Digging and Diving

I can't believe this is only my third day here. Wow.

So Friday, we started digging! It was amazing. To start the morning, some people took machetes and hacked back the big, threatening cactus plants that were encroaching on our trench. Seriously, these cactus plants meant business. But so did we, which is why we brought out the machetes.

Intimidating cacti

The trench that I worked on all morning is a 5x5m square, subdivided into 25 1x1m squares. So first we had to divide it, which was actually quite difficult. Then once we did that we started to collect surface material. There was so much pottery! In my 1x1m square, I found enough pottery without digging to fill a gallon sized bag. Hopefully if there's that much pottery on the surface, we'll find something beneath it!

After surface collection we started to excavate some of the squares to a depth of 5 cm. We didn't get very far on our square, but have already found a ton more pottery. The digging itself is hard work. It was so hot! And this site is on the east side of the island, which has rougher seas than the north side, where we're staying. But it makes for a constant breeze from the sea, which is nice to stay cool, but blows the dirt everywhere. Everyone was so covered in dirt, we all had distinct marks on our wrists and ankles where our gloves and shoes were covering our skin. But it was amazing. I love archaeology.

A little dirty from digging

It's great to be here, and so nice to be around people like me for a change. I love all my engineering friends, but here there's such a different atmosphere- being around people that understand what I want to do with my life. People that know that archaeologists don't dig up dinosaurs. And people that don't expect me to be able to spell just because I'm majoring in a humanities. It's just a really nice change.

I spent all day scuba diving today! I'm getting certified while I'm here on Nevis, and today was the first day of it. In the morning we started off with a swim test, and then got all the equipment ready and dove in really shallow water, just off the shore. So we practiced techniques and skills all morning. It was really difficult at first, just freaky. Like my mind was telling me "uh, you can't breathe under water" even though I could. So it took a little getting used to.

This afternoon we took a boat over to St. Kitts to dive in a place called Shitten Bay (I shit you not- haha). That was amazing. On our first dive we just chilled at the bottom, about 20 feet down and practiced more skills. But on our second dive we explored this incredible coral reef. It was absolutely indescribable. There were so many fish, and we were really close to them. I just went to the Georgia Aquarium last weekend, so it was weird to see all these fish and animals and in their natural habitats. We saw two sting rays, one of which was really large. But the instructor just poked it and it scurried off, which was sweet. We also played with sea cucumbers, which are these furry, log shaped animal things. At one point one of the diving instructors put it on his head like a hat, and it made me laugh which got water all in my mask and regulator (thing I breathe through), but it was hilarious so it was totally worth it.

I've also enjoyed learning about the history of the island. We pass this old church every day, and according to our driver it was built in 1643 and is considered the oldest church in the Caribbean. And driving back from the dig yesterday, the taxi driver pointed to this tiny old house and said "I was born there" and then proceeded to point out all these important placed to him, like where he went to school and the house that his brother built by hand. The shack that used to be a library when he was growing up. That was really fun to hear. Plus Alexander Hamilton, the guy on the ten dollar bill, was born and raised here in Nevis. We went to the museum, which is actually at his birthplace, so that was really interesting. I learned a ton about him. Apparently he was an illegitimate child- how scandalous!

The stars are gorgeous. The first night I was here I saw a shooting star. And tonight I looked up and could see the Milky Way really clearly. They're incredible.

There are no words to describe just how sunburned I am right now. I didn't know skin could turn that shade of red. Before digging I put on spf 50, and while digging I reapplied with spf 80, twice. And I'm so burned, I have this ridiculous tank top burn on my back. Plus I got burned on top of that diving today (even though I had plenty of sunscreen on), so it's super painful. I'm sitting here in a bathing suit top right now because it's the only thing that doesn't hurt to wear. I'll sure be tan when I get back to school, but my tan lines are going to be so crazy.

If you made it through that whole entry, thanks for reading. It's night in the Caribbean, I've probably killed 70 mosquitoes against my computer while I've been writing this. There's literally a pile of dead ones on the chair next to me. Pleasant thought, right? Plus this huge spider just crawled across my screen, so I think it's time for me to get in bed under my mosquito net!