Early morning

Wake up today was 6:20am because we're heading to Somerset Place Plantation in NC. Hopefully it's one of the last early early wake ups that I'll have for the rest of the program.

Last night we watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and barely survived. My friend and I practically screeched our way  through the movie, and Kleenex were on hand. I've never laughed so much actually.

Well hopefully I've recovered from that and can survive NC today.

-Tessa :D

Lazy Day

Today marks HALFWAY THROUGH THE PROGRAM!! Wow!! I can't believe we're already halfway through, and I'm very excited for what the rest of my time here will bring.

Today was an open day as well, so we didn't have anything official to do except a tour about TJ and his body-servant/slave Jupiter in CW in the morning and dance at 2PM. We've decided which dances we're performing at closing ceremonies; Haste to the Wedding and the Duke of Kent. Both are a lot of fun, so I'm excited. I skipped a lot today at practice, so that was my exercise for the day.

Other than that, I've been lazing around listening to Joe Iconis music, revising my journal, reading for tomorrow, and thinking about what my next journal will be on. I just finished revising my journal, so I thought it would be a nice time to post some pictures from yesterday's adventures. We went to the site of Lumpkin Slave Jail, which is now a parking lot, the Kanawha Canal, Tredegar Iron Works, and the American Civil War Center. Basically, we debunked the 'South is all agriculture' myth by talking about industry in Richmond (iron works, munitions factories, textile mills, etc). It was a lot of walking, but still good!

The York River...I believe....

An actual picture of me, wow, I'm alive!

RIVER

Not many pictures...probably because the sites we visited weren't really there; the slave jail isn't there anymore, and the canal was just a canal. I should've taken pictures outside Tredegar, but whoops...and we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Civil War Center. Tomorrow we're going to Somerset Plantation in NC, however, so I'll probably have a lot of pictures to post!!

For my next journal, I'm considering writing about African American women; maybe comparing their status/education by parents/etc to that of white women....I'm not really sure. Going to go formulate that idea now. :D

-Tessa :D

Beginning Week Two

Today was another early wake-up, then we headed over to the Frontier Culture Museum. They have Old World (Europe/Africa) and New World (US) homes from the 18th and 19th centuries; for more info check this out!

It was really hot out, but we toured some really cool (as in interesting, they weren't that much cooler than outside) homes and saw CATS. Also I tripped up some historical stairs, but I survived, so huzzah!!

We also had a dance lesson this evening, and finally had enough guys for all us girls!! My partner and I had a lot of fun and thankfully both of us picked up the steps rather quickly. Yay!!

The 1740s (I believe) Virginia cabin!

Sleepy historical cat!

Historical pig!!

Another historical cat; his name was George, and he was nice enough to let me pet him and he licked my hand...so sweet!!

German house!

English house!

West African hut! The doors are very low, so I had to do a little limbo to get in. One NIAHD boy is over 6ft, and it was kind of funny watching him maneuver out of the hut. 

Hand carved doors by the African huts!

I've been relaxing since dance ended at 8pm, so I think I'm going to check over and make sure all my work is done for tomorrow before relaxing more. :D Tomorrow we're visiting some sites in Richmond, and then Wednesday is a free day and hopefully CW!!

-Tessa :D

Weekend Shenanigans

Saturday was another early wake-up, archaeology (Very fun!! We found pieces of brick, pottery, nails, and glass!), and the rest of the day was freaking out over writing my journal, which I completed!! I wrote it on how we view our founding, debunking some myths, and analyzing what our glorified views say about us.

Today I slept in slightly and did laundry. After lunch and our background lecture, which introduced this week's theme, I headed to CW with some friends! Our theme this week is basically Southern Honor, so we watched some clips, including this lovely video that showed duels and what people got from them- satisfaction, as well as a clip from the HBO series Deadwood which showed the lower class/Western version of dueling- rough and tumble gouging aka taking eyeballs out of heads. I averted my eyes, because the article I read about it was enough.

CW was so much fun!! We walked through Merchant's Square, checked out some shops, and then headed into the Revolutionary City. The first shop we hit was the Prentis shop. Since I'd been there before, I took a few minutes to look around, then went outside to listen to some officers (Captain Innes from my earlier CW adventures and another guy) speak. The crowd around them dispersed, so they started on their way but stopped to ask me for the time. I told them I would 'check my sundial', and pulled out my phone. All my friends left the Prentis store to see me talking to the officers, telling them it was 4PM, and promptly chastised me with "We left you for five minutes." I think I'm officially the Lydia Bennett of our group. We continued through CW, stopping at the milliner's shop to see their lovely clothes and the Raleigh Tavern bakery for cold cider and baked goods. We waited outside for a little bit and caught the first few minutes of Captain Innes's rallying speech thing trying to enlist people. On our walk back we passed the green in front of the Governor's Palace and who was there but the Marquis, riding around on his horse!! I promptly freaked out, and all my friends laughed because they now know of my love of the Marquis de Lafayette. Another of my friends told him that in a couple years he needed to get the royal family out of France (French Revolution reference). He said that he would take her advice, then galloped off.

I took a selfie on my friend's phone after I got my cold cider. This is satisfaction, people!

A carriage goes by!

COLD CIDER

The new officer; he was from Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, some of my friends didn't behave the best while in the Revolutionary City....

NIAHD in front of the Governor's Palace!!

Tomorrow my wake-up time is 6:20am, and I have a 3 hour drive to the Frontier Culture Museum!!

-Tessa :D

Catching Up

I have to continue writing my journal, which is one of three essays that I have to write for the program and will be given a grade on, but here are some pictures in the meantime!

One of the reproduction slave homes at Hot Water, a free black settlement.

Another one of the reproduction homes at Hot Water. This is one of the nicest; it includes a brick chimney, white siding instead of natural wood, and had nice porcelain inside. It also features some of my classmates!

One of the views at James Monroe's house; Highland (Ash Lawn).

An outbuilding at Highland (Ash Lawn). Maybe a kitchen?

Beautiful, stately Monticello.

Crops being grown at Monticello. The view is from Mulberry Row, where Jefferson's slaves who worked in his house would have lived.

Another Monticello view.

The dining room of John Wickham's home in Richmond. He was a Loyalist during the Revolution and also defended Aaron Burr during his treason trial (Grrr). 

The doorway to Wickham's home.

John Marshall's home!! I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. Fun Fact: Marshall was often given advice by his wife that he wouldn't take, and later, when something went wrong, she would have an 'I told you so.' moment. Mary Ambler and John Marshall are my new favorite historical couple. But seriously, John Marshall was an important historical figure.

Monumental Church; built on the site of the Richmond Theatre Fire. On December 26, 1811, a theatre in Richmond caught on fire and burnt down, taking with it the Governor of Virginia (I believe) and many others. Many of the bodies, which were either too burned for recognition or too fragile to move to cemeteries, are buried in a crypt below the church.

So that's pretty much what's been going on this week! We had dancing lessons again tonight, which was amazing!! Myself and my partner, a girl who'd danced before, were the Dream Team and skipped our way through three uptempo dances. Other than that, it's getting to crunch time for this journal writing, so I'm going to get on that now! And I'm going to be doing some archaeology tomorrow!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to comment with any questions about what I've been learning, seeing, doing, etc!! I should have some more free time this weekend, and I have a free day on Wednesday, so I'd love to hear from anyone following this and can answer some questions!!

Happy Tessa selfie as I'm writing this! I just took a shower, hence the head towel. 

-Tessa :D

Party night except not really

We're all really tired after today's field trips and our 2 hour conversation with Thomas Jefferson, so it's pretty much just relaxing and hanging out on our floor. I'll post more later once I'm at my computer, but for now I'm making tea.

I've never used this before so we'll see what happens.

-Tessa :D

Ramblings on a Wednesday

There's a big group (500 kids) from BYU here at W and M, so today we got up extra early (6:30am) to get to breakfast at 7am before the Caf got too crowded. Today the Civil War group is visiting the "Hot Water" Free Black Settlement as well as the Wren Building, which is the oldest building on campus and where my seminar takes place. Yesterday we visited St. John's Church, where Patrick Henry gave his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" speech and where George Wythe, law professor to Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, and Edgar Allan Poe's mother are buried. We had a lovely interpreter who was so enthusiastic about the material he was presenting that he practically became Patrick Henry.

Overall, I'm doing pretty good! I've been sleeping through the nights, an improvement on my first night, and haven't been feeling too exhausted. I've been eating oatmeal every morning and salads at lunch and have some great new friends to sit with. Also we watched Enchanted in our lounge last night and will probably be watching another movie tonight. It's going awesomely!

The readings and seminars haven't been too bad either; my goal is too speak up more, which I've been succeeding in, so that's good. For today, I had to read an article on Robert Carter III, who wrote a Deed of Gift in 1791 that freed over 500 slaves, as well as one on the institution of slavery in the South. Very interesting! Tonight's readings are mostly Jefferson-related, because tomorrow we visit Monticello and Highland (Ash Lawn). I'm really excited!

Now for some pictures!!

Edgar Allan Poe's mother's grave. She was an actress, so relatively low in society, therefore her grave isn't right next to the church.

Some of the inside of St. John's Church. 

George Wythe's grave. He was murdered by his nephew, but his nephew got away free because the one eyewitness who saw George Wythe Sweeney (the nephew) throw away the poison wrapping was a free black woman named Lydia, and she was not allowed to testify in court. This was due to laws that George Wythe had helped write. Irony. For more info, check this out.

My computer is running out of battery, so I'm going to stop here and get ahead one some of my reading for tomorrow! I'll try to post tonight, but if not, expect Monticello pictures tomorrow!!

-Tessa :D

PS. Yesterday was our first day of English Country Dancing lessons, and it was SO MUCH FUN!

NIAHD official day one

We woke up at a lovely 6:20am to get ready for breakfast. After that we got our Colonial Williamsburg ID's; I think a group of us are going to visit on Saturday, then our William and Mary ID's, and then us Civil War program crazies went to Williamsburg to see the armory and Revolution in the Streets. We also got to see the special collections at W and M, which included letters by the Marquis de Lafayette (fangirl) and Martha Jefferson. Lunch was next, then seminars; mine was very interesting but I didn't speak up too much and need to for tomorrow, and then computer stuff, then dinner, then now. We're waiting for the vans to take us to our intro seminar things because it's pouring rain.

Gotta go; we're leaving soon!!

-Tessa :D

THE BIG DAY

I'm sitting on my bed in my dorm room writing this, which is kind of crazy, I guess. Maybe I'm just tired.

So move-in was nice; Mom and Dad helped me with setting everything up and putting clothes and other things away, so it was fairly stress free. They left about an hour or two before the official goodbye time, so I talked to some new friends; one is as obsessed with historical costuming as me, though she actually hand-sews everything and goes for period accuracy and such, so I'm a little in awe, and the other is from California and came straight from a rodeo! We hit it off pretty quickly, and everyone else I've met, including my roommate, who is scarily similar to me, is super nice, so it's going well!!

After bonding as a hall and going over some rules, we went to dinner, where Lord of the Rings was on the TV and I had a lasagna sort of thing. I don't really know; it was kind of overwhelming and so I just grabbed it. Hopefully it was healthy. After that we went to the orientation, which began with a long game of Train Wreck. Basically everyone takes off their shoes and puts them on the ground in front of them. Everyone's in a circle, and someone in the middle introduces themselves and says a fact about them; if you share the fact, you run across the circle to an empty pair of shoes vacated by someone who has also shared the fact and run. This involved me nearly running into people, chanting "No, No, No" and running when someone's fact was "I'm wearing a T-Shirt." I was wearing a dress.

After that was orientation, so basically introduction to the program, descriptions of where we're going and stuff. It was interesting, and I'm really excited to visit all the places we're going (which includes Monticello, home of one of my favorite founding fathers). We also met with our instructors and seminar groups. It's funny how most of the guys are doing the Civil War program while most of the girls are doing the Colonial program; in my seminar there's about 10 of us, and there's only 4 girls.

I had homework already; reading an interesting passage on mobs and their effect on the American Revolution. It gave a negative connotation to the mobs of people who did the Boston Tea Party and had a part in instigating the Boston Massacre, but still acknowledged their usefulness in starting the Revolution. Tomorrow we'll be having a discussion on it as well as getting our William and Mary ID cards, Colonial Williamsburg passes, seeing Rare Books in the library, and watching Revolution in the Streets, which I enjoyed watching this morning and Saturday morning and will be happy to watch again!

Quiet time starts at 11PM, so I'm going to stop now. Hopefully I'll get some time in tomorrow to blog; it might be a brief message during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but it'll be something! I'm a little nervous for the beginning of the program and the work involved, but I'm still excited, so here we go!!

-Tessa :D

Pictures from Day Three!

Here we go!!

Captain Innes aka the American, sassy version of the Marquis.

A REDCOAT SPY IN WILLIAMSBURG except he's just a farmer who's tired of war and deserted the British army. We voted to release him, to which Captain Innes made a remark about not letting women vote anymore. RUDE.

Gowns hanging up in the Margaret Hunter Millinery shop!

Horses we saw on our Bits and Bridles tour!

Look who it is again...Captain Innes.

At dancing last night; look at all the pretty clothes!!

More clothes!! Also the redhead lady is Mary Ambler, who my dad danced with twice and who goes on to marry John Marshall.

This is a horrid picture and I must have been fangirling so hard my eyes were closed, but I'll post it anyway! This is me and Mr. John Marshall, future supreme court justice. In the real world he's the apprentice tailor and his wife runs a wonderful blog.

At dinner, I googled my Historical Husband, the Marquis de Lafayette. Look at us with our crazy hair; we're made for each other!

Me in costume at the beginning of the day; note the happy expression and lack of sweat.

Historical cat!

-Tessa :D

Packing up to move in!

Checkout of the hotel is at 11am, so we're getting all our remaining things together and on a cart so we can leave and hopefully head into Williamsburg for a last huzzah. I'm already very nervous, so I'm hoping the walk through Williamsburg will be calming. 

 Some of our luggage on the cart.

There's also a heat advisory today until 8pm.😳

-Tessa :D

The crazy day three

I'm waiting for dinner now, so I'll write a little bit about today. No computer, though, so no pictures. :(

Today was a fairly early (7am) wake up followed by the horrific news of impending rain. However, we shrugged it off and I dressed in my colonial finest (Williamsburg jacket, Jas Townsend skirt, and corded petticoat) for the day! It was very hot and I barely made it through (exaggeration....or is it?) but it was so much fun! We spent a long time in the printer's shop, watched the Revolution in the Streets program, which involved some Abe Woodhull level spying, for anyone who watches Turn, went on a Bits and Bridles tour where we saw he Marquis out of character, and visited the art museum. We also went to the March to Yorktown program that we attended yesterday, hoping to see the dashing Marquis again, only to find out that they alternate characters and he wasn't there (sobs). We stumbled back to the hotel, almost dying of heatstroke, and got cleaned up before heading to the Governor's Palace for a night of dancing aka modern Pride and Prejudice. I danced twice, both with Mr. John Marshall, who goes on to become a Supreme Court justice and is a big APUSH name! His modern counterpart is actually married to a costumer who I know from her blog, so it was cool to meet him (I might have actually fangirled). 

We're in the restaurant now, so I'll try to post some pictures later. Tonight is going to be crazy; we have to pack up ours things, get all my things together for move in, do laundry, shower, etc.

I'm a little tired. 

-Tessa :D

Colonial Williamsburg day two aka already slacking on my posting

At least I'm posting this on the day that it occurred...this will be a quick post of today's activities, partly because we didn't spend the whole day in the Revolutionary City and partly because its late and I'd like to get some sleep.

Today was mainly college touring aka William and Mary fangirling, but we went to see the troops off to Yorktown, which was exciting! Not only was the Fife and Drum Corps there, as well as various soldiers, but THE MARQUIS RODE UP DASHINGLY ON HIS STEED (mom said I should write that instead of horse because anyone can ride up on a horse). It was quite nice meeting him yesterday, and he's so dang optimistic and French and enthusiastic that you just have to love him.

It's a bad picture, but here's the dashing Marquis rallying the troops!

Getting the cannons ready to fire!

As you can see I was also prepared for the cannon fire.

 After seeing the troops off, we headed to a lovely dinner at Chownings! I was reunited with several of my favorite Williamsburg foods.

Sparkling apple cider

Corn chowder...no sippets though, which is a little sad.

BBQ Pork sandwich and the best cole slaw ever. As you can see I was very happy. 

After dinner we quickly headed back to the hotel (aka ran to the bus) to freshen up before our special activity for the evening; colonial music at the Capitol! It was so much fun; we got to sing a catch, listen to instrumental music, and listen to madrigals! I love listening to period music, especially when its played by people in period costume. The soprano who sang was wearing panniers, though they were smaller than those worn in the French court in the 18th century, but no stays; she said they got in the way of breathing while singing and such.

I wasn't allowed to take pictures during the concert, but here's what the stage looked like! I can't imagine moving around next to all those candles; I'd probably knock them over. The ones we have at Allaire during the stormy days are enough to make me a little nervous anyway. 

After that was a nice walk back to the hotel in the dark which included dodging ghost tours, dodging horse poop, and a haunted piece of trash that moved on its own...until we saw the raccoon that was trying to eat it. Colonial Williamsburg at night, everyone!

Tomorrow we have a full day of activities planned, and it's the 'last night before move in day frenzy', so I'm going to try to post, but I'm not sure how much I'll get in. Highlights will include; me being in costume in the heat, a tour about Williamsburg's animals, colonial dancing, and hopefully meeting the Marquis again (I'm not a stalker).

-Tessa :D