Sunday, February 27, 2011

Pamela Louderback, Day 102 (wrap-up)

My day started with a hearty breakfast at The White House Hotel bed and breakfast which consisted of fresh fruit (the best pears I have ever tasted in my life!), cereals, nuts, yoghurt, fresh fruit juices, as well as the traditional eggs and bacon with all the trimmings (full English breakfast) and an added delightful side of traditionally oak smoked kippers from Abergavenney.  All of their food (bacon, cockles, and eggs) are fresh and free-range and are supplied from local Gover farms. 

I took a taxi to the Swansea University campus for my pre-arranged rendezvous with Angela Jones at 11:00 a.m.  Angela gave me a tour of the recently renovated International Development offices before we met up with Dr. Joy Porter, one of Swansea University's Native American specialists.  Angela, Joy, and I engaged in a lively conversation of the University, the American Studies program, American Indian issues, and language revitalization initiatives for a variety of indigenous peoples over lunch.  Since Angela had a previous engagement, Joy walked me over to the Keir Hardie Room 250 for my 1:00 guest lecture on assimilationist education policies.

After figuring out the technology, (with a bit of help from their IT folks), my lecture went off without a hitch.  There was a group of approximately fifteen people comprised of students, faculty, and administrators.  Jon Roper was even able to attend!  Given his ties to NSU, I was glad to see him take time out of his busy schedule to sit in.  Throughout the lecture, I entertained a variety of questions and there was also a Q & A portion at the end of the presentation.  All combined, the process took approximately 2 1/2 hours, although it seemed much shorter in duration.  The number and intellectual level of questions were a pleasant surprise to me; I was glad to see so many people interested in the topic.  Afterwards, two students stayed behind to engage in further discussion.  Joy walked me part of the way back to the International Development office, and, before leaving me, discussed possible grant ideas on Welsh language revitalization.  I am hopeful that this will provide me another opportunity in the near future to continue my research.

On my walk back to Angela's office, two other students who had attended the lecture stopped me to further discuss and ask additional questions regarding the lecture.  I was extremely impressed, given that it was raining pretty hard and neither students had umbrellas!  So there we stood, all bunched under my little umbrella discussing education policy and indigenous language revitalization for a good fifteen minutes.  I made my way to Angela's office before leaving campus to give my regards to her and thank her for such wonderful hospitality.  To my surprise, she invited me to dinner so that I could meet with an individual who was well placed in Welsh politics and language revitalization research.  I took a taxi back to the hotel to freshen up and Angela picked me up a couple of hours later.  We spent a lovely evening driving down the Gower coast to her house and on to the Carvery at the corner pub across from her house.  Angela, Pat, and I ate well into the evening and finished our talk over drinks in the pub.  It was a perfect ending to the delightful two days I had experienced in Swansea. 

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