Time to get serious....

Okay, it's time to get serious here. First, about the blog and then about that pesky dissertation I'm supposed to be researching and writing.

First, the blog. My previous posts aside, I hope to use this as 1) a way of keeping in touch with loved ones while I'm away from September to April on a research trip in Belgium. 2) I really, really do think interesting things happen to researchers in and out of the archive. My experience during the month of July at the Hoover Institution Archive at Stanford University was proof of that, for me at least. Things like from renting a room from two lovely, elderly Morman sisters (biological sisters, not of a religious order or anything) who openly judge you when you politely tell them your girlfriend will be visiting for a weekend, to sitting across from an acclaimed historian who seems to only work for a half-day in the archive, to discussing with others why on earth a busy and well endowed archive would have only one photocopier that worked maybe 5 out of every 8 hours each day and the way researchers and archivists turn into children when confronted with any disruption in the balance.

When I'm abroad, I hope I'll be able to observe and share not only my experiences working in a foreign archive, but the experiences of living in Brussels the capital of a united Europe and a divided Belgium. (I seriously could be over there while the country divides along it's linguistic/cultural divide....)

Second, the dissertation. All this -- the trip to CA, my time a few years ago in the winter icebox of West Branch, Iowa at Herbert Hoover's Presidential Library, my upcoming trip to Belgium on a very generous fellowship -- is all in service not necessarily of personal betterment, but to find material for my eventual passable dissertation on humanitarian experience during World War I, specifically the experiences of a small number of American men who worked in the service of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. (I know *I* can't wait for the movie version...., right 'cause when you write a blog about something the blog and that something is turned in to a movie, right?! RIGHT?!)

For the month of August I'm living in Brooklyn with my wonderfully supportive and patient girlfriend, Carly while I finish up some research here, enjoy my last month in the States for a while with friends and family, and figure out what the hell a guy takes with him to Belgium. From reading my sources, I know I need a rain coat. Beyond that....