New intro post

[dolorosa_12]

Hello to all the new people now following me as a result of the friending meme (and for those of you who haven't seen the meme yet, it's here).

I thought I'd introduce myself to all of you. Feel free to ask me questions about anything.


My name is Ronni, and I'm a library assistant at one of the academic libraries within the University of Cambridge in the UK. I'm an immigrant — I moved to Cambridge from Australia about seven years ago to do an MPhil in medieval Irish literature. I followed the MPhil with a PhD in the same subject area (my thesis was on literary representations of authority, dispossession, land and history, and the interaction thereof, in five eleventh/twelfth-century Irish texts), which I finished just over a year ago. Academia left me intellectually and emotionally exhausted, and I knew it wasn't for me, so I didn't pursue it beyond the PhD.

I began working in libraries as a weekend job as a way to make some extra money during my PhD. The first library job I took I normally call Original Library Job. I worked there for five years and only recently handed in my notice. In January of last year I began working part-time in another library (New Library Job), and added to this with an evening job in a third library (Newer Library Job). (Cambridge has A LOT of academic libraries.) Since January this year I've been working in pretty much my dream job (Newest Library Job). It's in reader support in yet another academic library in Cambridge, and mainly involves providing teaching and training in information literacy for the library users. I really love it.

Before my postgraduate studies, I worked as a book-reviewer and subeditor at a newspaper in Australia.

My partner is Matthias, and he also did a PhD in an area of medieval studies (in his case, Old English philology, hence my occasional reference to him online as My Favourite Philologist) before moving on to work in libraries. Last academic year he worked in four different libraries, but this year he's full-time in one, also an academic library within the University of Cambridge. He's working on a library and information studies MA via distance learning.

I'm the oldest of five sisters (the next sister down has the same mother and father as me, the other three share a father with us but have a different mother), and talk about them from time to time. Other people I mention here from time to time:

Sraffies are friends I met originally on a His Dark Materials fan forum. Most of us have met in real life now, and our friendship is based more on shared online/real-life experiences than HDM fandom.

Obernetters are friends I met originally on a forum for fans of the Australian YA series Obernewtyn. Again, most of us have met in real life now.

ASNCs are friends I made through the department in Cambridge where I studied for my MPhil and PhD.

I tend to talk about a mixture of fannish and real-life stuff, with a slight preference towards discussing fannish things. I'm interested in people's reviews and reactions to stuff, and finding out why they like (or dislike) the stories they do. I love discovering new books and TV shows with other people.

Forever fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, His Dark Materials, a huge number of books which I will outline in another category.

Current more well-known active fandoms: Mad Max: Fury Road, Orphan Black, Sens8, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (book and TV show), Orange Is The New Black, Pretty Little Liars (although the most recent season finale is making me question my desire to stick with it), The Raven Cycle, Jane The Virgin, The 100, Peaky Blinders, and, for want of a better description, folklore and mythology with a focus on female characters, particularly those that don't get much narrative attention in the source material (a representative example being Briseis and Chryseis from the Iliad).

Tiny fandoms-of-one that are really what I want to talk about: The Romanitas trilogy by Sophia McDougall, The Pagan Chronicles series by Catherine Jinks, Galax Arena, and the Space Demons trilogy by Gillian Rubinstein, The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon, The Demon's Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan, The Troy Game series by Sara Douglass, the Legendsong series by Isobelle Carmody, the Tomorrow series by John Marsden, basically the entire output of Victor Kelleher, the Crossroads trilogy by Kate Elliott, and Juniper and Wise Child by Monica Furlong.

In other words, if you're a fan of any of these books, or might like to be, let me know!

I also post quite a bit about fannish culture and community issues, within both the pro-SFF and transformative works sides of fandom.

As well as Dreamwidth, you can find me at:
dolorosa_12 (a mirror of my Dreamwidth blog, and if you have accounts in both places, I'd really prefer to be added on Dreamwidth)
ronnidolorosa
dolorosa
Dolorosa

I also have a Wordpress blog where I post reviews and essays; I'm a contributing reviewer at Those Who Run With Wolves, and I've recently got really into making and listening to playlists and fanmixes at 8tracks (where you can find me here).

Feel free to add me at any of these places, although if your username is really different to your Dreamwidth handle, could you let me know, so that I know who you are.

I rarely post under lock. You are welcome to link, share, mention, or reblog any public post I make in any of the places I've listed (so, for example, I have no problem with a fic on Ao3 being shared on Tumblr, a Dreamwidth post referenced on Twitter, a tweet linked on LJ, and so on).

I think that's enough to start with. I look forward to getting to know you all.

Comments

[gingerschnapps]

Okay, I'm about to squee all over you, so brace yourself.

Eeeeeee Raven Cycle!! Eeeeeeee Demon's Lexicon!! Eeeeeee fellow librarian!! I too want to get into academic librarianship once I am done my year with the Archives in Dublin. As to your MPhil topic...I am Irish on my mother's side and I was the only one of the grandkids to really take to that side of my heritage (it didn't hurt that I'm the only ginger). My grandmother told me so many stories and legends and once I got to university I took a double-major in Irish Literature and Medieval Studies to try to find more.

So basically....you sound like my kind of person, and I am happy you friended me. :)

[dolorosa_12]

Squeeing is perfectly fine! (Although just a quick correction - it wasn't my MPhil topic, but rather my PhD thesis topic. My MPhil was on representations of exile, penitence, and the individual in a couple of twelfth-century Irish texts.)

once I got to university I took a double-major in Irish Literature and Medieval Studies to try to find more.

That sounds awesome! What texts did you study? What did you like the most?

And, in terms of the The Raven Cycle, how much are you looking forward to The Raven King?

So basically....you sound like my kind of person, and I am happy you friended me. :)

That is such a nice thing to say! I'm so happy you friended me, too. I'm really looking forward to hearing about your time in Dublin, and your work in archiving.

[gingerschnapps]

Ooops. Sorry. I don't think my brain is quite firing on all cylinders tonight.

......aha. Haha. Ha. You fail to realize how small my university was, and how utterly unprepared they were for me. We had one professor who specialized in contemporary Irish literature and another who studied Celtic history. I basically terrorized both of them into letting me experiment on mashing the two together. Basically we studied whatever I could lay my hands on. I studied the Ulster and Fenian sagas as well as the Historical Cycle. Everything else was pretty much cobbled together. I did love the rest of my Medieval Studies, though.

I am unbelievably excited for The Raven King. I love those books so much. I cried for Persephone, I love Blue unabashedly, and Adam and Ronan are breaking my tiny heart.

[dolorosa_12]

Your experience in university sounds like my undergrad years. (Long story short: I started off with Celtic Studies - under the umbrella of English literature* - as one of my two majors. At the end of my second year, the lecturer left. I'd been expecting to do one more year of classes with her, and then write my Honours thesis under her supervision, and was suddenly being told I had to switch to a completely different subfield of English literature. I kicked up a massive fuss, and was allowed to continue under the joint supervision of a PhD student - who was similarly stranded when her supervisor left - and a senior academic whose area of expertise was Old Norse literature. It was complicated, but fun.)

Basically we studied whatever I could lay my hands on. I studied the Ulster and Fenian sagas as well as the Historical Cycle. Everything else was pretty much cobbled together.

That sounds really awesome. I love the Fenian material in particular.

Yay for The Raven King! I am so anxious waiting for it. Please, please don't break up my OTP by killing one half of it, Maggie Stiefvater!

_____________________
*Obviously medieval Irish literature is in no way 'English' literature, but as in many universities, Celtic Studies was taught through the English department.

[alasse_irena]

Some of your tiny fandoms of one are about to become tiny fandoms of two! =D I am here for Demon's Lexicon, Pagan, and the Tomorrow series, although it's been so long since I read the later that I don't know what coherent things I'd have to say anymore.

[dolorosa_12]

YOU'VE READ THE PAGAN SERIES?! Sorry for the caplock, but it's so rare to find anyone online who's read these books, let alone feels fannish about them. The fandom basically consists of me and about two other people, a deadish LJ comm, and two pieces of fic, both written by me. (They're about characters from the fifth book in the series, Pagan's Daughter, which was published about a decade after the rest of the series, so you may not have read it. But if you're interested, you can find the fics at my Ao3 account, Dolorosa.)

Also, hooray for The Demon's Lexicon and Tomorrow series! I would love to discuss them with you. Which characters did you like the most? Did you see the big twists coming in the Lexicon books?

It's always great to meet people who have read the Australian YA that I grew up with.

[alasse_irena]

Yes, I read the Pagan series! I loved them dearly. (Jordan. Oh Jordan. My fave.) I did read Pagan's Daughter, but I didn't like it as much as the books featuring actual Pagan. I will have a look at your fic though - any Pagan fic is good Pagan fic! <3

Demon's Lexicon! Let us talk about that! I...love all the characters in that book sooooo much, but if you had to make me choose favourites, I'd probably say, Nick, Sin and Jamie?

Let me just talk about Nick for a second. I am just very fond of the way Sarah Rees Brennan presents humanity and family and love as things that can be learnt. I mean, to make a comparison - there's none of JK Rowling's "born from a loveless union? You are incapable of feeling love" thing here. Also, I care a lot about the relationship between Nick and Alan! Fictional sibling relationships are just absolutely my thing.

I really must reread the Tomorrow series. It's been so long, but I forever have love for the mismatched group of people who circumstances force to work to a common goal trope, and also, war stories set in Australia? Yes please.

I feel like we must collect all us people who were reading YA in Australia in the 90s and early 2000s and get some fandom going.

[dolorosa_12]

I did read Pagan's Daughter, but I didn't like it as much as the books featuring actual Pagan.

That seems to be the general consensus. I did miss Pagan's voice a lot when reading it, but I just loved Babylonne so much that I think the book ended up being my second-favourite in the series. I think I subconsciously decided that writing fic capturing Pagan's voice was too hard, so I stuck to writing other characters.

Let me just talk about Nick for a second. I am just very fond of the way Sarah Rees Brennan presents humanity and family and love as things that can be learnt. I mean, to make a comparison - there's none of JK Rowling's "born from a loveless union? You are incapable of feeling love" thing here. Also, I care a lot about the relationship between Nick and Alan! Fictional sibling relationships are just absolutely my thing.

Yes, me too! I like how Sarah Rees Brennan writes siblings in general (Angela and Rusty are great in The Lynburn Legacy books as well), and Alan and Nick's relationship is particularly well done. I have lots of sisters, and I often find that fictional depictions of sibling relationships don't portray them accurately. But Nick and Alan have that fabulous mixture of mutual concern and protectiveness, love built on shared experiences, and realistic frustration on occasion. (I like the other sibling relationships in the series too - Mae and Jamie, and Sin and her younger siblings.)

Mae is probably my favourite character, followed by Nick and Sin. I just really like characters who have no superpowers, or background knowledge of the supernatural world, who wind up as part of a group of supernatural/superpowered individuals, with nothing more than their wits to keep them safe. I also love characters who use words as defensive weapons (although this could probably describe any of Sarah Rees Brennan's characters, not just Mae). I also just adore the fact that she's realistically frightened by the things she faces, and has a realistic estimation of her abilities, takes help when it's offered, but ultimately wants to control her own destiny (rejecting Nick's offer to get things for her by supernatural means, and so on).

I really must reread the Tomorrow series. It's been so long, but I forever have love for the mismatched group of people who circumstances force to work to a common goal trope, and also, war stories set in Australia? Yes please.

For me, the powerful thing about the Tomorrow series was that it took the things that adults normally deplore in teenagers - their adaptability, intense friendships, and deeply felt emotions - and made them heroic, demonstrating that these were the reasons they were able to survive the invasion where inflexible adults could not. Also, the fact that the series focused the minds of an entire generation of Australian teenagers on the realities of wars that were taking place beyond their borders, particularly the way they affected every aspect of people's lives and existences.

I used to be a book reviewer, and I had the good fortune to interview John Marsden at one point. It was terribly unprofessional of me, but after the interview was done, I gushingly thanked him for being such a presence in my teenage years, and for how important his stories were to me and my friends. I'm glad I got that opportunity.

I feel like we must collect all us people who were reading YA in Australia in the 90s and early 2000s and get some fandom going.

If there's interest, I could start up some kind of Dreamwidth comm and/or themed Tumblr for this. I just need to come up with a catchy name!

[alasse_irena]

I have lots of sisters, and I often find that fictional depictions of sibling relationships don't portray them accurately.

Yes, this! I have an older brother and a younger sister, both of whom I'm really close with, and I find that it's really rare to find a work of fiction that manages to portray anything like my experience. You always find either a relationship which involves endless petty bickering, or the author treats any pair of siblings that are able to express their affection for each other as uncomfortably close/bordering on incest, and I just feel like Sarah Rees Brennan did a really good job of siblings who are each other's most significant relationship without acting as though she was courting controversy by making siblings who are also friends.

I love Sin. I love Sin so much. I have a bit of a bias for dancers, and also family-oriented characters, because it's so rare to find that in a main character - although that's actually true of pretty much all the major characters in those books, and I just really enjoy it. I also enjoyed her the way her relationship with Mae developed throughout the book.


I think when I read the Tomorrow series, I was still young enough that what struck me most was the fact that the books talked about things I hadn't heard people talk about much - like that sex can be awkward, and your first relationship is not always the best decision. And yes, they also do feel like a celebration of the resourcefulness and adaptability of a generation which I wasn't really aware enough to have heard demonised then, but I have now, and in hindsight I really appreciate that passionate defence of Gen Y.
(To be fair, I really enjoyed the first three books, but I felt after that that they went downhill a bit. Not sure what popular opinion is on that.)

If there's interest, I could start up some kind of Dreamwidth comm and/or themed Tumblr for this.
I for one am putting my hand up! I'll let you know if any catchy names come to mind.
(How do you feel about Melina Marchetta (particularly Jellicoe Road?))

[dolorosa_12]

I find that it's really rare to find a work of fiction that manages to portray anything like my experience. You always find either a relationship which involves endless petty bickering, or the author treats any pair of siblings that are able to express their affection for each other as uncomfortably close/bordering on incest

Yes, this is exactly what I was getting at. It's as if it's unthinkable that siblings could enjoy one another's company without it becoming unhealthily codependent. Sarah Rees Brennan gets it right.

I think when I read the Tomorrow series, I was still young enough that what struck me most was the fact that the books talked about things I hadn't heard people talk about much - like that sex can be awkward, and your first relationship is not always the best decision.

Oh, this, so much. The Dead of Night was actually the first time I read sex explicitly described on the page - I was ten years old and remember thinking to myself, a writer can actually DO that? - and now you bring it up, it makes me grateful that that was the first depiction I encountered. Because Marsden depicted the messiness, and the awkwardness, and the fact that a teenage girl might actually want sex, and that she would worry about contraception (because being pregnant in a war zone would be really difficult). All this matters, and it was powerful.

I saw an Australian YA author (who really should know better) opining in her blog the other day that YA was really sanitised until recently, and was unable to adequately address these kinds of issues or portray these kinds of characters, and I wanted to drop the entire Marsden bibliography in her lap in frustration. People were talking about it, and writing about it, before 2010, and not just Marsden. You mention Melina Marchetta, and I feel like Looking For Alibrandi and Saving Francesca in particular covered similar ground.

in hindsight I really appreciate that passionate defence of Gen Y

Yes! He really respected his readers and their concerns, and had, as you say, this passionate belief in Gen Y and its values.

To be fair, I really enjoyed the first three books, but I felt after that that they went downhill a bit. Not sure what popular opinion is on that.

In that your opinion is pretty much the dominant one. I agree with you, and feel that while the first three books described situations that a band of untrained teenage guerrillas could realistically have experienced, it started to get ridiculous in the later books. (Indeed, the whole thing was supposed to be a trilogy to begin with, and it could've stopped after The Third Day, The Frost with Ellie and co. in New Zealand.) I've also read the spin-off trilogy (I think it was called The Ellie Chronicles), as I had to review it for work, and it's really weak.

I for one am putting my hand up! I'll let you know if any catchy names come to mind.
(How do you feel about Melina Marchetta (particularly Jellicoe Road?))

Excellent! I'll try to think of a name, and try to build up a backlog of content to populate it with before I make the comm/Tumblr visible, but it really is something I'd be interested in doing, and it's good to know there'd be other readers.

I LOVE Melina Marchetta, although I must admit that I'm more of a fan of Looking For Alibrandi and the Francesca books. I think it's because I grew up in Canberra with my extended family in Sydney (and then moved to Sydney during uni), so I found it really moving to read stories that were so rooted in the Sydney landscape, with characters who hung out in places I knew intimately. I was also already an adult when On The Jellicoe Road came out - and indeed had to review it for work - and that may have coloured my opinion slightly. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

[myrdschaem]

I have yet to meet a librarian in fandom that isn't awesome, so strong introduction you got there! :D

I do like books and while I'm kinda stuck in the hole of a) already too many lying around and b) all this other fanfic to read, getting recs for new, (queer esp!) SFF is always great. In summation: You can probably easily tempt me into reading canon for like all your tiny book fandoms, if I can find them.

[dolorosa_12]

I have yet to meet a librarian in fandom that isn't awesome, so strong introduction you got there!

Aww, that is such a nice thing to say. I will try to be as awesome as possible!

I know the problem of having too many books (plus fanfic) to read, but if you want some recs for SFF, I'm happy to oblige. When you say queer SFF, do you mean simply that it's about queer characters, or do you only want stuff written by queer authors? If it's the former,* I can offer a ringing endorsement of Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (steampunk adventure story set in nineteenth-century US, with a queer protagonist and lots of queer secondary characters, characters are diverse on lots of other axes as well, and it has a happy ending), and The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (post-apocalyptic Paris ruled by warring aristocratic houses led by fallen angels, lots of point-of-view characters, prominent female character in a relationship with another woman).

I read a lot of SFF short fiction, most of which is freely accessible online, and a lot of which is by queer authors, featuring queer characters. I generally include the works I like in weekly links roundups if there's something I want to recommend.

I'll do my best to tempt you into my tiny book fandoms, although most of them are older books or series, rather than new.

________________________
*With the caveat that I sometimes simply don't know an author's sexual orientation.

[myrdschaem]

Honestly, when given the choice between two kinds of books my first answer is usually both. But whatever you think is rec worthy, tbh.

Ha, I already read the three reviews without commenting and silently filed it under the list of books to get/check out! I've actually read Elizabeth Bear before, I read "AllThe Wind-Wracked Stars" which I liked alot but hadn't yet found time to get the other two books of the triology. But yes, definitely will take a look at her Karen Memory book as well!

[dolorosa_12]

I'd definitely recommend Karen Memory, simply because it was so much fun to read, and none of the LGBT+ characters have tragic ends. If you do end up reading it, let me know what you think!

[myrdschaem]

Will do! And LGBT+ stories without tragedy is always a treat. :)

[schneefink]

Hi! Your link posts are very cool :)

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you! I'm glad you like them. I try to post them once a week, although sometimes life gets in the way.

[dhampyresa]

I'm pretty sure I've read the Tomorrow series, in French, way back when. It's the oone where the kids go hiking and their country's been taken over when they come back, right?

[alasse_irena]

Yes, that's the one! I had no idea it had been translated into French. it's such an Australian thing to me it's strange to think of it in another language.

[dhampyresa]

It was! I liked it a lot, but I can't remember if I ever finished it.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, that's it! It's a really, really big deal in Australia. I'm talking on the scale of Harry Potter, at least in terms of my generation. It was one of the few series of books that, when a new book was released, everyone on the playground would be speculating about its contents weeks beforehand, and then would spend the next week or so discussing it intensely and having fannish conversations about shipping (although we didn't call it that), character deaths and so on.

[dhampyresa]

That does sound like a big deal. I'm sorry to say it was nothing like this when I read it, more's the pity.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, I wouldn't have expected it to be like that outside Australia, so what you say isn't all that surprising. I'm just happy that other people have read the series!

[falena]

I have read the first book of the Tomorrow series! Because an LJ friend really liked them and sent me a copy all the way from down under so that I could give it a try. It was many years ago so all I remember is just that I liked it . But now that ebooks are more common I could probably track the first book and the rest of the series again and read it all. Ah the wonders of technology.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, that's amazing! As alasse_irena says above, was such a big part of Australian popular culture (at least for my generation), it was almost part of the cultural landscape, so it's always astonishing to me to hear about people from other parts of the world reading it.

I don't know if there are ebook editions, but I imagine they exist, so if the first book clicked with you, it will be easy, as you say, to finish the series. If you do, I'd love to hear what you think.

[naye]

!!!! I am an immigrant librarian working in Cambridge?! HI! I even worked in one of the Cambridge libraries for a couple of months when I was still temping through TES. I have since gotten a research admin position and don't do any actual librarianing, but still. I am really looking forward to hearing more about all the Library jobs!

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow! What a small world it is!

How long have you lived in Cambridge? How do you like it?

(Also, if you are comfortable meeting internet people, I'd love to meet up in real life at some point. If you're not comfortable, feel free to ignore this - I won't be offended.)

[naye]

I know! I couldn't believe it when I saw your post - I tend to assume that people who speak of Cambridge mean the newer Cambridge? Especially since my wife did her undergrad at MIT, so there's a lot of Boston-area people in our lives. But no it's this Cambridge! Which is awesome - I'd totally be up for meeting up at some point.

As I've kind of failed to make it into the library world in Cambridge (well, sort of - I found something else to do as a temp for a while and ended up liking it so much I stayed there instead of looking for librarian positions), I'm really curious to know what it's like where you are.

Next month it will have been exactly three years since we moved here. It's a nice city to be in - I love that everything is in walking or biking distance, and our area has a great selection of shops with food from all over, which is awesome. Butt I'm not used to being this landlocked, and I'm constantly frustrated by the weird UK rail infrastructure that routes everything through London, with the option being narrow, clogged-up roads. I'm spoiled from living in countries like Sweden, Japan and Switzerland that all have some combination of super efficient public transport and plenty of wide open spaces to explore.

Which isn't really a complaint about Cambridge! You've just caught me at a time where I'm suffering a particularly strong bout of wanderlust, I think.

How about you? How's Cambridge been treating you?

[dolorosa_12]

I tend to assume that people who speak of Cambridge mean the newer Cambridge? Hahaha, that's the opposite to what I would assume when I heard the word 'Cambridge'! (I do have quite a few friends at Harvard, though, and have been there once for a conference. It's a pretty nice place.)

I'd totally be up for meeting up at some point.

Cool. That would be awesome!

As I've kind of failed to make it into the library world in Cambridge (well, sort of - I found something else to do as a temp for a while and ended up liking it so much I stayed there instead of looking for librarian positions), I'm really curious to know what it's like where you are.


The library world in Cambridge is...weird. Very cliqueish, and somewhat insular, but I've found that once you get your foot in the door and have the right people advocating for you, a lot of opportunities open up. I really love my current job, because it's almost entirely working with people, either at the issue desk or leading teaching and training sessions (one-to-one, or small groups, although in October I'll be giving massive lectures to all the new undergrads in our faculty), or doing weird meet-and-greet type inductions at coffee breaks during inductions for new staff. I'm actually a rather introverted person, and find lots of unstructured socialising really draining, but for some reason, when there's a clear purpose to my interaction with other people - teaching, telling them about library services, solving a problem - I find it really fun. I never wanted to spend my days sitting in an office, cataloguing, so this job is basically perfect for me.

I'm lucky in that I really like my colleagues, and that I have a lot of support from my boss in doing my job the way I want to do it, and in getting lots of training myself in skills that I think would be useful (so she lets me go to basically any training session I want, even though I work full-time and it means I have to be away from the library), and funded me to go to a conference this week, even though I'm probably at a grade too junior to be attending such events.

It sounds like you also work in a nice faculty/department, even if it's not in a library.

I'm not used to being this landlocked, and I'm constantly frustrated by the weird UK rail infrastructure that routes everything through London, with the option being narrow, clogged-up roads.

Oh yes, I can imagine why this would be frustrating. I don't drive, so I just walk everywhere in Cambridge, and catch trains all over the place. Coming from Australia, which has terrible public transport (or indeed transport of any kind, unless you're flying between major cities), and where a trip to the coast with my friends necessitated an eight-hour bus ride, Britain's trains actually seem fantastic to me!

I'm spoiled from living in countries like Sweden, Japan and Switzerland that all have some combination of super efficient public transport and plenty of wide open spaces to explore.

Wow, what fascinating places to have lived in! How long did you live in each place, and what did you do there?

Which isn't really a complaint about Cambridge! You've just caught me at a time where I'm suffering a particularly strong bout of wanderlust, I think.


Sorry to hear this. I hope you're able to travel somewhere nice soon (the one good thing about the UK - it's super easy to get to lots of cool places nearby, especially from Cambridge with Stansted being so close).

How about you? How's Cambridge been treating you?

It's fabulous. I love it here (although it's slightly too small a town for my tastes, as I'm a big city person at heart), particularly the fact that it's so close to London and so easy to get to lots of different places in the UK and Europe. Occasionally I look out at the flat, relentless East Anglian fields and think I might scream with frustration at the landscape, and I really miss the Australian beaches and ocean, but I can't imagine living anywhere but Cambridge in the near future.

[naye]

Yes, we'll figure out sometime to get together - I'm still not very mobile (bike accident, knee injury etc), but we can set things up later!

The library world in Cambridge is...weird. Very cliqueish, and somewhat insular

Yeah, that was the impression I got. Unfortunately coming in as an outsider I never did get that foot in the door, and I felt pretty dejected after my three month stint as a temporary library assistant. (It was a tiny faculty library where the head librarian wasn't very good at anything people-related, and tried to keep the fact that they were cutting my contract a month short under wraps until they could go on vacation, so. Not the best experience.)

It does seem like it would be a fascinating place to work, though! Once you're in the system, it seems like there are plenty of networks and interest groups for various aspects of librarianship, which is something you don't really get in a public library in my experience. Plus some of the most amazing collections, of course - I've never done any rare book stuff, but just the fact that so many treasures exist right here is exciting to my nerdy little soul.

And to be fair to the library I mentioned, the fact that they let me go early is how I ended up with my current job, where I'm very happy! I've got an awesome line manager - she's totally a mentor-figure who looks out for me, and I learn a lot from watching her in action - and work with a great group of people in a role where I can develop a lot of useful skills.

Coming from Australia, which has terrible public transport (or indeed transport of any kind, unless you're flying between major cities), and where a trip to the coast with my friends necessitated an eight-hour bus ride, Britain's trains actually seem fantastic to me!

It's nice to put things in perspective! I suppose Britain does quite a lot better than for example the US in the public transport department - but then again, US roads are way more convenient (if less safe) than UK ones. The smallness of the country helps too - it's a haul with plenty of changes, but you can be in gorgeous places like Wales and Scotland in 5-6 hours of travel. It's just for short getaways that Cambridge is inconveniently located - I'm sorry, East Anglia, Wicken Fen is not an exciting destination, no matter how long it's been part of the Natural Trust. :/ As for Cambridge's immediate surroundings, it's just... very flat.

Ah, right now we're in the middle of getting my wife doctorskuld a spousal visa, so we're without passports. Which definitely doesn't help the feeling trapped!

Wow, what fascinating places to have lived in!

Thanks! Though I think Australia would be pretty cool too - I've never even been there. (We're sort of holding off until our relationship is legally acknowledged there.)

Really, the only one of those places I went to myself was Japan - my parents are Swiss and Swedish! We moved from Switzerland to Sweden when I was very young, but drove the 2000km down to Switzerland every summer to spend 6-8 weeks living there.

I first went to Japan on an exchange - my MLIS was a 2-year program, and as soon as I realized my University had an exchange with Japan I decided I had to go. A very close friend had done 6 months in Kyoto and loved it, another friend had been in Tokyo, and I had studied Japanese... It was brilliant.

I went to Kyoto, loved it, came home and finished my degree and then headed straight back to Japan because... why not? So all in all I lived there for three and a half years - one of which was the international exchange program (we had lectures in English and also studied Japanese). I returned to Japan to study at a language school for six months, and then I got a job as a conversational English teacher out in the countryside. I did that for a year, then worked as a teacher in an English-language preschool for Japanese kids near Osaka. I had a blast, and only returned to Sweden to work on my librarian resume as a step to moving countries to be with my then long-distance girlfriend (now wife).

It sounds like you've got the same feelings for Cambridge that I did for Kyoto! It's a wonderful thing to find a new place to make your home and belong, and find people to share that with. ♥

[dolorosa_12]

Unfortunately coming in as an outsider I never did get that foot in the door, and I felt pretty dejected after my three month stint as a temporary library assistant. (It was a tiny faculty library where the head librarian wasn't very good at anything people-related, and tried to keep the fact that they were cutting my contract a month short under wraps until they could go on vacation, so. Not the best experience.)

That sounds awful. I had a similarly frustrating experience (although for different reasons) at my previous job, which I will tell you all about in person if we do so in the future. (On that score, no rush. Sorry to hear about your cycling accident, and I hope you're on the road to recovery soon.)

It's just for short getaways that Cambridge is inconveniently located - I'm sorry, East Anglia, Wicken Fen is not an exciting destination, no matter how long it's been part of the Natural Trust. :/ As for Cambridge's immediate surroundings, it's just... very flat.


I hear you! There's only so many times you can go on day trips to Ely, and a lot of the smaller villages are only accessible by very erratically scheduled buses.

right now we're in the middle of getting my wife doctorskuld a spousal visa, so we're without passports.

Ugh, the endless wait for visas. If I understand your circumstances correctly, she may be applying for the same type of visa that I recently received (I have a spousal visa through my partner, who is German, so it's one of those EEA-route visas). I had to wait 4.5 months for the stupid thing! However, you are able to request your passports back without affecting the application, as long as you've done your biometrics and received your certificate of application (basically the acknowledgement that your visa is being processed and that you are allowed to remain and work in the UK until a decision has been made). I successfully reentered the UK with only my passport and the certificate, about four months into the wait for the visa, although I did have my partner with me. We were travelling back from Germany. I'm not sure if all this is relevant or helpful, but I just thought I'd let you know. But yes, visa applications, particularly in the UK, are the absolute worst. Good luck to your wife!

Your experience in Japan sounds incredible, and I can see that it really became a home for you, a place of great importance. I've only been to Japan once - to Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima - on a school trip in 2000 (my secondary school had a sister school in Nara). It was a wonderful trip, but obviously not the same as living and working there for many years. I hope you have a chance to go back there at some point.

[geckoholic]

Thank you for this post, and it's really nice to meet you. :D

[dolorosa_12]

Lovely to meet you too!

[crazedturkey.livejournal.com]

Hooray for obernetters! Logged into my account there for the first time in ages recently - apparent,y it's been a decade!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Obernet really is great! I haven't logged in for ages - probably not since the last book came out - and I'm not sure if I'll join the discussion when The Red Queen is published. I wasn't overly fond of The Sending, and I feel like I was being too negative in a space where everyone just wanted to squee. But Obernetters are great, and I'm so glad that we've been able to maintain friendships that go beyond shared fandom of the books.

I miss everyone, though. I think it's just me and one other Obernetter in the UK, and it feels like we're on the other side of the world from where all the action is.