Leiden 2011-2012

Just got my Masters timetable in the mail!  My schedule will be as follows:

• Monday 11-1: History of the Book
  3-5:  The Library: Knowledge Center of the Past, Present, and Future
   
• Tuesday 10-1:  Digital Media and Technology
  3 - 5:  Bridging Theory and Practice
   
• Wednesday  12-3:  New Media and Society
   
• Thursday 11-1:  The Manuscript in the West

Second semester I will work on my specialization, Publishing Studies, and my Masters thesis.

Slightly daunting, but I’m getting more and more excited each day.

Book fair in Leiden

(via Thetiredtraveler)

Just got word that the bike I left in Leiden has been stolen.  Jammer.  Good news is this presents me with the chance to look for the Omafiets I’ve always dreamed of!

I’m starting this blog as a way to keep family & friends informed and updated on my upcoming travels abroad.  On 29 July (a mere 6 weeks away!) I am moving back to Leiden, the Netherlands, after having spent a lovely 5 months there previously.

I’m super excited and proud to take part in their Book & Digital Media masters program — a rather new course which:

focuses on the dynamic process of the transmission of knowledge and information through analogue (print) and electronic (internet) media… [Focusing on] both the historical development — from Gutenberg to Gates — and the modern practice of textual communication within its societal and technological context.  Much attention is given to the far-reaching consequences of the digital revolution for the world of the book.

This program is the only one of its kind in the Netherlands.  To me, its biggest appeal is its ability to sync the past — the printed book — with the inevitable future — ebooks and other such upshots of the “digital revolution.”

In addition to writing about my studies, I’ll also be chronicling my concerted efforts to learn Dutch fluently, as well as my experiences traveling and meeting new people.

These people, I’ve found, are what make travel worthwhile.  I’m lucky enough to have already made a handful of wonderful friends who will be living in Leiden with me — and numerous others who plan on visiting.  My Dutch family, too, is a great drawing point for me, and I am eager to get to spend more time around them (I promise to come to Nieuwjaarsdag at Tante Bep’s this year, just don’t make it too early!).

More to come soon!

One-way ticket to Amsterdam:  booked!