Adventures in Devon!

Hello everyone! As the end of my time here in the UK is just a few weeks away, I am scrambling to cram as much in as possible. My work placement at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum is going well and I get to work with curators and conservators, handle some amazing museum objects and get as involved as I can in my two months here. The box of spiders in glass jars, Victorian dresses, antique books, and early 20^th century maps are the kinds of things I get to work with, which just confirms I chose the right career. The thing that amuses me most about working in a museum in Britain is how much tea and cake is involved! Every Thursday is Cake Day, and whenever I am with the conservators, we stop for tea and biscuits at 10:30am and 3:30pm precisely. Of course they warned me on my first day, ‘this place runs on tea and cake’.

I’ve been keeping myself busy on weekends going to different places in Devon. One weekend I went to Torquay on the ‘English Riviera’, which is the hometown of the author Agatha Christie. I enjoyed the place and plan to go back in two weeks time to see an Agatha Christie play at the old theatre. I’ve also ventured out on Dartmoor, a national park of over 350 square miles of moors, forests, rolling hills, waterfalls and wild landscapes. Celebrating a colleague’s birthday I’ve also taken a ferry down the river Exe for a pub lunch at one of the few pubs in the country that cannot be accessed by car, only by boat, walking, or cycling. And as a pleasant surprise to Mom & Dad who thought I had grown to dislike camping and hiking, I have done two weekends in a tent in rural Devon, taking in the sea and the gorgeous South West Coast Path.

I’m still looking forward to visiting Penzance in Cornwall this weekend (yes, the pirates of Penzance!) and having the opportunity to travel with my brother in Italy before returning home! Arrival date back in the US is set to be Friday 28.