Updates from Abroad

I haven't blogged all week, so I apologize for the randomness.

The other morning we were out waiting for the buses to go to the site. And we looked down the driveway and saw a group of about ten monkeys playing and running around. I was disappointed I didn't get any pictures of them! But they were tackling each other and running around. They looked so awkward on the ground; I generally picture monkeys in trees.

For class this week, we switched restaurants. No worries, the bar prices at the new place are better than the Happy Hour prices of the other place. So we were in this conference room in the restaurant, and it was air conditioned! It was so strange; it was the first time I had been in air conditioning since I've been here. But Michiel gave the first part of the lecture. It was all about site methodology, or how sites are excavated. He also spent a while talking about data structures and Geographical Information System (GIS). So it was a lot about how archaeologists can use computers to interpret and analyze data. Really interesting stuff. Then we had a delicious dinner, and Dr. Fitzpatrick gave a presentation. It was fantastic. He taught us about the Saladoid people, who lived in the Caribbean from 500 BC to 650 AD. It was just a really interesting class and made me excited about archaeology and my future. It's really awesome stuff.

That was a lot to read. Here's a picture of me from the hike last weekend for your entertainment.

Making our way through the jungle

Digging this week went well. We're continuing to find pottery and shells. I found a substantial amount of turtle bones the other day. We've also found more human teeth, and two phalanges. Still no burial though, but we'll see what happens. Then for the other trench, we brought in a backhoe to clear some of the dirt. When they finished, there were darker circles in the soil called post molds. It means that at some point, there was a post in that exact spot. Then the post was either removed or rotted away, leaving the dark spots in the soil. We're still mapping and analyzing them, but it was an exciting find.

Because sometimes dental picks and toothbrushes just aren't enough

It's rained and stormed here a lot lately. When we're at the site we can see the storms come in from the ocean, so we can always tell when we have one or two minutes to get to the shelter. Most of the time when it rains during the day, it'll rain for between 30 seconds to 2 minutes and then stop. Lately we've been having some intense storms at night. I woke up a few times during the week to the thunder and lighting. The storms are so loud since all of our windows are open. Last night we had the worst storm since we've been here. The wind was so terrible; it took down a few branches of trees here. We had to close all of our shutters, which we haven't done since we've been here. Plus the storm completely destroyed our lab. We lost a lot of the material we had collected, and the things that are mixed up are impossible to sort and now worthless. It was really upsetting.

Here's a view of the bungalows from the water. I'm in the one on the lower left.

Not bad living arrangements

I'm officially Scuba certified! I'm now certified as an open water diver. I was pretty excited about it. We'll probably try to do another dive while we're here if we have time.

I realize that in every picture on this blog I'm covered in dirt and mud. So here's one from last week when we got dressed up and went on a sunset cruise.

Looking good

I can't believe it's already the middle of July. The program is already half over and I'll be back to school in a month! Time really does fly!

Mount Nevis!

What an action packed weekend!

Saturday morning we had two more Scuba dives. The first dive was at a place called Monkey Shoals, and we dove for about 40 minutes at a depth of 60 feet. That was a lot of fun; the reef was awesome. The coral and fish were so cool. The next dive, at a place called the Doughnut, was even better. We spent almost an hour at a depth of 40 feet. There we saw some really big lobster, eels, and tons of fish. Plus we saw nurse sharks! There was a small one between some rocks, but then we saw two huge ones under a ledge. Then one of them swam out from the ledge and swam away. It was amazing. Both dives were great; I love it so much more than I thought I would. I just hope I'll have the opportunity to dive at other points in my life. Diving is just such a different world; it's a fantastic experience. We still have to take a written test to complete our certification. We were going to take it Saturday, but no one had read the book yet (whoops) so now we're trying to take it Thursday. We'll see.

Sunday, we hiked Mount Nevis. The island is a volcano whose peak is 3232 feet and we made it to the very top. Our guide told us that it's considered the most dangerous hike in the Caribbean, and it was really obvious why. We started off by walking up some super steep driveways. These were paved paths, but we were all looking around like "why are we doing this?!" But then we got into the rain forest. At first we were hiking along a trail, but that didn't last for too long. The majority of the hike we spent climbing up steep, muddy paths. Luckily there were ropes along most of the way, but they were too muddy to help at times.

Climbing

I'm not kidding here. It was a tough hike. And by hike, I mean climb.

More climbing

I am glad I did the hike, but it was really challenging. The whole hike took about five hours. Since we were in a group of twenty people, we didn't get to see any animals at all. No birds, bugs, or monkeys. Plus since we had to constantly watch the ground because every step was unsafe, I didn't really get to appreciate the plant life much. And the view? Clouds. Just clouds.

At the top

Even still, making it to the top was really cool. At the top there is a small bald patch, so we all took pictures and celebrated and ate snacks. And the clouds did clear for a brief moment, which was pretty amazing.

The hike down was arguably harder than the hike up. It was really tough to keep from slipping on the mud and completely falling. I ended up sliding down on my butt to keep from falling at times. But it was fun; we all ended up so muddy.

On a side note, the other day we were driving back from the grocery store and someone in the van shouted "MonkeyMonkeyMonkey!" So our driver slowed down and we all screamed "MONKEY!" and there was a monkey sitting in a tree on the side of the road. So I did get to see a monkey here!

Diggin' the Caribbean

Digging. Dig in. Get it? Thanks, Dad, for the "punny" title!

So digging. We dig from 7-1 Monday through Friday at a site called Coconut Walk. We chose the site because about ten years ago a BBC show called Time Team excavated a section of it and found features from an amerindian settlement. Even on the surface we found a ton of pottery and shells, so hopefully underneath we'll find more good stuff.

Digging is really really hard work. Right now we have three open 5x5m trenches. One we divided into 1x1m squares and we're working in 10 cm layers to excavate them. It's difficult because we're supposed to pick out every piece of pottery and tiny shell we find. It's hard to tell the rocks from pottery, and the shells from coral, but I'm getting more used to it. Yesterday and today we wet screened 4 of the squares. So we had to lug the buckets of dirt down to the shore, and then carry big buckets of water up from the ocean to pour over the screens. It was exhausting.

Wet screening

The other two trenches are side by side, and in those, we're mostly looking for features instead of artifacts. So instead of going through all the dirt by itself, we shovel it into buckets and dry screen it. It's such dirty work. The wind blows the dirt everywhere and there's no way to avoid it. I just gave up and tied a bandana around my face because I was tired of having dirt in my mouth (plus it looks super cool). Still, the hard work is really worth it.

Looking like a bandit

So far with the ocean breeze it hasn't been too hot digging. On day this week it rained for a while, so we all hid out in the old lime kiln. After the rain the clouds disappeared and the breeze was gone, so that day was rough. But besides that, we've been lucky so far.

Ye old lime kiln

The site is from the late Ceramic Age, so between 1500 and 1000 years ago. So far we've found a ton of pottery and shells. There have been a few really cool finds, some beads and intricately carved pieces of pottery. We've also found a ton of fish bones, and some bones of an extinct species of amphibious rat. Those were interesting at first, until we realized that there are literally thousands of them. We haven't found any human bones yet, but have found a few human teeth. Maybe that means a burial somewhere, but maybe not. We will see. The features trench isn't deep enough to tell if we'll find post molds or anything like that, but Monday we're bringing in a backhoe to really move some dirt.

In addition to digging, we have lab 3-6 every day except for Wednesday. And by lab, I mean they have a tent set up for us, and we have to clean all of the finds with toothbrushes. The pottery and some of the shells aren't bad, but we've found a ridiculous amount of nerites, which are the worst type of shell to clean. Lab work is kind of boring, but it all has to be cleaning before it can be sorted. It's likely that we won't get to do much more than clean everything here, so I'm probably going to do an independent study research project on all of it when I get back to NC State in the fall. I'm really excited about it! Right now lab is just overwhelming because there's SO much material that needs to be cleaned. Hopefully we'll catch up eventually.

Wednesdays instead of lab we have class. And class is at a bar, and our professor scheduled it for Happy Hour. AND they feed us pizza. Needless to say, it's really a good time. Quetta, one of the program directors, gave the lecture this week. We also watched the Time Team video from the last excavation of our site. Right now we're working with 4 professionals. The 3 program directors are Scott Fitzpatrick (NC State), Michiel Kappers from the Netherlands, and Quetta Kaye from University College London. Right now we're also working with Willem Schnitger, who's also from the Netherlands and specializes in data management. Later in the month we'll have other people join us, including an artist, a finds manager, and a ceramics specialist.

Being here is amazing. It's just such an incredible opportunity. At the end of every dig I'm so gross and exhausted, but I can't help but smile. I'm on an archaeological dig! I'm learning a ton and loving it all.

Nevisian Adventure

Our Sunday field trip was a tour of Nevis! We drove the road that goes all the way around the island and made some stops at historic places.

We went to Nisbet Plantations for lunch. It was a sugar plantation way back when, and now is a restaurant with an incredible beach, as well as a resort. I had a grilled fish burger with fruit relish on it. It was so delicious. After lunch we were able to spend some time at the beach, and then to tour the plantation house. My first thought was "wow, I could definitely have lived in this time!" But then I remembered all the crazy, heavy clothes they had to wear and I'm not so sure. I'm getting used to the heat here and learning to cherish the breeze, but it's still really hot.

The view from the plantation house

Afterwards we stopped at Newcastle Pottery, a pottery place run by native Nevisians. They make all of the pottery from scratch with dirt from Nevis at the shop, and the fire it in a huge pit out back. The woman working there explained the process, which was really interesting.

We left there and headed to Fort Charles, a British fort built in 1671 to protect the island from the French. Nevis was a key island in the sugar trade at the time, and came under attack by the Dutch, Spanish, and French. There's not much left of the fort today, just an old wall, a cistern, and a few cannons. It was still cool to see, though. A big piece of history.

Remains of the wall at Fort Charles

Our final stop was a natural hot spring pool. Emphasis on the word hot. Two brave souls in our group got into the water but I don't think I could have. The water is heated by the geothermal energy (the island of Nevis is a volcano). Local people actually do bath in the nearby streams, that are heated in the same way.

Hot springs

So it was an unusual 4th of July, but still a memorable one. I'll get around to posting about the field work, lab, and class soon. But everything is still going really well here. It's just going by too quickly, I can't believe a week is gone already!

Breeze Beach

Sunday morning, before we went on our field trip, Kevin noticed a set of stairs up by the pool with the sign "Breeze Beach." I'm really not sure how no one had noticed them before. But these stairs went straight down the cliff side. At the top they were stone, but near the end they were really steep wooden stairs.

Check out the conch shells

So the stairs lead to a beautiful rocky beach with an incredible view of St. Kitts. The water was a fantastic shade of blue, I'd never seen anything like it.

St. Kitts

The beach itself was really rocky, but we still explored really far along the beach. It made for a fun adventure. Plus there were so many gorgeous conch shells everywhere. There were also tons of snails living on the rocks, which was cool.

Lots o Rocks

Then after our Sunday activities we went back down to watch the sunset. We couldn't really see it because of clouds, but it still made for some pretty colors.

Sunset over St. Kitts

Sorry it took me so long to post this, and sorry the post is so picture heavy. I'll have to make a facebook album when I can, but the internet connection goes in and out all the time.

Just heard the news about LeBron. Sad day, Cleveland.

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!

Greetings from Paradise

Where do I even begin? This place is amazing.

Wednesday I got up at the crack of dawn to fly to Miami. I saw some really beautiful rainbows from the air, which was sweet. And in Miami I met up with people from the program and we flew to St. Kitts. The flight was gorgeous, I didn't have a window seat, so this was the only sweet picture I got.

Saint Kitts from the air

So we took a ferry over to Nevis, which was kind of overwhelming at first. But once we were settled on the ferry and got our first glimpse of Nevis, all that went away.

Nevis!

We're staying in bungalows at Hurricane Cove, which are so gorgeous. They don't have air conditioning, so it gets really hot during the day, but the breeze in the morning and at night is fantastic.

This is the view from my window

So we spent Wednesday just settling in. The island is really different, I'm loving learning about a new culture. They drive on the left side of the road, when they choose a side. Most of the roads don't have center lines, so they just drive in the middle and move over for other cars. And everyone honks, it's just a way to say hello. We've listened to the radio some down here, which is fun. I love the island music, and then in the middle of the song the DJ will chime in to say something, and then the song will keep playing. It just seemed so random the first few times we heard it.

There are tons of animals roaming the island. There was a HUGE cockroach in our bungalow the first night. We trapped it under a glass and convinced some of the boys to kill it for us. But all around the island there are cows, chicken, sheep, goat, and donkeys just roaming around. First lesson I've learned here: tail up, it's a goat; tail down it's a sheep. They look really similar because these sheep are wooly like the ones I'm used to seeing. Not that I see wild sheep in North Carolina often.

Thursday we went out to both of our dig sites to take a look around. They're both located right next to the ocean, and on the east and south sides of the island, where the water is rougher and the breeze is amazing. Hopefully it'll keep things cool. I'm stoked to start digging today. We're meeting this morning at 7:30, but most days it will be 6:30. It's early, but definitely worth it.

The first night I was here I saw a shooting star, which was incredible. And last night after dark a bunch of us went down to the beach (it's a short walk from the bungalows and completely safe, our section of the ocean is roped off anyway). But in the water if you flicked your hand you could see bioluminescent algae scatter. They all light up as they swim away.

I have to go make sure I have everything ready for the dig. The internet here is pretty good in the bungalows, so I'll update this when I can. Hope everything is well in the States!