7.13.09
Last day in Istanbul!
*cough *hands on forehead
I have caught a nasty bug—the vilest of them all, with fangs that dig into your mind as they shoot venom into your…sleep. Oh, cruel, cruel jet lag! I barely slept last night! I woke up at 1 AM and my roommate was tossing so I asked her if she was awake and, indeed, she too was writhing from the pains of jet lag. I woke up at 2 AM and my roommate was walking out of the bathroom and I whispered in grief, “…dude, still can’t sleep,” and her sleep-parched lips parted to let a “man, me too” escape. This routine continued for every hour since until we finally let out one final shriek of defeat and decided to start our day at 6 AM. ☹
So, we just relaxed and went online until around 8 AM, at which time we went to Starbucks (I know, lame, but nothing else was opened) to grab a quick breakfast. Our wound from The Bug was still fresh, but we decided to march on like soldiers and traversed the entire town. Well, the entire town on this side of the waters. Shortly afterwards, we arrived back at the hotel to pack because we have to check out by noon. We relaxed, once again, and then we headed off for some lunch (which was alright, but not good enough to turn into a hyperbole like the rest of my morning haha). Some of the others left to go back to the hotel and take advantage of the wifi before we head off to the prestigious-well-known-middle-of-no-where site, while Elizabeth and I once again trudged on like soldiers to the other side of the waters. We visited the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. The original plan was to sight see the entire day, but after visiting just those two sites, our feet started to picket against us. And now here I am, sitting back at the hotel and letting my protesting feet calm down so I can travel again.
I probably won’t have internet again until Friday, so this will be the last blog for now.
7.14.09
For the majority of today, I was locked up in train-dom. At exactly 11:50 PM last night, we boarded a train that boasted of quite an adventure…all 14 hours of it. Yes, it was a 14 hour train ride (albeit, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt that the train wasn’t exactly a bullet and it did make many stops), but at least we got a sleeper car. ☺ I now bestow upon it the honor of being the best thing ever invented. I sincerely vote for planes to be like that. Oh! I almost forgot to include last night’s escapades! Well, shortly after I wrote my little excerpt of my unmatched bravery, I softly returned to the Land of Nod. Oh sweet angels, ‘twas the land that exiled me, ‘twas MY forbidden fruit! Simply, I fell asleep while I was sitting on the chair (since we returned the room at noon). I didn’t even realize it! I guess I was THAT tired. The manager of the hotel felt sorry for us (my fellow “exilees” also were stunned to sleep) and let us borrow a room to sleep in. I always knew my guardian angel was Turkish! Hours later, we were woken up because Tiffany finally arrived and we all went out to town for dinner. I ate something called an Iskandar…needless to say, I have yet to rave about a dish.
Back to my 14-hour-train-extravaganza…I pretty much knocked out from when we boarded until around 8 am. At which time, I needed to bathe on account of, you know, I haven’t cleansed myself in days (1 and a 1/12th to be exact). But woe unto me, the shower was locked and seeing as I do not understand Turkish, I had no idea what the man’s explanation of it was. He did make a sleeping gesture with the hands, coupled ever so gently together, beside his cheek in slumber. Who knows what that means! We went down to the restaurant on the train and I ate a gen-u-ine Turkish breakfast! Are you ready for this? Imagine: black olives! Green olives! Yellow cheese! Feta cheese! A few slices of tomatoes! And a whopping few slices of cucumbers! Granted, it was refreshing, but I could’ve gone for a few more slices of tomatoes. Oh heck, just gimme the whole tomato! Our waiter was unfathomably nice, though. It was the kind of nice that could either go for sincerity intertwined with hilarity or just plain creepiness. My stone-cold heart feels it is more of the first, but my friends disagree. What do they know?!
We finally arrived at Cumra (pronounced “choom ra”) around 3:30 PM and Serena scooped us all up and drove us to Catal, which was only 15 minutes away—a relief as well as a gift, considering all of my other transits were in the hours category. The feeling of arriving at Catalhoyuk was a blend of excitement, enthusiasm, awe, and a teensy gallon of uncertainty. Seeing the 40/40 (the north mound with the tin covering over it) sparked my nerdy ardor for archaeology to just engulf me. I don’t get the asian glow from you know what, but I definitely get it from archaeology. *sigh
The living quarters here are definitely a lot better than I initially imagined. We have a great veranda, dorms, a kitchen, a dining hall, a lounge with even a ping pong table, a terrace, and even a bar (which is where we found Ian Hodder *giggle). It’s so weird to just see Ian Hodder peruse around. It’s like seeing an articuno in its lair. ☺
I successfully passed the frightful test I’ve been dreading all summer…the Squatting Toilet. Oh, I truly feel like a woman now. I didn’t even miss or anything! You may all pat me on the back if you’d like.
After dinner, we went up to the terrace and watched a little friends. I’m gonna go to bed soon because we need to get up early tomorrow (7 AM!) to start work.
Highlight of the day:
Serena was introducing us to Ian Hodder and when it came to my turn he said, “Oh and Kelly, I already know her.” ☺
Out @ 9:37 pm.
7.15.09
In @ 6:07 AM. I can’t bloody sleep! Can’t type much though…this keyboard tapping is a lot louder than one would expect and I can’t stir awake my roommates—all 6 of ‘em.
[continuation]
This morning was absolutely dreadful in terms of my sleep pattern. I fell asleep fairly early last night, around 9:30 PM and I woke up only a few hours later and from then on, I probably woke up every hour until I finally gave up at 5 AM. I sort of just laid in bed for a bit (bit=1.5 hours), staring at nothing in particular and thinking of nothing in particular until I finally pulled myself together and leaped down from my bunk bed.
The day started off at 7 AM with Serena sorting us off into our jobs. I was to work with Elizabeth, Tiffany, and Laura on shells (sorting them and entering them into the database), but fortunately, I switched to work on figurines with Professor Meskell and Dr. Nakamura after lunch (thank goodness for that internship!). Shells was painstakingly tedious, and the figurines so far isn’t that bad. With the figurines, I had to look through crates and crates and crates and crates…of figurines to look for 4 pages worth of figurines that need to be documented. Nothing too exciting yet, but everyone keeps saying how our jobs are “extremely important.” Apparently, the different labs were fighting over us because they all need a lot of help. The tedious tasks are “important in the big picture,” but the specialists don’t really have time to do it. Thus, ya drag in the undergrads. Some people call us the Chosen ones, but you know, we’re humans just like you non-exploited kids.
This summer is split into two sessions: for the first two weeks that we’re here, it’s the “study session” where we basically work in the labs. For the next two weeks after that, it’s the “excavation session” and that’s where we basically…excavate. I like this split up business because we’ll get to experience both sides of archaeology. Exciting stuff!
Oh, I forgot to mention that we got the grand tour of the whole site with Professor Hodder at 8:30 AM. The site probably spans acres and acres and we hiked through a stunning landscape—swirls of clouds resting among the cerulean as they drape their arms around the golden-enveloped hills. Mmm, delicious.
Seeing the uncovered 9000-year-old buildings is not something that can be expressed…not even with my hyperbolic nonsense and especially not with my laptop’s hanging-by-a-few-percent battery life! As Professor Hodder was explaining the different features that were uncovered…well, it can only be described in one way…and that is through an epic quote by none other than the notable…Lady Gaga, “got my ass squeezed by sexy Cupid; guess he wants to play, wants to play a love game, a love game.” And no, I don’t mean towards Ian Hodder, but towards archaeology. Seeing archaeology at work FIRST HAND definitely solidified my archaeo-love. ☺ Not many people really know what archaeology is and it really bugs me when these people make fun of it as if they’re so much higher than “digging.” The boorish usage of the word “digging” already reveals the person’s intellectual shortage. Sure, some people say it in good fun, but I don’t see how marring one of my few passions is “fun.” Archaeology for me is not just a major or a career or a hobby. It is the embodiment of my beliefs: to not only incorporate but also to respect multi-vocality while taking in multiple lines of evidence to understand, to limit our limits, and to become more human. Prejudice isn’t restricted by time. Just as we shouldn’t be insensitive of other contemporary cultures, we should not be critical and judgmental of past cultures and try to parade our traditions under the rusty crown that we welded for ourselves. To me, the “point” of history is not to learn from past mistakes, as the cliché saying goes, but to serve as a means for us to become more tolerant and accepting and curious and compassionate. When I read a direct text of Cicero, I do not only slip through a wrinkle in time, I share a moment with an historical figure, a human being, as I tap into a sliver of his mind. Think of how many perspectives I will explore as I pursue archaeology further and further.
And end rant.
Well, I took plenty of pictures of the different mounds and I will show you all eventually. It’s better to let you see it for yourself than for me to try to describe it. At any rate, the tour got cut short because Professor Hodder had to talk to the mayor, so we returned to our jobs. But we picked right back up again after lunch and finished off the rest of the tour. Then I switched to work in the figurines lab like I said earlier. So basically, this is my schedule for the next few days:
6:30 AM: wake up and get ready
7:00 AM: start work
9:30 AM: breakfast
10:00 AM: go back to work
12:30 PM: lunch
1:15 PM: switch to figurines lab
3:00 PM: break
5:00 PM: continue work
7:00 PM: dinner
After work, I usually just chillax with the rest of the Stanfordians. Yesterday, we went up to the terrace and played cards and just talked. We checked out the bar too and it has a really cool ambiance. Yeah, it’s a shack, but it’s a happenin’ shack. Haha! Oh, here’s a funny tidbit: there’s a necklace made of beer bottle caps that is bequeathed unto the person who drinks the most alcohol that week. Hahaha! How funny! I could easily become an alcoholic here, but good thing I don’t like alcohol. ☺
Quick side note: I really like Professor Meskell! She’s so chic and chill and…can I just BE her already?!
7.16.09
Before I type away about today, I wanted to mention an event that happened yesterday. There’s a snacks shop on site that was opened by Sadrettin, a Turkish ex-guard of the site (he wrote a book about his experience at Catalhoyuk if ya’ll are intrigued), and I went with a few of my friends to go get some snacks. We sat down next to the new guard, Mustafa, and chatted it up a bit with him. And here’s the catch: he barely knows any English. Yet, it was still really fun to communicate via a concoction of gesticulations and broken English. He taught me how to count to ten in Turkish and he says I’m “very good.” Direct quote! Very good! Haha! I also tried to read the chips bag and, while the haters of my friends laughed at me, he says I was “very good” once again! ☺ I was looking at a cherry tree next to us and he told me to pick it, but I didn’t want to…so he told the cashier to go pick some for me. hahaha what a pleasant man. I’m not meeting as many people as I’d like, but it’s harder to meet people than I thought it would be. I know the people I work with, but that’s about it. Hopefully, I’ll meet more people as I switch jobs. There are so many British people here…I’m starting to get influenced by their accent! As I type these blogs, I do so with a British accent in my head!
Oh! Also before I begin my description of my wild night, I absolutely must mention some things I forgot to jot down earlier:
-food here is pretty good. I think I’m getting a lot healthier because the meals are at regular times and they are unbelievably organic and healthy. The food is prepared by local townswomen who are hired to cook and clean after us beautiful archaeologists (in this sense, beautiful = spoiled haha). ☺ The best Turkish food I’ve eaten so far are the dishes prepared by these women.
-TWO WORDS: COLD SHOWERS. End of story. Fricken Polish! I knew it! I have yet to have an even WARM shower!
-My hygiene has definitely diminished by, oh I don’t know, about…500%! I shower every day around 4 PM, but I still have to rewear my clothes at least 3-4 times before I wash them. Oh, and to wash the clothes, we put our clothes in a community bin and the Turkish townswomen wash ALL THE CLOTHES…TOGETHER. Isn’t that foul?! Arm pit juices galore! Oh yuck. I have yet to wash any of my clothes for the fear of anonymous pit fouling. ☹ I handle dirty things and often times, I just sit on the ground…not to mention the sweating…my clothes are not pleasant for re-wearing. Can’t wait until excavation season…I’m gonna be a walking fly magnet…
-Speaking of flies! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! I’ve never seen so many flies in my life! They’re on everything too! Humans, artifacts, FOOD! I can’t eat any of the delicious looking watermelons because the Turkish townswomen set it out on a plate for us and OF COURSE, the flies help themselves before any of us can get to it. ☹ The other archaeologists seem not to mind that the poop-stained insects landed and stuck their griminess aallllll ovveeerrrrrrrrr their food! They just gobble it down! Ugh! I’m getting a lot more easy going on a lot of stuff, but I refuse to eat poopy watermelon!
Tea: LOVE. IT. I drink it about everyday. It’s basically like the one at Al-Waha, but way more glorious. Mmm…could go for some right now…
Can’t think of anything else now…but on to the festivities!
7.17.09
So…I didn’t get to write last night because I was way too tired. I’m actually really tired right now too, but I don’t want to fall behind on this journal blog.
Every Thursday is Kabob day! ☺ Doesn’t that sound like a cute tradition?! I love traditions! Thursdays are like our Friday nights: we get off work early and our Turkish cooks barbeque kabobs for us in the courtyard. I gotta tell you, it’s pretty hands-clasped-together-and-pressed-gently-against-your-cheeks-eyes-crinkling-mouth-awwing cute! The kabobs aren’t as good as I had hoped though…they’re more like sausages than steak cubes. Poo.
I can’t quite remember what I did after that…might have watched some Friends with my friends…but anyway, every Thursday night is also PARTY NIGHT! ☺ *sings: archaeologists just wanna have funnnnn, whoa ohhhh, just wanna have funn
We all went out to the back where the “bar” is at and it was quite a scene. Let me paint it for you:
Shades of shadows blanket the entire sky. The sky is different in Turkey—with no unnatural disasters nearby, nature erupts with symphonies of chirps, typhoons of wildflowers wash over the glowing landscape, and the only floods of light are the specks of stars welcoming you with a lion-drawn carriage.
That’s the scene I stepped out to last night, except the archaeologists were drrrruunnkkk. Haha! There was a bonfire going on and one of the British archaeologists were DJ-ing and people were dancing on the wooden stage they just put in and some people were hookah-ing…It was quite a festive night. Sorry to disappoint you, but nothing wild happened that night. There was no theme either! They forgot to assign one. ☹ There will be one next week though, so stay tuned. Well, I can’t recall much, but I partook in all the possible festivities. Yeeup.
Today, we went into Konya, the closest city to Catal (it’s about an hour away). Konya’s no Istanbul, let me just tell you that. It’s closer to the likes of Vietnam, but a bit of a lot cleaner. Oh no, I am getting really tired…ahhh, let me just list what I did. We watched the new Harry Potter movie and, oh!, a notable detail is that the movie theatres in Turkey have intermission! Afterwards, we just went back to Bear and Elif’s hotel and hung out there. I went online and wrote to all of ya’ll…the bus came a bit later and we went back home. I just finished watching some Gilmore Girls with some of the peeps here and Oh –My –God, that show is so tiring! I blame it for making me tired.
Note: I am getting really tired of everything being so dirty. I especially hate dirty bathrooms…I guess things are a lot better than I thought they would be, but this is really starting to get on my nerves. I have decided that my Private Enemy #1 will be —forever more— the squat toilet. It’s so sick!
Hopefully my jet lag will go away soon…
7.18.09
Do you hear that?
Crack.
Crack crack crack crack!
That’s the sound of the slow deterioration of my friends’ morale. They’re beginning to crack under the workload! The work is truly, madly, deeply tedious and, well, let me just give you a sample scene that just happened:
I finished my work early and Professor Meskell wasn’t there so I left to go wash my wands in the bathroom (figurines are unbelievably dusty!). My friend Marloes (I don’t really know how to spell her name…haha) walks out of the stall and moans, “It’s only the 17th, Kelly! How are we ever going to make it?! I can’t take it anymore!” Hahahahahahahaahahahaahahaah! Oh my lemon, it made me just explode with laughter!
On top of the fact that it’s ONLY been a few days since we started work, we’ve only had two full days of work. The first day was cut short with the tour and Thursdays are cut short because it’s party day. My laughter was stemmed from the realm of desperate delirium rather than the humble abode of hilarity. ☹ I feel her pain, dawgzzz.
Actually, I was going to blog about my slight desperation but I got over that hump. But during that time, I was so sick of…everything. Luckily, it wasn’t a fever or the flu, it was just the common cold. I was so sick of being swarmed with filth, sick of having flies infest everything and everyone, sick of my dorm/workspace/bathroom/everybloodything showered in this maddening grime, sick of those bloody shells, sick of those cursed figurines, sick of my incessant jet lag, sick of worrying what this one girl thinks of me, sick of fretting over meeting new people, sick of cold showers, sick of the lack of decently smelling clothes…
The list was endless and so was my aggravation.
Or so it seemed for the moment.
For some reason, my outlook is a lot more positive. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I forged optimism from the get go, but my poorly crafted veneer fell apart quicker than those damn figurines! At any rate, I can’t quite explain my inner turmoil nor my inner salvation, but I’m quite content with the circumstances of this excavation trip now. It could be a lot worse: I could be pooping in the wilderness and wondering if “you dig the hole before or after,” I could be excavating in the blazing sun without any overhead shelters, I could be eating food that makes my stomach bubbly, I could have to shower in the river, I could NOT BE WORKING WITH IAN HODDER…hahaha see, that list could seem endless too. I guess I just need to put things into perspective. From time to time I would look around me and I still can’t believe that this is it. This is Catalhoyuk. This is Ian Hodder’s baby! And I wanna be the baby’s mama. Hahaha! Oh, I kid. Sort of. Hehehehe.
[intermission]
My friends came in while I was writing to inform me of the latest update: they are planning a mutiny. Hahaahah! Oh my god, this is just too hilarious. Well anyway, after that, we went down to the café and just talked it up a bit before I showered (I finally got a hot shower!) and went back to work. Things are really starting to shape up! Not only did I get a steaming, invigorating shower, but my work for figurines was finally not monkey’s work! I got to take pictures of the figurines for the database! YAY ME!
After work, my friends and I went up to the terrace and attempted to play drunken charades. We ended up playing 2/3rds of a round sober and even after we drank, we were still sober. One could call it an epic fail, but the fact of the matter is that we had FUN sober. Now, that is SOME KIND OF FUN! But two people sat in on our game (literally, sat in the middle of our semi-circle) and ended the festivities by persuading us to sign up for the trip to this Hellenistic site (the name evades me…) this weekend.
Yeah, I got suckered in. It’s Hellenistic! Need I say more?!
At any rate, today was actually a really good day—not in the sense that amazing things happened, but in the sense that I, for some odd reason, am in high spirits! ☺ Oh! And side note, I even got to use the one sit-down toilet on site today. Oh, my butt never felt so loved before.
Bon nuit mes amours.
OH AND PS! I DID LAUNDRY! ☺ On my own! No nasty including it with everyone’s filth. Yay me!
7.19.09
Tiiiimmmbbeerrr!
What was that?
That, my friends, was the fall of Forest. Forest Gump.
Why is that?
Because, my friends, I am the new ping-pong champion (-to-be). ☺
Laura and I have become hooked to ping-pong and we play after every meal and at every break, in hopes that we can start up a ping-pong tournament with the rest of the archaeologists here and CRUSH THEM ALL LIKE WE WOULD(N’T) DO TO THE ARTIFACTS! Yessiree!
We’re improving really quickly. How do I know? Because today, after our match, I was awarded with a couple of precious beads. A couple of precious sweat beads, to be exact. Yes, my friends! I actually sweated from playing ping-pong. Hahahahaah. Intense, huh?
I forgot to jot down that my morning job has switched from the shell lab to the excavation lab. No, it’s not as cool as it sounds. Since it’s the study season, the excavators have also succumbed to staying indoors and thus we, too, stay indoors and once again (surprise!) inputted information into the database. I basically measure the dimensions and levels of what is excavated and bestow them upon the database. MMhm. I’m not even going to try and make it sound interesting. Actually, it’s not as bad as FRICKEN SHELLS. I will never be able to say shells without “fricken” in front of it ever again. Hmph! As for my work with the figurines, I finished taking photos and inputting them into the –guess what!— database and now I’m going through the database and adding the specific descriptions and locations of each individual artifact. Oh poo, it’s 5:01 PM already! Gotta go. Will finish this later.
Alright, well it’s now 10:29 PM and past my bedtime, so I must write quickly before I collapse at the computer. I was reading the unit descriptions on the database and I came across this gift:
“several phalanges are missing.”
Oh…MY god. I had such a kick out of it and seriously contemplated telling Dr. Nakamura (I call her Carrie now, but it’s just more bizarre if I use her formal name) about the Friends allusion, but decided against it because it’s too much work to try and explain it all. After work and after dinner, Laura and I naturally ping-ponged it up a bit and then we got together with everyone else and continued our disrupted charades game from yesterday. I. Hate. Arrogant. People! I am a very easy-going and tolerant person. But UGH! SO MUCH ANAMOSITY IS JUST SPEWING FROM MY GOLDEN HEART RIGHT NOW! Well, my roommates are asleep so I’ll write about it tomorrow. BUT UGHHHHH!
Night all.
7.20.09
I feel very half-hearted right now.
7.21.09
LAKSDJLKFAJLDKFJALSKDFLJ
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHH!!!
☺
I just got out of the human remains lab!!!!!!!
I am DEFINITELY going to specialize IN THAT!
But before I get into that, I have to blog about my feelbads from yesterday…
So yesterday was not a very good day for me. Not because of any event in particular, but because of people. 2 people to be specific. I try to be accepting, but there is one thing that I just refuse to accept: inconsiderateness! No shirt, no shoes, no problem. But no humility, no common decency?! PROBLEM! PROBLEMO! PROBLÈME! CÓ CHUYỆN! I ran out of languages, but you get it! I wish I knew how to say it in Turkish…
But anyway! The squat toilet has been demoted from being Private Enemy #1 to Private Enemy #2! Because now Private Enemy #1 is anyone who is intolerant! I can’t stop using exclamation marks!
I have never –ever- met ANYONE who is as big-headed as this guy who’s on the trip with us. He’s the only guy in our group too, and OH MY GOD, if all guys were like him, I’d remain in my asexual state for life! He is SUPER supercilious! Ugh! I absolutely loathed my PWR class because it was the rhetoric of kitsch and, as you all know, I de-fricken-test being judgmental. Sure, we’re all innately judgmental, but there is a difference between giving your opinion and giving a verdict. He practically lives by that quote that Jennifer had in her profile quite a while ago, “You’re entitled to your opinion…but it’s wrong.” How will you develop as a person if you forge a (Greek—hehe, sorry, I just really miss classical stuff…) fortress out of tenacious stones and insular mortar? How will you develop as a person if you, crouching in your hollow armor, blast cannons from your fabricated fortress in an attempt to defend your pride and your “Helen?”
What will happen when you realize that Helen’s “ultimate” beauty relies solely on the beholder?
Anywho, it’s time for me to shower before there’s no more hot water. Continue about my experience with human remains later!
6:03 PM (oh my, what a coincidence! I did not even have to fudge that! ☺)
I finished the database early and Carrie’s off doing yoga, so I slid back to my room. Yay! Okay, well now that I’m done with my rant of the day, I’ll go on to narrate my experience with THE HUMAN REMAINS LAB. I don’t think I could ever type that without it being caps. Hehehehe!
Anyway, yesterday I was talking to Carrie and we were just chatting about our interests in archaeology. She told me that she keeps telling Serena to put me in the human remains lab, but Serena says that it’s not “priority.” ☹ But anyway, so she talked to Scott who works in the human remains lab and he said he’d show me around and teach me a thing a two. ☺ And since Serena wouldn’t let me work in there, Carrie generously let me go during my work hours with her. Oh, what a sweet woman! At any rate, Scott is one of the few Americans here and OH MY GOD he looks like House from House. Hahahaah! The resemblance is uncanny, except for the fact that he’s balding…but still! He gave me a tour of the lab, explained what they did there, showed me some bones, and pretty much gave me a crash course of osteology in about 30 minutes. I was giddy and wide-eyed the entire time! He’s really nice too! I can’t believe he took time out of his day just to appease my interest. He even got out some books and went through them with me and brought to life…my bioarchaeology paper—WHICH IS STILL UP FOR GRABS IF YA’LL WANT TO READ IT (I’m glaring at YOU, Vina Vo!). Anywhhoooo, that pretty much made my year. Oh! And he studied the classics too but later switched to Egyptian archaeology. I used to want to do Egyptology but switched to Classics. How funny! He’s going to be my new best friend! *giddy
Oh, today I also got switched to the finds lab and it was not fun. It definitely calls for this face: -______-
I just wrote down sample and unit numbers and put new labels on the crates. Thank fricken god that I work for Carrie and she hooks me up with cool jobs! Oy! I feel bad for the others! How do they do that allllll daaayyyy looonnnggg?! I feel special. ☺ Carrie told me that we’re going to be rotating jobs with the other labs except for the figurines lab because they “hand-pick” their students (i.e. ME!). Muaahaahahaahahhahahahaah. I’m glad Carrie teaches at Stanford; that way, I can still stay in contact with her. I’ll probably eventually have class with her.
Anywho, my friends and I are going to watch Moulin Rouge. Until another time, my loves!
p.s. Scott totally didn’t say phalanges like how Phoebe says it. ☹ He says “FAH lun jus.”
p.s.s. Everyone’s morale is quickly deteriorating now…I personally don’t think it’s that bad, but maybe it’s because I have Carrie to save me. They’re seriously contemplating leaving early and talking to Serena about their meaningless jobs. Damn. Serious business! I mean, I understand that our assigned jobs suck, but without any training, what do they expect to do? It’ll take the archaeologists extra work and extra time to teach us how to do more complex jobs…they didn’t even know what stratigraphy or Harris matrixes were, for goodness’ sake! The jobs aren’t even that bad…a diva is no longer a female version of a hustler, my friends…a diva is a Stanford student who is stuck with mindless work. *snap finger
07.22.09
Mes amis,
Je suis si heureuse! Ce matin, Jules n’a pas eu un travail pour moi, et alors, je suis allée à Carrie pour travailler. Mais, heureusement, elle a un coeur d’or! Elle m’a dit que je pourrais traviller à Human Remains Lab si je veux, et…bien sur j’ai dit « Oui !» ☺ C’était le plus beau jour de ma vie!
I miss speaking in French. ☹ Some of my friends here know un peu, but that’s ce n’est pas suffit. Ahhh, I can’t wait to go to Paris! Only 3.5 more weeks! Jesus, I’m gonna be at Catal for a long time!
As I was saying, Jules didn’t have a job for me this morning in the finds lab so she told me to ask Carrie if she had anything for me. Carrie, being the saint that she is, said that I could go to the human remains lab if I wanted to. SO DUH OF COURSE I WENT! ☺ We totally did the secret exchange without permission…it’s about time!
The bones lab was the best lab I’ve worked in! I met Lori and she…well, let’s just say I wouldn’t mind having her as my cool aunt! Everyone in the bones lab was so unbelievably nice. In fact, they’re the nicest people I’ve met so far! When Lori told them that they “got a Stanford student,” they all quickly reacted with a “yay!” coupled with a sweet, sweet, sweet smile. *sigh I think I love them. ☺
Emmy took me under her wing and let me help her measure bones and sort them. Actually, she even let me try and sort out the teeth by myself! She gave me a book and a few cheat sheets…but they didn’t quite help, considering how I haven’t had any prior training in osteology. Nonetheless, it was still entirely enthralling and inspiring and *sigh I think I love them.
At any rate, I went back to the figurines lab after lunch and my job is now quite advanced. ☺ I’m juggling between three different databases and cross-referencing them with the archive reports. It takes forever to go through just one unit, but it’s satisfying to have to think and do some detective work.
Well, sorry to make this blog not so interesting and rather rushed, but my friends are hurrying me to go and play charades with them. They also want to chill at the bar, but I don’t think I’ll be joining them…far too tired.
7.23.09
Not much time to blog, so this will be an epicly short one. I’m at the hotel near Kapadokya, a really famous place in Turkey that rivals the Grand Canyon. Please look it up on account of I don’t have time to tell you. ☹ Sorry! But today basically consisted of this:
-worked and got to shadow some people from the conservation lab
-left to Kapadokya at 1 pm
-went wine tasting
-went to take epic pictures of Kapadokya
-went to eat at the most beautiful restaurant I have ever seen. I felt like I was in Italy.
-went back to the Hotel
Tomorrow, I’m going to go hiking to Kapadokya and probably go shopping around town for your souvenirs. ☺
Cheers!
7.24.09
-----
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See that? That was my expectation for Kapadokya.
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See that? See how you can’t even see how far up the top bar is anymore? That’s my reaction to Kapadokya!
The day basically started off with waking up from an award-winning sleep. After sleeping at Catalhoyuk for over a week, with my rock of a pillow and my thin-as-Mary-Kate mattress and this omnipresent musty odor (the result of a concoction of cigarettes, eau de FEET, and wet (aka sweat)-cleaned clothes), I truly appreciated the hotel. The pillow felt like a kiss from a rose. The bed made me feel like a virgin touched for the very first time. The clean air felt like I was dancing in the moonlight. The sit-down toilet—I knew I loved you before I met you. The clean showers, oh god must’ve spent a little more time on you. The lack-of-mysterious-fluids-all-over-the-bathroom unbroke my heart. The WIFI made me feel like a dancing queen. *Sigh
And now I’m back at Catal, and let’s just say, I’m never gonna dance again; guilty feet have got no rhythm. Yesterday…all my troubles seem so far away. Now it looks as if they’re here to stay…as well as all the mysterious fluids!
Anywho, we got some complimentary breakfast at the hotel and since we’ve been eating the same Turkish breakfast for the past two weeks, we tried our best to whip up some American breakfast. I mixed some corn flakes, raisins, and everything nice in hopes of assembling…Raisin Bran. Needless to say…it was not…delicious. ☹ We hopped on the bus and left to go to Kapadokya. You all probably googled it by now and probably know it better than me, so I won’t elaborate on it. ☺ But let’s just say I kept on making this face :O and gasping every few seconds. I’ll show you all pictures when I come back home. I’m getting really sleepy….I’ll continue this blog tomorrow. Who knows, I might even try to explain Kapadokya a little. ☺ Stay tuned!
7.25.09
Guess who’s back. Back again.
My slim shady headache. -_-
It was ridiculously difficult to wake up this morning. I got up at 6:55 AM and rushed to get ready for my wondrous day, only to discover that I was assigned to the excavation lab once a-gain. I woke up in a bad mood and my bad moodism only escalated as my task was gloriously sucky and my sleepiness was gloriously prevalent! Naturally, I traded in breakfast for a nap, and my dream was…well…as Cinderella says, “a dream is a wish your heart makes.”
In a nutshell, Dumbledore came to Catal and said that I had to leave RIGHT now! I actually protested and was rather heartbroken because I didn’t get to excavate yet…but you know Dumbledore…you don’t question his methods.
Anticlimax: I woke up and returned to my bad mood as well as my bad job. ☹ Man!
Well, I was planning on napping again but Laura and Mitchell are watching the OC in our room again…-__- So, I might as well detail my adventure from yesterday.
[Fail. I fell asleep for 10 minutes before returning to work.]
It is now 4 hours later and I have yet to detail my trip from yesterday, but I am in an even worse mood! I went to take a shower, the one happy moment I have left in my life!, and OF COURSE THERE IS NO WATER. I’m not even talking about no hot water. I’m talking about…NO WATER. AT ALL. WHAT THE HECK! Ahhhh!
Well it’s 7 minutes until I have to return to work. I’ll write in this later. -_-
I had to watch some Friends, but my bad mood has subsided. I don’t really know why I’m in such a horrible mood! I was in such great spirits yesterday! I even told Angela, and I quote, “I’m in such great spirits!” Well, at any rate, I might as well detail my “weekend trip.” Is it sad that I’m writing about my weekend trip after work…on Saturday?
Kapadokya is like nothing I have ever seen (in real life). Imagine the Grand Canyon. Now, imagine if people cut into the Grand Canyon and constructed monasteries in them! That is what Kapadokya is! But before I get into that, I should rewind and play back my trip to you…in HD (high detail). ☺
After work, we all got herded into the minibus (which, to our great, great, great surprise, actually had air conditioning) for what was to be a mere 3-4 hour ride. Turns out, we got herded into the world’s slowest minibus. Cows could move faster than us! Speaking of cows, you know how there are jokes about cows crossing the road, but no one’s ever really seen that happen back in the states? WELL, IT HAPPENED HERE. But it wasn’t like it really mattered, on account of our BUS WAS SO AMAZINGLY SLOW. 3-4 hours turned into a whopping 8-hour drive! How did that even happen? On the bright side, Marloes and Angela were a gas (gases?) to be around. We just gossiped and chatted about our past love lives. Hahahaha, it was quite a hoot! Oh the days of Ninja and that clingy-sloth-whose-name-shall-not-be-revealed-because-I-don’t-like-to-say-my-past-interests’-names. Anywho, to give the bus driver/bus (not sure whose fault it was) some credit, we did make a pit bathroom stop and we did make a pit wine tasting stop. ☺ The winery looked utterly Tuscan! Being archaeologists certainly has its perks because we just threw the name “Catalhoyuk” around and we got taken into the super secret wine cellar! After that, we got to do a little wine tasting and with a sip, I realized that I should REMEMBER that I don’t – LIKE – alcohol. Even fancy wine couldn’t woo me. Well anyway, after that we set off to go take pictures of Kapadokya at those “ideal picture-taking posts.” But, I only managed to take a few shots before I was lured away by the drifting sun. How can I describe the most scenic sunset I have ever seen? Oh, I know, with this!: [insert picture here]
After I was through being courted by the sunset, I cheated on it with my old flame (no pun intended), SHOPPING! I wanted to buy so many things, but I settled for just a bracelet (for now). The Turkish are really into this eye thingamabob that is supposed to protect you from evil. They have it on everything…everywhere! So I got myself a bracelet filled with one, and guess what…I got you all one too (CORE girls, that is. Not you other readers)! Yay! I feel like Oprah (except to you other readers)! Shortly afterwards, we headed back to a restaurant, and we traveled for a quite a while, what with getting lost, making u-turns, and getting stuck in tiny streets and all…and the funny thing was…the restaurant was right next to the winery. -__- Bloody brilliant. At any rate (that’s not true…more of at a really slow rate), we arrived at the restaurant and once again, we got hooked up because we’re from Catal. 20% off our meals! I was desperate for some beef because we mostly eat vegetable mush at Catal, so I ordered the special: the Dimrit Kabob. -__- It tasted like beef drowned in Catal’s vegetable mush. Such a disappointment! BUT, the free bread was surprisingly delicious. Of all the things I’ve eaten here so far, that bread was the absolute best. You think that sounds bad, but you haven’t tasted this bread! Oh, cool note about the restaurant: we sat out on the terrace and they had pashminas for us to protect ourselves from the cold. Yeah, it was actually cold in Turkey! Oh, I never mentioned the weather to you. It hasn’t been excruciatingly, agonizingly, sweat-pouring-when-I’m-not-even-moving hot yet! The first few days I was here, it was actually jacket-worthy chilly. It did start to get a little hotter, but now it’s starting to get cooler again. I’m actually really happy with the weather, and I’m a spoiled SoCal girl. ☺
Back to my trip, we were supposed to go clubbing, but since our minibus was as fast as I run (and mind you, I EXCLUSIVELY walk), we didn’t get back to the hotel until 11 PM and I was exhausted and yearned ever so deeply for slumber…on my CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN bed in my CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN hotel room! Plus, I exploited the wifi to talk to you guys. ☺ I try not to be so thoughtful, but I can’t really help it. I told you I’m like Oprah.
Oy, well everyone’s asleep in my room and my laptop light and my “once upon a midnight dreary” with all its “suddenly there came a tapping,” tapping on my keyboard is keeping up my roommates. I’ll continue this epic (the word has never been so true to its meaning) tale tomorrow.
7.26.09
Last time on Days of Kapadokya:
After being courted by Sunset and doing the forbidden dance with Shopping, Kelly chose Sleep over Clubbing, but then cheated on Sleep with Wifi! What will happen next?
Following that breakfast I spoke of about…oh, 2 blogs ago, we finally arrived at the actual site of Kapadokya. I already explained a bit about what it is, but I forgot to mention that there were religious murals inside these cave dwellings. The religion of choice after the days of the Byzantine Empire? Christianity. Elizabeth and I roamed through the different chambers, trying to capture every detail until…you may have to sit down for this…the event I’ve been dreading this entire time…happened: my batteries, well, let’s just say they went to a better place. ☹ Seeing as how I couldn’t take pictures anymore, I thusly generously let Elizabeth take plenty pictures of me! ☺ All’s well that ends well!
Should I explain Kapadokya poetically? I normally would at this point and elaborate on how ridiculously nerdy I get around historical sites, but I’m SO sleepy and tired and…I just really want to watch some Friends, man. So, you’re just going to have to use your imagination. You get the gist. ☺
But to continue, after two hours of roaming about, I bought the best ice cream I have ever eaten since the summer before 7th grade when I went to Italy. Mmmm so creamy, and smooth, and a teensy bit chewy…I normally don’t like vanilla, but man I could probably eat three of those in a row! Kirsten, don’t say “me too.” Or “Mmmmm, gelato.” Hahahaah. I can hear your stomach grumble all the way from here!
Besides the saliva-inducing ice cream, I had another incident that is worth noting. As I was looking through the gift shop, the salesman approached me and asked me for my ethnicity. Now, mind you, this is the fourth time this has happened since I’ve been here. The first time the salesman in Istanbul asked me if I was Korean. The second time, the guard at Catal asked me if I was Japanese. The third time, the salesman at Kapadokya straight up just said, in a matter-of-factly manner, “Anyanghasayo” or however one spells that word. I accordingly responded with, “Jigga, what.” And he said, “Korean?” And I said, “-__-” Then, another salesman at Kapadokya slid in front of me from out of nowhere and let out a “Ni hao.” I naturally said, “-_-” once again. I actually don’t mind people guessing my ethnicity, and it’s rather interesting how I, being the only Asian, was always the one questioned. And they were always wrong! After I said no to their initial guess, they continued to name every other Asian but Vietnamese. Oh! And after I informed the last salesman that I was indeed American and after he asserted with a blatant “No,” and after I was practically coerced to tattle on my ethnicity, another salesman slithered in and (sincerely) inquired how many days it would take to walk from Turkey to Vietnam.
Once again, “-__-”
It was pretty funny though, but I did make that face (inside my head) because it was such an absurd question! But, it’s fun to hear what ethnicity people think I am. Next time I should just start speaking in French and act as if I don’t understand English to see what they’ll do. Wouldn’t it be absolutely amazing if they spoke back to me in French? ☺ Yay! That might just bump down my human remains lab encounter! Hehehehe.
Back on track, we left Kapadokya and were taken hostage at this pottery making place. Why did I use the word hostage? BECAUSE! BECAUSE BECAUSE BECAUSE! Let me tell you a tale most tall but still horrific:
We were shuffled, side by side, into a small, cramped room of the pottery shop. Terror bled from our faces as we gazed around the room, uncertain and unaware. The room reeked of a sharp stench…
Two men entered. Before we could protest, before we could secrete any words of escape, they peeled our eyes open and slyly fastened them to the Potter. The Potter rolled up his sleeves and stared at us blankly. We never even had a chance.
He shot us all—just blew us away with his to-die-for skills. Kicking his feet ferociously, he ignited the spinning wheel of (clay) death and then it began. His hands…upon your (the clay’s) face. His hand…upon your hand. His lips…caress your skin. It’s more than I…can…stand. (All credit of those few lines goes to Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge).
But in all seriousness, as the Potter began to carve into the clay’s flesh, a salesman sat next to him and narrated the history of pottery/ceramics in Turkey. He had me at “terra cotta.” I love terra cotta! He explained that the shop still uses traditional pottery techniques that date back thousands of years! I never realized how much work goes into pottery, and they’re all done uniquely. For example, this one type of libation vase (with a style that originates from the Hittites) was made in separate pieces (the handle, the spout, the body, the neck) and then attached together. Also, the design of each pottery piece is idiosyncratic and no piece of pottery looks like each other.
You know I’m a sucker for historical stuff! ☹ And this is where my tale becomes a horror story: I got persuaded into buying that libation vase, which is “unique to only that town with a history that is rooted thousands of years” (stupid persuasive salesman!), as well as a Greek-influenced plate. How much did I spend? A whopping $197! Oh MY god! I regret it so much now! What was I thinking! Damn the impulsiveness of shopping! And that is with the 30% off special that we got because we’re from Catal! Anyway, I’m giving the libation vase to my mom and the plate to you, Chi Diem. It’s Greek, hehehe. *wink
But you see now why I used the word ‘hostage.’ We were sent there with a purpose. It was a massacre of shoppers. ☹
But afterwards, we went to eat at another beautiful restaurant. It was a flat rate of 22 liras for a whole 5 course meal. The food was pretty good. Nothing to rave about. I had baklava though! ☺ At the restaurant, I sat at a table with David, this guy who just finished his PhD at Cambridge. I swear, everyone is from Cambridge here! Annnyywayyy, he’s extremely down-to-earth. I really enjoyed talking to him; he told us about his TA experience at Cambridge, which is far too rated R for this blog, as well as college life in Britain. I’m thinking about going to grad school there! Did you know that the average time it takes to finish a PhD in the humanities in the states is 9 years?! 7 years is considered really fast. ☹ I’m never gonna get married! That’s because you’re required to take 3 years of coursework and then spend a whole year studying for this huge exam-that-I-forgot-the-name-but-determines-whether-or-not-you-pass, and then you spend time researching for your dissertation and then writing it up. OH my lemonnnn! ☹ ☹ ☹
BUT in Britain, you don’t have required coursework and you just go right into the research for your dissertation. The downside is that since you specialize right away, you won’t be as well-rounded as an American student and you won’t be as sought after. ☹ Oh, what to do!
I slept pretty much the entire bus ride back, with a Friends break as well as a showing-Marloes-my-picture-album break. That is all about Kapadokya! I must now shower.
P.S. I like how everyone says “Cheers” for thank you here. Hehehehe
Also, I forgot to also brag that we got into this special exhibit of Kapadokya for free because we pulled the Catal card again.
7.27.09
I just finished watching the episode of Friends where Ross “cheated” on Rachel while they were “on a break.” ☹
‘
See that? That’s the one tear that dramatically rolled down my cheek during the whole heart-smashing scene. But anyway, after clutching my blanket and weeping “No! No, Rachel, don’t leave him, you fool,” after my heart swelled up even worse than Ha’s when Ken and Barbie broke up (Ha, my condolences), a few…million thoughts swarmed my head. Why is my atheist self praying against all odds (damn those Friends writers! Damn all the writers!) that Rachel will forgive Ross? Why does it seem like such an easy and evident choice to me? Why am I writing this instead of going to sleep? I know what you’re all thinking, and of course the answer is embarrassingly blatant, but I just wanted to take a moment and try to sort out my thoughts.
Growing up, Detachment was my father figure, and well, my mom was a shadowy silhouette who I knew nothing about except that I loved her. There are a lot of details in between that I don’t want to mention, but in the end, I turned out to be an intuitive kid—intuitive, ergo, I was the girl in the iron mask. The dynamics of my family life was unhinged, so I resolved at a young age that the door to my life would be nothing less than an entire citadel. In retrospect, I’m not sure if instilled in my mind was the fear of “getting hurt” or the fear of misunderstanding—both for myself and who I’ve prematurely succumbed into, and for my parents who, in my opinion, were simply yearning for, well basically, happiness.
But more than anything, I understood detachment; not in the sense of what it was, but in the sense of what they were. I was detached from people, detached from ardent feelings, detached from anything that could potentially leave me. Of course, I was attached to the things and the people I trusted, which were few but enough. But besides that obvious detachment that immediately waltzes into our head, I learned to be detached from my own desires and my own perspective in order to not only catch a glimpse of other people’s minds, but also to be able to empathize with them. Simply put, it’s easy to judge when you’re not directly involved in the situation.
And that is why I am so fricken in love with Ross & Rachel—their relationship doesn’t have any consequences or any influence, which is usually the case with, you know, non-real life occurrences, and that’s why I’m so attached to the idea of their “soul mate-ism.” Realistically, they make a horrible couple! I don’t even see how they would mesh…I don’t even believe in soul mates!
Monica and Chandler on the other hand…hahaha
But anyway, enough about that. On to my day!
Work is work is work is work. Ian Hodder and Lynn Meskell came back today from who knows where; they peace out every once in a while to work on chapters for the upcoming books. The whole point of a study season, after all, is to publish the project’s advancement and work from the past 6 years. Ian (hehe, I’m just going to call him that in my blog from now on so I can feel..um, what’s the word, oh yes…badass) wanted to meet with us to see how we’re doing, and oh my, he is such a sweetie pie! Not only does he have the gentlest voice I have ever heard, and not only does he have a delicious British accent, he radiates benevolence. The first thing he did was thank us for putting up with the tedious workload. I already melted by this point. But he goes on to say that though our work seems menial, it’s extremely important because it’s still a part of the whole archaeological process. They’re on a tight schedule and without us, they wouldn’t be able to make the deadline. Wow, way to make us seem way more significant than we are! And way to make us love you! I was an entire sea of love by this point. *sigh
But to reverse my sea of love, a lot of people are leaving because it’s the end of the study season. ☹ Carrie is leaving tomorrow morning…poo…she was like my mentor here. My mentor and my savior. Hmm, why does that description sound familiar…
Anyway, I can’t deal with all this sadness oozing all over the place. Yuck. Here’s some comedic relief:
I was a happy-go-lucky girl. That is, until The Incident.
I was just sitting at the dinner table, eating my vegetable mush like a good girl, chatting and laughing, when all of a sudden, THIS HAPPENED:
()
What the heck was that?! I chewed something that did not quite feel like it belonged in the vegetable mush since it was, uhh, hard! So I spat it out and this is what it looked like: ()
What the heck?! At first, I thought it was an uncooked bean, but Elizabeth erupted with this inane laughter. I kept reassuring her (or was it myself) that it was just an uncooked bean, but she couldn’t stop laughing to explain herself! She finally let out a, “It’s a cherry pit!!!!!”
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT THE BEANS IS A CHERRY PIT DOING IN MY VEGETABLE MUSH?!
☹
I don’t know why this place doesn’t have 5 stars! -__-
I accordingly lapsed into a not-so-fine frenzy and sobbed without tears. One of the Turkish women was passing by when she saw me, stopped to mimic my crying, and proceeded to hug me. It was so cute! We were just laughing by this point. I think she really likes me. She’s the woman who babysits one of the archaeologist’s baby and since the I always play with the baby and since the baby particularly fancies me, the lady also fancies me. ☺ She always smiles at me and brings the baby to me. Hehehehe.
Well, I didn’t know what to do with my cherry-pit-eating-self, so I went to drown myself in a chocolate ice cream bar. Since we were at Saddretin’s café, we spontaneously decided to go around the site (it’s a 1.5-2 mile walk).
…let’s just say I was/am so angry that I didn’t have my camera on me! __ ←see that? It took my breath, that’s how gorgeous it was!
7.28.2009
Dear all,
Don’t you hate it when you don’t know what to call someone because of their advanced education?! For example, I used to call Carrie Dr. Nakamura before I actually met her in real life, so I couldn’t switch right away…it was a slow process, but now I call her Carrie. But now I have the same problem with Ian Hodder and Lynn Meskell. I’ve always called Ian Hodder Professor Hodder, but everyone calls him Ian, so I feel dumb referring to him as anything other than Ian. ☹ What a problem! The same dilemma goes for Lynn Meskell…
To them, I call them by their professional name, but when I’m talking to other people, I call them Ian and Lynn. SOOOOO AWWKWARRRDD… I feel dirtier calling them by their first name than when I curse.
Well anyway, I forgot to mention that during our meeting with Ian Hodder (Oh my god, I can’t even write his first name without his last name), Angela, who is extremely depressed and resentful of Catalhoyuk, suggested to him to alter the field school for next year. To balance out the tedious work, she suggested that we have more lab tours so that we’d actually learn something and get a feel for what each field is all about. So, at 8AM today, we got a tour of the GIS lab. GIS is so boring to me, man…it’s geographic information systems, and basically archaeologists use the system to map out the different layers of the site and record data. You can subsequently pick and choose which data to incorporate in the maps, make 3D business, etc etc etc all that good stuff. We also had another tour after lunch, and this time it was the pottery lab. The pottery lab is much, much, much more tolerable than the GIS lab. It’s unbelievable all the things you could learn from just pottery! For example, you can study the changes of the pottery (whether it’s the material or the style or the usage)! Here’s a little tidbit: in level 12 of Catalhoyuk, people mixed in straws and grains and such into their pottery, but as you progress through the levels, they started to use minerals instead. Also, the pottery became thinner and smoother. What does this mean? It means that though they knew how to make pottery since the establishment of Catalhoyuk, they didn’t use them for cooking, they just used them as containers. It wasn’t until they started to use the minerals that they started to cook in the pottery. Cool, huh?! Also, you can analyze the residue on the pottery to figure out what the pottery was holding 9000 years ago. ☺ Not to mention that around level 5, people’s creativity developed and the pottery began to have a bit of decoration on them.
Still, it just pretty much reassured my desire to specialize in human remains.
Anywho, remember that Turkish lady who fancies me? It’s quite fabulous to be in good terms with the workers here because they can hook you up! She gave me brownies that were baked for the guests. Hehehe. Yay!
So, since Carrie left, I’m going to be working closely with Lynn Meskell for the rest of the time here. Tomorrow, we’re going to have a meeting with someone name Sarah about the database. Lynn asked me if I was going to be there for the meeting and I said yes and she replied with, hehehehe, “Oh, good. Thank goodness.” Guess who my new best friend is gonna be…hahaha, just kidding, Vina. Lovesss youuu. Too bad she’s going on sabbatical this upcoming year. ☹ Poo.
7.30.09
BZZZZZ.
BZZ BZZZZ
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
*slap
Besides the pesky flies, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, name-any-bugs-you-can-think-of-okay-not-really, I have been nibbled by another bug.
The
Love
Bug.
Have you ever had a sort-of-crush-kind-of-thing-but-not-really-because-you-don’t-want-to-date-them-or-do-anything-romantic-with-them-but-they-make-you-giddy-inside? Those sort of…crushes…when one…falls…for…an idol?
Yes, like how I feel about Ian Hodder. Hehehehehehehe *blush
But, I have developed another man crush. Yes, I thus dubbed this complex feeling, “man crush.” Doesn’t it sound cute? ☺ Who is it?
I can’t tell you!
So today, I woke up and brushed my teeth and washed my face and went to work and alskdjflasjdlfkl
Okay, I’ll tell you! Stop yelling at the screen, Ha! ☺
It’s with Scott. Remember him? He’s the guy who showed me around the Human Remains lab! Hahahaha, he’s almost 40, but oh my, I am just so attracted to him! I think I’m more attracted to his skill than anything. It’s just so appealing when someone is exceptionally good at something. *sigh
Especially when it’s human remains. *lick my lips. HAHA just kidding!
And he dresses really well too! Skinny jeans, nice flannel, straw fedora hat, Rayban glasses…He’s so happenin’ for an almost-40-year-old. It doesn’t hurt that he looks like Hugh Laury too. :]
Oh! And today, when we were getting a preview of excavating, one of the guys who showed us the ropes (quite literally…haha I kid again! We’re high tech now) looked sooooOOOoooo unbelievaaabllyyyy familiar. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. I noticed him right away, but I didn’t know why I was so drawn to him.
Guess.
Fricken.
What.
He looks like CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW SANS LONG HAIR! You don’t even know how happy I was when I finally figured it out! He even talks like him! Besides the fact that he’s British, he’s a huge jokester and he slurs his word just like Cap’n Jack himself!
!!!!!!!!!!!
Why am I surrounded by irresistible men who are twice my age?! ☹
Oh, and the other man was Scottish and he looked like a big leprechaun. Hahaha! I know leprechauns are Irish, but oh what the hell. His accent is really cute and he’s the jolliest man I’ve ever met. Here’s a funny scene between these two men when we were on the mound:
James (he’s the Cap’n Jack Sparrow one): Roddy, where did you get that laptop cover?
Roddy (the leprechaun): What?
James: That laptop cover, where did you get it?
Roddy:…
James: Where did you get it?!
Me (in my head): damn, James must really like that laptop cover to want to find out where he bought it that badly….
Roddy: On the shelf. Why?
James: Because it’s mine, you bastard!
Roddy: *hugs the laptop cover * But it was on the shelf!
James: It’s mine! Give it back. Bloody bastard! *snatches it *
Roddy: ☹
James: Bastard… *chuckles
Hahahaah!!!!!!!! Remember, that entire conversation switched between a British accent and a Scottish accent. Oh, made my day.
Actually, what made my day was that I found out Lynn Meskell needs me. ☺ After I finished entering the inventory business for the figurines (ugh…9000 artifacts…from 1993-2008!), she wanted me to go over the database with her. I showed her all the different processes I had to go through and what I did, etc etc etc technical stuff etc etc etc, and then! AND THEN! ☹ We discovered that Carrie copied the wrong database and there was a lot of information missing! Information that I, myself, spent days researching and detective-working and inputting! ☹ Professor Meskell was freaking out, so I told her to calm down and that I’ll go through all the different databases again and cross-reference them and fix up everything. She breathed a little and barely turned a normal shade of LIFE, so I told her that I’ll do this one part of her job too so her life will be easier. Plus I understand the database better. I am no longer Oprah. I am fricken…
What’s better than Oprah?…
Anyway, to go backwards, I forgot to write about my experience last night. We all went out to the bar and since Jules is leaving (I love Jules! She’s one of those genuinely nice people), Roddy chopped down a tree to burn for the bonfire. We sat around the bonfire and just mingled and watched Jules burn her worn-down excavation clothes. It was rather exhilarating! Hahah. I’m not going to burn mine! It was hard enough trying to find them and I’ll need them for years to come. I’m actually one of the few stylish archaeologists here! Hahaha, actually, a lot of people are really, really, really, really, I-know-I-couldn’t-believe-it-either, really, really stylish here. I’m becoming quite the Bohemian. Notable detail of the night: Yildiz wandered off into the abyss and returned with a huge pitch fork (a pitch fork! Can you believe it?!) full of dead wheat-like-things to sacrifice to the fire. It was such a memorable sight. Pitch fork…*slaps knee
To continue with this extremely jumbled blog, let’s return to midday of today. After lunch, James and Roddy took us all up to the south mound (that’s where we’ll be excavating) to teach us about planning. Planning is basically the stuff we need to do before we can actually start to excavate; so we have to measure the levels with this high-tech device, map out the different layers, plan out the different features, etc etc etc. I already told you about James and Roddy’s showdown, but what I didn’t tell you was the MOST EXCITING FRICKEN MOMENT OF MY BEAUTIFUL LIFE!!!!!!!!!
GET READY!
GIRLS, GRAB SOME ICE CREAM!
BOYS, GRAB SOME GIRLS!
I!
I, KELLY NGUYEN!
I, KELLY NGUYEN, SAW!!!
I!!!!
SAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHH!!!
I CAN’T EVEN TYPE IT!!!!!!
EFF!!!
AS JAMES WAS EXPLAINING HOW TO MEASURE THE LEVELS, TIFFANY SAT IN THIS HOLE AND STARTED TO BRUSH AWAY AT THE DIRT…
AND AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
WE STARTED TO SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
THE REMAINSSSSSSSSS
OFFFFFFFFFF
AAAAAAAAAAA
HUMAN!!!
A NEOLITHIC HUMAN! EFF!
EFF!
EFF!
EFF!!!!!
I SAW THE RIBS!
I almost swooned with excitement. I did let out a teensy yelp though. I totally call excavating that building. CALLED IT!!
Alright kids, I’m going to go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day. We’re all catching a bus to this really touristy, really urban, beach town. ☺ BEACH TRIP! We get two, count them, two!!!, whole days off.
