Home

I made it safely back to the US. Yesterday was a full day of traveling and goodbyes. We said our final farewell to the bungalows around 8 and left Nevis on a ferry about 9. We made it to the St. Kitts airport, and after that the day was a lot of time spent waiting around. A big group of us flew from St. Kitts to Miami on the same flight. Going through customs and everything in Miami was a hassle, but we eventually all met up for dinner. Then it was time for goodbyes. A group of people were on the same flight to Raleigh, and they left first. Then we said goodbye to a girl flying to Nashville. Then I said bye to the group going to Charlotte and got on the plane to Atlanta. It felt odd to be alone. I had been around that group of people every minute of every hour for the last five weeks, and suddenly I was on my own. I made it into Atlanta around midnight, and was home about 1 am.

The final farewell

I'm really glad to be home. It was great to see my parents. The air conditioning is incredible. I was so glad to sleep in my own room and my own bed last night. I'm thrilled to be back to reliable internet, texting, and warm showers. The little things are making me really happy right now. I'm really glad to be watching the Braves again. Plus it's shark week on Discovery Channel and I haven't watched TV in over a month.

I can't say enough just how fantastic this experience was. I've returned from it tanner and blonder. More mature and wiser. Assured about my career path and more knowledgeable about archaeology. A little more worldly and a lot more confident. Scuba certified. And with some awesome friends and fantastic memories.

I'm not sure that there's any way to really sum up my trip and end this blog. But thanks for the good times, Nevis. These memories will last forever.

Goodbye, Nevis

Our last day in Nevis. Yesterday after the final we spent the day at the pool and beach. Today we chilled, packed, and just hung out. It was a good way to end the trip.

Fond memories of me and Greg and lab

This study abroad trip was far from perfect. At one point, Dr. Fitzpatrick looked at me and went "Well, Alyson, at least now you know what it's like to be on a dig where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong." But even with all the problems, this was a fantastic experience. It was my first archaeological dig, and that I'll never forget. This confirmed what I want to do with my life. I met some great people whom I'm sure I'll keep in touch with. At least one, anyway. I learned to Scuba dive. I climbed a mountain. I lived in a foreign country for a month and learned about the culture and history. I explored a rainforest and ate exotic fruit. I found a burial. I waited out a tropical storm in a tiny, open air bungalow. I defeated some large insects. I learned about bee keeping. And I had some damn fun nights. Overall this was the trip of a lifetime and I know it's something I'll never forget.

I don't know exactly what to say to wrap this up. I'm not sure that the perfect words actually exist. So Nevis, thanks for everything. And to my fellow study abroadees, thanks for an incredible trip. Yall mean the world to me.

Some really awesome people

Lots of Lasts

I can't believe how quickly this trip went by.

Everything is wrapping up nicely. Thursday was our last day out at the field, which was really sad. There are a lot of things I'll miss about this study abroad. The island, the culture, definitely the people, the rum, the adventures. But I'll miss the archaeology the most. I'm here living my dream; this is what I want to do with my life. That's going to be tough to give up. But Thursday I got to help Victor and Amanda with the ground penetrating radar, which was really cool. We got some interesting data, which will be helpful if they do further excavation at Coconut Walk.

Ground Penetrating Radar

We spent the rest of the time there just finishing up trench 2273. Friday they used a backhoe to backfill the trenches, but we weren't there for that. So Thursday we packed up all of our gear and said goodbye to the site. It was a really difficult thing to do. It was a fantastic first site, and I know it'll be the first of many.

Goodbye, Coconut Walk

Friday we finished up everything at the lab! Everyone was thrilled to be finished scrubbing nerites with toothbrushes. We cleaned all the material, and once it dried we separated and bagged it. We also cleaned all of the supplies and gear we've been using.

Yesterday was my last day diving. We dove on the shipwreck of The Christena. It sank August 1st, 1970, so today is the 40th anniversary. The overcrowded ferry was traveling from St. Kitts to Nevis when it sank, taking with it the lives of 233 people. Before we dove we threw flower to commemorate the dead. The mood was very somber; it was a humbling experience. The ferry was a lot smaller than I thought it'd be.

For our second dive we went out to the place called Turtle Bar. It was an awesome coral reef. We saw tons of fish and coral of all different colors. We also saw a few huge lobster. But the most exciting thing of the day was a sea turtle who swam right by our group. It was incredible. I'm really going to miss diving. I'm certified for life, but I just don't know when I'll ever get the chance to dive again.

Our final exam is tomorrow. It's too bad because there are a lot of events for Culturama today, but I don't know if I will be able to go because I really need to study. But we'll see what happens. So just a few days left in my adventure. Then it's home, sweet, home.

Tempus Fugit

Tempus Fugit. Time flies.

Today was, unfortunately, our last class. Dr. Victor Thompson, from Ohio State, spoke about shallow geophysics, geoarchaeology and remote sensing. He's been out at the site using ground penetrating radar, so he was showing us some of that data and everything. It was another really interesting lecture. There are just so many aspects of archaeological research that I had never considered before. It's been fascinating to learn about them all.

After dinner, Dr. Fitzpatrick did a wrap up. We watched a half hour long slide show of a bunch of pictures he's taken over the last four weeks. I'm amazed that I wasn't in tears. It's just incredible how much we've seen and done over the last month and how close I've become to some of the people here. It really will be tough to leave.

Our fantastic program directors

I can't get too sappy now because we still have a week left, and I know it'll be a great one. But wow, this experience has flown by.

The whole gang

Bones!

It's our last week in the field. So of course we start to find things.

I had not found any special finds until this Monday. But that changed. First I found a cylindrical stone tool. I wish I had a picture of it, but unfortunately my camera is broken. Then, while wet screening, I found two small shell beads. I was pretty excited.

While I was down wet screening, the rest of the group discovered a burial in one of the sample squares. It seems to be a secondary burial, meaning that it's likely the body decomposed and was moved. The body is not articulated; it's not still connected how it should be. The bones aren't completely fused, which indicates that the bones are not fully matured. We found a huge variety of bones. I won't bother to list them all, but we found everything from cranial bones, jaw bones (with teeth still attached), to leg bones and ribs.

Bones

On Monday during lab, some of the grad students were putting away the material that had been washed and dried. Remember a few days ago how I posted "I found a substantial amount of turtle bones the other day."? Well. They were definitely human. Apparently they were fragments of a tibia and fibula (lower leg bones). So whoever told me in the field that they were turtle bones was wrong. If you're wondering how one can confuse turtle bones and human bones, that's understandable. But human bones really aren't that easy to identify, having not taken an osteology class. They were just bone fragments, so I didn't even have the entire bone to identify. Ben was working in the same square when I found them, and he had no idea they were human either. Someone led us astray. So I guess I found the first burial of the dig, but I had no idea!

Me, Ben, and our bones

Back at the field today we didn't find anything too interesting. I hate that we don't have very much time left here; I don't think we'll be able to finish excavating the next layer. I can't believe I only have a week left here. Time flies.

Bee Man

Our guide for the hike to Nevis Peak was a British man named Quentin. He came to Nevis on the British equivalent of the Peace Corps in the 80s and never left. He's employed by the government as a bee keeper, so around the island he's know as The Bee Man.

On Saturday, my roommates and I went out with the Bee Man. He took us around the island to show us what he does, where some of the hives are, and other stuff like that. There was something about riding around in the back of a pick up truck on a beautiful day in the Caribbean that made me so incredibly happy. What a fantastic feeling.

The Bee Man took us to his house where he showed us a contraption to use solar panels to melt beeswax. Then we went to a place where he had 4 bee hives. They were in boxes, not naturally formed. But there were so many bees. We got really close to them and somehow no one got stung. But Bee Man was telling us that a good hive can have 60 to 70,000 bees in it. He was explaining how they swarm and why, and telling us about the diseases and problems in the bee keeping industry. It was really interesting stuff.

The Bees

After those hives, we went to this old, abandon house that has a natural bee hive in the ceiling of it. The hive was huge, it was really crazy.

More bees

After he showed us around the island, we grabbed food and sat around talking. I was in Nevis, talking to a man from England about problems with the two party system of the American government and health care and global issues. I felt so worldly.

Saturday afternoon we had an event at the museum here to show off the things we've found. It was fun; I'm glad I went to it. Dr. Fitzpatrick gave a presentation on our work and our finds. The turnout wasn't great, but oh well. But while standing outside the museum, Dr. Fitzpatrick, John (the illustrator) and I had a long, intense discussion about what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. It was a great conversation.

Saturday night was definitely one of the best nights I've had here. Without a doubt.

Sunday we walked to a nearby beach called Lovers Beach. It was a really pretty beach. We swam for a while; I'm pretty sure everyone got pummeled in the face by a wave at some point in time. We spent all afternoon swimming and laying out. I've been trying to even out my tan lines. Except for my Chaco tan. That's staying for life. It was a fantastic day though. Exactly how one should spend a free day on a Caribbean island!

St. Kitts

On Friday, we took a field trip to St. Kitts. It made for a fun day.

The two islands of St. Kitts and Nevis are incredibly different. St. Kitts is much larger than Nevis. It's more touristy (the day we were in St. Kitts there was a cruise ship docked). St. Kitts has fast food restaurants and is much more globalized, while Nevis still feels authentic.

We took a ferry over to St. Kitts in the morning. At the southern end of the island, the land is really thin, so we stopped and took some awesome pictures with the ocean on both sides of it.

St. Kitts

Our next stop was a quick one, where we looked at some rocks with petroglyphs. There was a guy with a monkey named Timmy there, too. So I got to hold a monkey.

Me and Timmy

We stopped at this place that dyed fabrics. First they put wax on the fabric, and then they would dye it and repeat the process to make different shapes and designs. They had some gorgeous pieces. The place also had amazing gardens and bright colored flowers. There was also this huge 300 year old tree that was crazy. It had thick vines hanging down from it; it was pretty cool.

My favorite stop of the day was at Brimstone Hill, this amazing 17th century fort. It looked like something straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean. It's one of the best preserved forts in the Americas, according to Wiki. But it was really cool to see, with all the cannons still there. I can't even imagine the engineering that went into the construction. And how intense it would be to fight a battle from the fort. It made for a fun afternoon; I'm glad we got to see it.

The fort

Then we stopped at a place called The Black Rocks. It was gorgeous. It was formed by massive lava flow millions of years ago, and it's now cliffs right on the coast of the island. The water was so blue and there were these monstrous black rocks. I also got to try pure sugar cane, which was delicious. We stopped at a small rum factory, but they had finished bottling for the day, so it wasn't all that interesting. Unfortunately, no free samples. We also drove by an old leper colony, which was the last one to close in the Caribbean in the 1980s.

Black Rocks

We went into Basseterre, the capital of the country, for a chance to explore and shop. It was pretty touristy, especially with the cruise ship there. But we did stop for a fantastic dinner. I had conch fritters and a pina colada. Overall it was a really fun day and I'm glad we got to explore the country more.