Kingdom Uni

Kingdom University was wonderful. Yes, the directions getting there were dreadful and I ended up crying on the way because I was too tired to handle ending up some where in the pitch black evenign with no-one around to ask the way . It also got worse because when I arrived at the site court was on and no-one could tell me where to go, or where I should sleep and there was no-one there who I knew. So I had a breakdown sitting on the floor in one of the rooms. There I was found by a guy who promptly got me the autocrat and it got much better, especially since people that I know started showing up.

So one hour later I was dressed and had had a piece of bread in my stomach and beer in my pitcher and I went on to the vigil parties. Yes, there were vigils in plural. Mistress Margaret de May had organized a fabulous feast with lots of yummy things to snack on and lots of wine, so soon I was as happy as could be, hanging with the baron and baroness of Knights Crossing (Germany), drinking my beer.

I didn't get to bed until 2 am and I was a bit hung over the next day. After breakfast was over I was feeling all right though and I went to classes all the day, didn't skip a single one. It appears that I chose classes the same way at SCA universities as I do at the national Swedish historians' conference: I just choose something that sounds vaguely interesting, usually totally unrelated to what I do myself :) And it's usually unlikely that I will take up the craft in question.
One reason for this is that I found that there are usually quite a few classes about things I'm not particularly interested in, and then there are those on subjects where there's a strong possibility that I know more than the teacher.

I ended up at a meeting for the Society of the Golden Egg, which was interesting and fun, and I will submit my own challenge. Then there was my own lecture on same sex sexuality in the Middle Ages, and then I went to a class about the Gardar mitten (read about it here) and though I arrived late and didn't make a pattern it was still interesting.

After lunch I went to "finishing and mending social", where I worked on more embroidery on Valeria's camicia and hung out with nice people. We also sang for aryanhwy's daughter who turned six that day.

Finally I went to a facilitated discussion on persona development. I'm not particularly interested in further developing my persona, but the class was held by a nice women that I met over lunch so I thought that I'd join and it was rather nice just to talk to new people. And I did not correct anyone about dress history. Go me!

Then there was an endless court, since two peers were created: Master Duncan joined the Pelicans and mistress Petronilla was made a Laurel. It wasn't too bad for me, since I sat up front and could see the faces of all the people and at least knew one of them, but the poor other people in the room must have been bored out of their senses.

And then there was feast, which was excellent - and the head cook was a girl in her early teens! I was seated next to the queen and had a chance to chat with her, which is really nice, because we really haven't had the opportunity to do that for like forever.

I ended up drinking more than was probably godo for me and going to bed way too late again. Especially since I had to get up at 6.20 to start the journey home. And I woke up at 5.15 and couldn't  go to sleep again so I was packed and dressed already at 6.20 and had the time go get some bread, an egg and some tea for breakfast before leaving.

I had excellent company on the way home in the form of Mistress Renike Tucher and her husband lord Styrr. Much nerdiness going on.

Monday and tuesday are really heavy days work wise, and I also have to go the hospital for tests now in the morning. But I'll manage. And it was a very good weekend.