog, or well, you'll be hearing from me after the 2nd July. 

I hope that you all have an amazing 7 weeks. 

Maisie

Welcome to the year 893 AD

I'm back!!!

So, carrying on from yesterdays blog, where I told of the great adventures the Eastbourne Ancestors team had, as we crossed the border into unknown lands outside the Town Hall. I shall carry on with our journey and tell of our new quest, the time we where we got the opportunity to mix with the public and express and promote our morbid obsessions with the dead and the skeletons we look afters history and relationship with Eastbourne.

But alas, we could not take on such a great and important task as this on our own, so we called in the help, of Regia Anglorum. Over the bank holiday weekend, many a Viking died at the hands of the Eastbourne Anglo Saxons and Eastbourne lived to see another day relatively unscathed by the Viking invasions. 

Regia Anglorum, were amazing, they allowed both the public and us (the Eastbourne ancestors) to get a feel on how these people would have lived, and survived. It was also great, because, they got to see the original versions of some of the things that they recreate for their outfits, and therefore also helped us, to work out what some of the unknown items may have been used for. 

Hayley, our leader of the Eastbourne Ancestors, also got the opportunity to be the 'living' corpse for a re-creation of a viking ship burial. 

The Dead Warrior would have been provided with all that they needed in the afterlife: A sword to protect her, A helmet,  food and drinking vessels.

Our stall was a great success, and Stanley the skeleton looked rather dashing, as he dressed in period costume, as Gloria, the Anglo-Saxon. The Eastbourne Ancestors, where able to show a lot of the local residents grave goods that were discovered at the site during 1997/98

 

So the Eastbourne Ancestors Project has continued to expand, what will we get up to next?? 

If you would like to know more about Regia Anglorum, then you can follow the link below to their website, and see where they will be invading next:

http://www.regia.org/

Until Tomorrow,

Maisie

Oh and, how could I resist...

Crossing the Border

Hello Blog Followers,

I hope that you have all recovered from the devastating blow that was My Chemical Romance Splitting up, and are now ready to take on new adventures and continue living life to the full.

The last month has been super busy, as the time is nearly here for that all anticipated super exciting news which I am soon to break to the interweb. But, aside from that, life has also been busy, as 'we' the Eastbourne Ancestors have taken our love of all things morbid to a new level, we have removed ourselves from the safety of Eastbourne Town Hall, and have now taken two voyages out into the world of the living and braving the sunshine.

The First was a day trip to Fishbourne Roman Palace on Thursday 18th April: AKA X-ray Day.

Hayley, Paula and I took the opportunity to visit Fishbourne Roman Palace, and make a day of it as Hayley had already booked to use the x-ray facilities there. We took a selection of bones to x-ray:

Our Eastbourne Ancestors arrive at Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum....

A Female Mandible: we x-rayed this to see if she had her 3rd molars hidden in her jaw (to help age her) as the 3rd molars are not visible.





After being shown how the x-ray machine worked, by expert Rob. Paula and I, left Hayley to continue discovering more about the bones through x-ray, and headed straight (after the much needed trip to the cafe!) to the palace and museum. The Museum, at Fishbourne, gave us loads of ideas, of what was possible for the future of Eastbourne Ancestors and the palace made for an enjoyable and interesting day out.

Hayley and I, at Fishbourne Roman Palace.

After the success, which was Fishbourne, Hayley organised another trip to the Museum of London AKA The Great Adventure.

On Thursday 9th May, 8 fearless volunteers, and 1 very brave Hayley, set out on a journey of self discovery. On a journey which took us several hours (about 2) we successfully navigated 1 train and 2 tube trips without any incidents and all 9 of us arrived at our final destination safe and sound.

The museum of London is one of my favourite museums and I have been their several times before, the last time was for the Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men <-- See my previous blog post 'Who really owns your body?" for more information on this subject. Since I lasted visited the Museum, a lot of the exhibitions have changed, and the museum, after working closely with a groups of school children, created a comparison item in many of the display cases, for example in a case which contained Roman clips and brooches, which would have once, held clothing together, there was also a modern ladies dress with a 'statement zip' which holds the dress together. They were trying to show that although times have changed, a lot of the items on display have a close modern counterpart.

So, two amazing days out, with surprisingly no loss of life, or missing persons. I would like to end this blog by saying a massive thank you to Hayley for organising these two great days out. Everybody who went had a fantastic time.

I would also like to say thank you to Paula Borthwick, for letting me us her photos.

If you would like to find out more about the places we visited, check out the links below:

FISHBOURNE: http://sussexpast.co.uk/properties-to-discover/fishbourne-roman-palace

MUSEUM OF LONDON: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/

Tune in tomorrow for more exciting stuff, I will be blogging now every day until Thursday 16th May, when I will finally reveal my big news.

Maisie

MCR - We Were Unstoppable

Hi Blog Followers,

My blog post today isn't the expected exciting news (which is still coming - I promise) It also isn't archaeology/history/travel or university based.

It is instead a massive Thank You and Good Bye to My Chemical Romance who after 12 years, have decided to disband. My Chemical Romances music and attitude towards the world has given me the confidence and inspiration to be me, and from a band what more can you ask?? 

Below are some pictures of when I went to see them on February 12th 2011 at Wembley Arena

Maisie