Field School: Panagyurishte and Koprivshtitsa

August 5, 2018

     The excursion day was optional, so we didn't have Shane, Elizabeth, or Nico with us today. Shane is a supervisor and a previous student, so he's seen probably all he can see in both of these villages (towns?), Elizabeth wasn't feeling well, and I think Nico was just exhausted because before he came to our dig, he did four weeks at another location in Stobi. Since we were going to two different places, I wasn't sure how much we were going to be traveling by bus, but I was stoked to go regardless.
     The bus was scheduled to come at 8:30 a.m., so I slept in longer than I usually did on dig days. I showered and talked to Folklore Fiancé for a little while. Once I told them that I had to go to get to the bus for the excursion, I went downstairs around 8 a.m. to see if anyone was waiting yet. Apparently, I had been mistaken about breakfast, which was still out, so I grabbed a few more things to eat before we went on our excursions.
     The first stop on our excursions was Panagyurishte. The history complex made up The Panagyurishte Museum of History, which included the Panagyurishte Treasure, other archaeological artifacts, an exhibit dedicated to the liberation of Bulgaria, and a group of houses of important Bulgarians in history that are also important architecturally. We were given audio guides for the Treasure exhibition, which I only used about half of the time because I was too busy taking pictures of all of them so that I would have them to reference later (I also bought a book all about the treasure before leaving, so I still have a lot of the information I would have had from the audio tour, which I forgot all of what I listened to as soon as we moved on).
     The Treasure was awesome, and it was so cool to see the originals rather than imitations; the hall in which they were displayed was hard to photograph with just a mobile phone, so I don't have any good photos of the whole thing. (Next time I'm bringing a better camera!) I wanted to listen to the audio tour, but I feel like I can never take my time when I'm in a group, so I just moved on as soon as most people looked like they were done. The next area had more archaeological artifacts, which I got excited about, especially because a lot of the things I have seen in Bulgaria I haven't seen in other museums before.
     After seeing the rest of the archaeology exhibits and the galleries about the liberation and uprising in Bulgaria in the 19th century, we moved on to looking at the house museums. We were given a tour by the guide, which Angela translated as we went. Most of the houses were ornately decorated and had displays of the guest house areas, and traditional Bulgarian dress and daily life laid out to see. The last thing we saw were the workshops that were behind glass windows in little cubicles - things like shoe cobbling, weaving, blacksmithing, and so on - to give us a sense of the ethnography of Bulgaria.
     We finished in Panagyurishte and got on the bus again to head to Koprivshtitsa. It was a little while away, and none of us had had lunch yet. We all were used to our tea and biscuit break at 10:30 a.m. as well during the dig, so we were more hungry than usual. The bus stopped around 2 p.m. in the village and dropped us off at a restaurant where we were eating Bulgarian food. I sat with Shahruz, Mathilde, Cyrene, Ivan, Jianing, and Siyu. The conversation was good, and lunch took almost an hour, which was fine, but that only gave us a couple of hours of free time to explore. The food wasn't anything special to me, so I was anxious to go see what was around.
     After splitting off into groups, Shahruz, Ivan, Siyu, Mathilde, Cyrene, and I all started in the same direction. We wandered around and took some pictures - I remembered the stuffed animal my boss wanted me to photograph abroad, so I was using him a lot. Eventually, we all split off again, and Cyrene and I ran amok in the souvenir shops. I managed to get souvenirs for everyone that I thought of while I was there, so I had everything covered for that (finally). Cyrene and I kind of went into every souvenir shop to make sure we didn't miss anything good. I still wasn't able to find a spoon for my aunt-in-law, who collects them from abroad, so I got ceramic ones instead of the traditional silver souvenir ones.
     Since we had to meet back at the monument at 5:30 p.m., we decided to wander a little bit more and then checked out the other souvenir shops nearer to where we were supposed to meet and then got some ice cream and water. Cyrene and I were concerned because we didn't see anyone else come back yet. Eventually, we spotted Angela and Petja and knew that people would be there soon. The bus came once we had everyone and we headed back to Villa Terres for the farewell dinner and so the people leaving could get ready.
     The farewell dinner was supposed to be at 8 p.m. according to the itinerary, but apparently, they moved it to 8:30 p.m., but no one told me, so I was sitting there for a while by myself. Ivan sat across from me, Cyrene was next to me on my right, and Mathilde was on my left. I had five glasses of wine because I was sad and didn't want to leave; also, I apparently really like their Sauvignon Blanc, and I'm not usually a fan of wine.
     Those of us who were leaving were given Certificates of Attendance, which outlined how many hours we had participated in the field, and how many hours of lectures we attended. We were also given a Balkan Heritage mug, which I am terrified is going to break on the way home.
     Time to pack.   

Field School: The Dig, Day 10 (Final Day!)

August 4, 2018

     Last night, someone had knocked Jenny's drink over onto my sandals, and I had to wash them when I went to bed, using Las Vegas logic of "they'll be dry in the morning" because we have no humidity.
     They were not dry this morning.
     A quick shower and walking downstairs in just my socks while carrying my shoes later, I ate breakfast with Ivan, who left shortly after I sat down (he was just done his breakfast and I was late to when I usually go, and, as a creature of habit, I sat at the seat I always sit at in the morning, where Ivan was sitting in the seat Mathilde is usually in when I'm down there). I ate a small breakfast and wrapped up some sausage to take to our site dog, Sharka (how it sounds in English because I don't know how to spell it in Bulgarian - it means colorful), which I forgot on the table before we left.
     It was my last day at the dig site and I was pretty bummed about it. I didn't want to leave the people I met behind at all and I definitely didn't want to stop digging before there was anything interesting or exciting found (which is why most people stay for four weeks, I guess). I'm partially happy it was my last day to dig because I'm tired and I miss Folklore Fiancé too much, but I really wish I could stay.
     I had made an offering of grape seeds to Dionysus, asking for him to let me find something, anything, interesting before I left. I kept digging and a little while later, I found a small knucklebone, which is a special find because they used these as game pieces when playing dice. Once I had taken the coordinates and filled out a tag for it and put it in its own bag, I continued to dig. Eventually, I uncovered some pottery, but it was too far down for me to get to, but next to it was a pottery sherd. When I picked it up, it looked like I have a black figure sherd with a distinguishable part of a figure on it. I asked Angela and she told me it was a knee and then I asked about another part of it, which looked (to me) like boxing gloves and she said it was possibly part of a garment. So, I was pretty pleased with that find, even though it's technically mass material and isn't "special" by archaeological standards, but I thought it was. So, see, the gods do come through!
     We came back for lunch and rest and went back for the finds processing and washing for the last time (for me). Linda, Jenny, and I were taken separately so we could learn how to fill out a context sheet for the archaeological sites. After discussing it and asking Angela questions about archaeology that I didn't know a lot about, we headed back to the barrack. She asked if I wanted to take the test for it, even though I wasn't doing it for credit, and I said yes. (Well, first I said can I just keep the paper and do it later, but Angela explained that it was a short test so I could do it now so she could go over it - it was only 13 questions, but I got 1 wrong and 1 kind of wrong).
     After that, I helped everyone get the rest of the washing done, and we finished our bags, but eventually were asked by one of our group about helping the rest of the people because we had a lot more to do. So, basically, we had to complete pottery washing, otherwise, the people who were staying for four weeks would have to deal with everything on Tuesday. We helped with another bag, and then I asked Cyrene and Madeline if they needed help because everyone else had cleaned up but they were still washing, so I took some of their material over to the tarp to dry. We all got on the bus and headed back.
     Got back, did this that and the other thing, dinner, blah blah blah, and then we all played Twister together shortly followed by a drinking game. It was amazing and fun and intense and I'm going to miss them all a lot.
     We have an excursion tomorrow.
     Hopefully I don't have a hangover.

Field School: The Dig, Day 9

     I've not been sleeping well. It's been almost three since I've been away from Folklore Fiancé for this amount of time. I miss them a lot and want to go home, but part of me wishes I could stay the whole four weeks. It would be ideal to know how much gets done in that amount of time. Mathilde is trying to ask her mother if she can stay longer. I'm a bit envious that she might get to stay, but I think that the next time I come, I'm going to try and swing to stay the whole time that a field school takes place. I feel weird going home in the middle and not knowing how it'll end up by the end of it (and would have felt even weirder I had come in the middle of it, so I wanted to come for the first session).
     Anyway.
     Shortly after we got to the dig site, Shahruz and Elizabeth found a figurine. That was what some of my other fieldmates, Sydney and Gena, had found the day before with the apt description of, "With tits and nips!" when asked about it. The religious icons and related material were my dream finds, so I'm kind of envious when I've only found mass material and some clay. There's more to it than that, I know, but I haven't even found a decorated pottery sherd (which almost everyone has found in my square thus far, I think, and most of them are staying for four weeks so they probably will if they haven't yet), and tomorrow is the last day I dig.
     The first part of the day, we were getting pictures of the site from different angles. I took some of them, a few of which were on top of a ladder, and let me tell you, I'm not a fan of heights and usually panic when I'm on ladders. I didn't panic at all, and it felt weird that I was so comfortable with it. Mathilde took the pictures of the other section on top of the ladder, and I got some good pictures of her doing that. When I was climbing down to switch around the whiteboard on one of the sections, it was the lower level where the difference between the top and bottom was basically my leg length. When I stepped on the ground, it caught my bad knee at a weird angle, and I fell and rolled. Angela let me sit for a bit when I came back up, and it wasn't too bad, but it still hurt and made me in a bit of a sour mood for the rest of the day.
     Most of the day was spent trying to go around and unearth something in my section, but only five centimeters down, and because I had to go around a lot of rocks, it was pretty slow-going. Mathilde found some interesting things, as did Siyu and Jianing. Angela found a knucklebone in the section Mathilde, and I were digging in, so we had to take its coordinates before moving on. Ivan was doing his technical drawing, so he didn't find much of anything except the curiosity of whether he would be praised as much on his last technical drawing in Apollonia Pontica, where his supervisor said his drawing was "believable."
     The dig was improved a bit by Ivan playing the Lord of the Rings soundtrack at the beginning (he is a Kiwi after all), and then we played different songs that he had on his phone. As much as I say I only really listen to Disney and Broadway, he had a selection of songs playing that was very much my taste that we listened to during the day. I told him I finally found my kindred spirit on this trip because of his music.
     My aggravation was heightened when I got back to my room because the people who cleaned the room had turned off the AC and opened the door (no, no, I left the AC on for a reason...) and I had forgotten to pick up the towel I use for my feet on the floor, so that was gone too, even though the last time, they just tossed it on top of something (which was still annoying because those were my "clean" clothes for after the dig - basically without dirt or anything on it - onto which they put a towel that had been wet and on the floor -_-). I took my shower and finished my field journals because they're going to be collected.
     A wine tasting was scheduled for four p.m., and then we have a lecture afterward, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

Field School: The Dig, Day 8

     I didn't know what a technical drawing was at the beginning of field school. Now, I wished I had never heard those words uttered together in this way. I absolutely abhor it. Technical drawing is the new evil incarnate to me. It doesn't help that I'm the only American in my square, so I feel extra inadequate because of the fact that I am horrible with the Metric system. Even the tape measurer didn't make sense to me. Do American archaeologists use the American system or the Metric? It seems weird if we didn't use the Metric because then everyone else would have to convert it. Either way, I didn't know I could hate anything more than tomatoes, but I was wrong. It was technical drawing.
     That's literally all Mathilde, and I did all day in our square. Eventually, it felt like she was doing all the work. Honestly, I was too nervous that I was going to mess it up to bother asking her if I could jump back in. I helped a bit, but I think I only did like 30% of what was done on the drawing. One of the other people found something really cool, it was honestly a dream find for me, so I'm super stoked for them and a little jealous since I haven't really found anything at all. Afterward, we had to clean up so we could take a picture, so for the last hour of fieldwork, that's all we did.
     We came back for lunch, and it was some type of potato dish; it was pretty good, but still not all that hot. Instead of lingering, I went to go take a shower because I was sweating so badly during the day. The workshop in the evening was pottery cleaning and finds processing, but my group didn't get all of ours done, either.  We packed up and headed back and had a half an hour until dinner.
     Dinner was chicken kabobs and potatoes, so I was pleased. Nico wanted to run to the market after dinner and Cyrene mentioned it, so I asked to tag along. Jianing ended up coming, too; none of us knew the way, but Nico was well-versed in walking there. While we were in the "market" (basically a corner store to us Americans - a very small one, since we're in a literal village), Nico ran into some locals that he apparently knew. It seems no matter where he goes, he knows someone, and apparently, he's done enough study abroad trips to know how to assimilate to a place pretty quickly. He told us some...interesting...stories on the way back as well.
     Cyrene and I are going to work on our field journals for the night, and then I think I'm going to chill for a little while and then go to bed. We have more to do tomorrow with both the square and the pottery washing and finds processing, which was fun. I'm really nervous about digging for the rest of the time because we only have two days left to dig and I'm a little disappointed that we spent a day and a half on drawing the technical drawing when I would have preferred to keep digging.
     Hopefully, I'll be able to stay longer for my next archaeological field school!

Field School: The Dig, Day 7

     The weather report this morning said it was going to rain twice: one around 11 a.m., and again around 1 p.m., so I was worried that it would be raining while we were digging. Our break is from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., so at least we would not be in the squares while that happened.
     It didn't rain, though; in fact, Angela said today was the first real day of summer since we got here. It didn't feel that bad to me. Usually, I'm cranky as hell in the heat, especially when I'm sweating, but because I was doing so much and because I'm used to the dry heat of Las Vegas, everything felt fine to me. Sweaty, yes, but I wasn't as cranky about the heat as I am back home. I think part of the perks of this is that I haven't had to drive in nearly three weeks - I'm not looking forward to having to do that when I get back to Las Vegas and have to drive forty-five minutes to work in a car with no air conditioning.
     The others didn't do their introduction the day before in their field journals, so they went around and did that while I finished up mine. I marked the sketch and then helped the others with their field journals when they got to our two squares. Once they had finished that, we all reconvened in the square, and I manned the wheelbarrow for most of the day.
     There wasn't too much going on today; we continued to dig where we were digging and found more mass material, we took levels for Ivan's area, and Mathilde and I began the technical drawing. I told Angela I was nervous about the technical drawing because I was so bad at the pottery drawing workshop. She told me to not get discouraged and that if I had had three more pieces of pottery sherds, I would have been able to do it fine. However, Petja started me off with the measurements and Mathilde had to draw. I'm really nervous since I'm the only person who doesn't use centimeters in my group (*shakes fist at the American standard system*) because I feel like I'm going to mess it up.
     We carried the stuff back to the barrack, having finished getting down the next layer and determining that we had to do the technical drawing the next day, which apparently can take all day. I'm really anxious about it. I'm not good at drawing, nor am I good with the Metric system. It sounds like a recipe for disaster as soon as I get that paper, so cross your fingers for me.
     When we got back, there was a tourist who asked us if we were students, and we told him that we were here for archaeology. He asked where we were from and we explained all over - we have Americans, Canadians, Swiss, an Aussie, a Kiwi, etc. and he said he was from Philly, and I told him I went to Villanova and he hugged me. It was funny. He went off with his group when he was done because they were off to Plovdiv for the day, which I told him we had just gone and loved it.
     Lunch was stuffed zucchini - rice and meat inside of it - which wasn't too bad, but the soup was the cucumber soup again, and I couldn't make myself eat it again. The cucumbers here aren't bad, per se, but they do have a very unique taste that's not quite what I expect cucumbers to taste like. Put it in a cold soup with yogurt, and I can only eat it so much without worrying about how it'll affect my stomach.
      Some people are doing yoga in the yard, but I decided to just stay in for today because the lecture is at 5 p.m., and I wanted a bit of chill time before I went. I'm also trying to down some of the Cherry Coke I bought at the market the other day so that I won't nod off in lecture. It's a lot for us to go to the dig and then come back for lunch, have a long break, and an evening lecture. The break is nice, though, because it gives a chance for swimming, the sauna and steam room, or a nap (or if you're really good at time management and our lecture is a little later, all three).
     During my downtime the past couple of days, I've actually been looking into other field schools that aren't under the Balkan Heritage Foundation. Partially because I wanted to see what was out there and could figure out if I liked another program or area better and partially because I do pick up on other languages quicker, and I can read Italian and Greek, but I can't read Cyrillic. I do want to learn Bulgarian, though, so I would be able to speak at least a little bit if I decided to come back. Also, it never hurts to learn another language; especially when that language uses the Cyrillic alphabet, an alphabet that is used by a good portion of the world. (Fun fact: Bulgarians were the ones who invented the Cyrillic alphabet, which I definitely did not know until we were in Plovdiv and Angela pointed out the statue of the men who invented it.)
     The lecture today is on the Urbanization of Ancient Thrace, which I'm extremely excited about. I hope I won't nod off this time; I'm not trying to zone out because it's boring, I'm just actually tired from all the digging and the sun! If I could nap, this wouldn't be a problem, but I can't because short naps make me feel sick. We only have a couple more days left at the dig site, and I'm super sad I'm going to have to leave on Monday. I definitely want to do a full session one year.

Field School: The Dig, Day 5

     My morning started off with an intense cramp in my right leg that woke me up; I wasn't surprised because we had walked nearly 20,000 steps in Plovdiv yesterday. Since it was 5:30 a.m., I thought I would get up and begin my day so that I would be able to get some things done, since I hadn't finished some of my other blog posts yet, so I worked on them a bit. It was the first time I was not the first person at lunch because I went down a little closer to 6:40 a.m. instead of right at 6:30 a.m., which is when breakfast is supposed to start. One of the things that was exciting about breakfast was that a person had messaged me on Instagram asking me about how I got to an archaeological dig and what I had done for school because he was interested in Ancient Rome, so I talked up the program and offered to help in the future if he ever needed it. It was a good feeling!
     It looked like everyone was pretty beat because of how much we did in Plovdiv, we were less rested than usual, even compared to when we stay up late. We got our shoes, took the bus to the site, and started working. We were all on the one side of a square while Ivan was doing something different with a feature that was sticking out of the wall of the square. Mathilde, Siyu, Jianing, and I were all working in stripes or rotating who was checking the dirt for findings and taking the wheelbarrow. I dug in two different places, but I was mostly at the wheelbarrow today.
     Our break went by super quick. I didn't drink any tea because I had plenty of water and I just ate the tea biscuits because I was tired and had finally changed which pants I was wearing so I forgot to bring a power bar to eat. The tea biscuits are fine enough, but I want something to fill me before we have our late lunch at 2 p.m. It says 1 p.m. on the schedule, but it's usually 2 p.m. by the time we eat, and if you know me, you know that's my limit before I get extremely cranky about lack of a meal.
     We got back to work, and right after the break, it began raining! It was a light rain but there was a lot of it, so we were worried we would have to pack up again, but it passed quickly enough. (A fun fact we learned when it was raining that our supervisor told us was that in Bulgaria they say that if the sun is shining when it's raining, that's when the bears get married; she doesn't know why they say this, but they do - she said it was most likely just a folk belief.) Luckily, I had brought my raincoat and decided to cover my bag and my water under it to keep dirt off of both, but mostly because my waters kept getting too warm in the sun. I put my field journal and Angela's notebook and pen under my jacket as well along with Siyu's bag so that they wouldn't get wet. As soon as the rain subsided, we got back to working more intensely.
     The mass material was most of what we've found thus far, so our special finds have been pretty slim. The first of our special finds wasn't even found by us, it was found by one of the supervisors with his metal detector in our pile of dirt, but I believe that was on Saturday. I don't think we've found anything since then.
     We stopped at 1 p.m. and sketched the part of the square we were working in and wrote all the information about it in the field journal. I don't think my field journal is as intense as it could be, but part of my problem with the field journal is that I have to write on pages that are squares and not lines. If I had a field journal that had graphing type paper on the left and lines on the right, I would have an easier time. Additionally, the standard size of paper in Europe is something called A4, which is about 8.27 × 11.69 inches, so none of the papers I'm given fit into my notebooks, which is frustrating.
     The sketch and the journal entry didn't take me long and I packed up and took two of the boxes to carry back to the barrack. Jianying saw me struggling and took one off my hands for me, and Siyu grabbed something that was haphazardly on top of the other box I was still carrying, which was just trash. We put everything away in the barrack and Alex, the son of one of the instructors, helped us put things away. Everyone else was still doing their field journals, so I washed my hands and got onto the bus when Gena mentioned it.
     The ride back to the hotel, I sat with Shahruz and talked with him for a bit, but everyone seemed very tired and hungry, and a lot of people seemed cranky. We got to the hotel, and Angela told us that our bus would be back to take us to the museum for the lecture at 4:40 p.m. Today, we had cold cucumber soup again, chicken and potatoes in some kind of sauce, and then fruit for dessert. I can only eat so much of the cucumber soup before I have to stop; I don't mind it, but it's mixed with yogurt and it's cold, and I'm technically lactose intolerant, so I don't want to go overboard. I had most of the chicken, but the skin fell off into the sauce so I didn't bother with it, and the potatoes were good, but all of it was so hot, it was hard to eat, and I was impatient, so I just burnt my mouth instead. I don't eat peaches, so I thought that this would be a good time to go upstairs and get my shower.
     After my shower, I took some time to catch up on the blogs that I haven't been able to publish because the nights or days I wanted to write them, I was either too busy or too tired to finish them. We were told to meet for the bus a little earlier than it showed up, so I was one of the first people out waiting.
     We went to the museum for a lecture about coins and coin minting in Thracian areas; I assumed this meant we would be walking in the galleries and talking about those coins, but we ended up in a basement with a long table. This frustrated me because I didn't bother bringing my notebook because I thought we would be standing the whole time. So, instead, I just listened and tried not to nod off. During the lecture, we did learn that the hotel we're staying at, Villa Terres, was named after Teres II, the king of the Odrysians in middle Thrace from 351 B.C.E. to 342 B.C.E. Angela pointed out that the owner spelled the name wrong and doesn't know why he had spelled it with two R's when traditionally it's only one R.
     On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the supermarket first, and I spent nearly forty leva on chocolate and some pop - they had Elderflower Fanta, I had to try it. Also, I got a big Cherry Coke so I would stop buying them from the hotel bar. Everything else was candy, chocolate, and paprika flavored Ruffles.
     We all had dinner (during which I cleared up a misinterpretation I had this morning when I thought Ivan had said "that's a bit much" in response to me saying "Good morrow, fellows," but the bit much was in reference to the I <3 Bulgaria bag I bought in Plovdiv to replace my other bag that began to die...) and then gathered together and managed to get The Prince of Egypt to play on the big television. We were told the drinking game that went along with it, and my drink was almost gone before the first five minutes of the movie, but I stuck with only one beer.
     It was time for a quick shower and then some YouTube and a chat with Folklore Fiancé before bed.

Field School: Plovdiv (July 29, 2018)

     Plovdiv is a city that's been continually inhabited for about eight thousand years, so it makes for an interesting city to visit, where the styles of architecture and culture are often mixed. This city will also be the European Capital of Culture in 2019, which is something I had never heard of before, but once I looked into it, I was convinced that it was well-suited to hold that title.
     Due to the shenanigans I engaged in the night before, I woke up a bit stiff, but at least I didn't have a hangover. I got dressed and headed down to breakfast, but the door was locked to both the restaurant and the door to the back where the pool is, so I went back upstairs and waited on the couch for someone to come out. Once someone showed up, we both headed down to breakfast where the door was unlocked this time, and I grabbed my usual breakfast. We all talked and then waited for the bus.
     We got a more comfortable bus this time since it was taking us to an excursion rather than just going to the dig site, and it had seatbelts, which our previous buses had not had, so we were told to put them on. The ride to Plovdiv was about an hour, an hour and a half, so much people dozed off while we were on our way. I have a hard time sleeping on public transportation, so I managed to stay awake the whole time. The bus driver stopped for gas about half an hour before we reached Plovdiv, so we were told to use the restroom if we needed it. Angela informed us that when we got to Plovdiv, there would be a walking tour first, and then we would go to lunch, and then we would have some free time to see other things or go shopping - which many of us were excited about. Since we started digging, this was the first day we didn't have to dig, so we were happy to have the break.
     It was supposed to rain, so Angela suggested we bring our raincoats if we had them, but I put on a long sleeve shirt (mistake one) and brought the raincoat just in case (mistake two). I should have just worn and t-shirt and said I would deal with it, but alas.
     Anyway.
     Once we got to Plovdiv, our first stop was at the Archaeological Complex where the Small Basilica was, which dated back to the 5th-6th century C.E. The outside looked modern, but when you went inside, you got to see all of the conserved and protected mosaics from the original Basilica. There was a film presentation about Plovdiv that we watched in a little section above the mosaic area. The whole thing excited the group because it talked about a Stadium, an Ancient Theatre, the fortifications, and so on. Needless to say, the group was anxious to continue on with our trip. We all grabbed maps and pamphlets from the stand, and some people bought souvenirs - I got more postcards and a bookmark depicting the ancient theatre - before we continued on our adventure.
     The group continued to walk to the next area, but on the way, we stopped in front of a church because next to it was another area that had revealed mosaics. Some of them were covered, but because there was a heavy storm in Plovdiv the night before, a lot of the coverings were blown off. This was even with the protective cover with sand on top - the winds were high, and the water was worse. Angela told us about how the restoration project would proceed and that they were trying to make sure that no further damage came to the mosaics.
     Our adventure intensified when Angela took us down an original Roman road that had been flooded by the storm, so the group had to carefully walk in a single file line on the edge of the road so that we would get through the underpass. After scooting carefully to the next side, we met up with our tour guide who works at the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum.  She showed us the Roman forum and the Odeon as we walked and explained that they knew that the library and treasury were there as well.
     The guide took us toward the pedestrian road in Plovdiv and pointed out where the Roman Stadium started, we took a group picture on the "Together" sculpture, and then continued to the end of the Stadium, where you could see one of the entrances and the stairs. The only startling thing about it was someone was meditating on the stairs, so I felt a little uncomfortable taking pictures with her there, but I didn't want to interrupt her, either. I took them just in case I wasn't coming back, but luckily she was gone when we passed it again during free time so that I could take better pictures.
     We left the one side of the Stadium and followed the guide to the model of the Stadium that was set up on the opposite side of the ruins. She explained to us how big the Stadium was and what sort of events were held there, such as gladiatorial games and chariot or horse races. The guide asked if we had any questions and when we didn't, she moved on to the theatre.
     The Ancient Theatre is interesting because they still use it for shows and performances. There were workers setting up for an upcoming event, so there's a lot of modern equipment in the pictures I took, which part of me is delighted by, and part of me doesn't like at all. There were also ruins just sitting right outside of the theatre, and I took pictures of that, too. There wasn't much to explain or see, but she showed us that if you were lower class theatre guests, you would sit at the very top, and then she pointed out where the Emperor would be sitting in the front should he choose to come to the performance.
     We passed the Ethnographic Museum on our way to the Roman fortification, but on top of the Neber Tepe hill, the ruins were jumbled with other materials, such as the Hellenistic and Medieval material. However, since Romans reused material, we know a Hellenistic structure stood in this area previously, but will never know what it looked like before the Romans dismantled it - at least, we don't currently have any evidence about what it looked like.
     While we were on top of the hill, our guide explained to us that Plovdiv is "The City of Seven Hills," however, the seventh hill was used to pave the roadways so that it no longer exists. Additionally, on the hills we could see from where we were standing, there were temples to both Apollo and Demeter on those hills. Unfortunately, Demeter's temples (if I remember correctly) is fully excavated, but there's nothing there because concrete was poured to put in a weather building on that hill. The Apollo temple is fully excavated as well.
     The guide took us to the other side of the fortification area to show us an area that's been partially excavated. She said it was difficult because they could go down four meters and still not reach the cultural material they were looking for; this is the lament of quite a few archaeologists, I'm certain.
     She said she was going to take us the shortcut way to get to the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum from there. Of course, this was on a really high area, so I panicked a little because of my fear of heights. I kept my head down, looking at the stairs until I got to about halfway down. Eventually, we made it, but the stone stairs were original and extremely steep. It's no wonder no one could siege the fortress; it's nearly impossible just to get up a few stairs, let alone several sets of them.
     The Plovdiv Archaeological Museum began with the Prehistoric objects in the tour, and once we got to the Thracian part of the museum, Angela took over. We saw the different treasures found in Plovdiv and the statues of gods and important political figures, as well as mosaics. Most of my pictures were of these objects and artifacts. The final room was focused on the Byzantine era, which we don't need to know about because our focus is on Thrace and the ancient world only, but it was interesting to see. After a quick browse through the temporary exhibits (more Byzantine and Christian artifacts), some people went to the store, and some went to sit and wait for the rest of the group.
     This was one of my first big purchases because I bought several books in English and bilingual and a good amount of postcards, too. It was about 42 leva, so that wasn't that bad. I grabbed my raincoat out of the locker I used while we were in the museum. It was about 1:30 p.m. when we left the museum, and it was probably around 2 p.m. before we finally ate. The food was all traditional Bulgarian food. We were given a salad to start, and then some flatbread with dips, and then they had skewered chicken and pork. It was all very good, and I'm a very picky eater. The dessert was flan, but mine tasted extremely eggy, so I didn't eat much of it.
     Since most of us were finished with the meal, we were given permission to run amok on our own. We tried to wait for the group, but the group split up relatively fast. Cyrene and I ended up going off on our own trying to find ridiculous or tacky souvenirs to take home. Since I saw a bookstore, I wanted to stop in and find a couple books I tend to buy while traveling: both a fairy tale book and the first Harry Potter book in the native language of where I am. The third book I got because Cyrene pointed it out to me and I got excited. I didn't realize I had to pay for bags or knew how to ask for one so I had to carry my books. After wandering around for a while, we connected with Sydney and Mathilde and made our way by retracing our steps and having to walk up the ridiculous hill again.
     We finally found some of the souvenir shops we were looking for, and Sydney and Mathilde wanted to go ahead of us. Cyrene and I managed to stop at almost every souvenir shop and got a little something in each if we found what we were looking for. I got things like iron-on patches and pins, some more postcards, a keychain of one of the artifacts found in Plovdiv, a small traditional doll, and then I got a bag because the books were beginning to be hard to hold. The bag was not meant to hold heavy things, so I ended up having to carry it from underneath anyway, but it was better than carrying everything loose.
     Sydney and Mathilde went off to different shops, so we split up for the rest of the time. Cyrene and I decided to wander down a few other streets into a couple more shops and then called it quits when we got most of what we wanted from the shops. We were getting tired, and we wanted something cold, so we stopped at a Raffy. I got a chocolate hazelnut flavor in a bowl. Cyrene got fig and violet in a cone, and she let me try some of it. It was very good.
     There was still some time until we had to meet up with the group, so we checked out a place called Euroland, where I found another drawstring bag because the one I had bought at the Dollar Tree in Las Vegas was beginning to shred. It was an "I heart Bulgaria" bag, which is pretty cool. It was only 3.15 leva, so I was surprised at how sturdy it felt. There was another backpack for 14 leva, but I didn't want to go overboard with it. We paid, there was some confusion about being asked for a bag, I got one this time even though I didn't want one, but I was able to put my raincoat in the backpack and the other bag that was not very sturdy into the plastic one so that I was able to carry everything with nothing breaking.
     Cyrene and I headed back towards the McDonald's, where we saw Gena and Madeline waiting. Eventually, Shane passed by us, and I talked about the Raffy, and he went to go get raspberry gelato. We were told Jenny may have been lost, so we were hoping that wasn't the case while everyone was waiting for each other. When it got closer to the time we were supposed to leave, we headed over to the McDonald's, and everyone eventually met up. The ride back I was sitting with Nico, who fell asleep, and I was near the front of the bus, so I didn't really have anyone to talk to.
     I set my things down at the dinner table because I thought it was at 7:30 p.m., and we had gotten back by 7:18 p.m., but someone came down and told us that the schedule said that dinner was at 8 p.m. Mostly everyone went upstairs to do things or went outside to play with the kitten that was there, but I left my drawstring bag on the chair and took my souvenirs upstairs. I set them out on the bed so I could take pictures and show the Folklore Fiancé (except for their presents, of course). I had managed to send all of my pictures I had taken during our tour (217 pictures and videos, to be exact) during lunch at the restaurant, so I messed with some of those and sent them to people.
     Dinner was good; it was some kind of meat and vegetables, and dessert was a chocolate crepe. I had changed after we had gotten back because I needed to get out of the long-sleeve shirt I was wearing, and it helped a ton. I went outside for a little bit because people were out there and I put my feet in the pool while Mathilde and Ivan played soccer with one of the instructor's children. He was very good at it. Elizabeth and Cyrene came out when I went back inside, and I tried to stay out again with my feet in the pool, but there were too many mosquitos for me - things I did not miss about where I used to live - and I went back inside to get ready for bed.
     When I saw Cyrene again, I told her that the hotel staff had mistakenly thrown away the empty bottles I use as water bottles because I forgot to fill them with water and put them back into the fridge, so she gave me one of her empty bottles. It holds 2.5 liters of water, which is good because, apparently, you should be drinking 3 liters a day here when digging, so that worked out. Now that I'm falling asleep at my keyboard, I think it's time for bed.
                 


If you want to know more about Roman Plovdiv, this is a good place to start: http://www.romanplovdiv.org/en

Field School: The Dig, Days 3 and 4

Day 3 (July 27, 2018):

     Last night, I had a beer with Cyrene on my balcony, and I told Shahruz and others that they were welcome to join if they felt like it. When Cyrene decided to go to bed, Shahruz came up, and we talked about American politics with Mathilde, and we were trying to explain the electoral college and voting. It was a very stressful conversation, and I hated having it because I literally want to avoid politics but, apparently, everyone knows how much of a joke the current politicians are, so I guess there was no escaping it. I went to bed shortly after Shahruz left.
     Most of the day was taken up by cleaning the square so we could get all of the dirt off of the features. During this, we had to check the dirt in a wheelbarrow and take it to a designated spot and dump it once we were done checking for any missed findings. After the break, we returned, and the workers had taken our wheelbarrows, which was annoying, so we had to wait for them to bring the wheelbarrow back before we really continued.
     We all got together to get our field journal done, which was a lot of work and I never feel like I'm doing it right. I keep asking Angela how to do it because it was harder for me to understand a lot of the field journal stuff and how thorough I have to be. Angela keeps it simple, but when I see other people doing their field journal, I get nervous because it isn't as detailed as everyone else is making theirs.
     We came back and ate, then I showered and got my bathing suit on and went into the sauna and hot steam room with Cyrene, Nico, Zoe, Shahruz, and Sydney. It was a lot of fun. I didn't know how to do any of it, but Zoe knew how and Nico got the person to unlock the door for us. We were hanging out in the pool while we waited and had some good and interesting conversations. I rinsed off and went to go change into my regular clothes now that I was refreshed.
     Earlier that day, I had mentioned how fussy I was about coffee, and Angela suggested I get a white frappe from the bar to try rather than the coffee we have at breakfast. I drank it while I waited for the lecture, but it still wasn't sweet enough. We went to the lecture, and I had some of my frappe left, so I took it with me, and couldn't finish it - it looked really gross at the end of the lecture. I took it back and left it on the bar during our break, and then headed back to see the presentation about the squares we're currently working in. They told us to pay attention because we would be doing a presentation like this at the end of two weeks (those who are here for four weeks present twice), so that's another thing I'm not really looking forward to doing.
     I left my door open when I came back because I knew a few people wanted to use the aloe vera I had in my room and I allowed them to do that and eventually a bunch of people ended up in my room. I asked where the others were and I was told the guys were sent out to get alcohol and some chaser. When the boys got back, we - Mathilde, Gena, Zoe, Madeline, Shahruz, Elizabeth, Siyu, Ivan, and I - played a drinking game (during which, Ivan voted for me as the smartest person in the room as part of the drinking game, and I'm not going to lie, that was one of the highlights of my day).
     Now I'm tipsy and want to watch The Good Place, so I'll be heading off to bed.
     (Spoiler alert: I fell asleep watching The Good Place and went to bed around 1 a.m.)


Day 4 (July 28, 2018):

     I'm surprised I didn't have a hangover when I woke up. Even so, I made sure I drank some water and got a quick shower before I got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast, which was the usual fare: bacon (?), sausage, bread and butter with water. Spoke with some of the other people at my table. We got up when it was time to go and got our shoes and headed out to the site.
     We took out the tools for the dig, loaded up the wheelbarrow with the tools we needed like the pickaxes, spades, and shovels - and I took it to the squares where we were working. We didn't start in our squares today, though. Most of the beginning of the day was spent learning how to draw the whole site at the beginning of our field journal; we had been just drawing the sites we were digging in before, but now we went back to the front of the notebook and made sure we measured out our drawings to scale in comparison with the site, which was extremely frustrating to me.
     The drawing is no joke - I figured it wouldn't take us that long; however, every time I thought I was done, I asked Angela, and she asked me to add something or make something more detailed or to resize part of my drawing. Due to the extensive detail you have to include for the drawing of the entire site, it must have taken us an hour and a half to two hours to be completely finished with our drawing. I asked Angela to look over mine one last time, and I was so relieved when she said I was done.
     The next thing we had to do was to take pictures of the site with the date, the square number, the measuring sticks, and an arrow pointing to the North. We all rotated who would be taking the pictures, and each person changed the measuring sticks and little board with the date and square number depending on the angle of the picture. Angela told us once we were done with that that we would be using the total station to learn how to read levels manually from far away. She said there was another tool that gets all the accurate information rather quickly, but it is important for us to use the manual one first and learn how to use it because you never know if your other equipment might malfunction or be forgotten, etc.
     We measured with a meter stick in the squares and the others looked through the total station to get the readings. Because everything is in centimeters, and although I know it sounds intuitive, I wanted to be sure I was doing it right, and I asked how to add centimeters and meters. Siyu laughed, and I was really embarrassed, but I told him I'm sorry, I'm American, I want to make sure I'm doing it right (albeit the way I said it started with a very snippy "Don't laugh, I'm American because everyone else in my square is originally from or currently lives in a country that uses the metric system). I was honestly really upset about it - not at Siyu, but at myself for not know the metric system. Ivan even asked me "how do you add feet, then?" and because I was flustered, I said, "you just...add them together." Later, I clarified that twelve inches is a foot in America. So, that was embarrassing, and I wanted to sink into the square and never emerge again.
     After taking the levels, we went on break and continued taking the levels when we came back. We didn't start digging until around noon about ten centimeters into the dirt to get the next layer up. We scraped it back until it was time to fill out our field journal for the day. Once we had finished, we headed back, and everyone else was doing their field journal at the barrack tables. I helped put stuff away because I was finished mine and then got on the bus to head back for lunch.
     I showered after lunch and then ended up hanging out with people a little later in the evening on the back patio, but there were heavy winds that made it cold and the thunder and lightning pushed us inside. We played some games together again, and I went back to my room pretty wonky, especially because I had spilled a lot of drinks on myself, so I got into the shower first and then crawled into bed. Honestly, I don't usually drink, but I don't want to be left out.
     Yay, anxiety!

Field School: The Dig, Day 2

     Time goes by much faster when you're digging an entire conservation layer up from the ground to try and remove the plastic that was left at the end of the archaeological season from the year before. We left after breakfast, during which I stole a sausage to give to a stray cat who had been yelling at me below my balcony last night, and once I had put it in my fridge and grabbed my hat, I switched out my shoes and was ready to go. I was scared we would have another rough day because I had heard it raining early in the morning when I woke up, but when we got there, it was as sunny as it could be.
     Our group was split into two and Mathilde, Siyu, and I all worked on another sector while Ivan and Jianing went to work in the lower level of the original square we were in. We had to clean up the dirt and such and remove the plastic. This is honestly what we did all day. I tried to let people rotate and eventually I ended up taking the wheelbarrow a lot. It was easier and more fun for me, I think. Today was definitely more fun than yesterday, anyway. We found a lot of mass material but won't know what they are until they're cleaned.
     The break was at half-past ten, so we all headed back to the barrack to have tea and coffee with biscuits. There's also a local dog there, named Sharka (how it sounds in English; I don't know the Bulgarian spelling) and we have her some biscuits and I left my coffee cup once I washed it and filled it with water for her so she would have clean water to drink and she wasn't drinking water from the dirty bucket under our water spigot. I washed the cup again and put it back. I tried to have coffee because I've been so dead tired at the end of the day but it was disgusting - I added four sugar packets and drank half of it and then I ended up spilling it, so it was fine. The break ended at 11 a.m., so we headed back to the site to finish up.
     I manned the wheelbarrow and helped the other two when they needed me to take the buckets out of their sector when the supervisor was elsewhere. The time went by really fast and I was trying to make sure I drank enough water, which I don't think I did.
     Yesterday, I kept my gloves on for most of the day because of the mud and the rain, but because it was dryer today, I ended up abandoning my gloves after the break and just got my hands dirty. I still used a trowel to go through the dirt of course, and we found a lot of mass findings (obviously). Once it was almost time to go, we all gathered together and Angela explained to us how to write our field notebook. We headed back to the barrack and everyone else was finishing their field journals.
     We got back to the Villa and had our shoes switched out a little before two o'clock. Lunch was not something I wanted to eat (just a plain omelet - I didn't know they ate eggs so much here or I would have indicated that eggs in excess hurt my stomach), and hot chicken noodle soup. I'm going to snack and then our lecture will be at 4:30 p.m., which is a timeline of Thracian history, so I'm excited about that since I don't actually know much about Thrace.  

Field School: The Dig, Day 1

     My alarm went off at 5 a.m., but I turned it off right away because I wanted to sleep in more. My AC had gone out, so I had to sleep with the door open, and there were people by the pool being really loud. On top of that, for some reason, my key won't turn the lock from the inside when I go to sleep, so I had to put my suitcase in front of it so I would know if someone was getting into my room in the middle of the night. So, I was stressed because it was very humid in my room, I kept hearing people yelling outside, and I was anxious about my door and didn't fall asleep until 1 a.m. However, when my alarm clock went off again, I had a message on my phone which I read, and then I was up.
     I got up, got dressed, and prepared myself for breakfast. The outside felt good, but I didn't want to be on my balcony, so I went downstairs to walk the pool area of the Villa. Linda was already outside and asked if I was alright and I explained that I was just trying to wake up by taking a small walk. I made a round around the perimeter of the territory and took some pictures of snails to send to Folklore Fiancé (they were very excited about the snails). After my short walk, I went inside to have breakfast and sat with Linda. Since we were going to be digging today, I wanted to skip on the cheese for breakfast and ended up having a lot of sausages (or something akin to it) instead.
     Each of the participants made it down one by one, and I realized I had forgotten my sandals upstairs in my room, so I ran back upstairs to get them. We were going to leave our boots in the shed outside of the hotel after we were done digging, so we didn't track in a bunch of dirt when we returned, so Angela, the director of the dig, told us to leave our sandals there so we could switch them out at the end of the dig and wear them back to the hotel. I came back downstairs, and I was done breakfast, but it wasn't time to leave yet, so I sat with Cyrene and Elizabeth until our bus came. We dropped off our shoes in the shed before we left and waited for the rest of the group to come outside so we could go to the site.
     On the way to the site, it began raining a bit, so when we got there, we were given our field notebooks and got the introduction to the tools we would be using at the site. One of the supervisors made sure we knew the names of all the tools: trowel, spade, shovel, hoe, pickaxe, and of course, dustpans and wheelbarrows. We were given gloves, and when it seemed like the rain had passed, we all were assigned our groups. The square that my group was assigned was the one I was hoping to be in, so I was excited about that.
     We put the ladder in the area where we were, and we had to start cleaning. Since the site is only dug for the field school, the last people who were at the site had covered up the features with plastic, and because of the weather over the past year, we had to shovel out what had fallen on top. Bulgaria is not usually rainy, but it had been uncharacteristically wet for a while, so we were shoveling a lot of mud. My boots were half covered in mud when I switched out of the square for sifting through the wheelbarrow job. The mud was very heavy, and I will admit I was disappointed because it was so wet and I was expecting a very dry workspace. But, as Cyrene pointed out, if it's shite weather (my words, not hers) and I still manage to have fun and enjoy it, then I'll know for sure that I want to do archaeology as a profession.
     At least it isn't hot like it is back home.
     It began to spit again, so we kept digging until it seemed like the rain was going to come down harder. We moved over to the break area for tea and coffee and waited for the rain to stop. A few participants were trying to get the attention of the stray dog that keeps coming near us but then running away. She's very sweet but very timid. The rain stopped again, and so we went back to dig. I was back in the square while someone else manned the wheelbarrow. The rain came back not soon after, so we had to pack up and go back home.
     It was disappointing to go back home after being rained out on our first day, but my back and feet were a little bit relieved. It's a lot of hard work and continuously slipping in the mud was killing me, especially with my knee injury. We had a little bit of down time before lunch, so I showered and got in my swimsuit, and went down for lunch. Almost immediately after I was done eating, I left and got into the pool. I didn't want to get all the way here and spend all this money on a room and not use the pool at least once, so I was eager to get in. Although, I had forgotten to reapply my sunscreen, so now I have a wicked sunburn on my back, but luckily I have aloe!       
     Cyrene and I left the pool around 2:30 p.m. and sat next to the pool on chairs until around 3:00 p.m. I took care of some things I needed to do until 3:50 p.m. because we had our lectures (there were two today) starting at 4 p.m. They were interesting, but I'm so tired that I kept nodding off and I felt bad. There was some time between when the lecture ended and dinner, so I took care of some other things and then went down to dinner. I'm not sure what dinner was, but I didn't like it.
     I asked if anyone wanted to hand and Cyrene and I decided to get beers and chill on my balcony while we drank. I ate a lot of chips once I was done my beer and dropped a few off the balcony because a cat wouldn't stop screaming, so I guess she was hungry? She ate the chips. I'm going to try and bring her real kitty food tomorrow.
     Let's hope for no rain and a semi-dry square tomorrow!

Field School: Pistiros

     Our welcome orientation was in the same building as the winery, so we went to the "classroom" area, where we were shown a short overview of the Balkan Heritage Foundation and an introduction to the field school. We had an icebreaker afterward, which was easier since I had basically met and talked to all the people already, so I wasn't nervous. Most of us are here to see how we like archaeology, even though some of the people had participated in another project earlier in the summer or in a previous one. There are a few people who were graduate students, some adults who just wanted to see if they liked digging because they find archaeology so interesting, and the majority of people on the dig were undergraduate students. We have people from the U.S., Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, so it's a pretty mixed group! I was surprised there were no people from the U.K. in the group, though.
     We took a break, and we brought down our passports to fill out a form for the local police because we're staying in the area for more than three days, so they have to know who we are and why we're here. I grabbed my passport and headed back down. I filled out the form and handed it back, not realizing I had left the rest of the paperwork I was supposed to sign and give to them to settle the shuttle and leftover cost if we had anything left to pay. After running upstairs to grab it from my room, I ran it back down to the project coordinator. I had to pay €19.60 for both, which nice to have the Euro vs. leva option, so I used some of the Euro so I would have leva left for when we went out. I tried to give myself a 20 leva a day limit so it would last me the entire trip.
     It was finally time for lunch, which was bell peppers stuffed with some kind of rice and a cold soup made from cucumbers and yogurt. Due to my issues with food texture, I just ate the rice, and I tried the soup, which I liked for the first three bites, but then it was too much for me. I loaded up on bread again to try and get me through the day. We had a siesta after lunch, so Cyrene and I hung out in my room since her roommate wanted to nap. I ate two of my Chewy bars I had brought with me (thank the gods I read a bunch of archaeology field school blogs before I left that suggested protein bars and snacks from home because you'll want them - they were very right). I usually can't nap without feeling sick, so I just didn't bother and talked during the siesta.   
     Once the siesta was over, we headed back to the room where we had had our orientation. We began a lecture with one of the professors to learn about Ancient Thrace. There were some technical issues with the computer for the PowerPoint, so the lecture started late. It was fascinating, but I felt myself nodding off a bit. So, tomorrow, I think I will try to rest more with my siesta time. The rest of the lecture had to wait because we had a small excursion to go on in the evening, so they stopped the lecture and said it would continue on Thursday.
      Our first stop was the Археологически музей "Проф. Мечислав Домарадски" or, Archaeological Museum "Prof. Mieczysław Domaradzki," which was named after a Polish archaeologist who discovered Pistiros, which is the site in which we're going to dig. We were given a tour in Bulgarian which was translated into English by the coordinator for us and we were allowed to take pictures (which I will be uploading to my Facebook page, my Instagram, some on my Twitter, and on my Tumblr as well, if you want to see!) so I did that while I listened. The gallery was pretty small, but there was an amazing amount of conserved pottery and loads of coins, which is something the coordinator and supervisor told us we would probably be finding a lot during the dig.
     The next stop after the museum, which felt very rushed out the door while we were inside, even though I was hoping to buy something from their small shop, was the actual dig site. Pistiros is a place where both people from Ancient Thrace and Ancient Greece interacted, so there is material from both cultures at the site. We were told a brief history about each of the spots at the dig site as we walked through and the archaeologist we were going to be working with explained where things would go and how things were, so all of that was really interesting.
     We began to head home, but we were able to stop at the supermarket (which is very small compared to what I'm used to when I hear the word "supermarket" - if you're American, imagine a very cramped, long corner store - that's what it was like) so we could get some snacks. I bought some chips, a Cherry Coke, a buttload of chocolate, what looked like meringue, and some cookies. Could I read any of the Bulgarian? No. But I saw pictures of sweets I liked and got those! I also bought the Doritos to see if they taste different than American ones (they do).
     It was getting late, so we all piled back into the shuttle bus to get back to Villa Terres for dinner. This dinner was chicken with fried potatoes, and I was so relieved. I finally felt full after a meal; I know I shouldn't be so picky, but if the texture is wrong I just can't eat it. It makes my tongue feel weird. We were also given ice cream for dessert, which was great! By the time we were finished with dinner, it was 9:30 p.m., but I wasn't tired yet. Cyrene and I decided to go sit by the pool and relax for a little bit before going to bed. We stayed out until about 10:15, and decided to call it a night. Once I had a shower and wrote my blog, I was ready for sleep.
     Tomorrow is the first day we dig; I'm super nervous, so cross your fingers for me!