indianajane

Grapes and Winemaking in Tuscany

2011-09-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

helping cut grapes

my bucket full of white grapes

bringing the grapes up from the vineyard

checking

future wine!

I stayed with my friend Lorenzo and his family during my time in Florence and one day while I was there they decided it was time to pick the white grapes for the wine. They even let me help. I managed not to screw up too bad. Lots of fun.

Trip to Florence

2011-09-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

Duomo of Florence

Looking down the Arno

San Croce

Me with the city in the background

Hiking the Alps: The second trip

2011-09-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

View looking back across at what we had already hiked

Small village in the Alps

Me at the lake. Stepped in a puddle which might explain why I look so bad in this pic. I was just noticing water seeping into my shoe.

Cows! Cowbells!

At the very top there is a lake created by a hydroelectric dam

This time we went to Devero, up near border with Switzerland. Took a local bus and then hiked all over. It was lots of fun, there were hidden lakes, small houses and lots of cows and cowbells.

more pictures

2011-09-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

Italy

2011-09-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

So we are in Italy for a study season for the excavations since we aren't in Syria. We had a day off and went hiking around the Alps. I'm posting a few pictures but they don't even do justice to how beautiful it is.

Departure day

2011-08-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

Headed off today. First stop Milan to meet up with our team for a few weeks. After that the future is hazy, might be headed to Syria, might be headed elsewhere. Not sure what my internet access will be like but updates will probably be here.

home

2010-10-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the US and apologize for lack of updates in the last few weeks there. Things were super busy and somehow we never really made it to the internet cafe. One Thursday we were off to Arbit to see their work (super cool) and the next we were at Tell Barri celebrating their 30 years of excavation (quite impressive). and then, of course, right at the end of the season when I had a million things to do and work to finish I got sick. As in, really grossly sick. Thankfully my friends took good care of me (thanks Hiba) and I managed to recover enough to make the last week not a total loss. I'm feeling better now although the Doctor isn't quite sure what's wrong with me. Apparently I needed some rest and to eat healthy so that's what I've been up to since I've gotten back. It's a bit of a bummer because I've been dreaming about wings for 3 months now and am still not sure if my digestive tract is ready for that but we'll see.

Just before left I spent 2 days in Damascus with my friend Yasmine (thanks Yasmine and family!) touring around and checking it out from a local point of view. We went out to some fun places, I got to meet her boyfriend and we hung out in her house with her family. It was a great way to wrap up the trip. Here are some pics

at the damascus museum

at the Azzam Palace

The flight home was uneventful and I was happy to arrive back to my nice bed and our apartment. This is the first time I've arrived home from Syria and haven't had to move immediately and let me tell you, I like it. I probably won't be posting again until next year but thanks to everyone for all the emails, letters, and facebook comments. It's nice to know people are supporting me.

Until next year...

are you my mother?

2010-09-24T07:55:00.001-07:00

stop following me!

me plus tablet

2010-09-24T07:51:00.001-07:00

I touched it

(He touched the butt! ::hushed tones:: /finding nemo reference)

t minus 2 weeks

2010-09-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

How to describe this week... it's the end of the season and we all have the regular end of season fatigue and restlessness, maybe me more than some others because I can't wait to be back home and resume being a newlywed. I've been working more and more hours on my project which is good and I've been learning lots of new skills. I learned how to use the surveyors equipment, went out set it all up and took points by myself and they even came out right. I was proud of my new skills for sure. I've also been refreshing my AutoCAD skills. who would've thought when my dad made me take engineering in HS that it would come in handy (thanks for the skills Mr. Santoro). I'm starting the full-scale survey tomorrow so it should be interesting. I only have about a week and half left at the site and then it's off to Damascus for a few days before heading home 2 weeks from today.

The funniest thing that happened all week was probably the day I went out to survey near the village. I went out with my backpack and my tools and full of enthusiasm. I walked up to the village and 3 dogs promptly came out and started barking at me like crazy. Dogs in Syria are vicious (they cut off their ears when they are puppies to make them meaner) so I quickly retreated back to the road. At that point I added a rock to my toolkit. Lorenzo and Yasmine said "just one rock?" and so I told them that was just for the first throw until I could reach another rock on the ground. After I walked past the village (and the dogs) I rambled all over the landscape checking out natural features and looking at the man-made stuff to use as landmarks in the future. As I was walking along one field boundary some turkeys from the village were wandering nearby. After I got close they started following me like I was their mom. So there is me, walking across a field, with a gaggle of turkeys behind me. Finally they decided I wasn't going to feed them and just ran off all at once. It was the strangest thing and I can only imagine how I appeared to the locals. Of course, the locals think I'm crazy anyway because I walk all over looking at nothing on the ground. They always wave at me and say hello. Sometimes they try and tell me things I don't understand which is always comical.

We had several other adventures this week. We visited Tell Fekeriyah where they had recently discovered 50 tablets. When we were visiting the professor was so nice and let us all touch the tablets and look at them. They were really amazing. I won't publish any pictures here because it is their big find of the season but it included ancient tablets inside of clay envelopes, some with the envelopes are still preserved which is so fun to look at. I will just put a picture of myself holding one of the tablets.

We also had lunch along the Khabur which is a funny story that I don't really have time to relate now but let's just say it was quite a bathroom experience. Sometimes it is so clear that Syria is different from anywhere else.

Last night we didn't go to Qamishli because we went to visit Tell Arbit where there is a Polish mission. They showed us around the site and then had us stay for dinner with lots of wine (rare in Syria!) and good company. It was a fun time and a really beautiful interesting site. They have so many rooms and buildings and possibly a sequence of temples.

I'm counting down the days until I'm home and although archaeology is interesting and fun there is always no place like home. Looking forward to fall and American food. (wing festival anyone?)

I got mail! thanks grandma!

2010-09-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

2010-09-16T09:14:00.001-07:00

Mohammed Ommo with his son, his donkey, his sheep and our site in the background. This is what archaeological survey looks like.

in which archaeology is boring

2010-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Really nothing to write this week. I've been doing a little bit of wandering around in the outer city with Mohammed Ommo, one of the site guards. He is always dragging me here and there to show me something he discovered in the winter which makes it kind of fun. It's different from excavating but in a way it's like excavating the landscape with the chance to see things in a new way and experience the site in a new way. My Arabic is terrible and limited to a very few words, mostly relating to archaeology, so sometimes Mohammed and I have really funny misunderstandings that generally lead to me shrugging my shoulders and him shaking his head. I've been doing Rosetta stone Arabic on and off since this winter but so far I've only got far enough to say things like "milk" and "dog" neither of which is very useful as I'm looking at the new construction of a road with Mohammed Ommo. Sometimes when we are out walking the fields we see his sons out with their sheep and he is always yelling at them. I can't understand but it seems like the kind of things dads everywhere say, "what are you doing? why don't you move those sheep over there?! quit goofing around!" which is kind of funny. He is very proud of his kids and his sheep. He just took a second wife a couple of years ago so I guess he has some younger children now too. I worked with his olderst son, Ommo Ommo a couple of years ago but I guess now he has moved to Sweden or something looking for work. Not sure what work they have in Sweden for Syrians but I guess it's a wide world out there and he might as well give it a try.

Everyone but me is excavating out on the main site and I was supposed to excavate but due to some unforseen circumstances, including a huge rainstorm in the winter which filled my excavation area with dirt, I'm not excavating. This leaves me time to work on my independent project but also kind of makes me sad because I don't get to go out every day and get dirty and dig holes. I try and go out and take a look around every once in awhile so I can see what's going on and keep up to date.

I don't even really have any pictures to share this week. We are going to visit Tell Fekeriyah tomorrow so that should be fun and maybe give me some pictures and exciting things to write about for next week. So until then you will have to be satisfied with this very short update.

On a random aside, all the computer in Syria are apparently infected with computer viruses, which for some reason none of them seem able to do anything about yet whenever I bring my USB stick to the internet to post these and then bring it back to my computer my computer always sees the virus attempt right away and kills it, yet somehow Syrian computers just accept and spread viruses. Why don't they just download free virus protection software? Honestly.

giant bread in Turkey

2010-09-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

sleeping on the roof

2010-09-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yes that's me under there

More Rasafa

2010-09-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Jim down inside the cistern

Climbing down into the cistern
Another beautiful basilica

2010-09-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Basilica in Rasafa. This is where we had our night time adventure

Iko took this great picture of me. He says my ring really sparkles :) Missing Anthony.

In which Caitlin travels across Syria

2010-09-09T09:07:00.001-07:00

Well this week has actually been exciting. As I mentioned in the last post we had been off to Rasafa last "weekend" and then we scooted over to Turkey for a quick visa correction. We are now having 3 days off to celebrate the Eid, or end of Ramadan. It's kind of a funny thing though because we are having today off for the Eid but it is actually not the Eid. It is determined by an imam somewhere based on the size of the moon. When we went to bed last night we assumed the moon was the right size and today would begin the Eid, well we were wrong. And we've already scheduled the days off so today is not the Eid, but it is still vacation as far as I'm concerned. I hope to head off to Qamishli today to post this and maybe visit a few shops before they are closed for the Eid.

Ok, where to begin about the last week. We left Thursday after breakfast in a mini-caravan of two vans for Rasafa. About 2/3 of the expedition members went totalling us about 18 people. It's a five hour drive to Rasafa and trust me, in a Syrian mini-bus that feels pretty long. We arrived just in time for afternoon tea (For some reason, all expeditions have afternoon tea - I guess we are just hungry). After eating cookies to our hearts content and being debriefed on the sleeping arrangements and bathroom rules we were off to visit the site. I really can't say enough for the good time they showed us. The director gave us a tour of all the important sites, including a Basilica built around 500 AD (still standing), City gates from the same time period and a mosque built halfway inside the church.

A little background on Rasafa that I gathered while on the tour. Basically the site became an important Christian site after San Sergio (Saint Sergius) was martyred there. He was in the Roman army and he and his friend (whose name I forget) were arrested and marched along the road back to Palmyra. His friend died first and is enshrined at another site. San Sergio made it as far as Rasafa before he died. He was then beheaded to his head could be returned to Palmyra and his body was buried in Rasafa. It eventually became an important place of pilgrimage where you came to recieve blessings. In the Islamic period it became an important capital of the Ummayeds and a mosque was built near the grave of San Sergio who apparently was so important he was revered by both Muslim and Christian worshippers.

The site of Rasafa is in the desert, a real desert, not like it is around Mozan where there is actually plenty of water. They based the city around the control of water nearby and there are amazing "water gates" that diverted the water into huge cisterns that allowed the city to exist even in the summer when their was no water. It's really a beautiful site and my pictures do not do it justice.

After our tour we headed back to the main Basilica for what their team calls the "sundowner" in which they basically choose a nice site around the ruins of the city and have beers while watching the sunset. Apparently the do it every night. It was nice to relax after the long day. We headed back to the house to wash up for dinner and enjoyed a lovely dinner out on their patio.

After dinner, one of the girls who has worked both in Mozan and Rasafa, named Mada, organized for us to go out in the dark and have some drinks in the Basilica, lit by candles. It was really amazing. Massimo brought his guitar and we sang in the ancient church and enjoyed the starlight. It was really a once in a lifetime experience - to be sitting in an ancient church, with no roof, looking up at the stars and thinking of all the people who were there before. I don't have any pictures because no picture could do it justice.

We had all requested to sleep outside as it is much cooler and more fun, in addition to being banned at Mozan. I took my cot up to the roof of the bathroom and 6 of us slept out under the stars. What we failed to anticipate was exactly HOW COLD it would be. I woke up in the middle of the night freezing. I put on another shirt, wrapped my sheet around me like a cocoon and then put my kefiyah over my head to keep my head warm then burrowed down under the light blanket they had draped over my cot to keep it clean. Just when I thought I had settled in to a tolerable level of coldness where I could actually sleep the muezzin started the call to prayer and it sounded like he was singing right in my ear. For those who don't know, he sings the first call to prayer at 3:30 am. So after that I caught a few more minutes sleep before the donkey and the rooster started up at 4:30 or so. At 6 I finally crawled out of my cocoon to see my fellow roof sleepers all bundled up as well.

We had some tea and then it was off to visit the Ummayed palace excavations. They were less interesting to me than the ruins of the Christian quarter but we did see where a very wealthy ruler(maybe a caliph?) had put in an elaborate garden with pavilions and water pumps in the middle of the desert. The extravagance would have been amazing, although now its just ruins and dirt. We headed back to the house for breakfast which was delicious then a quick trip out to see the cisterns before we had to leave. The cisterns can not be explained in words. You climb down this tiny narrow passage way in the dark and then you are delivered into what appears to be a huge cathedral with arched ceilings and beautiful stone columns, all underground. This beautiful construction was for the storage of water. It's truly amazing and I'll post some pictures but they do not do it justice either.

After the cisterns it was back in the car for the return trip to Mozan. We took a more leisurely trip back and stopped along Lake Assad to visit Castle Jabbar, which as far as I can tell is a mishmash of ancient and medieval structures that have been poorly reconstructed. It was still fun though and we climbed up the ruins to check out the views of Lake Assad. After we got our fill of climbing we had a picnic on the side of the lake and some of the guys went swimming in their underwear. I decided just to wade in a little until the fish started nibbling my toes and then I was done. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon though but then it was back in the bus and on the way again. It was a long trip home and when we arrived we were "destroyed" as the Italians say. All in all though it was an amazing trip.

Of course things are never slow or boring around here so the day after we returned from Rasafa, it was off to Turkey to renew our visas. Most of them were expired so we had to wait several hours at the border before heading of to Turkey just to turn around and come back. We spent maybe a half hour in Turkey but it was enough time for me to secure a GIANT bread. It made me think of Anthony and so I had to have it. I shared it with everyone and there was still some left. The best part is they sell it out of a glass box on the street. It was delicious too. I'll post a picture of me and the bread as well.

After Turkey things settled down a little bit and it was back to work. The excavations have begun but I'm not really involved with them. I did spend some time with the surveyor, Hans, learining to use the total station (which is not computerized) so I can take measurements in the outer city after he leaves. It's a useful skill I think. I'm working most of the time on outer city materials now although it's slow going and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. At least I can feel like I am making progress on my own projects a little. I'm definitely getting homesick and this last month will probably seem slow even though it will actually go by fast. I hope to achieve something before I leave but we'll see.

September 6th was Jim's 70th birthday so I'll give him a shoutout here. We planned a nice formal party for him and everyone dressed up and we had cocktails on the patio. It was a great party and I'm so glad I got to celebrate with him. He's really been an amazing mentor for me as I do my work here in Mozan.

Now we have the three days off and I'll probably spend them working. The curse of the dissertation I guess. Happy new school year to everyone back in America. Stay tuned until next week :)

In which Caitlin travels across Syria

2010-09-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Rasafa

2010-09-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to the team in Rasafa who showed us an AMAZING time

we made it to rasafa and back

2010-09-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

So our trip to Rasafa was a rousing success and I have only a few minutes at the internet which is not nearly enough time to do it justice. We saw 6th century churches, ancient cisterns, Ummayed palaces, crusader castles and modern man made lakes. A taste of Syria if you will.

I will leave you with a few photos as a teaser for next week's post.

holy cow! it's september already

2010-09-04T05:47:00.000-07:00

This week was fairly uneventful as far as activities but a lot has been happening in our work. We are finally getting to the point where all the data is straightened out and we can get to analyzing what whe have. I'm going to be working half on this and half on my dissertation research so my brain is all over the place.

For my dissertation research I went out to a newly plowed field to check out the ceramics and found a whole pot, almost perfectly preserved and a few other complete pots that were smashed by the plow. Can you imagine living somewhere where 5000 year old artifacts are just laying around in your fields? It's really quite amazing. I won't be publishing any pictures of the finds or the work really as it really should be published in an official manner, not placed on the web before then. I will however continue to regale you with stories of my work and pictures of non-archaeological activities :)

It's not a normal week at Mozan if we don't have a party and this week we had three. First on Thursday it was Bernhard's birthday so we all went out to dinner in a traditional Arabic restaurant and ate until we were stuffed and then drank some cold beers. Then mid-week we had a little pool party just to blow off some steam from working so hard and then to top it all off last night we had a surprise party for Alberto, whose birthday is actually today. It's been a full week of activities here at Mozan and we had our annual "karaoke night" with Massimo playing guitar and everyone choosing a song or two to sing. Don't worry people, I did not sing so no archaeologists were hurt in the making of this karaoke night.

We are leaving for Rasafa, a Byzantine religious site, this morning. We are going to stay over night and visit with the archaeologists there. Should be a fun time. I hope to update the blog with some pictures and details afterwards.

anvil

2010-08-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

a real anvil. look out roadrunner.

cultural center

2010-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

metal working exhibit. All made by Sabah.

Us viewing the exhibits at the cultural center

metalworking shop

2010-08-26T08:06:00.001-07:00

metalworking shop. yes, this place is for real.

me at the metalworking shop.

apparently I already named last week's post "another week goes by"

2010-08-26T07:47:00.001-07:00

Time for the weekly recap I guess. Trying to review what has happened this week in my mind leads me to believe that all the days are mostly alike. I am having trouble recalling anything specific.

Let's start with last week Thursday when I last updated. I did manage to stop at the ice cream shop and acquire my eye drops. The little boy who was washing the shop floor seemed totally unfazed when we asked for eye drops. Then we all went off shopping for our costumes for the costume party. The theme was superheroes and I decided to go as a "generic superhero" so I bought some leggings, wore a black tank top I had and then bought some children's tights which I cut up to form "gloves" and "socks" so I looked like I had a tall socks and gloves covering my costume. I made a mask and a cape from some fabric remnants of a previous costume (1920s flapper dress in 2007 and a space costume in 2008). I have to say that recycling is awesome. Costume was a success although I did not win the costume contest, rather 4 girls who went as "super vegetables" did. Their costumes were hilarious and they stuffed their clothes so they looked fat. All in all then the party was a success and we all had fun. We ate dinner outside in our courtyard and laughed and danced until late. Nothing like something totally out of the ordinary to make life a little more interesting.

The next day, Friday, was the day off. I spent the day reading and relaxing. Friday is also my day to clean out my room and do my laundry. Pretty much what you would do on the weekend at home. In the evening we went to the Amouda cultural center where we saw an exihibit on local crafts. Apparently the smith, Sabah, who used to work for the excavation was in charge of the display and many of his metal sculptures and objects were on display. I'm going to post a few pictures if I can. The cultural center display was a little pitiful but all in all a good effort. Sabah explained everything to us because there were no captions or labels to explain anything. The building was very nice though and it had a large auditorium for public shows and lectures. It is sort of the cross between the Lancaster Opera house, the public library and the historical society. Apparently it is funded by the central government so it was pretty nice building with air conditioning and everything.

After the cultural center we went to see Sabah's workshop. It is halfway underground and filled with scrap metal and weird metal working machines. He showed us some metal drilling machines and I got a great video of him pounding a stake out on an anvil. You know how you watch Wiley Coyote and wonder where he got his anvils? Well Sabah had at least 2 that I saw. He also had bits of scrap metal and nails in metal cans everywhere around which kind of reminded me of the cans my dad keeps in the garage that he got from his dad. It is important to keep these because you never know when you might need a coffee can full of nails... or so at least I was taught. Again, will try and post pictures of the shop because it has to be seen to be believed. While we were there he also showed us his office which kind of looks like a dirty mechanics office. Then he proceeded to tell us that this is where he performs eye operations. Yes, eye operations. Apparently he does several a week, mostly removing splinters from people's eyes. I was horrified. I don't know whey they prefer a dirty pair of tweezers in their eye to just wearing safety glasses but I didn't want anything to do with it. After the tour it was off home for dinner and bed before beginning the new work week.

This week has been going by quickly (suprisingly) with only one serious bout of homesickness. Sometimes in the middle of the week the time seems to stretch on forever with no end in sight although we are nearly to the half way point of the season. Some people are leaving in the next couple of weeks although I'll still be here until October. We still have no word on if we are going to excavate but I am getting excited for the second half of the season anyways. There might be some other prospects for work which I won't jinx by mentioning here.

We spent the week working on objects that have been excavated in previous years. Most are pretty mundane; chipped stone, animal figurines and the like, but occasionally you get something interesting like a seal impression. Today is the birthday of one of the guys in my group, Bernhard so I'll wish him a Happy Birthday in case he is reading this :).

This week is shaping up to be much the same as the past week with computer work dominating everything. The weather is cooling down a little and it is regularly below 90 in my room now. I consider that a small blessing. I've managed to keep my bug bites to a minimum through my rigorous bug regimen and my eye has healed up nicely. I don't think I'm getting any skinnier this year because Abu Ashour keeps making delicious foods, mostly fried, that I can't help but eat and without the excavation to burn it off I think I'm doomed.

Our swimming pool at the site is mostly full so I think I'll be spending tomorrow lounging around in the pool and just relaxing. Hope this post finds you all well.

another week goes by

2010-08-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well this past week hasn't proven to be too exciting. We have been documenting documenting documenting. I'm actually making progress which is exciting but sometimes you can not even see the light at the end of the tunnel and it gets discouraging. We still haven't heard anything official about the excavations so everyone is a little bit on edge waiting to hear. It will be a long season if we don't excavate. We work long hard days with little to break them up so we are all really hoping for the excavation.

I've been keeping busy with my work and sleeping a lot. The weather seems to have cooled a little and last night it was down to the high 80s in my room which after 90-95 degree nights feels quite pleasant. I slept like a rock. I have my bug repellant system which involves socks, long pants, bug spray, bug net and a small bug repelling machine. It is very successful and I never get any bites at night. The day is a whole other story though.

I'd have to say the most interesting thing that has happened all week is that I seem to have scratched my eye. Some of you might remember my harrowing tales from my first year when I scratched my eye and had to go to the doctor by myself. Fortunately I am much more adept at managing things now and just had someone call the doctor for me. He is mixing me up some special antibiotic eyedrops which should clear everything up right away. The best part is that when we go to Qamishli today his office will be closed so he told Yasmine that he will leave my eyedrops at the ice cream shop next door and I can just stop in and pick them up from the ice cream shop. "Hi, I'm the American girl looking for eye drops, oh you have them, thanks, and by the way, could I get a chocolate ice cream..." Should be interesting.

Sun is coming up later and later so we will be staring work at 5:30am now and work until 7:30pm. That essentially means we work from sunrise to sunset. We have our big costume party tonight and the theme is 'superheroes'. I still have no idea what I'm going to be but I still have a few hours so we'll see.

Time for a quick nap before posting in Qamishli.

red mex beer and chicken wings

2010-08-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

puny chicken wings with no flavor. i will be on team buffalo forever.

red mex tequila beer. gross.

swimming pool restaurant

2010-08-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

me at the pool :)

check out me on the far left.

week 2 pics

2010-08-13T08:15:00.001-07:00

tomato, eggplant and cucumber farm

week 2

2010-08-13T08:11:00.001-07:00

Well it is that time of week where I update you all on whatever we've been up to out here in the Syrian desert. In some ways this week has been eventful while in others it has been so dull I could cry. Let's recap.

First of all part of the reason things aren't as exciting is because we are currently not excavating. I will be here for all of August and September and the first week of October. Right now the plan is to have our study season first in August and then excavate in September. The study season is in August because it is currently Ramadan. This means the workmen (and some of our staff) can't eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. In August that makes for a really long hot day. It is totally not feasible to have workmen in the field for 8 hour days doing physical labor if they can't even have water. So we plan to excavate in September assuming all our funds come through (any rich people reading? want to spare a couple k for a grad student?). At that point we would run a normal excavation season at the end of Ramadan.

So what do we do during a study season? not much exciting is the answer. We work 10.5 hour days on our computers in a small, dirty, hot room. We work on describing and cataloguing all the objects we've excavated in the past years and on making sure our documentation is all up to date. Anyone who has ever heard me pontificate about archaeology knows that I will tell you it is all about the recording and documentation. If you excavate without recording you might as well have taken a bulldozer and cleared the area. I am working on developing the documentation on two areas, J7 and J2. You might remember from past years that I was the excavation supervisor of these areas in front of the monumental temple complex. I look back at some of my old notes with dismay and wonder what was I thinking sometimes. So yes, right now archaeology is not so exciting and I don't have much else to say but send me emails because they brighten my day and break up the monotony of computer work.

On an aside: I got my blackberry to work here in Syria so I can receive emails everyday and do quick checks of the news right from the site which is AMAZING. many thanks to my mom for convincing me to give it a try. Updates to the blog will still be once a week though as the phone internet is not fast enough to update the blog.

Upwards and onwards then. There were some bright spots to this week and two outings so we've been keeping busy in our free time. The director here is developing the idea of tourism and archaeology in the region and so we have been going on some outings to see what is around the region that could be incorporated into this "archaeological park" that is being developed with the Syrian government. Our fist outing was a truck tour. And by truck tour I mean all the staff piles into the back of what is essentially a sheep transport truck. We then stand in the back and peer over the edges as we drive across the region and through small villages. It is a cross between a safari and being transported like cattle. We stare at the villages and they stare back at the crazy foreigners. We drove through several villages, stopped at one, Haji Nasr to take a look at our site from a distance and then went to a farm. After my surveying in the watermelon fields last year I thought I was familiar with Syrian farms but this one was different. It is co-owned by the expedition driver Abu Mussa and he gave us a personal tour. They have developed water saving technology by essentially burying plastic under the soil that allows any water that falls to be directed to exactly where the plants are instead of spreading over the soil or collecting on the surface where it evaporates. They were growing eggplants, cucumbers and tomatoes. It was kind of neat and we got to see Abu Mussa's wife and some children.

The next outing was even stranger than riding in the sheep truck. There is a local sheik who is sort of friendly with the expedition and last year you might remember we visited his ostrich farm and then went to a fancy restaurant in the middle of nowhere called Balison. Well, we went back to the restaurant this year and we went in the afternoon and he closed the whole place so we could swim in the pool that sits in the middle of the restaurant. So we swam all afternoon in the restaurant and then we went to shower and change and they set up for dinner and we ate poolside. It was unreal to be swimming in a huge pool in an ornate restaurant in the middle of nowhere Syria. It was so fun though and really refreshing. I will post some pictures if possible. The food was traditional arabic dinner with shish-tauk (chicken kebabs), shish-kebab (meat kebabs), hummus, flat bread and fatush (cucumber and tomato salad). There were a few strange choices though. First, there were chicken wings. They were not spicy and they were tiny. I'm posting a picture so you can see how they looked. The real bummer though was the beer. We all look forward to outings because they are the only time when we get real cold beer (not the local Syrian variety). The servers ask us who wants beer, almost everyone says yes. They come out with these tall, red cans and set them on the table. It is "Red Mex tequila beer". It was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. It was tequila flavored beer. Apparently it was imported from France. I know what you are thinking and yeah, I don't know either what makes anyone think that something "Mexican" from France imported to Syria is going to be good. But we couldn't offend our host and ask for anything different so it was a sad beer-less dinner.

So all in all I'm doing fine if a bit bored during the weekdays. I miss home for sure but Mozan is starting to feel really familiar after 4 years spending all my summers heere. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my friend Hiba so I will be less lonely and have somebody to goof around with. Until next week...

Arrival

2010-08-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Damascus late the night of August 2nd and then spent the night in the airport anxiously waiting to see if I could get a standby flight out to the site in the morning. Fortunately I was able to meet a friendly Armenian in line who made the airline guy give me a ticket. I arrived in Qamishli where the excavation driver met me at the airport.

On the plane there was a tall blonde foreign guy and I asked if he was going to Mozan and he was (of course). I gave him a lift with the driver and everyone at the dig was surprised to see me arrive with a large Austrian but it saved him the taxi fare.

So far we are just beginning our work and the plans for the season are still up in the air. Hopefully everything will be according to plan and my blog will be filled with lots of exciting updates.

Until next week...

It's about that time eh chaps?

2010-07-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

I'm headed out to the field on Sunday August 1st and I thought I'd put out a call for mail this year.

My Grandma was asking me if I could send her a postcard and it made me remember that it actually IS possible to receive mail in Syria. (and yes Grandma, I will send a postcard).

Write to me at:

c/o Mozan/Urkesh Expedition
Amuda, Qamishli, Syria

I recommend printing instead of cursive as it is sometimes difficult for the postal workers to sort out the non-arabic script.

Would love mail but love email just as much (and am more likely to actually receive it).

I plan to return October 8th so stay tuned for updates from the field.

Married

2010-04-27T11:49:00.001-07:00

Indianajane goes to the chapel

2009-09-25T09:03:00.001-07:00

9/24/09

The highlights from this week include some really weird stuff. First, we went to a 'farm' to visit a local sheik, he is the tribal leader of a group of 6 million kurdish people. He raises ostriches, yes, ostriches. they are really ugly in person. i mean, you've seen them at the zoo and they are weird looking but at least they are pampered at the zoo. here, they are just ugly. apparently, one ostrich egg serves 14 people. it's crazy. then he took us out to dinner at this crazy resturaunt which is HUGE. i mean HUGE and in the middle of nowhere. it's not like middle of nowhere podunksville, it's like middle of nowhere, literally nothing around for miles but farmland and small villages. its lush and green and made all of marble. they have a huge swimming pool that is filled to the brim. the inside is a round room all decked out in tacky marble with pillars all the way around. everyone was teasing we should have the wedding there as its probably cheaper than in america. at any rate it was an experience.

the rest of the week has been pretty much as usual. it was the eid, which is the end of ramadan so we had a quiet few days with no workmen because they were all out celebrating with their families. i of course got sick to fill my time in the off days ;) but i'm feeling much better now, thanks for asking. the cook, Abu Ashur, has been taking care of me and getting me green tea and making special food. yesterday i went out to work on the survey that i'm doing and i ended up collecting so much pottery that i had to call the driver to come pick us up. so it's been a productive few days. i'm out of here in 2 days so this will be this year's last update probably. i'll catch you all on the flipside, and all you in buffalo who are reading this, i'll probably see you when i get back. thanks for tuning in...

2009-09-18T21:44:00.001-07:00

9/18/09
Well another week's gone by and it was filled with lots and lots of work. i've been working on the J2 materials and also beginning my survey. I'm pretty much exhausted from working 11 hour days, 6 days a week for 2.5 months. I don't have much energy to write a lot this week.

As i said, i've been working on the survey a little. This entails me and an assistant, Rodee, going out to the fields and collecting pottery for 2.5 hours every morning. It's fun to get out of the house and it's nice to be away from the tell, even if its only 400 meters away. The first day we worked for 5 hours but realized quickly that once the sun really comes up it's too hot to be bending over picking up sherds and so we started only working mornings. The first days we also ambitiously carried all our collected pottery back with us. But after seeing us struggling up the hill with all our stuff, the driver took pity on us and he now comes and picks us up 10 minutes before breakfast, even if its just to drive us up the hill. it's really nice of him. After breakfast i work inside on the computer. Then after lunch I work on analyzing the materials from the survey. So far I have only very preliminary results but all in all its beginning to take shape.

we had two outings this week. first, we went to the local mosque, which is a small mudbrick building with a little crescent on top. we went to hear one of our workmen who sings the call to prayer. it was the most unassuming structure i've ever been in. it was nice though to get a glimpse of the village life that we don't normally experience.

our next outing was to a local 'resort' where they built a 1.4 million dollar building and swimming pool in the middle of miles and miles and miles of farmland. it's gaudy and huge. we were invited to dinner by a local sheik of one of the tribes. he was quite talkative and his nephew proposed marriage to my friend Hiba. so yeah, it was an interesting evening. first he showed us his farm where he raises ostriches among other things. Let me tell you, the syrian ostriches are pretty dirty and pretty weird looking. its still unclear what he does with the ostriches, possibly sells the eggs and the meat.

at any rate, that's all i got this week, sorry its not more engaging but i'll be home in 10 days to fill you all in on the details in person with pictures and charades.

2009-09-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

citadel in aleppo

me at the top of the citadel (typical tourist)

me in Sergilla

9/12/09
So this week I spent traveling to Aleppo and some nearby sites and also working like crazy at the site. It's nearing the end of the season for me (although some people are staying on until mid-october) so i'm getting crazy trying to finish everything before the end. The vacation was nice and i enjoyed it but i spent some of it worrying about the work i have to do. now i'm back at the site and doing two different projects - trying to set up my own project doing a survey and also finishing the publication for J2.

First, about Aleppo. It was a great trip. I went with Lorenzo and Julianna. ON friday we went with the cook, Abu Ashur, to his house in Tell Tamir where he lives. He drove us there and then gave us dinner and took us out to a local resturant where they are showing Bab el Harra on a large screen. What is Bab el Harra you ask? It's a tv drama set during the french occupation of Damascus that only shows during Ramadan. It's on every night during Ramadan for just one month and literally everyone was watching it. Turns out not just in Tell Tamir but also in Aleppo where it was showing on projector screens in all the restuarants. So we stayed the night and in the morning Abu Ashur put us on the bus to Aleppo. It's always an unusual experience riding the bus in syria, although this trip was relatively uneventful with the main entertainment being an arabic movie playing of which the only thing i understood was a bunch of women regifting an ugly set of sheets wrapped in polka dot paper.

Once we arrived in Aleppo, at a bus station 10km from the city center we managed to negotiate a cab to take us to the part of town where there are some cheaper hotels. Did i mention we didn't make a hotel reservation? Fortunately, the cab wasn't too outrageous and we managed to find a place at the first hotel we stopped in. It was even clean. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find something to eat, which, as it turns out, is not an easy task in Aleppo during Ramadan. So fatigued from our travels and our attempts at finding food we pretty much collapsed until we went out to dinner at the base of the Aleppo citadel. It is really beautiful and in traditonal tacky Syrian manner they have multicolored lights that reflect on the bridge and so we sat and ate and drank for 2 hours, watched some of Bab el Harra before heading home. We spent the next day exploring the citadel and the main souq (market) where it seemed that everyone had a relative who lived in America (if they were talking to me) or Italy (if they were talking to Lorenzo) or Germany (if they were talking to Julianna). Many many "where you froms?" followed us as we walked through the souq. We didn't end up buying anything but mostly just enjoyed the beauty and bustle of the market. The evening we spent exploring the "new city" of Aleppo which is a warren of small stone paved streets in the Christian quarter. We had a delicious dinner with an oud player playing and ate the traditional dish of Aleppo, cherry kebab. It was quite the day and really an experience. We had a private tour of the "museum of popular history" which was a strange ammelioration of random historic things from the ottoman period stored in a beautifully renovated old house including a secret corridor that supposedly led straight to the citadel (take with grain of salt). All in all lots of fun.

The next day we rented a private taxi and ventured out of the city to visit the famous archaeological site of Ebla and then one of the so-called "dead-cities" of Syria. It was lots of fun and the team at Ebla gave us a private tour (in their ancient jeep) and invited us to their excavation house for lunch. All Italians but very friendly and welcoming. We proceeded on to the dead city of Sergilla which can not be explained in words. There are ruins with huge stone buildings still standing you can walk amongst the streets and see the city. It was amazing and if I ever get a chance I'd love to visit all the rest of them. I'll try and post a picture but they don't do it justice.

The next day we spent some time in the souq and then took a bus back to Qamishli. This can only be described as an experience. We didn't have reservations (of course) and found a very sketchy bus company at the station who promised a direct trip to Qamishli but I should have known better, by direct trip they mean direct via a bus change in another city. But at any rate, we arrived home safe and sound if a little later than anticipated.

The rest of the week i've spent working hard in the field and at the computer really trying my best to put together something for my project and do a good job with what i'm working on. I'm looking forward to coming home and can't wait to see everyone.

This week's special shout out goes to my little brother Ben who just turned 20 to whom I say = sucker, you still aren't old enough to drink! love you.

2009-09-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

9/4/09
So I didn't make it to the internet yesteday afternoon. We had a visitors from three other archaeological sites for a tour and then we had a big dinner and a big party so we didn't go to Qamishli. it was kind of nice though because we got to speak with some other people and we had good food and beer. It was kind of fun to give a tour of my excavation to some people and give me a chance to sort of appreciate all the work i did this season so far. Tonight we are leaving for a few days off. I'm headed to Aleppo with Julianna (German) and Lorenzo (Italian) for 3 days. It should be a great time, i've never been to Aleppo so this is my chance to check it out and see what there is to see. It is supposed to be beautiful with one of the oldest souq's (market) in the world. Apparently they specialize in olive oil soap so I've got to check it out.

Not much has happened at the site since last week's update. We are busy saying goodbye to people as most of the excavation team members have left, with the exception of the area supervisors (like me) who are staying on for the remaining portion of the study season. It's kind of nice to have quiet dinners and we have a more relaxed atmosphere but it's sad to see people leaving and know that I'm still here for another 3.5 weeks. But on the other hand it's only 3.5 weeks and I'm really going to try and get started on my dissertation project and i'm sure time will fly and I won't get nearly as much done as I hope. I really want to make sure I have enough data to really get started this year.

We had a little party this week (when aren't we having a party?) in honor of the west bathroom/east bathroom rivalry. The west bathroom always hosts a fancy party in their bathroom (yes, in the bathroom) while the east bathroomers host a counter-party in the sherd yard where we can see them parade past. In the end we all end up together and head off into the sunset (or just dinner) together. This year Sammer, a guy from the Department of Antiquities was here with his son, Noor. Noor and I became friends last year when we had dinner in Tell Tamir together. He likes cameras and he likes goofing around. I also like goofing around so it's a good fit. We had fun taking pictures and throwing stones over the wall. He was kind enough to share his icecream with me (although i already had my own ice cream, but you don't question syrian generosity) and we played video games on my cell phone. He is really high energy and pretty much wore me out. I'll try and post a picture of the two of us from the party, he even sported a little tie.

Tonight we are leaving with the cook, Abu Assur, to go to his house overnight and then we are taking the bus from his city, Tell Tamir, to Aleppo. He says its a better, shorter bus ride so it should be nice. Plus, of course, it is always fun to stay with people instead of in hotels. Last year we all went to visit him and ate in his resturant, which was also fun. He really spoils us with the food. I'm not getting any skinnier this year (and of course it would happen in the year when i'm going to want to fit in a wedding dress...).

Next week's update should be full of pictures and details of adventures in Aleppos so stay tuned...

2009-08-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

director's cocktail hour on the patio with Bill, also originally from Buffalo

8/27/09

it's getting to be that point in the season where i miss everything about home. i've been away long enough that it's almost like I forget that I ever lived anywhere else. We had chicken wings for dinner the other night, not chicken wings in the buffalo sense, but chicken wings in the literal sense. Our cook deep fried them with breading I think. They weren't so bad but man did they make me miss home, wishing for some hot sauce, a cold beer and my friends and family to eat wings at the bar with. (ironically, anthony was at the bar eating wings with my best friend just this week). At any rate, I was dreaming about what a package from home would look like if I could will it across the ocean here to the desert. First, american coffee. I miss coffee. I brought some Tim Horton's here with me but it won't last the whole season and it's not the same as running around the corner for a cup or even luxuriating over my hot pot of coffee in the morning. Here we drink tea in the morning, yellow lipton tea. I sometimes make coffee in the afternoon, when I can really savor it instead of in the morning when it is just a struggle to get your mind working and functioning. Now that the excavations are over and it's getting later into the year with the sun coming up later we actually start work later. At 5:30. We work 10.5 hour days now and so it's actually just as grueling as when we started at 5. I'm working on finishing up the J2 excavation materials so it is ready for someone to tidy it up and publish it in the winter. As soon as I finish with J2 I'm going to begin working on the outer city project, which I think I already mentioned. I am going to do a trial survey project and see what happens. I'm hoping that this will pan out into a dissertation topic but you never know with these things and I feel like I'm tempting fate by even mentioning it here on the blog.

This past week has been largely uneventful, I'm just plodding along finishing up my work, fixing all the errors in documentation that inevitably crop up working 10 hour days in the hot sun. Last thursday night I went to Hiba's house again for dinner which was nice. Her family is great and they fed me until I was so stuffed I could barely eat anything more, then they gave me beer until I almost missed the bus back to the site! Hiba's gone to Damascus now to take her master's exams so she won't be back for a few weeks. We have a few days off coming up, from the 5-9th of September and some people are going to Turkey but I don't know what I'm going to do. I was going to try and meet Hiba in Aleppo, which is supposedly beautiful and I've never visited, but now she isn't sure if her exams will be over in time. We'll see. Now that we are in the study portion of the season we find we have a little more energy for fun and so last thursday we threw a small party in our bathroom (don't ask, it's tradition) with a little kiddie pool and lots of water and lots of vodka. It was a fun time although I must admit I was pretty tired and didn't stay long. It's still fun though and after 2 months in the field you really need some fun, even if it mostly consists of wearing your bathing suit to a party in the bathroom. I spent all day friday just relaxing and sleeping. I read a whole book and just enjoyed the day off. I really needed the time to catch up on sleep and just not think about anything. On saturday we had our final tell tour with the directors where we go to everyone's excavation unit and analyze what has happened over the course of the season. It was kind of fun this year although in retrospect, compared to the other units, my area was by far the least interesting. I won't sum up the results here because they are still unpublished and it's not my place to announce it to the world but it's been neat and I really enjoyed the excavations. The rest of the week was consumed by computer work and went by surprisingly fast. On Monday night we had a formal cocktail hour on the director's patio, where everyone wore shirts and ties and dresses. It was fun and its nice to get out of the same clothes you wear everyday and put something else on. And then, just last night we had 'karaoke' night where Massimo played guitar accompainment for anyone who wanted to sing a little. By the end it was mostly a sing-a-long but just goes to show that you never out grow the summer camp mentality, all that was missing was the campfire. It's fun to see people in another light, besides just a bunch of researchers and stuffy phds, even the director sang.

I suppose the biggest news here is that we have fired the washer woman in favor of an automatic washing machine. yes, that's right, automatic washing machine. it is installed in our bathroom and i haven't had the privilege of using it yet. I kind of feel sad because I found the laundry service to be one of the small luxuries that made the field seem nice. One thing that is done for me in the field that I don't get at home (kind of like the cook). We'll see how it turns out, maybe my clothes will last longer now that they aren't boiled once a week by the laundry lady. We shall see.

I thought I didn't have much to write this week but looking back this entry has gotten long I guess. I'm missing everyone and I was really sad to have missed my cousin Lindsay's wedding and I would just like to give her a shout out here and say I am so happy for you and Roy and I'm wishing you all the best, now and for always.

2009-08-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

this week was the last week of excavation. from here out we're having a study season to make sure all the documentation for the season is in order. Today I just reached my halfway point. 40 days until I arrive back in the U.S of A. I can think a few people I can't wait to see :) This season has been pretty good so far with some interesting work and i've been really busy as I am sort of directing my own area this season. For those of you who know me well you know I like to be in charge so it works well when i'm left to my own devices. Right now i'm sorting through all my shortcomings as a unit director and doing my best to correct all the holes i've accidentally left in the documentation. I have a little notebook that i keep in the breast pocket of my shirt during the excavation, much like all the old men in Syria have in the breast pockets of their galabia's (their man dresses). I take it out and jot things down while i'm out in the field trying to do my best to remember everything. We also have an official binder where we keep all the official documentation and measurements but soemtimes my little notebook is more handy so i have to doublecheck and make sure everything gets done and now, more than anything, that it all gets entered to the computer before we leave. what i really need is one of those industrial computers that are designed for rural villages that i can take into the field. that way i could skip the data entry copying from the notebook to the computer. could be cool. maybe i'll try and write a grant to get some sponsorship.

Last week thursday night we had our annual Mozan costume party. The theme was gods and goddesses and so I went as cupid. Everyone here is always teasing me about how I am so happy and in love so I thought it was fitting. I managed to rig up a skirt as a dress, turned my costume from 2 years ago (1920s flapper) into some wings and bought a little bow and arrow set. It worked out pretty well. There were some really cute costumes including a guy with some Mozan 10 commandments all related to our work and some ancient Mesopotamian gods. We had a lot of fun although I'll admit I wasn't in much of a party mood but rather was just exhausted. Everyone slept late on Friday and there was debris from the party all over the house, bits of costumes here and there. I spent most of the day reading and relaxing and it was nice.

On saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday we worked in the field. Because my area is composed almost entirely of thin floors it has been very slow to excavate. we haven't moved nearly as much dirt as the other excavation areas, in fact we probably only removed 1/10 of what some of the areas did but it was much more detailed. On the last 2 days we were sure we weren't going to finish so i went to the field in the afternoon with the workmen as well. It was two 10 hour days in a row and i was feeling beat. fortunately on Wednesday they let us sleep in until 6:30 before starting our work on the computers. My workmen brought candy on the last day and they are really very sweet. We ended up having so much candy. One of the other workmen from another area brought candy around for everyone and told us all that he brought candy for everyone not because it was the last day but because he finally had a daughter. he was happy because he already had 2 boys. I saw one of his kids 2 years ago and he was adorable with these huge brown eyes. My workmen have been really great this year and i had no complainers. I'm going to miss them now that i'm working here in the house. I am looking forward to my work in the outer city and hopefully I will be able to wrap up all my work from the J2 excavations in the next week or so and really dedicate my time to this other project although we'll see how it turns out. The farmer is probably less than thrilled to have me tramping all over his watermelons, although i got to say, we are less than thrilled with the illegal water pump he installed on our power line which causes our power to go on and off about 5 times an hour. Fortunately the powers that be finally brought a new transformer to the nearby village and it has helped somewhat so now we only have the normal amount of power outages (about 3 a day). It's not so bad because we have a generator to power our computers when we are working so we don't have to worry about losing data. I brought a laptop but the battery doesn't really work and even if it did work any battery you bring here gets fried by the irregular electicity current anyways.

Today I'm off to Qamishli again. My friend Hiba left Mozan this week because she has her exams in Damascus but she is still in Qamishli until tomorrow so she invited me over for dinner. Should be nice then we are having a little party back at the site because some people are leaving. We usually throw a party in our bathroom which is the furthest point in the house from the director's room. We have a little toy pool that we sometimes fill up as a joke and put it in the middle of the bathroom. We'll see how it goes, this year's group is kind of low key. I'm glad to hear that people are enjoying the blog and I do love the emails even if I don't get enough time at the internet to always reply personally. I've been having Anthony post my blog entries because the internet here is a little cantankerous and doesn't always like me uploading info, especially pictures. until next week...

2009-08-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

8.13.09

coming at you with my weekly update. this week has been fairly uneventful. Just plugging along doing my work and sort of moving at a slow pace. My goal in the excavation was to expose this pinkish colored floor all in front of the staircase where i am working and then make a deeper sounding in a smaller area but it took longer than expected. the reason for exposing this whole floor was because it might have been the floor associated with the moment of construction of the monumental staircase but now it is almost certain this is not the case so i kind of wasted a lot of time (not that it was my idea to expose the whole thing...). But at least now we are finished with that and are going to go down in just one area and hopefully achieve some of our goals for dating the staircase. We only have 4 more days of excavation though and so we are unsure if we will actually make it. The rest of the season is going to be dedicated to preparing the materials we excavated for publication.

The most exciting thing that happened to me this week was a trip to the outer city. The high mound here is quite large and all the excavations take place on it but in antiquity the area immediately around the high mound would have also been part of the city and we think there is a city wall further out surrounding the area. Of course now the whole area is covered with farms but in one area a farmer found a bunch of stones and some nice pottery so i got to go out and take a look to see where it was all from. Hopefully the directors (with my help) are going to write up something for publication about the outer city. It was really neat though to see the site from a different viewpoint and to experience the outer city. It was kind of funny because i went with the site guard, Mohammed Omo, who of course only speaks arabic and then a german girl, Juliana, who only kind of speaks English and then we met with the farmer, who only speaks arabic. We were quite a site as we walked all over his field looking for the places where he removed the stones and the places where he says he found the most pottery. Of course now it is all covered in plants and you can't see a thing but Mohammed Omo was certain he could show us the exact spot. The farmer was interested in me because he told me that his seeds for his watermelon come from American and he says that are the best around (or at least i think that's what he said). And sure enough his watermelons look just like american watermelons although i'm not sure how many varieties of watermelons there are. He also grows cotton and I will admit i'd never seen cotton growing before and it's strange because it looks like just flowering plants and you can barely see the little pods where the cotton is. I'm excited though to do the little survey of the area and get a chance to branch out from working on the tell.

Tonight is our big party that we have every year. It always has a theme and this year the theme is gods and goddesses so everyone is dressing up as different ancient gods and goddesses. I haven't quite decided on my costume yet but i'll be sure to post a picture next week if it is internet-appropriate ;)

Sorry this post is so short. I don't have much time this week because we are going to Qamishli early to buy our costumes for the party before tonight.

2009-08-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

8.7.09

Didn't really get any time to write this week because I've been so busy working. Also, I'm so tired from the excavations that in the afternoon all I want to do is sleep. But nevertheless, i'm awake now so let's review the highlights.

Thursday: Last week thursday we were in Qamishli and I posted my last update. I was able to video-chat with Anthony via skype, a feat I will attempt to replicate this week with my mom. That was probably the high moment of the week. After internet I ran some errands around Qamishli to buy some snacks, a notebook and my own mug for at the excavation house. None of these things are necessary but they raise the quality of life just a little bit and are totally worth it. We had dinner at the "Domino" resturaunt which does, in fact, sell pizza. We ordered hamburgers though being on a little bit of a meat-kick seeing as we are a little light on the meat served a the house now that our cook is not around (more on that later). We wanted fries too and of course, I should have known, in Syria when you order something it is never what you think you are getting. Instead of a hamburger and fries we got hamburgers, with all the condiments, with fries inside of them. Go figure. I managed to sort of disassemble mine but I have to say, I should have gone with the pizza. For dessert we had icecream, I had twix flavor and it wasn't bad.

Friday: Our day off. I mostly slept late (until 7.30!!) and then spent the day reading and lounging around my room trying to avoid having anyone see me and ask me to do something. Then I let Hiba cut my hair. I'll try and post a picture. She just trimmed it a little. Everyone thought I was crazy but it turned out fine. Maybe a little shorter than I would of liked but I'm the only one who can even tell I got a haircut. I figure might as well let her do it for free. My hair is so sundamaged anyways. In the afternoon we have a meeting where we go around to all the excavations and see what is going on so we did that.

Saturday-Monday: Excavation days. Not much going on. We are still going very slowly in my area so we can collect all the pottery fragments to achieve a good date but it's not very exciting.

Tuesday: Computer day at the house, it was nice to stay inside for the day and out of the sun even if working on the computers is less fun than working in the field.

Yesterday was probably the day with the most going on. I went out to the excavation in the morning with Sarah and Shindar the two people who are working with me. Sarah and I were scraping a section just hanging out talking about the stratigraphy and musing over the layers. I was leaning up against the section very close scraping it with my trowel when all of the sudden Sarah is pointing and is like "ah!" I looked and there was a huge scorpion right by my hand! I screamed and jumped about a mile and went flying across the excavation away from the scorpion. All of my workmen of course came running and were like "where is the scorpion" They thought maybe I had been stung. They were able to kill it and take it away but they were all concerned that I was upset. They told me to drink water to calm me down. Then Sarah says with deadly seriousness "that thing looked like the size of a lobster" and i just started laughing. It really was huge though. Urban legend around here though is that the deadly ones are the small ones but nonetheless I think I'll be staying clear of all kinds. The workmen are always laughing with me now when I make a big show of pretending to check for scorpions every time i sit down. This one was hiding where it was because we had laid plastic down to cover the excavation area and they like it under the plastic because it is slightly cooler and moister. So that was pretty much yesterday. I was consumed by the scorpion incident.

Today the excavations were going as usual. Sarah left to go back to America and I was really jealous. She only stayed 2 weeks. So now that she is gone another woman, a French/Italian philologist has come to work with me. She is very interesting and knows a lot about hurrian mythology (our site is supposedly an early hurrian site) but she is not an archaeologist so I suppose it will be a learning experience for us both.

So tonight I'm headed to Qamishli to post this and to check my emails. Looking forward to some good emails this week and the possibility of video chatting. Im not staying for dinner this week though because I'd rather come back and try and relax a little instead of eating in a resturaunt (and possibly accidentally ordering a burger with fries in it).

We heard today that the cook should be getting out of jail this afternoon so that is great news. We are all keeping our fingers crossed and we won't believe it until someone actually sees him come out of the jail but it is at least promising.

I'm dying for news of the outside world so I hope the nytimes does not disappoint. I'm out until next week.

2009-08-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

2009-07-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

2009-07-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

pictures appear to be not working
i'll give it one more shot but you might be SOL for a bit

2009-07-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

update 7/30/09

2009-07-30T08:14:00.001-07:00

7/29/09
Not much going on here same as always. It is getting harder and harder to come up with something exciting for these blog posts. Today we had a big sandstorm so we couldn't work in the field. It was kind of nice though because we had a chance to work in the house and catch up on all the documentation and everything. I've been pretty tired lately so it was nice to not have to work in the field and instead to sit in a (slightly) air conditioned room working on the computer. The sandstorm started at like 2 am and i ended up waking up and going out to use the bathroom. Everything was blown over, all the doors were flapping in the wind and it was like having sandpaper in your eyes. It was strange because it wasn't raining, it wasn't even overcast but the wind was just so strong that it was blowing dirt and sand everywhere.

The past few days in the excavation have been relatively unexciting. We are removing some features that are large but relatively uniform. There are some interesting questions beginning to emerge about the time sequencing and use of the monumental staircase area but right now we have lots more questions than answers. I'm hoping that this week we will finally get started on answering some of the questions. We'll see I guess.

Sarah, the girl I worked with closely my first season here at Mozan has come for 2 weeks. I'm excited. It's good to see her again after 2 years and to catch up. Plus it's nice to have someone whose native language is English! My "sidekick" as my friend Jim calls him is really struggling. He has really only studied English for one year and the system here is so complicated. I'm reaching the end of my patience for being an English language school but I also feel bad because I can't imagine what it would be like to be at an excavation where everyone spoke Arabic but me.

It's getting to be that part of the season where kinks are getting worked out and personality clashes are coming to the forefront. The dig is a little like a reality tv show, where they throw us all together, never let us leave, and then just watch what happens. Trust me it's not always pretty. Some of my friends didn't come this year so it's been kind of a quiet year for me. I mostly hang out with my friend Hiba, who is a Syrian from the nearest city here - Qamishli. Last thursday I had dinner at Hiba's house, it was so nice her mom made grilled chicken for dinner and all this great food. It was especially nice because it was a really homey atmosphere.Her mom made me eat so much, she was so concerned that I didn't like the food or something and so I had to keep eating until I thought I'd explode. Then when I thought I couldn't possibly eat any more she brought out ice cream. I was so full but it was nice :)

I'll try and upload a picture from dinner at Hiba's house if I can.

The cook is still in jail so we are taking turns cooking. I made grilled cheese when it was my turn to make lunch because as most of you know my cooking skills are extremely limited. Everyone liked it though. So in the end I guess it was a success albiet simple. We have a government representative here and he was asking me if I was going to cook again and I told him I was a poor cook and he said "but aren't you married?" and I told him I was going to be married and he was like "and you don't cook!!!" and then he told me that if I was Syrian I'd be a terrible wife. Last week his wife cooked for us and the food was so excellent but he told me that when they were married she didn't cook and his mom had to teach her!

7/30/09
Today I should be headed to Qamishli to upload my blog posts. We'll see how it goes. My dad tells me that the last uploads worked fine. The problem seemed to be with the formatting of my entry that I typed here at the site. I'm trying something different now. So today was not too exciting at the site, after the duststorm yesterday we were back working in the field. My workmen are jealous because they are finding all these beautiful stone staircases in this other area, J5 and we haven't really found anything in ours yet. I gave them a little pep talk today explaining how important our area is and how it will give us lots of good information but I think they are still jealous. I'm hoping that we will start finding stuff when we resume work on Saturday.

On an unrelated note we finally got the laundry started for this season so no more handwashing my clothes while I take a shower. Some lady in the village boils them and sends them back all white and crisp. It's nice and it one of the luxuries I really appreciate here. Speaking of luxuries, our cook is still not released from jail but we had good news today that they anticipate him reaching a settlement with the family of the man who died in the next few days and then he should be released from jail. We are all hoping.

I'm hoping to resupply myself while I'm in Qamishli this week because I spent all of last week reading news stories on the internet and then trying to get my phone situation squared away. This week my phone is operational and we are going a little earlier to town so I can read all the news I want and still have time to pick up some very important supplies like cookies, soap and beer. you know, the life basics.

Here's signing off until next week.

p.s. I can't view the blog here because it's blocked but feel free to send me an email if you want. I love getting them.

Blogging Problems

2009-07-23T09:02:00.001-07:00

So it appears my blog is blocked here in Syria but I found a loop hole to upload but I can't view. Here's hoping you guys can actually see something! you can email me via facebook or something if you want to be in touch :)

2009-07-23T09:01:00.001-07:00

7/23/09
Another day at the excavation. Hot again. Today is our ‘Friday’ and we have this afternoon off. We are going to Qamishli, the nearest city, in the evening where we can use the internet and do a little shopping. We are going to have dinner in the city too. I’ve been having phone problems so I’m hoping to get a new phone in Qamishli and also check my email and post this to my blog. Not sure if anyone is out there reading this but if you are – welcome. Things here are running fairly smoothly with a few bumps in the road. We are still organizing the excavations and so my unit is going very slowly until we get a dirt removal machine (called a shafat). I’m pretty sure that there are old blog entries somewhere with pictures of this contraption. I think my workmen are ready to kill me though because without the shafat they have to carry all the dirt in buckets up 2 flights of stairs. And you can imagine that is not a fun job in this heat. Other than that though we are making progress. Not much to say. I’ll see if the internet connection allows me to post any pictures. Blog posts should appear Thursdays from here on out.

July 21, 2009

Hi everyone,
So I made it here to Syria with almost no problems and all my luggage arrived which is no small miracle. I had a little trouble recovering from the jetlag but nothing too bad. We spent the first few days here opening up the excavation house and cleaning out everything so there was time to recover and rest. Most of the people came from Europe or had been in Damascus for some time so really I was the only one with bad jet lag. The trip was somewhat easier this year without the overnight in Damascus, instead I spent the night/very early morning at the airport with a friend, Bill, who has a friend who has a father who works for the hotel that manages the concessions at the airport. They were supposed to meet us and take us to the VIP lounge but they had the day wrong so they spent the whole time feeling terrible and bringing us free cappuccinos and then when it was time for our flight the head guy drove us to the other terminal in his personal car. Oh Syria.

So what the hell am I doing now that I’m here you might ask. Well, the short answer is we are doing a combination excavation and study season. Right now we are excavating in 4 areas with a limited number of workmen. This keeps the work relatively slow. Our goals are to clarify some important questions of chronology at the site. My area is called J2 and I will be working with Patriczia, the same girl I worked with last year. She is managing 2 areas, J6 (where I worked for part of last season) and J2, my new area. My area is right at the base of the extremely large monumental staircase. We are hoping that the pottery and finds from the bottom will help us to date the construction of the staircase. In archaeology there are many ways to date something but the most important thing that is common to all of them is that you need whatever you are dating (pottery, carbon, tablet, etc.) to come from a definite place (which we call provenience). If you just find some charcoal on top of the stairs you could do carbon-14 dating but it wouldn’t tell you anything but the date of the charcoal, because maybe it sat on the stairs for 5 minutes or maybe it was placed there 200 years after the stairs were built. So we are hoping for some good finds that are both datable and from a location that will tell us something about the staircase.

I have 8 workmen although so far only 7 have been coming. One guy can’t come because his son is in the hospital. Everyone is hoping that it turns out ok. The other guys are pretty great and seem interested in learning English which is good because maybe they can help me learn a little Arabic. One of the guys speaks English pretty decently so he was sort of acting as translator. Also the other member of my team is Shindar, a local kid (well, same age as me but you know, I still feel young) who studies in Damascus. So he knows some English – much more than the workmen but still not fluent or anything, and can fill them in when my Arabic fails me (often). Today though we were discussing our families, most of my workmen are married and have children but the one guy has 6 daughters and 1 son! The younger unmarried guy told me he wants to marry an American so he can go to America – I told him I was already married.

So enough about the boring stuff, let’s review the current living situation. I live in a big excavation house that is centered around a courtyard. Most of the rooms, including mine, are made of mudbrick. The nice thing is I have running water in my room (sink) and a “swamp cooler” which is a strange Syrian machine rigged to blow coolish air into my room. Yet with all that my room is a depressing 88 degrees inside. But I’ve been so tired it hasn’t really bothered me yet. We have a regular toilet (in case you were wondering) and daily showers so it’s not too bad. So far no scorpions in my room although some other people have been finding them on an almost daily basis – in this case for me I think ignorance is bliss

2009-07-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

testing, testing, 123

scott and nicole's wedding

2009-07-12T18:25:00.001-07:00

Off to the field

2009-07-10T05:23:00.001-07:00

So on monday i leave for the field. I should be gone until the end of September if everything goes according to plan.

This season should be exciting, one can only hope. Check back for postings once a week - sorry that's all the internet we get!

until then i'm going to put you on stanby with the some pictures from Anthony's and my vacation to the pacific northwest

the field season is a-coming!

2009-05-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

pic of the happy couple :)
so it's about that time of year when i try and revive my dead blog in time for the trials and tribulations of a summer of travel and excavation in the middle east - off to syria again (inshallah) to work on the Mozan project. we'll see what happens, so far nothing is set in stone.

looking forward to the season but things have changed a little this year. two major things in fact. let's start with the academic first - i've passed my phd qualifying exams, making me an official phd candidate here at BU and now forcing me to actually think about writing that damn dissertation - hopefully something will come of that this summer (again, inshallah).

the second news is much much much more exciting. Anthony and i are engaged! i'm so happy but now it's going to be doubly hard to leave for 2.5 months this summer. le sigh. i'm throwing a random pic of us in here from our awesome vacation - perhaps i'll even dedicate a special post to the vacation in the upcoming weeks.

women in science

2009-01-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/science/20angier.html

the proposed changes would only help those who have federally funded grants (i.e. not us poor barely funded students without federal scholarships/grants) but maybe it is a step in the right direction. a bit disheartening though to think that such a large percentage of smart people are opting out of families and have such high divorce rates....

are humanities a waste?

2009-01-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/the-last-professor/

coming off the success of my exams there is nothing like a good NYTimes article to remind me that a large portion of the population thinks my job/future job will become an "unaffordable anomaly". great. happy monday.

archaeology in the news

2008-10-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

so, obviously cultural heritage is an important part of archaeology and italy takes a particularly hard line. at least they can back it up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/arts/design/08heri.html?ref=arts

you may need to sign up for a free account to read this but really, it's the nytimes, why don't you have an account already?

Thursday August 21, 2008

2008-08-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Things here are going the same as always. I am now directing the excavation in J7 with about 20 workmen. We are trying to reach the bottom of the large trench in the last week. I don't know if we will make it but it won't be for lack of trying. It's fun hanging out with the workmen. They are trying to teach me some Arabic but I'm pretty hopeless. Sometimes it is funny because I'm trying to tell them something or vice versa and neither person understands and we just each speak in our native language for a few minutes before giving up. I have a student from Damascus who speaks some English, fairly well actually but he isn't always around to translate and sometimes it is too complicated. It's fun though and we all manage fine.

The big news this week is that the first lady of Syria came to visit our site and I got to meet her. We only knew that some visitors were coming and that they were important but we didn't know who. The directors asked me to be their assistant for the day and help with anything they need when the visitors were here and then about 15 minutes before the visitors were supposed to arrive a van arrived and it was security for the first lady. It was cool. She was so nice and very beautiful. She wore all white and somehow managed not to get dirty on the tour. All the workmen were impressed, of course my workmen just told me that I look better in my real clothes than I do in my dirty work clothes. It was really cool though and she was really smart and asked some good questions. She was really friendly. I didn't get any really good pictures of her and me together but believe me, I got to meet her shake her hand and talk to her a little. I hope I made it on the Syrian news. She only stayed for about 2 hours which was barely enough time to show the site and everything but hey, my site was visited by the first lady, that's pretty cool. At the very least it broke up the week a little J

I'll be home in about 10 days (ok, exactly 10 days, I am totally counting). I will be off to Buffalo, then back to Boston and moving in with my new roommate J. It will be a whirlwind I'm sure. I hope everyone gives me a call when I get back and I'll be sure to bore you will all the pictures and stories from this summer. Today I am off to Qamishli and internet then we are heading out to dinner at the restaurant that our cook here owns. Should be fun.

2008-08-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

2008-08-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

long week - busy week

2008-08-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Another crazy week here at Mozan with almost no time to write. The excavation is getting a little more interesting and we have what some people think is some sort of glacis covering the area and sloping up towards the temple area. We’ll see I suppose. And then there is J7, I was supposed to be relieved of duty the other day but my friend Hiba who was supposed to take over was suddenly called back to Aleppo to register for her masters degree for next year so its still all mine J. Things there are going well, but there is a lot more work than one person can manage and still be part of another excavation like I am doing with J6 and J7. We are finding some stones in a row and removing lots of dirt. I have a new Syrian student who I am training to do some of the paperwork. He doesn’t speak English fluently but enough that he and I can communicate. It’s helpful to have him though for sure. But the real excitement today was the ribbon cutting, yes, ribbon cutting. Some of the J7 workmen were working on an additional project building a cement staircase so visitors can go down to the big trench and admire all our work and today when they finished they called me over. And all I could think was, I am too tired to deal with their problems today. But they didn’t have a problem. Instead they had set up a ribbon tied to two shovels across in front of the stairs and they had brought a pair of scissors out from the house and they wanted me to cut the ribbon and be the first down the stairs. It was so great, it totally made my day. I’ll post the picture if I can but I’ve been having problems lately with the internet.

We've been having a lot of parties lately too. birthdays and vistors and such. last night we had a party for barbara - she was leaving and we aren't sure if she will come back next year. She is our surveyor at the site and she is 82. Yes, 82 and she lives and works in the same conditions as all of us and she will be the first to call you out if you complain. she's really great. we all drew pictures for her and hung them all around. it was really fun.

Oh! And I almost forgot until now when I was looking over my pictures from this week. Last Friday we went on a trip to Tell Beydar. It’s really beautiful and they have rebuilt many of the buildings so you can wander around the upper city of a third millennium city. It’s fun. And the best part is they have these 3 temples all with prominent toilets in them – don’t ask me why there are toilets in temples, I don’t know but nonetheless I took a picture sitting on one. It’s funny. We had a great time and we spent a few hours poking around the site. I really enjoyed it. Well that is all I have time for. Hope you all don’t get bored and stop reading J

August 7

2008-08-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

2008-08-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

2008-08-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

Weekly update

2008-08-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 6, 2008
Random observations on life on an excavation in Syria

The other day I noticed a giant beetle that was smushed. Probably somebody had stepped on it. And instead of just laying there wasting away it was being systematically disassembled by ants. I mean really, apparently ants are so desperate they eat other bugs. Weird.

Thursday August 7, 2008
More random observations

At some point you become so isolated from the world that you even forget that the world is out there and any outside news seems strange and intrusive. In fact, sometimes people watch movies here (we have a computer and a projector) and I just can’t bring myself to watch because it feels so out of place.
Everything is flavored with pepper.
You actually prefer cold showers, but taking a shower is really mostly a formality because you get dirty again less than 12 hours later.
Unlike in America you actually try to NOT get tan, or at least avoid the most dramatic of farmer’s tans… the archaeologist tan.
The predominant mode of transportation is a motorcycle and it is not uncommon to see a man driving a motorcycle with his wife on the back holding a baby. without helmets of course.

Thursday continued
Really haven’t had much time to write this week. Most of my free time has been engaged in sleeping or some personal correspondence but truth be told not much is happening here. The main event of the last week was actually non-archaeological, it was the annual Mozan party. Every year there is a big party with food, drinks and costumes. This year the theme was Mozan 3008, or Mozan in a thousand years. We all dressed like people from the future and things like that. It was really fun. I won’t post the picture of me in my costume here for fear it will come back to haunt me sometime J but we all had a good time. The best costume goes to Eduardo and Dominic who dressed as cockroaches because they said that is all that will be left on earth after 1000 years. I dressed as a space tourist with a cool silver skirt and some crazy silver accessories. All in all it was a success. Our excavation area has been working slowly but steadily and we are finally reaching the levels we were aiming for. Hopefully in the next week we will find our ever elusive 3rd millennium wall. We are finally through all the brickfall (inshallah) and finding some kind of other accumulation. The workmen are a little antsy but I can’t blame them, it’s hard work. So in short, that’s all that is really up this week. Hopefully there will be more to report next week. I’ll post a few pics if I can but the internet has been really slow the last time I was in Qamishli so we’ll see.

2008-07-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

2008-07-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

pictures

2008-07-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

It's hot in Syria

2008-07-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday July 27, 2008
Today we are not working in the field. Normally Sunday is a field day but today we are all working in the house to catch up on data entry and make sure all our computer work is up to date. Apparently we are going to take these mini-breaks every two weeks. We have this complicated computer system here in which we record all our daily activities and it is easy to make mistakes. If you remember my tales from last year I spent a lot of time correcting other people’s mistakes in the program so this year my job in my unit is to make sure that we have as few mistakes as possible. Right now we are taking a break for breakfast, which was delicious, with fresh goat yogurt, pancakes and some kind of sweet grits. I finished early so I thought I’d write a little for the blog.

Friday was our day off and I did nothing all day. It was really wonderful. I slept in a little (until 7!) and then spent the morning cleaning my room, doing laundry, sleeping and reading. My main excitement was the scorpion in my room. Yes, scorpion. They are black and disgusting. I had put my suitcases under my bed which was a mistake because it makes the perfect place for a scorpion to hide. So when I was moving my suitcase I saw it scuttle across the floor. Being the seasoned, hardened traveler and archaeologist that I am I of course ran screaming out of my room. Two other girls came running, Laura who has been working here for years and years and Lubna, a Syrian. Unfortunately they couldn’t find it. After breakfast I thought I could find it and trap it under a bucket and then call someone to kill it, but then I was too scared so I corralled Lorenzo into coming to my room to find it and kill it. After he killed it I totally took a picture. It was big and gross. So yeah, that was my excitement.

On Friday we also had some visitors from the American Embassy in Damascus and so we went on a truck tour around the site. It’s kind of neat to see our big tell from a ways off and think about how ancient people would have viewed it. So far all the evidence suggests that in the main period of occupation at the site the area around the tell would have been much wetter and probably a forest. It is hard to imagine it as I stand in what is essentially a desert looking at our big dirt pile, but you can’t deny science.

Ok, back to work. Data entry awaits!

Monday July 28, 2008
Today is back to work in the field. We have changed strategy a little for the next two weeks of excavation due to the large natural accumulations we are finding and also because of some other constraints. We have decided that instead of digging in all 6 of our squares and opening more to the south instead we will concentrate on reaching a deeper level in only 4 squares. This will help us reach the chronological levels we are looking for. Additionally, my workmen have finished cleaning the trench and they will be moved to a new area called J07 which will be administered by all the same people as J06 (which is essentially me, Hiba, Patrizia, Dominic and Elena). Basically we will have double the excavation area but in J07 the workmen will be working in arbitrary 50cm levels with very little supervision. This is because the J07 area is essentially the long term filling up of an open area so it is just layer after layer with no structures. The idea is to extend the area of the German trench (where I had been working, which is the center of all the pictures of the site) to make it better for viewing the site, also safer and mainly, to employ workmen because this year they really need the work. Other than this major shift in strategy not much has been happening. We are finally beginning to find stuff in J6, some collapsed mudbrick buildings and possibly a structure. Hopefully we will find our elusive wall soon. I’m sort of sad to be losing my workmen, although most of them will technically remain associated with my group. Still, they won’t really be “mine” anymore. It was cute because yesterday when they were calling “fidos” or “break-time” one of my workmen calls down into the trench and says “fidos shebab Caitlin” which basically means, break-time Caitlin’s workers. Today I made them all get together for a picture and they seemed really happy. They made me get in and be in one of the pictures with them that one of the guys took on his cell phone. It’s funny because with my kefiyah on I almost blend in.
That’s it for now, it’s afternoon and I have data to enter

Tuesday July 29, 2008
So today I have an extra few minutes to write because during the afternoon break I didn’t shower because I sent my one and only towel to the laundry today. I hope it comes back. We send the laundry to a local woman who boils it and sends it back. At least it is clean though, my extremely dirty men’s white shirts and my super gross socks usually come back almost spotless so I guess there is something to be said for their methodology. Things here are a bit of the same. More excavation, more of the same food, more of the same people. Eduardo says it is like the movie Groundhog’s Day. The weather is a little cooler but still hot after breakfast in the field. Basically not much is happening. I am sort of excited for the Olympics coming up because we have a multi-national excavation team here so we can sort of compete. We have been talking about running a “Mozan Olympics” this year just for fun with silly events. I hope we really do it because we could all use a little random fun. Wow, the time has gone really fast. I am supposed to be back at work right now so I guess that’s it for today.

Wednesday July 30, 2008
Today is almost the end of the work week and we are all feeling the stress a little. It’s hard being around all the same people all the time and doing the same work everyday. Some people have gotten sick, there seems to be some sort of flu going around but so far I’ve managed to avoid it (knock on wood) so I guess that’s good. The poor people who are sick though, there is no worse place to be sick than far from home and all its comforts. Some of our workmen are also sick and didn’t come to work today. The work is going about the same though. We have found a lot of brickfall now which is essentially the collapse and abandonment of mudbrick structures. It’s fairly uninteresting but unfortunately we have to go slow because it must be the result of a structure somewhere so we can’t go too fast for fear of excavating through the structure before we even notice it. The guys in J7 (which the area at the top of the stairs in the pictures) are doing well and are working pretty fast. They are mostly all my old workmen so I’ve been sort of assigned to look after them again, I think mostly because I’m the only one who knows all their names.

Yesterday we had a party because Daniele (it’s a guy, he’s Italian) was turning 24 which was fun because we all had drinks and stuff before dinner and some snacks and then they brought us ice cream after dinner which is rare out here. Actually, thinking about ice cream, the other day my workmen brought popsicles to the site after breakfast (you really have to imagine breakfast as lunch) and they offered me one. I said no thanks and then they offered again and were very insistent. I didn’t really want to take one because I think it is sort of generally frowned on to take gifts from the workmen and also because I don’t really trust some foods here and popsicles is sort of one of them. Although it did come in a package. Anyways, to make a long story short here, I tried to tell them I didn’t want one because I would get fat. But of course, I don’t speak enough Arabic to say “I’ll get fat” so I just gestured that my stomach would get huge and of course they all laughed and then they all started speaking and one guy said in English “sport” and he they were trying to all tell me that I should exercise more. I laughed it off but then later when I was thinking about it I realized I should be more careful with my hand gestures because ‘I might get fat’ and ‘I’m pregnant’ look very much the same! At least they understood me. Hiba, who is Syrian, laughs at me all the time because my Arabic is nonexistent yet most of the time I get them to understand me even if they do think I’m crazy.

Pictures

2008-07-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

Still in Syria. Still hot.

2008-07-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 23, 2008
I really didn’t anticipate how truly busy we’d be this year with the excavations going full steam. Already it’s Wednesday and tomorrow is our weekly trip to Qamishli and I haven’t written a word for the blog yet. I’m sure I already mentioned we work really long days to make the most of the (relatively) short time we spend in the field each year. The only free time is in the afternoon and I barely have time to sleep a little and shower before it’s back to work at 4.
Anyways, this week has been a lot of the same from last week. I’ll start with an update on the excavation area. First there is my unit, J6, which has been mired in meters of natural accumulations. We have finally started to come down on what look like some accumulations that are directly related to ancient occupation. Today one of our workmen, Siwar, found (what we hope is) a cylinder seal. The great part is it is laying on surface with a lot of pottery sherds so we should have a fairly secure date for what we are finding. The surface it’s from seems to be made of reddish material which is suggestive of a collapsed building. So far we have only excavated a small portion though and we can’t know for sure. We also found a strange accumulation of sherds, bones and pebbles that we are still exposing in some of the squares. We have slowed down a little to draw and remove all the high baulks between the sections. First, they are starting to cause a problem getting people and dirt out of the squares. For example, the other day I jumped down to take an elevation of a new feature we were finding and after I finished I realized I had no way to get out. Rather than send one of the workmen back to the house for a ladder two of the workmen instead offered to just grab my two hands and literally haul me out. I wish I had a video, it must have been hilarious, little me down in a really deep hole with two guys just pulling their hearts out to get me out. That afternoon we decided to cut one of the baulks down to a ramp so they could take a wheelbarrow down to clear away the dirt and to further prevent small archaeologists from getting stuck J
Some of the other areas are finding some exceptional stuff, but as the director pointed out, it is mostly stuff they anticipated finding, unlike our area which seems to have a character all its own. The J5 area (which despite its name, is not near ours) is finding what appears to be a monumental stone staircase. They also found a strange pit filled with animal bones nearby. We are all jealous of the J5 area but of course, finding all that stuff means a lot more work and documentation so in some ways it’s a blessing and a curse. It’s kind of ironic because our area’s dirt pile is bigger than the other three units’ together. At least we have that to be proud of.
In other news, in addition to my duties in J6 I’ve been assigned to oversee 15 additional workmen who are working on another project. About 10 years ago a group of German excavators worked at the site and they cut a deep trench but it has filled in considerably over the years and the sides are broken and basically a mess. Because of the drought this year the directors have decided to cut some corners in the house and hire a bunch of extra workmen because a lot of the local people are really suffering this year after their crops failed. So my 15 workmen are essentially like a New Deal, Works Progress Administration from the Depression. Because we want to avoid letting them do anything archaeological without direct supervision they are working on cleaning and straightening this “German trench” so when we come down in the J6 squares next to it there is no contamination (because now its filled with modern materials and a mix of ancient materials) and that it is safe for the people working in J6. The details of the work aren’t very exciting but it’s been sort of fun having my own 15 workmen. They are always complaining to me about this or that but they are also poking fun at me, teaching me Kurdish (most are Kurdish, not Arabic), and trying to have a little fun. Some of them are really great and work super hard with minimal supervision. Others will stop working as soon as I turn my back. It’s been a challenge, especially because I don’t speak much Arabic, but in general it’s been good. And it’s nice that when I need a break from J6 I can go over and sit with my workmen for a little. It took me like 3 days to learn all their names but now I’ve got it down and they seem happy. They like to take turns being the ones who bring me the bags of pottery or anything interesting they find (which happens very rarely).
I wish I had more time to update and give all the gory details of what I’ve been up to but now I have to go do some data entry (woot). Maybe tomorrow I will get a quick chance to write something before I head to Qamishli, although it is my turn to clean the bathroom.
All in all I’m doing fine though. I’m tired and really tan, pretty dirty most of the time but that’s archaeology for you.

Thursday July 24, 2008
Ok, I’ve got a little bit of time today (I skipped nap time) to write before I head to Qamishli. Today was a bit trying. It’s been hot, 110 everyday, and it’s the equivalent of Friday here so everyone is a little antsy for a day off tomorrow. My workmen hardly accomplished anything. I think it was just not a good day all around. I went down in their big trench to check on them and I found them standing on a pile of dirt with barbed wire mixed in. When I told them it was dangerous they were just like, oh it’s stuck. I mean half of them work in sandals! So I made them stop work until we could remove it. Shout out here to my Uncle Karl who gave me a leatherman-like multi-tool for Christmas a few years ago. It was really handy… who knew it could cut barbed wire?

So now that I have a few minutes I want to just add a little about our trip last Friday. Some of the students rented a bus and went on a small trip to visit three other archaeological sites, Tell Leilan, Tell Mohammed Diab and Tell Hamoukar (reminder: Tell just means mound). The other students were all new so they were really disappointed when we arrived at the first site and they realized there is not much to see but empty holes and piles of dirt. But I went on some trips last year so I was just enjoying the different scenery and checking out some important archaeological sites for myself. At the second site everyone was sort of burnt out and crabby because they didn’t bring breakfast (I, of course, had packed some fruit and some cookies for myself) and so I was talking with 3 village girls and they invited us in for tea, so we went over to their house and had some tea and grapes and stuff for a little. I really enjoy this kind of stuff. It is funny because they immediately turned their tv to some English channel and it was playing Miami Vice. It was nice. These people are so welcoming and generous. Here it is, one of the worst droughts in years and they are welcoming 15 strangers to their home, and giving us tea and grapes. It’s really an amazing culture.

The weather has been steady heat for over a week now. It doesn’t even cool down at night anymore. There has been a lot of wind, which of course blows dust everywhere. It’s not so bad and now that I have less bug bites I don’t have to sleep in long pants anymore which is really liberating J My hair is like straw and no amount of conditioner seems to redeem it. Oh the things you miss.

I should probably mention I have a cell here if anyone wants to text me or anything. I’m not exactly sure the number but if you email me (or my mom) you can have the number.

still here, still working

2008-07-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

July 17, 2008
Still nothing much to speak of in our excavation area. Lots of natural accumulations. We are still hoping to come down on a wall and so we spend lots of time talking about the possibilities of what we will find (royal graves! Golden statue! Sterile soil L) while the workmen slave away in the hot sun removing all the overburden. I will try and post a picture of our area.

Nothing else much exciting has happened. We had a birthday party, complete with cake and presents and arak (an anise flavored liquor that I don’t like). It’s nice to have something to break up the days. Otherwise they all run into another, wake up and excavate, nap in the afternoon and then data entry in the afternoon only to go to bed and do it all over again. Not nearly as exciting as they make it look on tv.

I don’t have much time to write today because it is my turn to clean the bathroom. This is pretty much the only chore we have and because so many of us share the bathroom my turn usually comes around about once a week, yet the bathroom gets cleaned every day. It’s not a bad system. The only other chore is that once a month it is your turn to make tea for everyone, which simply means you have to get up early and put the pot on the stove so everyone else can have tea when they wake up. Expedition life ain’t so bad. We have a cook, someone who does our laundry and pretty much all we have to do is look after our own bathroom. Not too shabby. Less work than I have to do at home. But of course we do work 10 hour days, 6 days a week so I suppose it all evens out.

We are going on a trip tomorrow to visit some other sites in the area, Tell Hamoukar and Tell Leilan. I’ve never been to either so it should be interesting. I’ll let you know how it turns out next week. Blog updates will be every Thursday when we go Qamishli. Until then….

week 2 in syria: still nothing

2008-07-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

Indianajanegirl Entry July 15, 2008

Wow! Things have been getting crazy around here and I haven’t had a spare moment to write a blog entry. I was planning to write maybe every other day and then post all the entries on Thursdays when we get the internet but this week we began the excavations and I have been really busy with the beginning of everything.

To start, I am working in an excavation area called J6 which is located in front of the temple terrace area. I will try and post some pictures but you can always go to the excavation website www.urkesh.org and check out what’s there. The director of my area is named Patriczia and she is Italian. She is doing her PhD on the whole temple terrace complex. The other team members are a Syrian named Hiba who is from last year and really great. Two new members, Dominic (from Germany) and Elena (from Italy) round out the team making me the only American and also the only native English speaker and because all the recording is done in English I have my hands full answering questions about the nuances of English words. Take, for example, the difference between clumpy and chunky and try and explain it to a non-native speaker. It’s a mess. But we are having fun and so far things are running smoothly. We opened 3 squares and so far are mostly removing the topsoil and recent accumulations hoping to reach earlier levels sometime later this week. The levels we are at now are expected to be from the Mitanni and Khabur periods (second millennium BC) but of course you never know what you’ll get until you dig it up. We are hoping to come down on a 3rd millennium wall that was connected with the monumental staircase leading to the temple. Part of the wall is exposed in another area and we think it makes a turn into our area but we’ll see.

We start work at 5am when it is still cool and by cool I mean about 75. We take our first break at 9am for breakfast, and let me tell you the literal meaning of “break fast” never seemed so pertinent as now when I’ve been working for 4 hours before eating. We go back to work at 9.45 and work until 1pm. It can get really hot. Today it was 110 at noon. They put some shade over the excavation areas so the workmen don’t have to shovel and work in the direct sun but there isn’t much space for them to work so usually I end up standing in the sun so as not to be in the way. I am totally not complaining though because the poor workmen have to do all the picking and shoveling and I have only to do a little troweling and the documentation. It is totally different from last year in Jordan when I had to do all the work in the hot sun.

On a more mundane and personal note, my bug bites are slowly going away. The cook, Abu Assur took pity on me and gave me a spray that you spray in your room and it kills all the bugs. It seems to have worked well but I still wear bug spray and sleep in my bug net. A girl can’t be too careful.

I haven’t had a moment yet to start studying my Russian but as it turns out when I do I’ll have assistance. When I was leaving Buffalo a family friend, Marty, was cracking jokes to me that in order to keep up my Russian studies in Syria I only need to find some leftover Soviet missile silos and ask some of the Syrians who worked there to help me. And irony of ironies, it turns out the cook worked with the Soviets in missile defense project when he was in the army and so he speaks Russian fairly well. Go figure.

It is almost time to go back to work so I’ll have some tea and cookies and then it’s computer work for the afternoon. Hope everyone is having a good summer.

first days in Syria

2008-07-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

July 10, 2008

Things at the excavation are slowly getting started. We are getting all our computers in order, giving the new people tutorials on all the different aspects of work and all trying to recover from the jetlag. I arrived with no problems this year, well only minor, nothing that wasn’t easily handled. All of my planes were on time and my baggage made it through no problems (what a relief after last year!). My flight from JFK to Dubai was by far the most interesting. Lots of good movies to watch on Emirates, I’d recommend it to anyone. Then I was sitting by this group of women who were all traveling together to Dubai, Brunei and Singapore. They were so funny, drinking all the wine (until the stewardess cut them off) and laughing and joking. They were teasing me about being an archaeologist and generally having a good time. I hope the rest of their trip turns out well. Some of them have been traveling together for years. My layover in Dubai was not as exciting as anticipated, a lot of private VIP lounges but the duty free was not as super huge as expected

I arrived in Damascus with no problems, took a cab to my hotel and arrived without incident. The only snag was the hotel, the girl who booked me the hotel booked it for the wrong day so the man at the desk was very confused. But in the end it was ok because they had an available room and so I stayed no problem. I went over to meet up at another hotel with another girl from the excavation and she and I had dinner. We agreed to take a taxi to the airport together in the morning. Only thing was in the morning some driver came for me but without her, I was so confused and he kept saying.. airport, airport. So I asked about Laura and he said yes, yes. Then he started driving away from her hotel and so I asked again and again and he says yes, yes. So then he pulls over at a random corner in Damascus and just stops. He gets out of the car and I am so confused. So I get out of the car and try and ask him what is going on. He says another car is coming. So still confused I just wait, figuring, what is the worst that can happen? And sure enough around the corner comes Laura in the taxi from her hotel. My driver takes my bags out and puts them in the other car and then we are off to the airport, no problems. Laura told me that when she asked her hotel to pick me up on the way to the airport they freaked out and told her they had to send a driver for me and she tried to tell them it was just around the corner but they wouldn’t have any of it so I guess in the end I needed my own driver to pick me up and drive me to meet her. Oh, Syria.

Our flight to Qamishli was uneventful and Abu Mussa picked us up at the airport. There was a big sandstorm and so the ride in the back of the truck was a little bit rough with the sand pelting us (my ear still has sand in it 2 days later). Apparently there is a drought here and it is the worst it’s been in 20 years. There are lots of workmen coming and asking for work because most of the crops have failed this year and they need the work. Because there is very little vegetation the wind is bad and it blows dust everywhere. The director is worried that it may interfere with the excavations. The excavations will begin this work. We are going to have 5 areas being excavated and as of yet I’m not sure which one I will be assigned to. There are areas in front of the temple to be excavated and also some areas overlaying the palace, with remains from the 2nd millennium B.C.

I have a lot of bug bites already so I’ll have to figure out some way to deal with it. They bite me at night even though I have bugspray on and sleep under a bug net. It’s like they know I am here and just come after me. Hopefully we will be going into Qamishli soon so we can all pick up a few things. I need a new kafiyah because I gave mine to my mom.

Apparently we are headed to Qamishli today for a short trip. I’ve been assigned to work in area J6 on the excavations under the directorship of Patriczia, one of the Italians who has been working here for years. We are looking at the area to the east of the monumental staircase between the plaza and the temple area. It should be interesting. We’ll see what happens I suppose. I hope to take a lot of good pictures (with my new camera!) and post them here.

The team is a good mix of nationalities this year, quite a few Syrian students, some Americans, and of course Italians. Not many of my friends from last year are back which is disappointing but the new people are great. Ok, time to write a few emails and then its off to Qamishli to post this. Oh, I must remember I have a funny story about learning Russian in Syria :)

off to syria

2008-07-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

i'm headed to syria this sunday, i'll be periodically updating here and adding pictures etc. hope to hear from you all!

8th Biennial Graduate Student Open Forum = Resounding Success

2008-02-16T04:54:00.001-08:00

So our Conference "Public Outreach: The Role of Archaeology Beyond the Site" was very successful. Good participation, interesting papers, lots of food, networking (aka drinking) and hopefully some learning.

Nothing like some breakfast to get people up and motivated in the morning

Thanks Chantel for running the registration table

Alex on Avocational and Professional Cooperation

Wrap-up Roundtable discussion

Super cool demonstration on 3-D and it's potential uses in archaeology
(Demetri never knew his video game skills could help him academically)

Many thanks to Dr. Holtorf for being our keynote speaker. Thought I'd throw up some pics from the conference on the off chance anyone wanted to take a look.

oh no, now the NYTimes thinks my job is worthless

2008-01-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/will-the-humanities-save-us/?em&ex=1199941200&en=553669a151acd5f4&ei=5087%0A

Graduate Student Open Forum: Public Outreach

2007-12-16T18:10:00.000-08:00

Eighth Biennial Open Forum for Graduate Students
Public Archaeology: The Role of Archaeology Beyond the Site
Boston University
February 8 - 10, 2008

Featuring Keynote Speaker, Dr. Cornelius Holtorf, University of Lund, author of From Stonehenge to Las Vegas: Archaeology as Popular Culture and Archaeology is a Brand! The meaning of Archaeology in Contemporary Popular Culture.
Keynote Address: What is wrong with public outreach?

For more information visit http://www.bu.edu/archaeology or email cjc63@bu.edu

Graduate Student Open Forum: Public Outreach

2007-12-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

*****CALL FOR PAPERS*****

EIGHTH BIENNIAL OPEN FORUM FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

PUBLIC OUTREACH: THE ROLE OF ARCHAEOLOGY BEYOND THE SITE

FEBRUARY 8-10, 2008

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr. Cornelius Holtorf, University of Lund

Organized by the Graduate Student Association of the

Department of Archaeology at Boston University

The Graduate Student Association of the Department of Archaeology at Boston University invites you to participate in the Eighth Biennial Graduate Student Conference on February 8–10, 2008. This conference series is intended to provide a forum for the discussion of current issues and perspectives in Archaeology and its related fields, including Anthropology, Art History, Near Eastern Studies, Museum Studies and Classics. The theme of this year’s conference is archaeological public outreach, an aspect of our field whose fundamental importance has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. We invite participants to address outreach by discussing topics ranging from past successes and failures of outreach efforts, to the role of archaeologists in the education of younger generations and local communities, site preservation and presentation, cooperation and outreach with indigenous communities, as well as a discussion of how we should best present archaeological data in a manner that is accessible to a general audience. The conference will conclude with a round table discussion, including our keynote speaker, addressing the current state and the potential for the future of archaeological public outreach.

Papers are limited to 20 minutes and may address any time period, geographic area, or related theoretical issue. Please submit typed abstracts of 500 or fewer words to the address below or by e-mail (cjc63@bu.edu) by January 1, 2008. Include your name, address, institutional/departmental affiliation, telephone number, and e-mail address. There is no registration fee for this conference. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us at:

Graduate Student Conference Committee

Department of Archaeology, Boston University

675 Commonwealth Avenue

Boston, MA 02215

Visit the Archaeology Department web site at

http://www.bu.edu/archaeology/news/news.htm

i TOLD you there were turkeys

2007-10-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/10/23/turkeys_take_to_cities_towns/

this very same turkey trapped me in my house the other day. He was right on the other side of the glass door and I couldn't get out. People were walking by and laughing and taking pictures. I would love to see those pictures

Fortunately a lady came by and being of the weird turkey-loving variety she coaxed him towards her so I could escape out the door.

Oh, life in Brookline, how exciting you are

turkeys in my neighborhood

2007-09-24T19:41:00.001-07:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ki7PTNwaxFw

story to come...

HOME

2007-08-28T04:06:00.000-07:00

Arrival at the Buffalo airport

so my travels are over.... well mostly over. i still have to move back to boston (but that is a whole other story). The trip back took two days, not even counting the time change. I got stuck in Paris and they wanted me to stay in a hotel there until the next afternoon when they could fly me through JFK and connect me to Buffalo, but I was so desperate for America I kept telling the woman I just wanted to go home, put me on a plane to America and I will find someplace to stay until i find my way to Buffalo. So she did and I stayed with my best friend Amanda who lives in NYC. I was thrilled, it was sort of the best of both worlds because I haven't seen her in a long time and I got to spend about 10 hours with her, we hit up a bar, met her new boyfriend and even found a little time to sleep before my next flight in the morning. I was so happy to finally arrive home and the only good thing of all my traveling was that it ended. At the Ummayad mosque in Damascus

Syria ended up well and I got to travel to Damascus and hang out there for awhile. All in all I think it ended up a successful season for everyone. I learned a lot and I got to be part of several different projects over the course of the 2 months, from publication to conservation to site presentation to excavation. I can't publish the pictures of the excavation here because the results of the work haven't been formally published yet. If you see me around though I'd be more than happy to share a few pics with you (trust me you don't want to see all the thousands I have).

Saying goodbye to everyone was kind of sad, especially because many people probably won't be back next year as they are finishing up their M.A.'s and so are moving on to thier next projects. Also our workmen were all really sweet and saying goodbye to them was sad. We bought Farhad, our dishwasher boy, a hearing aide so that maybe he can hear a little (he is mainly a deaf mute) and he was so excited. He wanted us all to come to his house for dinner but there are just too many of us and we didn't want to be a burden on his family. But he was really sweet and thanked us all a lot.

Saying goodbye in Damascus

So anyway, I had a great summer, if a bit trying at times. Damascus is really beautiful and I had a great time with my Italian friends (Cate, Bea, Marta, Eli, Lorenzo and Enrico). We went out to eat, shopped, visited the Ummayad mosque (check out the pic of me in my little hooded robe) and even went to a Syrian danceclub. It was a blast and a perfect end to my trip, I got to have a little taste of Syria outside of the Jezeriah desert culture. It was really fun.

Thanks to everyone for all the blog posts, emails, text messages and general support. It's nice to know that i have friends and family back home willing to do anything for me. (and you can ask my mom.... I was always calling her to do paperwork and send emails for me). So this is me... and I'm back in the good old US of A !! :)

Visiting Tell Brak

2007-08-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Sarah, Patrizia, Lorenzo and me

me, Martin Sheen and Rasha

2007-08-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

excavation, Martin Sheen and Syrian tv

2007-08-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

7.31.07

Well, I started writing this blog entry and then something went wrong with the computer and it doesn’t work. Go figure. I should be very not surprised. Coincidentally, work in the field has begun and one of the first useful Arabic phrases I’ve learned so far is “fi mushkali” or “there is a problem”. In general, the workmen are great and things run smoothly but there always is some problem with the equipment. Things never sem to be in the right place when you need them.

8.3.2007
So much has happened in the last few days. First we have been working on the excavations, which we work at from 5am until 8.45 and then from 9.45 until 1. In the afternoon we take a break after lunch and then we work from 3.30 until 6.30 inside inputting all the day’s data into the computer system. The workmen are really fun and there are about 10 of them, even though we are having a limited excavation this year. One of the boys is learning English and he has this phrase book with very proper English in it and some really funny phrases like “my sister is prettier than your girlfriend” and so we’ve been having fun trying to communicate with my limited Arabic and their limited English. They are all very good natured and one of the workmen, Hussien, is a school teacher and so he speaks English passably well, enough to communicate, so when things get really mixed up he can sometimes help straighten it out.

In addition to the excavations we had a visit from Martin Sheen this week. He is on the board of trustees for one of the groups that supports the work here at Mozan and he is really interested in archaeology so he decided to come and visit for just 3 days. He just left today and has been staying at our excavation house and taking part in all the work we do, including coming down to the excavations to work a little with Lorenzo, Sarah and I and see what it is exactly that we do. This is the first time a major actor has come to Syria to visit an archaeological site (and I think probably American actors don’t come to Syria much at all for any reason) and so the press also came along and we were all on tv as they taped our excavations, what we do at the house, and the little tour we went on in the evening. It was really crazy and busy and we had to work late and get up early but in the end I think it will be really good publicity for the site. Today he is going to give a major press conference in Aleppo and we are all hoping to hear from the locals what parts of his stay with us make it on tv.

All in all Martin Sheen is a really down to earth, patient kind of person and he definitely livened up our days. It was his birthday while he was here and we had a big cake and a really nice dinner to celebrate and he was laughing and asking how we found out it was his birthday, and the professor told him that they knew it was his birthday sometime in august but that my mom was really the one because she had told me about it while she was on the phone with me (she saw it on the internet). Martin wanted me to give him my mom’s number so he could call her when he got back but we did one better and used my Syrian cellphone to call her right then and there. I think she was really surprised although I haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet. He was really funny and blamed the whole party on her. Everyone had a laugh and today all day the questions have been what did my mom think?!

Because of all the craziness and busy days we’ve had this week they’ve decided that we will have today off instead of tomorrow and so I will be in Qamishli today. I haven’t had a chance to write as much as I would like as a result of the change in plans but I’ll try and write everything down this week while it is still fresh.

random syria updates

2007-07-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Indianajanegirl

7.15.2007
I am currently sitting in the library of the Mozan Expedition house as I write this. I have bought a little flash drive yesterday in Qamishli so that I can write things here and bring them once a week when we go to the internet and hopefully I can then just copy paste them into the appropriate window. The internet in Syria turns out to be a huge ordeal. According to the Syrian students here the department of Communications has ordered the closing of internet cafes because of some disagreements over making phone calls on the internet (things like Skype etc.) which is apparently causing a huge loss of money to the phone companies. We are unclear as to the truth of this rumor but at any rate when we went to Qamishli we saw that most of the cafes were closed. We arranged with a school to use their internet but they had only 5 computers and there are 20 of us. So we divided up the time and we were each allowed a half hour. Some of the other kids were able to find an open internet café and apparently it is only highspeed internet cafes that are closed but again, we aren’t sure exactly what the situation is. At any rate I was only able to use the impossibly slow internet at the ‘school’ place and my allotted half hour was just barely enough to read all the important emails I had. If you are reading this it means I had much more success the next time. We will see I suppose. As they say here “Enshallah” (not sure of the spelling) which means “God willing”.

My arrival in Syria was somewhat less fraught with problems than my original arrival in Jordan (aka my luggage arrived with me!). After I spent a great deal of time at the Queen Alia Airport in Amman (they have a starbucks!) my flight finally boarded for Damascus about 5 minutes before its departure time. I met some Syrian-American college students on the flight and they were really nice. One of them was a backpacker and he offered to share a cab ride with me from the Damascus airport to my hotel. So we arranged for the taxi and the price (600 Syrian pounds) and got in. Upon arrival at the hotel though he tried to tell us that we each owed him 600 pounds and followed us all the way into the hotel where the deskman finally told him to get lost and so we managed to escape with only paying the agreed upon price. I think he wasn’t a very good scam artist because he shouldn’t have given us our luggage if he really thought we would pay that amount. At any rate it was midnight by the time I arrived at my hotel after the slightly harrowing taxi ride. The hotel was not as luxurious as the name “Sultan Hotel” would suggest but I was so tired that it really didn’t matter. The worst part was that the hotel was supposed to arrange my plane ticket to Qamishli for me but due to fax machine issues they never received the copy of my passport so I had to get up at 5 to go to the airport in hopes that I would be able to buy a ticket for the 8am flight. Needless to say it was a short and not quite restful night but I managed to arrange (through the hotel) for a more reliable trustworthy taxi driver. So dragging all my luggage through the Damascus airport I found the ticket desk of Syrian Arab Airlines and managed to communicate that I wanted a ticket to Qamishili. Unfortunately they were not taking reservations anymore and I was only allotted a standby ticket. Then of course when I tried to pay for it, they don’t take credit cards… foolish me… why would I think that an airline ticket office would take credit cards? (you know that the Bedouin in their tents in Jordan take credit cards?) So me and my luggage dragged ourselves off the ATM. It took me several tries to realize that they did not accept my mastercard based ATM card and so I had to plumb the depths of my memory for the PIN number of my other (less used) ATM card. Successful, I returned (with all my luggage) to the desk where I was finally awarded my standby ticket. Passing through security was no real problem and when I finally found the check-in desk for Qamishili (there are no “lines” in Syria… you just push your way to where you want) it turned out that I could not check in for another half hour to once all of the passengers with reservations had checked in. So I waited anxiously for a half hour watching how many people went up to the desk hoping that I would be able to fit. But as it turned out I worried for nothing and was able to make it on the plane no problem and there were even empty seats. I met one of the other team members, Sarah, while waiting for the plane and we arrived without incident in Qamishili where the driver, Ishmael, met us and drove us to Mozan with no problems. Upon arrival I simply dumped my things in my room and promptly went to sleep.. .the traveling of the day before had really caught up to me. Everyone was really friendly and after resting up Iko, the directors’ son, gave us a tour of the ‘compound’

Tell Mozan is really quite beautiful, it is surrounded by very flat plains on 3 sides and to the north you can see the mountains of Turkey. The site is so high up that it gives a beautiful view of the whole surrounding area. Although we are not having any real excavations this year it is still interesting to go out on the tell (tell just means mound) and look at the structures that have already been excavated including an ancient temple and a palace from the 3rd millennium BC. This season they are having what is called a ‘study season’ so that all of the materials and excavation logs can be properly reviewed and published. It is more complicated than I really care to explain (and definitely more complicated than you care to read about. Trust me) but in short, I work at a computer all day on what will eventually be a digital publication of excavations undertaken in 2001. It is sometimes really tedious and frustrating but the director here, Dr. Buccellati has a great vision of a publication method that will change the way we think about archaeological excavation (Enshallah) and he is very encouraging. Working with computers in Syria is somewhat frustrating as you can imagine. A combination of uneven electricity and the heat sometimes conspires to be too much for our computers and they just spontaneously shut down so you learn early to save immediately any work that you do or otherwise risk losing it (a plight that everyone can sympathize with but that is best to be avoided). I wish I had known how much computer work we would be doing because I would have brought my own computer so that I wouldn’t have to use the reassembled expedition computers, although I must admit that currently I am working with an HP laptop that is not that old, however, others are not so lucky.

We had some fun the other day assembling some pottery pieces that had been excavated from several different pits but could then be reassembled to make several, almost recognizable, pottery shapes. All of my experiences make me think of people at home and the pottery reminds me of ceramics class and specifically of Amanda who maybe someday will come to my site (when I get my own site) and take a look at my pottery types.

The people here are all very nice and very welcoming. Most of the team is Italian, there is only Sarah who is American and Fan Xiu who is Chinese-American. Most everyone speaks fluent English though, although they prefer Italian. I am hoping that they will slow down a little so I can learn some Italian although most of the time they speak so fast I couldn’t even keep up if I had been studying Italian for years (which obviously I haven’t). I am also struggling to learn a little bit of Arabic, the cook’s assistant named Ramadan has been teaching me a few words everyday and I try very hard to remember them all because he always looks so disappointed when I don’t remember the words from the day before. So far I have learned how are you? Good? Thanks be to God… etc. Ramadan calls my head my computer and although he speaks very little English he tells me I have to save all the information in my computer. If I keep up learning a few things everyday I suppose in 2 months I can build up a reasonable vocabulary of basic things. Currently I have my own room which, unlike Jordan, is not air-conditioned. My roommate, Eliana, was not feeling very well and so moved rooms so as to be somewhere a little cooler so hopefully she can sleep better and recover from the virus she has. I think maybe I will either get Eliana back or a new roommate sometime in the next few weeks but I guess we will see. It is very hot in the rooms despite the fans and so we generally stick to the air-conditioned workspaces during the day unless we are sleeping. We work from 5am until 9 when we have breakfast and then have a break until 9.45 after which we work until 1 which is lunch. After lunch we have a break, when most of us nap, until 3.30. We work again from 3.30 until 6.30 and then we usually do something active like play soccer or go walking on the tell until dinner at 7.30. Although there is no air-conditioning in the rooms like Jordan, there is plenty of water and I can shower everyday, sometimes even twice a day which is nice after a month of only bathing in baby wipes. The food here is also substantially better and the cook Abu Assur is amazing. It will be a small miracle if I don’t get hugely obese after eating all his wonderful food and sitting at a desk all day. Maybe the heat will help keep my weight down… I can sweat it all out.

7.20.2007
Tomorrow I will go to Qamishli and hopefully get to post this on the internet (enshallah). Yesterday I had to go to the doctor here. Don’t worry, I’m fine. I swear. But we had a bad dust storm for two days and I somehow managed to scratch my eye (or something) and got an eye infection. The directors (and i) were afraid it might be pink eye or something and might be contagious so they sent me to the doctor in Qamishli to have it looked at. They sent me with the driver and the electrician, neither of which speak any English. My limited Arabic (thank you, good, no, and “if God wills it”) seemed to be no barrier in anyone’s mind and I was dropped off (alone) at the doctor’s office. So I waited in the waiting room with all the old men in their traditional arab garb and tried not to look at anything. I ended up staring at my phone, sending text messages for 45 minutes while I tried not to freak out about what was going to happen when I was finally ushered behind the magic door that apparently took you to the doctor. So, it was finally my turn and behind the door it turns out there is just an examining table, a chair, and the doctor’s desk. I sat in the chair he sat at his desk and in good English says, “what is the problem?”. I told him my eye was infected and red and he comes over to my chair with a magnifying glass… a regular magnifying glass that your grandma uses to read the fine print in her Bible on Sunday afternoon. He peers into my eye with said magnifying glass, pronounces I have an infection and I need antibiotics. That was it. He gave me a prescription and sent me around the corner to the pharmacy. After all the anticipation in the waiting room it went so quickly and so easily that I probably shouldn’t have worried even for one second (but you never know how these things will go). The doctor has apparently been a good friend (and doctor) to the excavation for several years and so I suppose there was really never anything to worry about. I still found the magnifying glass to be quite amusing. The doctor was right on though and the medicine he prescribed has helped immeasurably and my eye is almost completely healed just one day later.

So after the excitement of the doctor’s office yesterday today was back to the regular routine. We did start filling up the swimming pool so the afternoons will hopefully be more exciting as everyone will come out of their rooms and swim instead of hiding inside from the heat. The weather has been somewhat unusual they say with the dust storm and the rain which is out of the ordinary for july. Hopefully it will be nice and we will all go swimming in the next few days. It apparently takes about 3 days for the pool to fill up so we have to wait a little but as Sarah says, delayed gratification is the best. I am now waiting to be assigned my next computer task after finally finishing yesterday’s task (which was put on hold by my misadventures in Syrian healthcare).

random other pics and stuff

2007-06-30T07:11:00.001-07:00

here are a bunch of random pictures. more pictures of petra, pictures of us really tired at petra. me and kat dressed up in the hotel bedsheet decorator thingies... some extremely tired people hiking up to the top of petra. pictures worth a thousand words i guess. i need to go soon because the woman across from me is drivign me crazy with her cigarettes. ugh.

the site

2007-06-30T07:00:00.001-07:00

so our site, Hemmeh, is where i spend most of my time. its in the Wadi al Musa which is populated almost entirely by bedouin. they usually bring their goats around our site. we have adopted a little boy named makmud to help at the site. he came by one day with his goats and got really excited about our work so he comes back now whenever he can and helps out a little. in return we share our food and water with him. he is actually getting better and doing the work and finds great stuff when he is workign at the sifter. he is down in the hole with anna in the first picture.

the site is really hot and the temperatures can be unbearable. we get up at 4.30 to beat the heat but we still end up working in unreal temperatures. it is really hard to stay hydrated under those conditions and in fact i got dehydrated and sick the other day and had to go home from the site. (if you want sordid details i'd be happy to share... just don't think that entire world community that my mom has shared my site with really wants to know :) but i might be wrong). after a day of drinkjing water, doing lab work and eating salt-added ramen noodles i have recovered very nicely. i have a renewed sense of vigilance though towards making sure i drink enough water at the site. i can't figure out how to rotate the picture (remember the german computer?) so you will just have to tilt your head sideways to see me in all my dirty glory out at the site. we dont get that sweaty because the air is so dry. but we get dirty and gross nonetheless.

for those of you who have been following the caitlin saga, i discovered some human remains at the site but we were waiting for the expert to remove them. she finally arrived and Liv has begun to remove what we are calling 'mu'tah man'. his skull is mostly crushed, probably due to later rebuilding at the site but we won't know until we finish excavating. i guess this week will be pretty interesting after all.

petra pictures

2007-06-30T06:53:00.002-07:00

so last weekend i didn't get to upload the pics from petra. it was amazing in case you didnt read the earlier posts. here are just a few glimpses of what its like along with the picture of the entrenpenurial boy and goat :)

the first pic is of the first glimpse of the treasury when you come through the siq. very stunning if you can shut out the annoying chatter of hordes of german tourists on donkeys.

the second pic is the famous little boy

the third is of the monastery (which you will recall is not a monastery) up on top of the giant mountian. the view is awesome if you can make it all the way up. no annoying tourists here. only the tried and true. we met some small bedouin goatherder boys who mostly contented themselves with eating our cookies and trying to sell us postcards. we wanted to climb up to the top where the giant urn is (which the guidebook assured us we could do if we were careful) but upon starting on the steep trek we were yelled at only to find out that some tourists had died in the past and so the area was now off limits. its probably for the best anyways because too many tourists will ruin the spectacular structure. there is already too few regulations and the site shows demonstrably wear and tear.

partying in jordan

2007-06-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

so there isn't too much partying here in jordan. combination of a few factors. first, when we are at the site we are too tired and too dehydrated to even consider alcohol. in fact, i think the thought would probably make me want to keel over on the spot. secondly, jordan is a muslim country so most people don't drink and most towns are completely dry. we have to drive 2 towns over just to even buy alcohol. resorts are a different story though... here they have alcohol... they just don't know how to serve it. when we were at petra they were out of lemon juice so we couldnt order most of the drinks on the menu. to top it off the only beer in jordan is amstel. so pretty much you can get amstel can, small amstel draught or large amstel draught. the options are staggering. however, we do manage to get out once in awhile and the nicer resorts make a mean mojito. so of coiurse last night we went over to the movenpick to have some drinks and just relax. after about one drink and the 128 degree heat its a pretty cheap way to party :) as you can see in the pics, Kat really enjoyed herself. i settled for icecream instead of alcohol but still had fun nonetheless.
i love that she can handle all three glasses at once. they had a belly dancer and some bad arabic singer guy for entertainment but we mostly amused ourselves by discussing who would be the best bellydancer amongst us. its nice to just relax though.

the dead sea

2007-06-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

so apparently the dead sea resort hotel computer believes that i am german so all of the buttons are in german. too bad i havent gotten to that yet in grad school. hopefully i will find the right button to upload this and not end up deleting it.

today is our second and last day at the dead sea. we mostly went shopping and toured the resort hotels. they are pretty nice. the movenpick has the nicest looking hotel but the marriot is just a perfect taste of america. i even saw a jim kelly poster in the sports bar restaurant. yes... jim kelly.

yesterday we floated in the sea... its the strangest experience.. i can't even begin to describe the feeling. then we slathered all that mud on us. phil said it made his nipples burn but the rest of us didnt seem to have any problems. i guess time will tell if it has any restorative principles that will bring health and rejuvination back to my (extremely) unevenly tanned body. all in all it has been an interesting experience. one worth having for sure. we had to argue with the jordanian man at the front desk about the price of our room for the millionths time but in the end we got our way. we are headed back to shitistan in a little bit but i thought i could upload some pics for your viewing enjoyment at least.

the dead sea

2007-06-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

so today i am at the dead sea. its so barren looking with only a few resort hotels. no towns. no stores. just hotels. its all pretty nice though. i got a little sunburned on the places i missed on my back. floating in the dead sea is awesome. you can't touch the bottom even if you try.... you just float right up to the top. totally weird experience. all the salt burns every little cut on your body though so its best to check for open wounds before hand. we also used the dead sea mud as a body skin mask. it felt really good but then of course we were totally dirty. i'll update more later but there is a fat german man hovering over me waiting for the free internet at the hotel so i have to go before he busts out his speedo or something.

peace love and mudmasks...

sketchy internet cafe

2007-06-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

so i'm in wadi musa.. .the sketchy town associated with the amazing ruins at petra and in an internet cafe. its really hot and they dont have the capabilities to upload pics but at least i can sweat it out long enough for a short blog update.

yesterday we visited petra, its one of the most amazing sites in the world and definitely the most famous in jordan. you should google it if possible. it was really amazing.. you hike through these
siqs, or long rock corridors and then you all of the sudden come out on the this opening with a fabulous huge rock building carved right into the face of the mountian. amazing. we hiked for about 8 hours all the way up to the top where there is another, less visited ruin, and then to view some of the overlooks. we bought some souveniers at the "end of the world" at this cliffside where a bedouin man was selling some jewlery and things that were made by bedouin women. its really quite amazing. the bedouin were ousted when they turned petra into a world heritage site (unesco is all good i guess) but they are still very hospitable if a bit forceful when trying to sell you some souveniers. they all offer wonderful tea and say "happy hour" and "no charge for looking" and it is always " a special price for you my friend". we had a really great day though, absolutely amazing which we topped off with some drinkings in a bar called the cave, which is actually formerly tombs of ancient Nabateans. it was so cool. the weekends here are definitely the best and work at the site is mostly boring, however, the other day Kat and I were excavated and we uncovered what appears to be part of a human skeleton. Unfortunately the human remains specialist hasn't arrived at site yet so we had to rebury it until she arrives to make sure it is excavated and preserved properly. i'll make sure to keep updating when it does get excavated and let you knwo what happens with "mu'tah man" as kat has named him. less exciting stuff has turned up like some neat polishing stones, some fancy architecture and some kind of water channel well system. All pretty cool when you consider that the site dates to the Pre Pottery Neolithic or at least ten thousand years ago.

thanks for all the emails and encouragement. it's crazy here and only getting crazier by the day. what an experience.

oh, one last thing before i run out of this cafe. so yesterday we are at petra and this adorable little bedouin boy comes up to us (about 4-5 years old) holding a goat. absoultely adorable. we aren't sure what he wants.. is he trying to sell us the goat, does he just want to talk to us, but hes smiling and posing while we take pictures then he says "one dinar, one dinar" meaning that he wants him to give him a jordanian equivalent of a dollar for his picture. we all laughed but thought it was such a clever scam. we gave a few cookies and then one of the girls actually gave him a dinar... his mom just laughed at him. gotta love entrepenueral children.

the roman theater of Amman

2007-06-15T04:48:00.001-07:00

after visiting the citadel we walked down to the roman theater. we didn't have the right change to get in and so after a bit of haggling we were able to get our tickets. then a guy offered us a tour, but after the incident with the picture guy at the citadel we knew better and decided to show ourselves around. Marta and I were supposed to leave amman at 2 so Anders and I were a little rushed to make sure we got back to ACOR in time. We only spent a few minutes in the theater but it was long enough to see how cool it was. And then, ironically, Marta and I decided to take a cab back to Mu'tah instead of the bus so we ended up with more time. It works out though because it gives me a chance to post some pictures here for viewing enjoyment.

the citadel of amman

2007-06-15T03:53:00.001-07:00

today Anders and I went to the citadel of Amman. We took a taxi over and then just walked around. it's pretty cool even if we did get scammed out of 1JD by some guy who volunteered to take our picture. there are some roman ruins and some Umayyad period stuff. They have a little museum too with pieces of the original dead sea scrolls. definitely cool although you weren't allowed to take pictures of that... well not so far as we could figure out and figured better not to than to offend the museum guard.

there were lots of cool pieces of pottery and sculpture in teh musuem too. There were pieces from Jericho, pieces from Amman and even pieces from down near where I am working (although not from our site).

leaving Amman

2007-06-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Today i will be leaving Amman so I probably won't get a chance to use anymore internet for quite awhile. Maybe even two weeks. still, keep the emails coming because it makes me happy to open up my email and see messages from home.

arrival in mu'tah

2007-06-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

yesterday i didn't get a chance to upload the pictures of mu'tah. the closest thing to a town near our site. after the heromobile braved the hills of the king's highway we arrived in mu'tah, my supposed destination. however, the team wasn't there to meet me (they were still at the site) and so i was going to wait for them by myself. however, after about five minutes in mu'tah it became readily apparent that if left by myself i would attract every curious passerby in about 5 minutes and in the hr and 20 mins it took the team to arrive i probably would have been stared at (and possibly hassled) by the whole town. so jen, jessie, fredrico and simon sacrificed for me and stayed and hung out in mu'tah for awhile. across the street was some kind of dead animal store and after an hour we were gettign a little sick of staring at it.

simon and fredrico were able to make a little conversation with the local people who came over to stare at us. we even attracted a guy in a wheelchair. mostly we sat around, sipped water and people watched in mu'tah. the culture is very different for sure. mu'tah has a university which is fairly liberal (there was a very western girl on the bus) but the town itself is very traditional. all of the women were covered. The ironic thing is that they sell all of these tank tops and mini skirts and spagehetti strap dresses in the clothing stores. Abdullah says that is because they can wear all that under thier coverings and when women get together they don't have to be covered so they can wear all those trendy clothes.

mu'tah may not be the best place but it's at least more happening than our home at Tannur dam. there is internet in mu'tah although i have yet to use it so we'll see. i think we are headed to petra next weekend which would be really exciting because i have now been in jordan for a week and haven't seen anything but the shopping centers (yesterday we went to the mecca mall... yes, it is really called the mecca mall) and the site. The contrast between the two is crazy. Yesterday some of the other kids went exploring in Amman but they didn't call me so i didn't get a chance to join up. Anders and I might try and see the Amman citadel today if i have time after emailing and packing and showering

Keep the emails coming

2007-06-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

So in short, keep emailing me and leave me some happy messages. Hope you enjoy my random adventures. The adventure is only beginning.

At least the landscape is beautiful

2007-06-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

If nothing else the contrast of blue skies and brown mountians makes for a beautiful sight. Everything is very alien, very different than the US. As a woman, and one that doesn't cover my head, I make a little bit of an unusual sight here but in the capital of Amman it's not a big deal. In the more conservative parts of Jordan though I am an oddity. I think that even if I covered my head though I'd still stick out a lot.

Not speaking arabic is a bit of a handicap and I think that maybe this year I will try and learn some. So far I have learned no (la) and thank you (shukran). they are very useful but not quite enough to explain everything I need. Buying new clothes was an adventure. Try explaining to the Jordanian man behind the counter that you want to buy undewear. Then he tried to tell me that I was an XXL. I was like... um, no. So i finally taled him down to the XL. which I must admit turned out to be not that bad. I wanted to buy two packages but he just didn't seem able to understand that (bc there were two pair of underwear in each package, so when i said two he kept saying, there are two) and finally i was so red in the face and so frustrated I just took my one package of XL underwear and left. It's an adventure for sure.

While I was in Amman I was able to buy some clothes (to tide me over until my luggage arrived) as well as a cell phone. So now people can call me if they want. Let me know if you want my number because i get free incoming calls :)

The Hills Have Eyes

2007-06-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

So when they came up with that movie title i don't know if they knew how true it was in Jordan. The bedouin here are always in the hills around our site... just watching us. They are up there with their goats and yesterday there was a little boy singing a bedouin song. So there i was sifting dirt and listening to some little kid sing in arabic. the worst part about the eyes in the hills is the bathroom situation. There are very few rocks at the site that are big enough to hide behind and if the bedouin are in the hills up above they can look right down at you... so sometimes it's a little disconcerting when you look up and there are some bedouin men... just peering down at you. when they are there we have to hike way up to the side of the hill (mountian?) just to be safe. combine that with all the water you have to drink so as not to get dehydrated and it makes for a lot of hiking.

Tannur Dam aka Shitistan

2007-06-14T00:04:00.001-07:00

So our living conditions aren't the greatest but it's archaeology so what else is expected? As for the name Shitistan... I didn't name it... it came pre-named. I'll leave you to imagine how it acquired its name. (i'll give you a hint, 20 people, one bathroom). We live in this little compound that is associated with the dam which might be visible in the back of the picture if you look closely. It's not a town, just a few apartments and our little trailer-esque home. We don't have any real running water (only in the one bathroom) but it doesn't really matter because we don't have a shower and you can't drink the water anyways.

I share a room with a girl named Sara, where we sleep on mattresses on the floor. (see above picture for my side) It's not so bad and we are always so tired from working so hard all day that i could sleep just about anywhere. We are allowed to bathe in the resevior but, as women, the culture dictates that we be fully covered (legs and shoulders) so you can't get that clean anyway. its not so bad i suppose because you are just going to go out and get dirty again the next day working at the site. I have taking to bathing with baby wipes in my room. I end up smelling like baby wipes but that is a little better than smelling like dirt and sweat.

At least the view from the site is nice and we have (despite no running water) an airconditioner in our room. when we get back from teh site we can turn it on and cool off a little which is nice. i suppose i shouldn't be complaining. after all, i get to dig holes which is just wanted i wanted to do this summer. I'm just glad i finally have my stuff so i can change my clothes once in awhile :) that and now i have my hat and water bottle and stuff for working at the site.