Nice to see you again, Francis....

Well, Francis, it has been a while...

I have just finished my first semester towards an M.A. in History at the University of Northern British Columbia. We have a nice campus on a hill overlooking PG. Not large, about 5,000 students. As is usual these days, the sciences take the lion's share of $$ so the History Department is small and the courses rather limited. Still, we are rated as the second highest small campus in Canada and the profs are wonderful!
I returned to university in January, 2012. While enrolled in a B.A program to give my classes sums purpose, I needed a third BA like a hole in the head. In all events, a prof suggested I go the Masters route and I was accepted into the program - one of three. I just finished the first semester, course work, and managed to retain my A's.
We have one prof who is a medievalist. I took her course in Medieval History, then Spanish Medieval History. Both ere fascinating. I have also had her for Historiography - 500 and now 700. A course on Child Birth and Women's Bodies 1500 to 2000 turned out to be a wonderful course as well. After the Season, Witches in Medieval Times. I am currently debating several thesis topics, limited by my inability to travel. Happily we do have Barkerville (the gold rush town of the 1858 - 1875 days) close to us and a few topics in PG seem interesting. Unfetter by travel, I would b e off to Europe but age and the need to avoid travel does so limit one.
Heading back to university at 65 (+2 now) has been wonderful. Being an Old Bat amidst all these younger types is a delight. The changes are amazing - no more index cards in wooden trays is only one. Computers are everywhere, impossible to be without one. That led to a change from PCs to Macs. The ability to find research papers from decades ago not only quick but possible at any time at home - I link the to university computer - is such an improvement.
Books? As before, the local scene is very limited - hypermodern mostly, some modern, nothing old. I did develop a taste for Louis Auchincloss and had a good hunt on the Internet. While mysteries remain a major focus, the reading in a Masters program tends to take up many hours.
In addition to Witches, next semester will include a course on Annales, in Historiography. Yes, the history of the Med in five volumes and more. I did the indexing for my prof's new book during the summer - the legal cases arising in Barcelona when wives sued to recover their dowries in the 1500s. Very interesting - and thankfully I did not have to do the translating from Medieval Latin!
Hope all is well with you...

Willow