July 2008
13 posts
July 22nd:
I came home today. Woke up at 5:00 am, made myself some cereal, and walked to the Isle of Man’s airport (a 10-minute walk from King William’s) and caught a one hour flight to Gatwick. Three-hour layover, six-and-a-half flight to Newark, and I’m back in the States.
I have to say, I miss the Island. More than I ever thought I would. As soon as I got on the little...
Sunday:
After my trip to Peel Castle, my new friends Ellie and Chris (two University of Liverpool archeology students, also housing at King William’s) decided to take the Isle of Man Steam Train down to Port Erin.
Yes, the Island still has a fully-functioning steam railway traveling from Douglas to Port Erin four times a day.
A cute red train, with comfy cabins.
I must say, steam trains...
July 20th:
Today, I’ve officially achieved my objectives for this trip. I have all the already-existing audio documentation of classic Manx. I’ve tracked down every book ever made in or about Manx and put it in a box, now en route to the Harvard-Westlake library. I’ve made my own recordings of modern Manx. I’ve talked to every Manx speaker I could find about the...
As promised, here’s a four-minute video of a lesson from Bunscoill Gaelgagh in St. Johns. The entire lesson is in Manx; note how the students’ fluency and confidence as they speak (and even argue) in Manx.
I didn’t go into great detail about the all-Manx school before. I thought it’d be better if I could actually show pictures and video to illustrate the way the children learn and utilize the recently-revived Manx language.
The school is called the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh (literally: “Primary school of Manx”), and all subjects are taught in Manx Gaelic except for English....
July 17th:
I took the bus from Castletown to Douglas and then from Douglas to Ramsey to find a Manxman who hadn’t ever lived away from the Island. According to most tips I got, most people in Douglas and Castletown have lived away from the Island for at least a short time in their lives, and the North was my best bet. Why did I need such a person?
To record their accent and submit it to...
Since last time we talked:
July 15th: The morning of the 15th, an international diving team arrived to stay in King William’s College with the archaeology students and I. They have members from England, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, France, Germany, Sweden and Spain and, for some reason, they’ve decided to come to the Isle of Man to dive in the Irish Sea. They leave at...
Announcement! After what I can only call “driver hell,” I have managed to upload all of my pictures to flickr. I’ll be going back and posting pictures now, so take a look at the previous posts!
Angela was nice enough to link to me today! Angela’s another Harvard-Westlake student, and she’s designed quite a nice tumblr layout with her web design skills. Check her out.
July 14th: I went to visit Castle Rushen School, a general-education public school in Castletown. The school goes from our kindergarten to our senior grade, and sends many of its students off to University.
I...
Well hello again.
There’s a lot to catch up on here. I’m really sorry for the delay… everyday seems to be an adventure of some sort. I can’t get my pictures uploaded from my camera yet, so I’ll come back and sprinkle my posts with them after I get that working. Until then, my descriptions will have to do. Where should we begin?
Starting from July 10th. I took the bus...
Today, I got to go into Douglas for the first time.Douglas is the capital of the Isle of Man, and the home of Tynwald, the oldest still-functioning-parliament on Earth.
This is the more modern Tynwald house, but the ancient Mound of Tynwald is still around.
(From the Isle of Man’s site… I have yet to visit myself!)
This is quite a site to behold, apparently… There’s...
Well, hello there.
I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, but I’m writing to you from the Isle of Man. I’m sitting in what used to be some sort of medieval dining hall in King William’s College. As you can see from the site, the school itself is actually a castle. It’s also an elite boarding school for British students, and the school has allowed me to stay in...
The time has finally come. I leave for the Isle of Man tomorrow. I’ve been preparing in all the boring ways: packing, exchanging money, etc.. There are a few elements of my traveling routine, however, that I thought would be interesting enough to share. Let’s talk about mobile computing. I’m going to be doing recordings and interviews, so mobile recording is a must. I’ll also be finding my way...