Hamily, Shreddie, & the Wink Ninja

Time is just flying – I cant believe I have been gone for a month. I left Toronto a month ago today. Unbelievable. We only have a week and half more school, and then on to the whirlwind tour of Europe! Every time I sit and reflect on everything I am overwhelmed - it has been, and continues to be, such an amazing experience. It's exciting that the heads of the school are so impressed with my work; I asked for a "progress report" last week and they couldn't think of a single thing to improve upon. I am really hoping to ask them for reference letters for my PhD application before I leave. Speaking of phd applications, I have finally picked a topic (small miracle!) My applications are starting to take shape as I already have a rough draft ready to go. I am finding that writing drafts of my applications for studying and grant funding is going much better with a glass of white wine on the side of the bright blue Agean Sea. Simply amazing.


Speaking of how amazing it is here, I went for a run yesterday. There is a scenic loop, mostly dirt road with lots of hills, about 6-8Km, and I got over ¾ of the way around it in the heat of the day before I needed a break. The swimming must be paying off…but the point of this is to say HOW BEAUTIFUL this island is! I remember feeling this sense of dread getting off the plane and looking at my surroundings - so arid and hot and mountainous - to the point that it is almost imposing in a negative way - but now I just cannot see it as anything but beautiful. When I walked for my little break it was at a point in the road with goats in farmers pastures on both sides. They all have little bells tied around their necks. It was so peaceful; just the little bells trilling away on both sides, and it echoed up both sides of the valley. So amazing. I often forget to just stop and admire this place.


For example: here's a photo of the sun coming up over Chora. I know I post these all the time, but this is my current favorite:

This makes getting up at 5:30am six days of the week totally worthwhile.

Anyway the real purpose of this post is to tell you about the awesome nicknames Emily, Gen and I have acquired this trip. The first name, "Hamily," came about when we were discussing how much more awesome Emily would be if we fused our collective brainpower. So Emily is now known as Hamily, for whatever reason. Even better is "Shreddie," which is short for the "Deer Shredder." One night at dinner, Gen was telling everyone how she hunts for deer and how she can pluck a bird in one motion with one hand. One of the other girls didn't hear the bit about the bird though, so she asked if Gen could really skin a deer with one hand. Hence, the "Deer Shredder" was born. This nickname is particularly excellent because before we leave for anywhere we yell "READY SHREDDIE?" which will never be anything but funny. Equally funny is my remix of Aerosmith's "Janie's got a gun," which is now "Shreddie's on the Run." Amazing. Finally, the Wink Ninja was born at dinner one night when we realized I am the only person here who cannot wink. That's right - I just can't do it. And so - now I am known as the Wink Ninja.


The best part about all of this? The heads of the field school routinely call us Hamily, Shreddie, and Ninja. Amazing.

Happy Slaps-giving

Yet another successful few days up in the lab! I finished the two-baby burial and moved onto a small sieve job. The small sieve job was finished by 8 am this morning as the only contents were two tiny fragments of bone so I have finished 3 boxes already this week. I have started yet another sieve job that will be done by lunch tomorrow, so minimum 4 boxes this week!

In other news, Gen, Em and I have decided to invoke the rule of "Slapsgiving." Here is how it works: Emily is the "slap commissioner" and can award Gen and I slaps for good work in the lab (such as finding ear ossicles). We can use the slaps on any of the people involved on any day of the week, with each slap costing us one slap point. The only day we have unlimited slaps are Monday, as that is the day of "Slapsgiving," and the only rules are no hitting in the face. All other bets are on. Anyway, I have 7 slap points left this week, so I am planning a slap-fest for Gen tomorrow (don't tell her)! This all sounds really cruel and mean, but its actually pretty funny and forces us to keep on our toes, and think up new ways to torture our roommates.

Anyways- tomorrow is saturday - hooray!

Some Favorite Places

Hello again! Nothing much to report, other than my latest excavation has ... two babies. Again. This burial is sequentially numbered from my last burial, and the last one was missing a head. And I found some spare cranial bones in this burial, so I think I may have located the other baby's missing noggin! This was discovered when I found 6 ear bones in the sieve (3 per side, but the stapes is incredibly difficult to find; so I located 4 Incus and 2 Malleus). The increase in number of babies from 1 to 2 was confirmed by the sphenoid bodies and petrous portions (bones in your head for you non-bone-heads). Very neat.

In other news, I have decided to post some more photos of my favorite places on the island. They are especially beautiful in the morning, which is why I like waking up extra early and walking the long way around.

Passing the series of family-owned ossuary-style burial buildings at sunrise en route to the lab

The windmills leading to the town square in Chora

The ruins of the old castle

Happy birthday, Cheyenne!

Today is Tuesday, and I really don't have that much that is new to report (sorry!). I finished a new burial yesterday and am working on a new one. Its quite interesting - a very complete skeleton, but in a very poor state of preservation, so it is taking me a long long time to excavate.

Last night I went for a lovely walk with Emily after school as Gen was quite ill - she had a terrible migraine. We went for a hike all around town and up the mountain, and then went to a really neat cafe called Archipelago which is on the side of the cliff between Levadi and Chora. We had hot chocolate with baileys, and it was AMAZING! Best hot chocolate ever (and amazing company!).

Today is Cheyenne's birthday, (she is another girl here in field school) so we decided to surprise her with a little party in the port. We all have a few drinks and then headed back for dinner. Octopus balls are starting to grow on me - they might not be as gross as initially feared!! Then we had delicious pastries filled with custard for dessert....definitely no complaints here!

I must admit that while I love it here I am starting to feel a bit beat down and tired - I could really have done with two days off this weekend to catch up. All the early mornings paired with the ridiculous heat (its a record summer here, we haven't had a breeze in nearly a week, so over 45F daily) I am just exhausted, and a little bit homesick. Definitely missing the fam and Fern!

That's all for now - I am likely going to go for another walk to try to settle down for the evening (and here's hoping I can avoid the lure of that hot chocolate again!)

Best Day Ever!

So last night and today have been amazing. Last night we went all went out for fancy dinner since it was Saturday, and Emily and I wore our new dresses that we bought in town earlier this week. After dinner we headed back to the yacht club to watch the sun go down and have a few drinks.

New dresses!

Chora lighting up

The Castle in Chora

After the yacht club we went up to the main town square where there was some amazing traditional dancing and music going on, and the crowd was HUGE. It was like the entire island turned out for the event. All the tourists got roped into dancing too. It was such a neat experience. After that, Gen and I went and sat on the beach until 2am talking. She is such a wonderful person, and I am so glad I have gotten to know her better this trip.

This morning I was woken up by Em and Gen, who made an even better "EPIC MEALTIME" breakfast edition. Gen made a giant corned beef hash with eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and invited a bunch of people over, so we had a great breakfast with a lot of wonderful people with some excellent tunes playing out of my computer.

After delicious breakfast, we went to the beach for a swim and float which was lovely. Its nice and hot here today, so the water is extra nice! Later we are all going back into town for dinner and to sit in the port. All in all, a lovely day!

Me working hard

#3 Complete!

Today I finished excavation number 3! I started working on number four - a small ball excavation with no orientation (so no need to map) and should be done by the end of monday. But tonight is Saturday night, which means fancy dinner! Emily and I are going to wear the new dresses we bought this week, Ill try to take some good photos and post them tomorrow.

Thursday night we had a field school "pub quiz" night where we broke into our four rooms headed by our TA's and tackled a general knowledge quiz. I generally did pretty well, but our room didn't win the competition, which stinks, because the prize is a two hour rental of a sweet paddle boat they have in the bay here with a slide WELDED ONTO IT. Coolest thing EVER.

Yesterday was pastry day! I got a piece of the mysterious "Chocolate Pie" and Em got more baklava. Gen bought some cookies. Mine was the worst, and it was still pretty good. Nothing seems to top the baklava though!

I did my best swim EVER today. I swam across the bay and back without stopping once, front crawl the entire way. I am so happy - I can feel myself getting stronger every day, which is a bonus since I just applied for this awesome TV show. Ill keep you posted if I get a call back (I'm really hoping I do!)

So all in all a pretty solid week. No complaints, as per usual. :-)

mmmm. chocolate pie.

Bakery box

#2 - Done

Today I finished the soil ball excavation I’ve been working on before breakfast (it should have been done yesterday but we had a one hour GIMP & Inkscape tutorial so cataloguing got pushed back again). My next excavation came in a giant vodka box (the TA keeps giving me booze boxes; the first one was whiskey, the one I just finished was Tequila) and when I opened it…. MUSH. I guess the pot was excavated during the one rainy day of the year here, and the poor baby has been sitting in a box filled with soggy clay since 2003. It made me really, really cross. Anyway, I took the overall photos and then removed the soil and let it air dry the rest of the day. It looks like it will be a giant sieve job with a small excavation to complete (which will probably need mapping, so this burial will likely take me AGES!) While I was waiting for the burial to dry out, I helped Anna & Emmy work on the adult cemetery remains that were found one hill over from the baby cemetery. All of the remains are extremely fragmented, so it was a challenge identifying all the small pieces. Having spent two and a bit weeks just focusing on neonatal remains, I was shocked to remember exactly how big we are – as Ive spent all week cleaning bones the size of my pinkie fingernail it was a big step going back up to the fragments the size of my fist.

I thought for a change I should write about how Asty compares with home. Astypalaia is so different from home in so many ways. Not just the obvious ones (like how hot it gets here, or the fact that tiny one room houses are the norm) but also in terms of how people conduct their every day life.

Everyone gets up very late here. When we leave for work at 6:30, the only critters that are awake are the blasted roosters and the stray cats of the island (there are so many of them!) Most people seem to get up around 9-ish, and the cafes open at 10 at the earliest. They don’t serve breakfast until after 10:30; many only serve toast until 11:30 when eggs are available.

Then the greeks work until around 1 to 2-ish, and then all the shops and stores close for a few hours while everyone goes home and has a nap during the hottest part of the day. This, I think, is awesome. I’ve always been an avid fan of naptime! I think I am going to adopt this aspect of greek lifestyle permanently when I get home, because then I get so much more done in the evening!

Then the shops and cafes open again, usually around 5ish. The bars open at 10 or 11, but live entertainment never starts before about 2am. Since we get up so early, there’s no way I will ever see any of the local bands playing!

This lifestyle doesn’t cause any problems for us, except occasionally breakfast or lunch is late since the Greeks are never in any particular hurry to get anywhere at any particular time.

I quite like the arrangement except that all of the shops are closed when field school lets out for the day, which means if you want anything from town you have to climb demon hill a second time in the evening.

That’s all for now; I am presenting in the seminar tomorrow so need to go finish my readings and write out my summary. We are also having a "pub quiz" night tonight, so I'm sure there will be some entertaining stories to post tomorrow!

Things I Miss

Today was another good day. I have made excellent progress on my burial, so it should be done by tomorrow. Ill be happy with a 3 day turnaround on my first solo soil ball (which has ended up being pretty difficult, just for a change). The goal is to finish a soil ball in 2 days. Today I lost about 90 minutes as we had a lecture, and yesterday we finished nearly an hour early, so I figure I am not too far off goal time!

We have settled into a really nice routine here. Every morning we leave between 5:45 and 6, and we walk around 3/4 of the way together. I go the long way, which is more difficult but the view is better. Em and Gen usually go the shorter way. Then we do yoga or stretch, and then Gen makes Em and I coffee. We hang out until about 7:15, and then work until breakfast is called around 9-9:15. We take a short breakfast break (usually 20-30 minutes). For breakfast, Em and I trade duties: one day I will make us both coffees and she will make our "cereal:" greek yogurt with muesli and a bit of local honey (on fridays we add a blob of nutella - so delicious!), and the next day we switch duties. Lunch varies - its either sandwiches or a local lunch treat like ham and cheese pies. Then we walk back down the hill of doom for dinner - its different every night. Last night was Moussaka, which is my FAVORITE thing that I have tried here. I am going to miss it so much when I go home, its what I get every Sunday for lunch.

On the note of "Missing Things," I have made a list of stuff I miss as 32% of my trip is complete. In a completely random order:

1) Real shower: aka with shower curtain and cold water! The pipes for the shower here are outside so get super hot during the day. In other words, hot water, all the time. No exceptions. Boo.

2) Salmon burgers: Oh Giant Eagle (grocery store in PA), how I miss thee, and your ready made feta and spinach salmon burgers and everything else you have conveniently prepackaged.

3) Couch: I miss the couch in Fern's basement. We don't have a single couch here, only hard wooden chairs, no pillows anywhere, and I don't like them. Neither does my bum, especially post-jellyfish.

4) Sully: Every day I wake up and look at a picture of the best horse to ever walk the face of the planet. Sully, aka Squeaky-Dee, aka Sullivan the magnificent, aka Squeakers, aka Soily-bum is THE DUDE of the horse world. I miss him and our afternoon tea breaks.

5) Family: In case you didn't know, I do have the best family in the world. End of sentence. I mean, check out the dedication-faces they pull on Skype:

This is the face of concern at the eldest child deciding to dig for bones 5000 Miles from home.

6) Extra Pillow: I have 2 pillows here. One is a rectangle and squishy, my extra pillow is a square and is made of concrete. Uhm.... weird. And useless. And painful.

7) Espresso Machine: Team Roque has the best espresso machine in the world. If I ever leave again, I'm bringing it with me.

8) Laundry machines: I am already bored with hand-washing smelly archaeology underwear. It isn't pleasant.

9) Fern: I also have the best boyfriend in the universe. I really dislike that his work schedule puts him at his desk every single time I have a free afternoon. Boo.

10) Sandy/Pogo/Lacey: Whether I am in Canada or the USA, there are 2 cats or a small elderly-yet-hyperactive dog to greet me when I come home. The apartment here is way too empty.

Obviously, there are a lot of things that are awesome about being here - but I will save them for another day. While I miss these 10 things - I love Astypalaia, and I am SO GLAD I came. I am learning tons, and having a great time being here.

Jellyfish!

I had an amazing day off yesterday! My room mates and I walked into Chora for dinner, then went shopping and stopped for gelato on the way home. We watched the movie "The Emperor's New Groove," while Emily let some Olive oil soak into her hair (my recommendation since her hair has been suffering with swimming nearly every day). End result: awesome day, and Em once again has awesome hair.

This morning Gen and I got up early to walk up the Chora before 6:00AM with Em and another field school student to do some yoga as the sun rose over the ocean. It was beautiful, but man am I sore!

Today I worked on my own burial ... I have one poorly preserved baby in a soil ball so I spent the day exposing the bones and prepping them for removal. Tomorrow I have to map my soil ball and then remove the bones, and hopefully will also screen all the soil so that I can clean, photograph, and put the remains into their storage box all organized and clean on Wednesday.

In other news, Em and I swam front crawl across to the wall and back without any breaks today! It was really exciting until I felt a sting. Now I have a giant rash across my bum and lower back... turns out I swam through a herd of jellyfish. So not cool.

This really is the year of weird injuries I guess...

Mega Update Time!

Sorry there hasn’t been an update in a few days! Yesterday was busy busy from start to finish, and I had nothing new to report on Friday, so today’s blog post is going to be extra long to try to make up for it!

Friday in the lab I basically spent the day cleaning, identifying, bagging and tagging Individual A, Individual B, and the Unassigned material. Basically how we decided to handle having two individuals was by grouping bone from the same regions of the burial together, so I excavated Individual B while Mel and Natasha excavated A. All of the bones that were not located in a clear group or that were removed before we realized we had two babies were grouped together in the Unassigned category. Sorting out dentition took forever as we had two sets of teeth that were found in the same area of the burial. Dr. Hillson came in and helped me sort them out (which was exciting because he agreed with a lot of the groupings I had made AND I correctly identified the majority of them). He then sorted the remaining teeth into two categories based on size and morphology, and the two sets were assigned to the Individual A and B as one of the babies was larger than the other.

Saturday we completed all of the photography of the skeletal elements (which took forever as all three groups were photographed separately) and then took all the measurements for all of the long bones, teeth, and other key bones. Next, we completed all of the paperwork for all three groups of bones. Then, right before breakfast, we placed the babies into their storage tub, all cleaned, organized, and most importantly – together (they were buried together for a reason). I then walked them over to the storage room, and was thrilled because I was happy with the quality of the work I did on a very difficult job.

I spent the rest of the day running Mel’s burial dirt through the sieves (with safety glasses, of course) and finished with about 30 minutes left in the day. Then I cleaned the lab and prepped my station for Monday – I will be working on all the burials alone from now on (not everyone in the school has permission or has chosen to work alone). The boss of the entire project is flying in from Rhodes on Monday so I am excited to be working alone and completely in charge of my station. Then I was assigned my next burial, and took the first sets of photos. I think this is going to be another great burial – it may even be a soil ball excavation (instead of a sieve job or sieve job with small soil balls which is what I just worked on). Most interestingly, the burial is packaged in a tequila bottle box, so I have good vibes for this burial.

After school Em, Gen, and I walked down to the port for a bailey’s frappe to catch up and fill each other in on our days as I don’t see them often in the lab. After enjoying our delicious beverages we walked back to Levadi to change for dinner. We all decided to dress up for our weekly Saturday evening dinner up at Virginia’s restaurant.

Moi!

Part of the crew before dinner

The food was delicious – as usual – and the company was excellent. Everyone was in high spirits. Dr. Hillson made a lovely speech commending our first full week’s work (has it only been a week and half of school?). After dinner, which was greek salad, octopus balls (but awesome ones this week), lamb balls, zucchini fries, potato fries, giant beans and zucchini balls, we headed down to the yacht club with the supervisors for some after dinner drinks. We watched the sun set behind Chora, and I was able to take some lovely photos – hence the new banner at the bottom of the blog!

Chora at Night

After a few beers, we headed back to Levadi and spent the rest of the evening teaching everyone how to play flip cup. After that, it was bed time!

This morning Gen made me eggs, bacon, toast and coffee using the little electric plate in our kitchenette – it was FABULOUS! I have missed cooked breakfasts immensely, and so Gen’s “Epic Mealtime” (in greek: epicos yevmas) was wonderful. We have spent the rest of our days off snoozing, bumming around, doing laundry, and just relaxing to prepare for tomorrow. Tonight the plan is to walk into Chora for dinner and gelato, and then come back to watch the movie The Emperor’s New Groove before bedtime (next Sunday’s movie will be Tangled).

Epic Meal Time!

Safety Glasses = Friend

Today kind of stank. I didn't get anywhere near enough work done on with the babies' burial, mostly because I spent a while in the local hospital.

To cut a long story short, I woke up on the wrong side of bed today and was generally grumpy. I try to avoid the negative thinking / bad karma side of life, and today I got what I deserved I guess... while running the soil from the burial through the sieves the wind picked up and I got something stuck in my eye. Now, usually I wear glasses when screening (always wear them at forensic scenes due to potential hazards) but it just completely slipped my mind here as no one wears glasses to screen. Big mistake.

Anyway, the lovely Greek archaeologist who is working with the school and overseeing the work took me to the doctor right away. The doctors, which is also the hospital (think Doc Martin....) was a waiting room and then one other room with a bed for the patient, the doctors equipment, and the doctor's desk. It was tiny! I suppose you don't need a big facility for a town of less than 800. Now I see why breaking a bone is a big deal out here... you have to travel all the way to Athens just for an x-ray.

Anyway, the doctor said she couldn't see anything in my eye, and flushed it. After flushing it the first time, I could still feel the particle stuck up there so she flushed it again. That helped immensely and I felt better straight away. She gave me eye drops and antibiotics to prevent infection, and then warned me not to go swimming or go near dust for 24 hours.

Then I walked back to the lab, and started cleaning and cataloguing the bones from our burial, which is a tedious and tiring job. It is very frustrating, as many of the bones are held together by dirt. We clean them with acetone and cotton swabs, which sometimes removes so much dirt that the bones break. Then you have to glue them back together. I get a little bit upset when the bones break, so the eye ordeal + breaking and glueing just added to my crankiness. Then I realized I couldn't swim, so I got very upset and whined a good deal to Em and Gen, who are good sports and listened well and then bought me a bottle of wine to pay me back from the whine (haha.)

After dinner, I went into Chora with another girl from field school who attends the downtown U of T campus. Her name is Victoria, and she is a total sweetheart. She let me drag her all over Chora searching for souvenirs for my family, and after a 2 hour long mission, I felt much much MUCH better.

Now I am back in Levadi for the evening. Lesson of the day: always wear your safety glasses, even when you think you don't need them!

I'm On a Boat!

After watching a stunning sunrise while walking to the lab in the morning, I fixed myself a cup of coffee and speed reviewed my notes.

Sunrise in Chora

As soon as class started at 7:00am, the entire class wrote the juvenile osteology bell ringer followed by the lab methods theory test. I suppose it’s too early to really judge it but the bell ringer seemed to go incredibly well. I took a lot of time on the dentition questions because I really struggled with adult dentition, and other than that there was only one question that had me a bit stumped. We were allotted 2 minutes per question, and I finished nearly every station in under 15 seconds! The theory test was a bit more difficult; I think I spent too much time studying for the other component. Oh well – I feel fairly confident about both tests.

After breakfast (new favorite creation: cornflakes and greek yogurt with a drizzle of Astypalaia honey… delicious) we had about an hour of free time before the boat came to pick us up! Emily, Gen, and I decided we should take a team picture with our Tilley hats. The wind picked up as we were trying to do so, and this is the result:

Getting Ready for the Photo shoot

Where'd it Go????

Finally, success!

After the photo attempts, we headed down into the harbor to wait for the boat, which arrived at 11am. We all got onto the boat, and then waved good-bye to Chora and Levadi (where we are staying) and headed South around the tip of the island, and then West along the coast for about an hour. Since the entire island is comprised of extremely steep, giant limestone mountains with a single unpaved curvy road, the best way to see the island is by boat. We followed the coast and the super-blue waters around and saw some giant limestone caves in the side of the mountains, and some mountain goats traversing the nearly vertical drops with ease.

Chora is up on the right; Levadi down to the left (couldn't quite get the angle to see the bay)

Local fisherman by a limestone cave

The first beach we stopped at had about 20 people or so. The captain dropped the anchor, and then we took turns diving off the boat and swimming to a giant cave right on the shoreline. You can swim right into the cave and stand up inside as the water is only waist deep! The cave was big: easily 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide, with the roof of the cave soaring up and above us at xx feet. Many people brought snorkeling gear and followed the schools of fish around the cave walls. After exploring for a bit, most headed to the beach while Gen and I headed back to the boat. When Emily came back from the beach, we all decided to work on our diving / cannonball form by jumping off again and then climbing back aboard when our colleagues returned.

Taking a swim

Our boat!

Then it was off to beach 2! Beach 2 was smaller than the first with about 10 people total. There was also this random little tiki bar… when we all went in for a beer the owner looked like he had never seen so many people in his life! In fact, his son went around to the front of the bar and took a photo on his phone. After a while the owner brought around free shots for all of us and thanked us all for stopping by. After the beer pit stop, the wind really kicked up so the little dinghy came back to pick most people up. I decided to challenge my swimming skills and swim back – man was it hard work! I made it though, and was really happy with how much stronger I’ve gotten in the last week.

Awesome Beach Bar

Then, holding on to our hats, we went to beach #3 which was completely abandoned. After another brief swim, we were fed a gigantic lunch on the boat before hanging about lazily for another hour. As soon as lunch was over I pulled out my fancy long-sleeved surfing SPF – 70 sunshirt and board shorts, and am I ever glad I did. Many people wore sunscreen and long shirts/trousers but were terribly burned by the end of the trip anyway. After lunch and lazy time we headed back to Levadi, where the boat operators dropped us off at around 6pm.

Today was incredible: the bright blue sky and the crystal clear water keep making me think that I am on vacation instead of being here to work. Having said that, I am extremely excited to get back into the lab tomorrow morning to keep working on the twin excavation.

Excavation 1 Part 2: Am I seeing Double?

Today we started by continuing work on the beautiful soil ball I wrote about yesterday. I was hoping to make good progress today, but I didn't make half as much progress as I had hoped, but for an awesome reason.

I started today by removing the rest of the spinal column. I was very happy as I managed to salvage nearly all of the bones (generally, many crack and break). The arrangement of the bones was extremely difficult so this took me a while. Then I added some Primal to the long bones (it helps prevent breaking by fortifying the bones) and chipped away at the other sections to try to remove some other bones.

While working away, the assistant head of the field school stopped in a few times and said she was happy with the quality of my work which is WONDERFUL - It feels amazing knowing that people with this much experience are genuinely pleased with the work you are doing, especially on such a complicated, difficult burial! Meanwhile my TA worked on the other half of the soil ball with my partner for this excavation. They safely removed a large portion of mandible (exciting!) and just after they did ... I removed a large portion of mandible. From the same side. Our burial had two left mandibles. And then two sphenoid bodies (Its a bone in the middle of your skull behind your eyes). In other words... we have two babies. Possibly twins, possibly an infant from another burial that was moved by the forces of gravity/water over the hundreds of years that have passed since they were buried. There are so many options, and they are all so exciting.... only about 5% of the burials here contain multiple individuals.

So, while burials usually only take 2 days to excavate, this one will likely take 3 or 4 due to the incredibly complex nature paired with the fact that there are TWO highly fragmented babies inside the soil ball. In other words, lots of CAREFUL work left to do, however, it will have to wait until Thursday.

In other news, the big test on anatomy and lab protocol is tomorrow... wish me luck! Afterwards we get to go on a field trip. We are going on a boat trip around the southern part of the island. I promise to post lots of photographs tomorrow!!!!!

Finally, my room-mates and I have worked out the best schedule ever.

Monday: "Have a bottle of wine with dinner" day & "Slapsgiving" day (aka best stealthy ninja slap of a room-mate wins.... not sure how this one started but its going to be fun)
Tuesday:  "Have a beer before, during, and after dinner" day
Wednesday: "Brave the Demon hill a second time to buy Gelato in Chora during the evening" day
Thursday: "Hopefully get some sleep day" (The Roosters seem especially devious thursdays)
Friday: "Buy a Pastry from the amazing bakery on the way home from work" day
Saturday: "Fancy dinner and stay up late" day
Sunday: DAY OFF!

Excavation 1: Off to a Good Start

Today I started my own excavation from the very beginning with a partner as opposed to working on excavations already in progress with the TA's. Ill be working in a pair for the first week or so, as it is easier for the TA's to keep an eye on us.

First we split into groups - Emily and Gen are in the next room over from me, which I was initially bummed about, but now I am quite happy as it means we have more to discuss over lunch and dinner. Anyway, I have an amazing TA. She has been working on this project for a few years and has a ton of field experience, which is wonderful.

Anyway, my first excavation had lots of loose soil associated with it, so I thought the whole thing might be a "sieve job," meaning there is no real "excavation," instead, all the soil goes through a series of screens and we pick out the bone fragments from the screens. We ended up have about 1/4 of the ball stay intact, and after we pre-screened the loose dirt using our eyes we started excavating the ball. It ended up crumbling into 2 so I took the smaller. I didn't think it had much in it, and boy was I wrong! Today I located and exposed 6 longbones, a series of cranial fragments, half the rib cage, and 3/4 of the vertebral column. It was a very successful day. Tomorrow my plan is to finish exposing the bones, lift and clean them, and then run all the soil through the screens. Ideally I'd like to be mostly done by tomorrow, but I'd rather go slowly and do a good job than rush.

Lab Sweet Lab

Excavating is frustrating in a way because the state of the remains is not good - many of the bones are difficult to recover and every time a small piece of bone flakes I feel terrible, and apologize to the little baby. Its not like there's a better way, I just feel bad. On the other hand, there's a great sense of accomplishment knowing that the remains of this tiny little baby are being preserved and are in tact because of your hard work.

Anyway, after work/school Gen and I went for a swim. The current was super strong today, so my legs felt like absolute jelly after only 1/2 the bay and back. I ended up making it to the 3/4 point and back which was good, but I have a sinking feeling that my legs are going to hurt when we walk up the demon hill tomorrow morning.

Tonight Em and I are studying for the big anatomy bell-ringer style test on Wednesday. I am very nervous as this test is one component of an independent study I will receive credit for through the University of Toronto. This is a huge bonus as it means I will take one fewer class this year, which will give me more time to focus on my research.

The field school staff told us there would be a field trip on Wednesday to reward us for the test... I guess it'll be a nice surprise!

Anyway, off for dinner and to study!

End of Week 1: Hoorah!

Yesterday marked the end of week number one!

The day's lectures included dentition, ear ossicle identification and siding, followed by excavation. During the excavation rotation I got my first real experience working on the soil ball excavations. It was nice to have a TA standing right by me answering questions and explaining exactly how to use all of the tools. In the process of this tutorial I removed the first metatarsal, a section of rib, and then some cranial fragments.

Then I used some of the free time to review for the test. The lab has a plastic model of a juvenile skeleton which is really helpful as you can't really learn to identify and side just from looking at photos. Some of the TA's were also around the show us some samples cleaned and identified previously to help us prep for our lab test. I got a little bit frustrated with studying (staring at neural arches and vertebral bodies can be tedious) so decided to wander back to the excavation lab to see how the soil ball excavations that I had helped map on Wednesday and done a bit of work on earlier during lab rotations were progressing. Emily and Gen had been working on one ball and had managed to make some good progress which was great to see. Cheyenne and one of the other TA's was working on the other section, and they asked if I wanted to help out on that excavation until the end of the day.

So, I grabbed my tool kit and asked the TA to quickly bring me up to speed so I understood which aspects of the excavation she wanted me to work on. There was a big jumble of bone in one small area of the soil ball (which happens frequently) so I got to work cleaning up that area in order to get a better look at what was there and prepare them for eventual removal. After about 30 minutes of work, I located a little depression in what seemed to be the petrous portion of the temporal bone but I wasn't 100% sure since most of the bone was still covered and since I am still quite new at this. Anyway, I cleaned cleaned cleaned, and in the process found a tiny tiny piece of bone. I removed it and handed to to the TA, who was excited and surprised as I had just found an incus - one of the inner ear bones - which are millimeters across. Last year only 2 ear ossicles were found, so I was very excited to locate another!

Tired but happy after week 1!

The long walk home!

Then we all walked home for the day. Em and I went for a swim. We are trying to work up to swimming across the bay and back - so we covered the width and a bit which was great. I kind of feel a bit like its cheating because the water is so salty you couldn't sink if you tried! 

The view of Chora from Virginia's restaurant

After swimming we headed back up the hill for Saturday night dinner celebrations at Virginia's restaurant in Chora. There was tons of food yet again. I've decided I'm going to try pretty much everything while I am here, so of course I grabbed a meatball off the plate when it was passed around. I also grabbed some of these delightful delicacies:

Mmmmm. Fishies.

So: which do you think was better? Meatball, or deep fried whole fishies? If you answered meatball, you'd be incorrect. Turns out they were octopus balls... not my thing. The fish were actually very tasty, just a little on the bitter side.

After dinner we walked down to Lambrini's (the Greek Ephorate worker who is helping in the lab and overseeing the excavations) family's bar. They opened early for us since they don't usually open until 12 which is way past my bedtime when I get up at 5! After a few drinks, and after a few games of euchre (no one here other than me knows how to play so I have been teaching everyone) we headed back home for a few more beers, and finally went to bed at around 1am.

The Meaning of Life: Solved!

Today I am absolutely exhausted, mentally and physically! I nearly fell asleep in lecture in the lab twice today. I am sleeping well, but I am just wiped out from cramming my noggin full of all of the lab methodology, theory, and juvenile osteology plus hiking for 30 minutes twice a day and swimming.

On the plus side, today we discovered that a bakery is open at 3pm when school finishes for the day. I have never been in a greek bakery, or tried greek pastries, and oh-my-goodness... I am going to get one of everything before I leave (I think they will even out with all the walking I am doing.) There is a giant "chocolate pie" that looks delicious, hundreds of cookies, and a giant walnut cake. For my first foray into greek baking, I went with Emily & Gen's recommendation: Baklava.

Result?

I have found "The Meaning of Life" and its name is baklava. This stuff is wicked. It has to be, in part, the amazing honey. Astypalaia has the best honey I have ever tasted in my entire life. I will probably bring home several jars of honey and ration them over time, because it is unlike anything I have ever eaten before. But this pastry? I cannot say enough about it. Typing about it makes my mouth water. I'm probably going to go on a mission for more tomorrow and take some pictures of it before I inhale it because its so beautiful (ha!).

Anyway, that's all for now since I have to go study for my juvenile osteology and lab methods test. I promise I'll write something useful and more worthwhile than Ode to Baklava tomorrow as tomorrow is the last day for the week.

Hugs to all!!!

Juvenile Osteology - Warp Speed Edition

So today was our first "real" day, which was spent rotating through various stations including plan mapping soil ball burials, conservation of remains, post-excavation, and most importantly, the first half of juvenile osteology.

Today we covered the upper limb and lower limb. Tomorrow we cover skull, vertebrae, and dentition, and then thats it for instruction - on to the practical. I am worried though since we have an anatomy and lab test early next week... there was SO MUCH information SO QUICKLY today, so I will likely spend the next few evenings studying! Juvenile bones are difficult to asses since they are tiny and not as clearly developed as adults, meaning that identification and siding of whole bones can be difficult, let alone fragments.

Other than that there isn't much to report, other than the assistant site supervisor is planning on coming out to the bar Saturday night to indulge in a game of bunnies with us students which should be fun!

Off to study and likely take a power nap... this whole "greek lifestyle" is addictive! I'm a huge fan of afternoon naps, which are especially useful when you are woken up nice and early by the roosters...again.

Mileage Remaining: 5, 452
Days Remaining in Trip: 46

LTL (Ed.2) - I ordered WHAT?

Today was the first "official" day of field school. We were up at 7am for the monster uphill climb to the lab which is right underneath the castle. I thought the big hill was bad... was I ever wrong! The streets of Chora are incredibly steep - and the "big hill" is a piece of cake compared to the hill in town leading up to the lab!

The building on the top right is our lab... its the second highest building after the castle and looks over the sea!

After a delicious breakfast consisting of greek yogurt and honey we had a quick lesson on how to make a frappe - the cold coffee the Greeks drink. Afterwards we headed off on a tour around Chora. I have never walked as much as I have today... up and down and up and down and up and up and down and more stairs that I have done in the rest of my life combined!

One of the many steep, narrow, twisty streets of Chora

First we headed to the city's cathedral, which is where all of the weddings, baptisms, and funerals occur for the entire island. We learned a lot about the local belief system and superstition, and some neat facts about the building itself. Then we headed over to the site we are working on, called Kylindra (which means cylinder) which contains over 2,000 children's burials. The site was used primarily from 600-400BC by people from as local as the island and as far away as egypt and pakistan. Next we headed up to the castle to explore the ruins.

Staircase leading to the rooms used to look out over the ocean for pirates!

The castle is gorgeous. It was built in the 1400's overtop of an existing fortress (I think). It was mainly used by the residents of the island for protection against pirates. Some of the castle has been restored; I climbed up into the watch posts and could barely fit through the door and I am not even that tall! 

Field School Team Picture out by the ruins overlooking the sea

Next we headed down into the harbor to visit the small local Greek antiquity museum, and then had some free time to look in the shops along the harbor front before headed back for lunch and afternoon lectures.

The castle from Chora's harbor

After all of that, class ended for the day so Em, Gen, and I went for a quick swim before dinner. 

Now for a slightly embarrassing story. Last night for the welcome dinner we all headed up the giant hill to Virginia's restaurant where we had a giant potluck style traditional greek meal. Em and I have been trying to speak as much greek as possible, so here comes "Learning the Lingo - Edition 2.0."

One of the traditional meals here is a large, flash-fried fish. They are pronounced "Kee-lee-owse," and when my table ran out I volunteered to order some more. I asked for some "Keel-owse" since that was what I remembered, and the greek speakers at the table burst into giggles. Turns out that without the extra syllable, I had just asked for a plate of fried rear-end for the table. Yup, deep fried butt cheeks for all! ...Oops!

Mileage Remaining: 5, 452
Days Remaining in Trip: 47

Day One

Well, after a wonderful 10 hour sleep and a relaxing day, I am ready for field school to officially start tomorrow. Also, check out the photo stream I added on the right side of the screen!

Today started at 4:30 am when Gen arrived as she was part of the group who arrived on last night's ferry. I woke up for half a second and then went back to sleep, until I was woken up at 5:00 (and every 15 minutes thereafter) by the roosters and goats that live next door. Man are those roosters annoying!

Our simple but comfortable studio from the little balcony looking towards the front door.

I dozed until 8:00am, and then got up and joined my three roommates Em, Gen, and Julia. I know Em and Gen from UofT (Emily is a PhD in my lab and taught me many times during my undergrad; Gen was an undergrad who graduated a year after me and shared many many many hours of class with me; Julia is a new friend from Winnipeg). Em fixed us some delicious breakfast consisting of greek yogurt topped with almonds and drizzled with honey, and then we headed off to our favorite internet cafe so Gen could get something with a bit more sustenance to eat. Afterwards, we headed off on an adventure to explore the town!

Observe demon hill snaking up toward the main part of town.

First we walked up the monster hill toward the main part of Chora as we are living in a bay below the town. That hill is INSANE. I'm going to have calves of steel by the time I am home! Up overlooking the bay we found several neat restaurants, bakeries, and shops. We bought a few groceries, including some muesli to put on our yogurt, and then headed next door to the fruit and veggie shop. Emily and I bought some bananas and apples for snacks in the morning before we go up to the lab. Julia needed some money out, so we walked down the other side of the mountain into the bay where the 1 atm is for the entire island. We walked down 300+ stairs, all of which were varying sizes, through narrow alleys flanked by beautiful white houses with brilliant blue shutters. Then we walked back up the stairs (hard work) and around Chora before returning to our studio to drop off groceries.

After hiking up the hill! Chora is topped with some beautiful ruins I intend to explore this weekend. By my left shoulder you can just make out the site we are working on.

Who needs a stair master when you have these? This is only the top QUARTER!

After putting groceries away we headed to our favorite restaurant near the beach for lunch. We noted that rooster and goat is on the menu, so NEIGHBORS BEWARE: If you wake me up one more bloody time you will be eaten. Ha.

After lunch we went swimming in the beautiful ocean, which turns a wonderful teal color when the sun is up. Gen, Em, and I had a floating competition, and then we watched the giant private ship that came and harbored in the bay. It must be worth a couple million... redoinkulous. It makes the boat in the "I'm on a boat" music video look like a rowboat. It looks like it has sailed right out of a hollywood movie.

Anyway, tonight we have a welcome dinner with everyone from field school up in Chora, which will be nice. Virginia, a local from the island, along with her boyfriend and sister, are cooking for us every day but Sunday while we are here. I am excited to try a variety of local foods to see how I like Greek cuisine. So far everything I have had has been excellent.

Ill write tomorrow after our first day of field school!

Mileage Remaining: 5, 452
Days Remaining in Trip: 48

Made It!

Just a quick post to let you all know that I made it out to Asty in one piece.

Everyone is incredibly friendly, half the town has already introduced themselves and welcomed us with open arms. Similarly, everyone associated with the field school is very down to earth which is nice. There is an amazing internet cafe about 2 minutes from our accommodations with a beautiful terrace overlooking the ocean and beach, with the city of Chora spiraling up to the top of the hills that flank each side of this little bay. These folks are open until midnight every night so I will be able to post very frequently! Even better, they make fabulous "frappe" coffees (frozen frothy coffee made from instant coffee and sugar and milk) so I will have no problem sitting here doing emails in the evening.

I am planning on posting photographs tomorrow and giving more details about my entire trip thus far - sorry for the short post but I am just too tired to keep going!

Days Remaining: 49
Mileage Remaining: Ill do the math and figure it out tomorrow :-)

Alive In Athens!

Made it successfully through leg number one! I'm tired and uncomfortably caffeinated, and my body has zero idea what time it is, but I AM HERE! And I'm older than yesterday (or is it two days ago? Or half a day? Who knows...At some point I turned 23. Twenty-three. Feels odd to say. Maybe it's just because I am too tired to process properly right now).

This morning Fern's Momma made us all a lovely breakfast before I headed out to the airport, which was delicious and kept me pretty full. You cannot go wrong with eggs and bacon and toast and champagne for breakfast. The Fern drove me to the airport and kept me company until I checked my bags, and then off I went to clear security while trying to ignore the giant knot in my stomach.

Incidentally, for those of you who are interested - I pushed my luggage limit to the max! 20 kilos was the allowance, and I checked my bag in at 19.7! Hoorah for not paying for extra luggage; turns out traveling like the incredible hulk really does pay off!

Anyway, I arrived at 7:24am local time (12:24am Toronto time) after an uneventful and fairly pleasant flight. My first experience with the flying cattle cars was better than expected. I had a decent amount of legroom and had a normal person next to me (usually I get all screaming babies or whale-people). Dinner was decent, although heinously under seasoned especially to my newly improved portuguese-via-osmosis palate, which basically means everything needs to have a ton of garlic or hot pepper on it. I accidentally dumped a whole package of salt on the rice/chicken concoction in an attempt to remedy the situation (I thought it was pepper!) so while my food ended up being seasoned it wasn't the type of seasoning I'd usually go for! Breakfast was lousy though, as was the coffee, but it beats nothing.

I only slept for a whopping 15 minutes... but other than that, solid first major transatlantic experience. I may or may not have stared around the aircraft in childlike wonder for a few minutes (holy macaroni are those jumbo jets HUGE...I can actually stand up without smoking my head on the ceiling like I do every single time on the Air Canada Jazz flights!). I guess what I am trying to say is that the flight could have been lousy and I was just in too good a mood and too excited to notice.

So now I am in the airport in Athens, waiting for the rest of my group to make it here... and then out to Astypalaia. Incidentally, I know many of you are worried because of all of the strikes and demonstrations, but the airport seems unaffected. Anyway, I'll try to write when I am out on Asty this afternoon, but I don't know what the internet will be like. Until then, love to all you fabulous people. I hope this post made sense. Man am I tired.

Miles Remaining: 5,719

Days Remaining: *49

 

*Or Is it 48? I really gotta figure out this time diff thing, and not try to do math when I am severely jet-lagged.