Wales of a Time - II

     The primary purpose for our trip to Wales centered around the fact that Nan - excuse me - Dr. Mullenneaux was selected to present a paper at the annual conference of The Women's History Network.  The Women's History Network,established in 1991, is an association formed in the United Kingdom with the aim of promoting women's history and encouraging women and men to study and research women's history. The theme of this year's conference was Women, Gender and Nation: Creating Gender Identities.  Nan's current research falls well within this heading as it centers on how successful 19th centuries actresses reflected national themes and developed public images consistent with those themes.  I had originally intended to do a little sight-seeing while Nan attended the conference, but with her broken ankle I played sherpa: carrying computers,  backpacks, opening and holding doors, etc.  The conference was gracious enough to allow me to attend gratis.
     There were a number of very interesting papers delivered:  everything from a panel on the changing roles of U.S. First Ladies to fundamentalism in Hinduism.  We met quite a few scholars and had some fantastic discussions about not only history but health care in the UK and of political minimization of women by the Republican Party in the US.  It is always enlightening to get the perspective of US politics from foreign sources.  One of the other things about the conference that I found interesting was the fact that the meals and food served were vegetarian.

Reception at the Conference

     The Conference was held at the University of Cardiff in, naturally, Cardiff, Wales.  The University was founded by Royal Charter in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire.  In 1988 it merged with University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology and took the name Cardiff University ten years later.  It has an enrollment of about 28,000 and employees of 6,000 people.  Below is the main building for the University where the reception and part of the Conference was held. 

      Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales with a population of 350,000.  This makes it the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom.  It is and interesting combination of quaint European architecture as exhibited by the City Hall.

and the beautiful gardens around it.

Contrasted by bustling streets

and a reconstructed downtown which features a huge series of shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and the Millennium Center, a huge stadium(seen in the picture below)  Both US men's and women's soccer teams played in the stadium during the Olympics.

We stayed in the renovated downtown section at an Ibis hotel.  I forgot that European hotel rooms are quite a bit smaller than we are find in the States.  Additionally, there are no tubs, just a shower with a small curtain separating it from the shower from the rest of the bathroom.  The staff of the Ibis was great  and helped out quite a bit providing bags of ice so that Nan could ice down her ankle.

Having a Wales of a Time

     The days and hours leading up to our trip to England and Wales were particularly stressful as Nan broke her ankle the Sunday before we were scheduled to go. We went to an emergency care facility about three minutes from our home.  They were great, but, because Monday was Labor Day, we couldn't get to see an orthopedic doctor until Tuesday afternoon. They put her in one of those large walking boots and supplied a set of crutches.  We contacted American Airlines and they were great. They upgraded us to business class so we'd have more leg room and arranged to have personnel meet us with wheelchairs at each airport.  We had to change our London hotel because they didn't have a lift, I mean elevator.
      The trip from Raleigh-Durham to London Heathrow was a little over 7 hours long, but two movies, a dinner and breakfast snack helped the time pass.  Neither one of us are very good at sleeping on planes.  I certainly envied the guy next to me who slept most of the trip (Of course I could have done without his snoring).
     We had originally planned to take the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and the railroad to Cardiff, Wales.  Because of the ankle issue though we decided to rent a car and thus incurred an extremely annoying and stressful two days of driving.  I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that we won't be using the services of that car rental company again.Both Nan and I find lying to customers to be bad business practice.
     Rather than head straight to Cardiff, we took a side trip to see Tintern Abbey located on the Wye River..

          A worshipper of Nature, hither came, Unwearied in that service: rather say
         With warmer love, oh! with far deeper zeal of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget, That after many wanderings, many years of  Absence these steep woods and lofty cliffs,  And this green pastoral  landscape, were to me More dear, both for themselves, and for thy sake.
                                    (Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey - Wordsworth-1798)

       The Abbey was founded in 1131 by the Anglo-Norman lord of Chepstow, Walter fitz Richard of Clare and colonized by Cistercian monks from France.  The Cathedral was started in 1269 and consecrated in 1301.  Tintern was surrendered to the King in 1536, who in turn granted the Abbey to Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester.  All articles of value from the Abbey were catalogued and sent to the King's treasury. Eventually even the lead roofs were melted down and sent on to the King, leaving the haunting walls that remain today.

Strange Start

     We've been back in Durham a little over two weeks now and it has been very busy and a bit bizarre.  For Nan the week before classes start is full of meetings and social events.  With one car mobility is for me a bit of an issue.  But we've managed.  As noted in my last entry, Nan and I attended a Durham Bulls game that featured 7 home runs.  The Bulls lost, but it was exciting.  Two days later I attended another game with some of Nan's Thompson Writing colleagues.  We had pretty goods seats as you can see from the picture below.

This time the Bulls won, but only got 1 hit.  A few walks and hit batsman and the home team "walks" away with a win.  Although the game was less than exciting the conversation and camaraderie was great.
      I had an opportunity to attend a Duke women's soccer game down at Chapel Hill.  We played the University of Montreal and came away with an easy 5 - 1 win.  A brief shower produced a beautiful rainbow, which of course we took as a good omen.   The game was part of a tournament.  My friend Mark and I stayed for the second game which was a boring 0 - 0 tie between UNC and Florida.  I didn't go back two days later for the championship game and it was just as well, Duke lost 3 - 2.

     In addition to soccer,  I went to the opening football game.  Every year the University throws a party for their employees for the first game: free food and free admission to the football game.  We took advantage of the "perk". It was extremely hot and humid so friends who came with us decided to eat and run(well walk - slowly), so I went to the game alone.  Football is not the strongest sport here at Duke, and it looked like it was going to be another bad year when our opponent Florida International Univ.  scored 43 seconds into the game.  Things improved greatly after that and we actually won 46 - 26.  The game featured pre-game and half time firework.

In addition to the football game, I went to see the men's soccer team play the University of Delaware.  I have joined the Big Blue Army(or something like that)  which gave me a shirt and scarf and free meal.  We also won.  Thunder showers caused several delays in the game as it has been really hot and humid so it was a long afternoon.
      Just in case you think I only go to Duke sporing events, Nan and I have been active on several other fronts as well.  First, I talked Nan into singing with the church choir at the Eno River Unitarian church.  We attended a welcome back pot luck supper and got to meet a number of interesting people.
We also went to see a production of August Wilson's Radio Golf.  It's not his best play but the production was fairly good. Although several of the performances seemed a little "one note", possibly because the parts were underwritten, the overall effort was good.  As part of Nan's birthday celebration, we went for a hike up at Falls Lake Recreation area.  The Mountain-to- Sea Trail runs along the southern side of the lake and we hike about 6 miles along it.  Unfortunately, it will be the last hike for awhile.  Nan rolled her ankle walking the dogs this morning, and has broken the end of her fibula.  We are in the process of deciding whether she'll be able to go the the conference in Wales.  Hopefully we'll get to see the doctor tomorrow and be on our way to England Wednesday evening