May 15th
I woke up at 7, opened the curtains and stared into a grey, misty sky. Perfect weather to sit inside! I made myself a power breakfast first: one banana, one mango, some blueberries, soymilk and oatmeal for a great tasting smoothie that provides fast energy (carbs) and slower energy (proteins). I boarded the train to The Hague at 8:30 and enjoyed myself by NOT looking outside (a mild drizzle and grey sky make the whole world look dull), but reading my Rough Guide to London. That was a gift from Misha, with whom I’ll be visiting London in July to see our friend Milla (and the city, of course). It is so much fun to read a travel guide and I am already getting excited about all the cool things I’m going to see there. Misha, if you read this, I also want to go to Tate Britain, because besides the Turner works, I’d love to see their William Blake collection! I’ve been to London before, when I was 11 years old, and the city made a huge impression on me at the time. I was just beginning to understand the language and it was so much fun to absorb everything I heard, read and saw. I am wondering what I’ll think of the city now that I have mastered the language and saw more of the world. My favourite city at the moment is Toronto, so I wonder if London can compete. This is all majorly off topic, because I intend to give an update on my bachelor research, but as I am writing this I am waiting for my requested files. It takes about 20 minutes before your requested files are fetched. The archive is huge and there are of course more people that hand in their requests. Patience is a virtue the say, right?
My goals for today in the archive are: look through as many maps as possible, and write a first chapter in rough form (hopefully 500-1000 words).
The first four maps contained nothing spectacular, though I managed to accumulate some quotes I can throw in my writings. I’m already halfway through the list I’ve made, so I’m afraid I’m back to scrutinizing the indexes soon enough. I haven’t yet found something that hit the jackpot completely, and that really disappoints me. Surely, there should be plenty of governmental correspondence, reports, any good stuff about the Berlin crisis??
There are two directions I can take in my research. I can also involve reactions in the media on the Berlin crisis, which would surely give me enough material. I can also try to find more archive material in the direction of military/defence matters. That would be an original approach, though it will be a lot more manual labour (you gotta love scrutinizing those indexes!). I’m not sure yet what I’ll do.
Hey, of course I’m reading this! I don’t ever miss any of your writings. 😉
Tate Britain it is then! Blake was also high on my must-seelist. Looking forward to it!
X
The Tate is opened until 10pm on the first Friday of every month, which is one of the days you are here in July, no? Imagine that: you look at Blake’s paintings when the sun goes down and then you come out of the Tate and the city is all lit up. Such a contrast!