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.