Alliteration aside, the last week was just as adventure-filled as the others. For my final weekend, I went back to Grandma and Grandpa LiaBraaten's. We hung out again, and there was a huuuuge storm! We had no power, so we were unfortunately unable to have meeting on Sunday morning. I don't remember being in a thunderstorm that big in a very long time. Even with all the thunder and lightning, there were only a few branches down in the yard, so that was good.
Sunday evening, after I got back to Brookport, a friend and I drove up the road a ways to visit a place in the Shawnee National Forest called Garden of the Gods. These were big sandstone bluffs in the woods, which were really fun to climb over and just generally adventure on. (It reminded me of some of the times Adventure Hattie and I had in Greece, except with sandstone instead of limestone.) It was a good time, and the views at sunset were fantastic.
Monday morning the SEMO crew volunteered at the Brookport town cleanup while waiting for the new SIU group to arrive. We raked leaves, scraped paint off of the bleachers, and just generally straightened up the ballpark. Jay from Jay's BBQ was there, and so was Ms. Lucille Shannon. Remember her for later.
Monday afternoon and Tuesday were more fieldwork. I did some augering, which was interesting mostly because it was something new. Tuesday evening a group of us went out to the mounds to watch the sun set since it was the longest day of the year. It was amazing to climb up an ancient Native American mound barefoot through 5 foot grass on the solstice. The barefoot part was a bad idea.
On Wednesday, the SEMO group went over to Ms. Shannon's for supper. (Aren't you glad you remembered her?) You could actually see the gym from her yard, but we drove and walked around Brookport, and asked some locals before we were able to find it. As we were finally driving down the right track, the mayor happened to be walking by, and she did a dramatic wave and point (looking a bit like a referee, in my opinion) to direct us to the correct house. I loved that she just saw the SEMO van and knew what we were looking for. She ended up eating at Ms. Shannon's, too. Dinner was excellent, and so was the company. Talk about a hospitable and gregarious woman. I think I can speak for the whole group in saying that we were so glad to get to know her and hear her stories. She even came out to visit the mounds the next day!
The week wrapped up and it was time to go home, so I guess this is where this blog ends. Thanks for reading-I've had fun with it. Field School was a great experience. Everytime I talked to my mom on the phone she mentioned that I sounded like a little kid at summer camp: excited to regale her with tales of my minor injuries, new friends, and days spent outside. J
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Maybe I wanna be an archaeologist when I grow up...
This has been such a packed week! I'll try to keep this post succinct, but as always, no promises on anything.
This past weekend I drove up the road a ways to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa LiaBraaten. Now that was a good choice. :) We relaxed and Grandma and I played UpWords and Boggle. On Saturday, Grandpa and I went to an Amish auction. It was really neat-since he gives a lot of the Amish in that area chiropractic adjustments he's well-known and respected in the community. It was really interesting to see all of the stuff that was being sold. I don't know about anyone else, but most of the time when I see Amish people it is on the road or in a store, where they seem out of place and largely keep to themselves. It was a really cool experience for me to be the outsider for a change and to see this subculture from a different angle. Plus, Grandpa bought me ice cream. :)
On Monday, we went back to the field, but I worked on a task I haven't had much opportunity before. It was working with the Total Station. This is pretty similar to road or construction surveying, from what I gather-one person works the tripod, and one holds the orange rod with the prism on it. Just like Parker's old computer game TonkaTime. (Except it took waaaay longer to set up, and there weren't really any sound effects). For the part of this where I was the rod-holder, I ended up doing the most intrepid thing I've done in the past 3 weeks. I had to climb up Mound 7 (also known as the hot cross bun mound, because of some trenches cut into it by the University of Chicago excavators in the 1930s.), stopping to be "shot" all along the way. This mound was much bigger and steeper than it looked, and the grass was up to my shoulders! I had pollen all up in my armpits. So, I was trekking up this carrying way too much equipment, using the rod for a hiking stick, and wishing I had a machete. I fell in the aforementioned Chicago trench, and my partner heard me yelp, but couldn't see me at all, so she asked me what happened on the walkie-talkie. (I love those things!) I actually later dropped it, but I was in sight of my partner at that time, so I was able to hear her asking me what I was looking for in order to retrieve it from the grass. Adventures abound!
Tuesday I was all set up to do more Total Station-ing, but we had a massive deluge! It was actually kind of fun to see everyone running around trying to tarp up the units and get everything packed in the vans while the sky turned dark, but I love that kind of stuff...It's exciting. We drove back to the gym after we realized that we wouldn't be able to get anymore work done in the field. Everyone was expecting a long afternoon of lab, but instead our program director announced that we'd cross the Kentucky border to visit another Mississippian mound site- Whitcliff Mounds. This site is much smaller than Kincaid, but they have a pretty sweet interpretive center. The highlight was that we all got to practice throwing spears!! I learned about using this thing that attaches to the spear for better leverage/aim, which is called an atlatl. I got to the point where I could make a pretty solid throw, but without much aim at all.
Wednesday I got transferred to the other side of the site to dig with the team I had been with originally. It was fun, although the work was much more difficult because the soil was so different. I listened to the boys on that side serenade (or serencate) me with songs they put my name into for at least a solid hour. All sorts of songs, and "Cate" was substituted for any noun, not just actual names. It was hilarious. And of course, I loved the attention. :) It certainly helped the pass the time spent screening.
Most of the students from SIU left today, but we are getting a new batch in on Monday. It'll be different without them, for sure. They've been a lot of fun. We all went out to dinner last night as a sort of celebration for the end of the first field school session. It was a great time, and I've still never met a hamburger I didn't like.
This past weekend I drove up the road a ways to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa LiaBraaten. Now that was a good choice. :) We relaxed and Grandma and I played UpWords and Boggle. On Saturday, Grandpa and I went to an Amish auction. It was really neat-since he gives a lot of the Amish in that area chiropractic adjustments he's well-known and respected in the community. It was really interesting to see all of the stuff that was being sold. I don't know about anyone else, but most of the time when I see Amish people it is on the road or in a store, where they seem out of place and largely keep to themselves. It was a really cool experience for me to be the outsider for a change and to see this subculture from a different angle. Plus, Grandpa bought me ice cream. :)
On Monday, we went back to the field, but I worked on a task I haven't had much opportunity before. It was working with the Total Station. This is pretty similar to road or construction surveying, from what I gather-one person works the tripod, and one holds the orange rod with the prism on it. Just like Parker's old computer game TonkaTime. (Except it took waaaay longer to set up, and there weren't really any sound effects). For the part of this where I was the rod-holder, I ended up doing the most intrepid thing I've done in the past 3 weeks. I had to climb up Mound 7 (also known as the hot cross bun mound, because of some trenches cut into it by the University of Chicago excavators in the 1930s.), stopping to be "shot" all along the way. This mound was much bigger and steeper than it looked, and the grass was up to my shoulders! I had pollen all up in my armpits. So, I was trekking up this carrying way too much equipment, using the rod for a hiking stick, and wishing I had a machete. I fell in the aforementioned Chicago trench, and my partner heard me yelp, but couldn't see me at all, so she asked me what happened on the walkie-talkie. (I love those things!) I actually later dropped it, but I was in sight of my partner at that time, so I was able to hear her asking me what I was looking for in order to retrieve it from the grass. Adventures abound!
Tuesday I was all set up to do more Total Station-ing, but we had a massive deluge! It was actually kind of fun to see everyone running around trying to tarp up the units and get everything packed in the vans while the sky turned dark, but I love that kind of stuff...It's exciting. We drove back to the gym after we realized that we wouldn't be able to get anymore work done in the field. Everyone was expecting a long afternoon of lab, but instead our program director announced that we'd cross the Kentucky border to visit another Mississippian mound site- Whitcliff Mounds. This site is much smaller than Kincaid, but they have a pretty sweet interpretive center. The highlight was that we all got to practice throwing spears!! I learned about using this thing that attaches to the spear for better leverage/aim, which is called an atlatl. I got to the point where I could make a pretty solid throw, but without much aim at all.
Wednesday I got transferred to the other side of the site to dig with the team I had been with originally. It was fun, although the work was much more difficult because the soil was so different. I listened to the boys on that side serenade (or serencate) me with songs they put my name into for at least a solid hour. All sorts of songs, and "Cate" was substituted for any noun, not just actual names. It was hilarious. And of course, I loved the attention. :) It certainly helped the pass the time spent screening.
Most of the students from SIU left today, but we are getting a new batch in on Monday. It'll be different without them, for sure. They've been a lot of fun. We all went out to dinner last night as a sort of celebration for the end of the first field school session. It was a great time, and I've still never met a hamburger I didn't like.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
What doesn't kill me only makes me stranger.
What a day. I forgot to eat breakfast twice. Yes, you read that right. Cate "Everyone Should Always Eat" LiaBraaten forgot to eat breakfast, remembered she packed an extra granola bar, and then forgot to eat that. So that threw my morning off. Also, Brookport was on a "boil water" advisory...which means that because of the recent flooding, the water apparently became contaminated and is unfit to drink without boiling. So...not so much water when we were working today, which was bad, because I usually drink a ton. And then we had lab this afternoon, which I hate hate hate...(Around 4:00 today I figured this whole blog would be about that, but I'll spare you). And I got a little sunburned today. I thought I was past this! And I didn't even dig up anything overwhelmingly exciting. Just pebbles. And so. much. dirt.
But today did have a few high points: Jay from Jay's BBQ gave me a free sandwich because he had extra ham and I'm a semi-regular, I guess. It might also have something to do with the fact that I pay for everything in quarters (due to an adventure at the laundromat) and I'm always really dirty, tired, and scroungy looking when I show up at his BBQ stand. Thanks, Jay!
I discovered something that looks disgusting, but is actually fantastic, and that would be Mountain Blast Powerade (Which is blue, but blue isn't technically a flavor) mixed with Sunny D. I had both of them, was really thirsty, and decided to mix them. Murky green! yay! I also put a splash of my friend Andrew K's cran-grape juice in it, and made it even better. (Incidentally, Andrew's now a follower of this blog! And I blocked him in basketball yesterday afternoon, even though we have a foot height difference! :) he might have let me...).
If anyone's ever interested in doing any archaeological field work, here are 3 items that probably won't be included in your equipment list, but are essentials: Beef jerky, Powerade, and Pringles. We pretty much live off of those things around here. The beef jerky especially is an absolute must, I'd say. Another must would be my gray skirt, which I left at home. shoot.
One more paragraph (and I thought this would just be a short entry today!)...
Last block in Greece, and now being here have helped me to realize something pretty interesting about myself that might be hard for me to put into words. I feel like I've reverted to myself as a child lately, but in a good way. I just knew what I liked more as a child than I did as a teenager, and now as a young adult I'm getting back to that. It's so much more me to love reading for fun, running around, being outside every single day, and talking to/becoming friends with every person I meet. I won't say I'm past the awkward days of middle school and high school, but I'm just awkward in different ways. :) This experience as well as my time in Greece have really helped me to realize/remember who I am and embrace it. Yay! (Sorry if that got a little too touchy-feely-warm-fuzzy for anyone. haha)
But today did have a few high points: Jay from Jay's BBQ gave me a free sandwich because he had extra ham and I'm a semi-regular, I guess. It might also have something to do with the fact that I pay for everything in quarters (due to an adventure at the laundromat) and I'm always really dirty, tired, and scroungy looking when I show up at his BBQ stand. Thanks, Jay!
I discovered something that looks disgusting, but is actually fantastic, and that would be Mountain Blast Powerade (Which is blue, but blue isn't technically a flavor) mixed with Sunny D. I had both of them, was really thirsty, and decided to mix them. Murky green! yay! I also put a splash of my friend Andrew K's cran-grape juice in it, and made it even better. (Incidentally, Andrew's now a follower of this blog! And I blocked him in basketball yesterday afternoon, even though we have a foot height difference! :) he might have let me...).
If anyone's ever interested in doing any archaeological field work, here are 3 items that probably won't be included in your equipment list, but are essentials: Beef jerky, Powerade, and Pringles. We pretty much live off of those things around here. The beef jerky especially is an absolute must, I'd say. Another must would be my gray skirt, which I left at home. shoot.
One more paragraph (and I thought this would just be a short entry today!)...
Last block in Greece, and now being here have helped me to realize something pretty interesting about myself that might be hard for me to put into words. I feel like I've reverted to myself as a child lately, but in a good way. I just knew what I liked more as a child than I did as a teenager, and now as a young adult I'm getting back to that. It's so much more me to love reading for fun, running around, being outside every single day, and talking to/becoming friends with every person I meet. I won't say I'm past the awkward days of middle school and high school, but I'm just awkward in different ways. :) This experience as well as my time in Greece have really helped me to realize/remember who I am and embrace it. Yay! (Sorry if that got a little too touchy-feely-warm-fuzzy for anyone. haha)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
More screening, less not screening.
That phrase has been repeated a few times with variation after our program director said it yesterday...two days ago...sometime...It is very bizarre for me to realize how short of a time I've been here, and that I haven't even known people here for long at all. Which is great, I'd say. :)
As some of you know, ever since my Parli days I've believed that knowing terminology is the fastest way to understand anything. Plus, I love words. So, stemming from that, I thought I'd throw out some words so that what exactly we are doing might be more clear.
1. Digging-shovel+dirt. Right.
2. Screening-pushing dirt through a screen so that anything interesting will catch. This is really tedious, and often slows us down a bit, but hey, you get to stand in the shade usually.
3. Trowelling-this is taking a trowel and scraping it over what has been shovelled so that it will be nice and even. It's a lot of work to just take a picture of it....(I happen to be a very good troweller, but I don't really enjoy it too much).
4. Unit-the area where all this digging takes place-2meters by 2 meters.
I had a feeling that today would be a good day when "Jump" was playing when we unloaded the vans. I really enjoy listening to classic rock before we dig. :) We got a new shade tent today,which was high luxury, because our old one has been breaking piece by piece. The final leg broke today (we were using it in addition to the fancy new one). And, after much digging, trowelling, and especially screening, we found something pretty cool!
Basically, it was a piece of red pottery, which is a big deal because pottery of this specific nature is really rare to find on this site, and after we date this, it can hopefully be used as a reference point for other findings' chronology. Yay!
Also wanted to mention that I was able to go to meeting near Paducah Sunday, and was able to stay for lunch with the friends afterwards. :) :) Yay, Southern hospitality!
I feel like this blog is slightly deficient in wittiness, so here's an apology. Hopefully I'll be more clever next time. :)
As some of you know, ever since my Parli days I've believed that knowing terminology is the fastest way to understand anything. Plus, I love words. So, stemming from that, I thought I'd throw out some words so that what exactly we are doing might be more clear.
1. Digging-shovel+dirt. Right.
2. Screening-pushing dirt through a screen so that anything interesting will catch. This is really tedious, and often slows us down a bit, but hey, you get to stand in the shade usually.
3. Trowelling-this is taking a trowel and scraping it over what has been shovelled so that it will be nice and even. It's a lot of work to just take a picture of it....(I happen to be a very good troweller, but I don't really enjoy it too much).
4. Unit-the area where all this digging takes place-2meters by 2 meters.
I had a feeling that today would be a good day when "Jump" was playing when we unloaded the vans. I really enjoy listening to classic rock before we dig. :) We got a new shade tent today,which was high luxury, because our old one has been breaking piece by piece. The final leg broke today (we were using it in addition to the fancy new one). And, after much digging, trowelling, and especially screening, we found something pretty cool!
Basically, it was a piece of red pottery, which is a big deal because pottery of this specific nature is really rare to find on this site, and after we date this, it can hopefully be used as a reference point for other findings' chronology. Yay!
Also wanted to mention that I was able to go to meeting near Paducah Sunday, and was able to stay for lunch with the friends afterwards. :) :) Yay, Southern hospitality!
I feel like this blog is slightly deficient in wittiness, so here's an apology. Hopefully I'll be more clever next time. :)
Monday, June 6, 2011
Making Molehills out of Mounds
Week 2!
I think I'm going to try to record my field school director saying "Good Morning, Field School! It's 6am. Time to get up" so that I can set it as my alarm to wake up to after this. Although maybe not at 6. He has a very booming voice, and either way, it's better than some beeping alarm.
The weekend was pretty solid: Did my laundry! Went to the Paducah city pool for a while just to try to beat the heat (best idea I've had in a while). Actually, did quite a few things just to beat the heat...My friend Jeff and I drove around for hours trying to find air conditioned stores to hang out in...but everything closed right as we got there. Seriously. The National Quilt Museum, countless antique stores, and even the mall. We did go to Wal-Mart and hung out in the toy section for a bit. It's strange not to have anything to do/work on over the weekends. Although next weekend I plan on driving up to Grandma and Grandpa LiaBraaten's. Yay!
More digging today. Actually, I did a lot of screening...which means I took the dug up dirt and pushed it through a metal screen so that anything larger than a quarter inch would get caught and we could scrub it in lab later...
Still haven't found anything other than pebbles, a few broken pottery pieces, and some lithic fragments, but our holes are very deep now!
If any of you blog-readers are interested in exactly what's going on here, I suggest you check out these sites, because they explain better than I can. Or care to. :)
The site's site (wait, what?) : http://www.kincaidmounds.com/
and for the simplicity-inclined: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kincaid_mounds
Still having fun and learning a lot and so on and so forth, but hopefully some adventures and or discoveries will come soon!
PS-went back to the hopscotch block...the big one was gone, but there was a small one there...how strange.
I think I'm going to try to record my field school director saying "Good Morning, Field School! It's 6am. Time to get up" so that I can set it as my alarm to wake up to after this. Although maybe not at 6. He has a very booming voice, and either way, it's better than some beeping alarm.
The weekend was pretty solid: Did my laundry! Went to the Paducah city pool for a while just to try to beat the heat (best idea I've had in a while). Actually, did quite a few things just to beat the heat...My friend Jeff and I drove around for hours trying to find air conditioned stores to hang out in...but everything closed right as we got there. Seriously. The National Quilt Museum, countless antique stores, and even the mall. We did go to Wal-Mart and hung out in the toy section for a bit. It's strange not to have anything to do/work on over the weekends. Although next weekend I plan on driving up to Grandma and Grandpa LiaBraaten's. Yay!
More digging today. Actually, I did a lot of screening...which means I took the dug up dirt and pushed it through a metal screen so that anything larger than a quarter inch would get caught and we could scrub it in lab later...
Still haven't found anything other than pebbles, a few broken pottery pieces, and some lithic fragments, but our holes are very deep now!
If any of you blog-readers are interested in exactly what's going on here, I suggest you check out these sites, because they explain better than I can. Or care to. :)
The site's site (wait, what?) : http://www.kincaidmounds.com/
and for the simplicity-inclined: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kincaid_mounds
Still having fun and learning a lot and so on and so forth, but hopefully some adventures and or discoveries will come soon!
PS-went back to the hopscotch block...the big one was gone, but there was a small one there...how strange.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
In Which Cold Showers, No Mattress, and 6am Wakeups Grow on Me
A 40 hour workweek is a lot less than I expected. I'm finding myself with some time on my hands, but no really solid ways to fill it.
The last few days have consisted of some pretty random stuff happening...including, but not limited to:
-me having two massive nosebleeds, one in the field and one on the way back.
-I fell over after one of these nosebleeds. It was actually pretty funny.
-I got left behind when the van I was in drove to another part of the site, and I had to hike it. (Also pretty funny).
-A few of us went into Paducah again, and I came across a hopscotch drawing that spanned the length of an entire block. I was so impressed-what a massive undertaking. Naturally, I decided instantly I would jump all 500-odd boxes. Almost halfway through, though, the creator of the chalking came out of a building and was not okay with me jumping on it. So, I got chewed out by a small girl wearing a party dress, a tiara, multiple Hawaiian-inspired leis, and a magic wand. Why would you create something that great and expect people not to jump on it?? I complimented it, and tried to chat with her, but I think she suddenly realized I was a stranger, so she ran off. Not going to lie...I hopped a few more squares after she left.
-It is seriously hot here. Of course, the gym has no air conditioning or anything, and is almost hotter than being outside because there is never a breeze. Last night a friend and I went to the mall just to soak up their air, and ended up flopping on a demo mattress in Sears for quite a while. First time I'd touched a mattress all week.
-I sprayed a ton of sunscreen all over the inside of my lunchbox on accident. ( Which reminds me...I need to clean that up...) Directly after this, a butterfly came and landed on me and crawled around for quite a while. As those of you who know how ticklish I am might imagine, I giggled a lot. :)
There have of course been many more miniadventures of this nature, but those are just a few that are coming to me right now.
As for the archaeology, we've still just been digging, trowelling, and screening the dirt we dig up. We've found a solid amount of potsherds, but nothing too exciting yet. A couple of days a week we will have lab, more commonly known as "sit and scrub rocks and wonder why I'm even here" time. Seriously, "lab" means we polish pebbles with a toothbrush. I've been learning a lot and having fun in the field, but lab's not really my thing.
Hopefully Paducah has a swimming pool.
The last few days have consisted of some pretty random stuff happening...including, but not limited to:
-me having two massive nosebleeds, one in the field and one on the way back.
-I fell over after one of these nosebleeds. It was actually pretty funny.
-I got left behind when the van I was in drove to another part of the site, and I had to hike it. (Also pretty funny).
-A few of us went into Paducah again, and I came across a hopscotch drawing that spanned the length of an entire block. I was so impressed-what a massive undertaking. Naturally, I decided instantly I would jump all 500-odd boxes. Almost halfway through, though, the creator of the chalking came out of a building and was not okay with me jumping on it. So, I got chewed out by a small girl wearing a party dress, a tiara, multiple Hawaiian-inspired leis, and a magic wand. Why would you create something that great and expect people not to jump on it?? I complimented it, and tried to chat with her, but I think she suddenly realized I was a stranger, so she ran off. Not going to lie...I hopped a few more squares after she left.
-It is seriously hot here. Of course, the gym has no air conditioning or anything, and is almost hotter than being outside because there is never a breeze. Last night a friend and I went to the mall just to soak up their air, and ended up flopping on a demo mattress in Sears for quite a while. First time I'd touched a mattress all week.
-I sprayed a ton of sunscreen all over the inside of my lunchbox on accident. ( Which reminds me...I need to clean that up...) Directly after this, a butterfly came and landed on me and crawled around for quite a while. As those of you who know how ticklish I am might imagine, I giggled a lot. :)
There have of course been many more miniadventures of this nature, but those are just a few that are coming to me right now.
As for the archaeology, we've still just been digging, trowelling, and screening the dirt we dig up. We've found a solid amount of potsherds, but nothing too exciting yet. A couple of days a week we will have lab, more commonly known as "sit and scrub rocks and wonder why I'm even here" time. Seriously, "lab" means we polish pebbles with a toothbrush. I've been learning a lot and having fun in the field, but lab's not really my thing.
Hopefully Paducah has a swimming pool.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
I can see Kentucky from my gym!
Not really. But pretty close! I'm surprised at how close Brookport is to the KY border. Just have to cross a HUGE metal grate bridge (I'm thinking of you, Hattie Wagner!) and there you are. Last night, as I was roaring across aforementioned bridge in a rather obnoxious red pickup that was blasting country music with a group of anthro majors I had met only hours ago (I didn't even have a seatbelt! Eep!), I thought of how bizarre my life is...one week ago I was still in Greece.
I have 24 roommates. Just as I suspected, living in a gym is pretty crazy. We have tons of space, but everyone is just out in the open. It kind of looks like the Old Gym in Spokane Middle School, or a strange version of convention bunks... I have high hopes, though (as always)--I think it will certainly be a growing/learning experience, and it's been fun so far.
One thing I've learned already-Spokane is not a small town. Brookport is a small town. Spokane is a rural community. This place is crazy, because they have all the stuff a town does (a library, a town hall, a bar, a diner, a laundromat, and a grocery store), but they just have one of each and they are tiny. Spokane doesn't have any of that stuff! It's pretty cool, and the locals seem friendly (Pretty sure that's a prerequisite for living in a small town that hosts visitors often).
So, archaeology. The first day was fun. It's like manual labor meets science. First of all, I thought it would be more trowelling, and less actual shovel-digging. It's hard work, but no big deal. Secondly, it's kind of strange to be one of the few non-majors. I definitely have some of the most room for learning opportunities, if you catch my drift. We opened some units today, which means we dug through topsoil stuff (plowlevel) and while we did find a few ceramic pieces, we didn't do too much actual excavation or anything yet. I did get supto dirty, though. yay!
Turns out I am sort of liking this blogging business, so I'll try to keep it up. The internet here is super sketchy (or supes sketch, if you prefer), but I'll give it a shot.
I also don't get very good phone service, but you should text me anyways.:) I already feel a little isolated! (This is one of those camp-type situations where days feel much longer than a regular school day-like PA training! So even though I've only been here a day and a half, it seems like a while. Which is cool, and everything, because I'm meeting new people and learning/doing new stuff, but still.)
I tried to add a picture of my little "room," but I'm not sure what happened. Maybe next time! :)
I have 24 roommates. Just as I suspected, living in a gym is pretty crazy. We have tons of space, but everyone is just out in the open. It kind of looks like the Old Gym in Spokane Middle School, or a strange version of convention bunks... I have high hopes, though (as always)--I think it will certainly be a growing/learning experience, and it's been fun so far.
One thing I've learned already-Spokane is not a small town. Brookport is a small town. Spokane is a rural community. This place is crazy, because they have all the stuff a town does (a library, a town hall, a bar, a diner, a laundromat, and a grocery store), but they just have one of each and they are tiny. Spokane doesn't have any of that stuff! It's pretty cool, and the locals seem friendly (Pretty sure that's a prerequisite for living in a small town that hosts visitors often).
So, archaeology. The first day was fun. It's like manual labor meets science. First of all, I thought it would be more trowelling, and less actual shovel-digging. It's hard work, but no big deal. Secondly, it's kind of strange to be one of the few non-majors. I definitely have some of the most room for learning opportunities, if you catch my drift. We opened some units today, which means we dug through topsoil stuff (plowlevel) and while we did find a few ceramic pieces, we didn't do too much actual excavation or anything yet. I did get supto dirty, though. yay!
Turns out I am sort of liking this blogging business, so I'll try to keep it up. The internet here is super sketchy (or supes sketch, if you prefer), but I'll give it a shot.
I also don't get very good phone service, but you should text me anyways.:) I already feel a little isolated! (This is one of those camp-type situations where days feel much longer than a regular school day-like PA training! So even though I've only been here a day and a half, it seems like a while. Which is cool, and everything, because I'm meeting new people and learning/doing new stuff, but still.)
I tried to add a picture of my little "room," but I'm not sure what happened. Maybe next time! :)
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