Field School: The Journey Home (Las Vegas)

     The flight from Atlanta wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. During our boarding, we were told that if we had rolling carry-ons, they would have to be checked and put in the hold, but I had prepared for that and removed the bag I had from Bulgaria - I had put all the souvenirs into my Balkan Heritage Field School tote bag and then put that inside my I <3 Bulgaria drawstring bag that I had used as my dig bag for the past week (I realized on the flight later I had forgotten to take my passport out of my roller carry-on and was frantically praying to Hermes to at least let me get that bag back if nothing else because how did I forget to remove my passport). The seats were a bit roomier than the ones on the Paris flight because there were significantly fewer people on this flight, so the seats were slightly bigger. The flight was supposed to be four hours and sixteen minutes long.
     I met someone named Dawn Rose on the way into the flight because she and I had seats near each other, but her traveling companion had a seat higher up in the plane. Both a person behind her and I told her they were willing to switch with him if she wanted; the other woman ended up switching, so I kept my aisle seat, which was next to Dawn Rose's aisle seat, so we talked for a bit because I told her I was on a dig in Bulgaria, so we talked about archaeology for a while, and she told me where she traveled, before we both went to do our own things.
     The flight had a snack, so I had a weird "cookie" that tasted like doughy cake and some Coke. When they had come back, I asked what they had for hot drinks, and I got tea and asked for their cookies, which complemented the black tea well. The flight had been blasting cold air at us (the downside to the aisle seat and being short is that I can't reach anything above me like the controls for that) the whole flight, and before we took off, they made an announcement that there were no blankets on board because Atlanta had a shortage, so they didn't take any. I was so cold that I made more trips to the bathroom than usual (as soon as I felt the slightest need to go) just so that I could warm up a little bit. At one point during the first bathroom trip, someone pushed on the door with a lot of force, so I yelled "Whoa," because, dude, I am doing my business in here, please wait for a second, the door says occupied.
     Despite the fact that the airline was selling headsets for $2 a piece, I just did what I had done on my first flight out of Vegas, and watched movies with subtitles and no earpieces. I put on Love, Simon again, so if I nodded off for a bit, it wasn't that big of a deal. The final stretch of the time, I put on Thor: Ragnarok, and nodded off during that a few times as well. I kept checking my watch because I was so anxious to get home.
     Once we landed, I gathered all of my things and began to message Folklore Fiancé. They were already at the airport, and once I was let out, I was at gate D34. Folklore Fiancé said they had been at a different gate first, but then went to information. I asked them to call me, and they had told me where they were waiting. We decided to head to the carousel for my luggage and meet there. They asked me if I wanted them to grab my bags if they saw them. I said yes, if they could, but to be careful with the large luggage. Right after they said that, they saw the small one already, and while we were on the phone, told me they grabbed the big one too. We stayed on the phone until I found them waiting by the number 14 carousel. We hugged and my knee popped, so I had to sit for a minute.
     Folklore Fiancé led the way to their aunt's car where she was waiting for us in the parking garage. My luggage was a little worse for wear and it didn't have my lock on it anymore, even though I had a TSA-approved lock, which really irritated me. I didn't see it inside my luggage, either, and I am still angry about it because it was a brand new lock I had bought before I went. We loaded up the car and headed home. We talked about the dig, and I shared some snacks I had bought in Bulgaria with them, and we finally got home around 11 p.m.
     I gave everyone their presents that I had for them: I got Nana a pepper shaker and a magnet that was a mini mortar and pestle; I got three souvenir spoons (one silver, two ceramic) for my aunt-in-law, my sibling-in-law got a Bulgarian wooden flute, and Folklore Fiancé was given socks with traditional Bulgarian designs on it, a miniature notebook that was the very kitschy souvenir design but I knew they would like, a pegasus necklace, and then a necklace with a large charm with Bulgarian embroidery on it. They said they had never seen embroidery on a necklace before and seemed super excited about it, so I was glad I made the right decision on buying it.
     Folklore Fiancé heated up some kielbasa for me before I went to take my shower and soak my feet (because they are very swollen), and we went to bed late. This is my last blog post about my field school trip for the Pistiros excavation of 2018 through the Balkan Heritage Field School!
     That is, of course, until I go again next season 😉

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 6

     Do you want to hear a bunch of teenagers and adults sing "Rain Rain Go Away" after not hearing it for several, literal years? Go to a dig site that is usually dry and simple dirt during an unnaturally rainy summer.
     I wasn't the first one at breakfast for once, and I sat in my usual seat and ate my usual breakfast. Instead of having sliced sausage and buttered bread, I made it into a sandwich today (wild, I know). I was one of the first people out to the shoe shed, and I put on my boots and headed to the bus. The weather was pretty overcast, so we were worried about the rain.
     We were right to be worried.
     We continued digging where we were, but at around 9 a.m., it began to rain. There had been a small drizzle beforehand, but this rain looked like it wasn't going to stop. Angela suggested that we take our break then so that we would be able to keep digging if the rain stopped, but wanted to give it a chance to pass. So, our break that we usually have around 10:30 a.m., we ended up taking a little after 9 a.m. This irritated me a little because I was finally getting into a groove with my section of the square in which I was working. Part of me wanted the rain to stop right away, part of me wanted to just have it rain harder so that we didn't have to keep doing the go-and-stop, stop-and-go nonsense.
     Even though I should have saved it for later because I'm super cranky when I don't eat by a certain time, I ate my power bar and had some water. Luckily, about forty minutes after the rain started, it stopped. We made our way back to the site, where many of our areas were covered in water or just way more wet than we wanted them to be. Thank the gods I decided to buy kneepads before I came here.
     We continued working in our sections, but at some point, one of the instructors was smoking near the square, and I had a coughing fit. I couldn't breathe, and when I didn't stop, Angela asked if I was okay and I said I was allergic to the smoke and the other person finished her cigarette and went elsewhere. Later, when I told Angela I was dizzy from the cigarette smoke, she said that the woman smoking was far away - sure, but she was still standing right next to our dig site and smoking while the wind is blowing. I'm really sensitive to it; that's why I put it on my form before I went under my allergies!
     Due to the fact that I was extremely dizzy and lightheaded, I kept standing up in a daze, and Anglea told me to sit down and take a break. While I was sitting, she told me to look through her binder to find the document sheets about the site in which we were currently digging. I flipped through it quickly, and upon inspecting it more thoroughly, I noticed all the paperwork was for another square in the site, and only for that square. None of the information I was looking for could be found, so I had to wait for Angela to come back over to let her know this. She checked everything too, so we're wondering where the papers went, but she assured me that we had scans so we would use those if we needed to.
     Once I was feeling a little less woozy, I was able to get up and walk around a bit. The first thing I did was sketch the square in which we were working to show any new or more detailed features. Angela had me fill out the introduction to our field journals and what was going on in every square, which I could notate in my field journal as well. I did all of these things until it was time to leave and lunch wasn't all that appetizing today, either.
     We had a decent break time between lunch and lecture, so I went swimming with Cyrene, Zoe, Gena, Sydney, Elizabeth, and Mathilde. After Jianing left the building from getting a massage, we all went in to use the sauna and steam room. I stayed the whole time for the sauna, but only sat in the steam room for a short while, but it did help my throat and chest a lot compared to earlier.
     The lecture today was on epigraphy, which was really interesting. It was also one of the only times we've had time in between lecture and dinner, so a lot of people went back to their rooms. I just chilled and ate chocolate until it was time for dinner. The group switched up their table habits to see what would happen, which was an interesting turn of events.
     The dinner was fried peppers filled with cheese, and they were cold. It wasn't very appetizing; I ate one and then Jianing told me she had ordered fish and convinced me to just order something since I couldn't eat the dinner. This was a good choice because I ordered potatoes ("French fries" but they look like flat, doughy chips) and they were filling. I stayed and talked with Cyrene, and occasionally jumped into the conversation between Mathilde, Ivan, and Siyu.
     Elizabeth had decided to watch something again, and most of us watched an episode of Nailed It and then we all decided to go to bed. Tomorrow will be another adventure. 

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! 

Field School: Villa Terres

     Yesterday, I checked out of Ibis Hotel Sofia Airport around one, and I was told I owed €0.50 for city tax, which is fine, but I wished I had known that beforehand. I thought I had pre-paid everything, so what if I didn't have that on me? They really need to get themselves together with that one. It's the second time I was not told something or told something incorrect even though it would have been easy to tell me about the charge before I had even stayed. What if I hadn't had any money on me yet? So, I was irritated about it, but it wasn't a lot of money, and I had it with me, so I gave it to her. She told me her colleague was about to leave for the airport, so she asked him to wait to take me with them. I went to Terminal 2 on the shuttle and then I had to wait for a while. Of course, the Sofia Airport didn't have any internet reception where I was waiting, so I began to read some of the handbook with a highlighter.
     Once I couldn't concentrate anymore, I went to find a bathroom because I was beginning to feel the dairy I had had earlier in the day. One of the great things about European bathrooms, especially in their airports, is that the doors are low to the ground, the sides aren't open at all, and I can fit two suitcases and my laptop case in there. So, after taking care of that, I finally got some reception and decided to use the ATM to get some Bulgarian lev before I was picked up. The internet finally allowed my cell phone to connect to the internet, where I checked the money. It looked like, even with the fees, I would be able to take out 300 Bulgarian leva. It didn't seem like enough for two weeks, so I set a budget of 20 leva per day which seemed a reasonable amount, especially because our meals are included with the trip.
     Worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything if I sat back down, I went over to the little souvenir shop and bought a surprise for Folklore Fiancé and ten postcards that I want to write out and send to the U.S. as soon as possible. I found a seat in the arrival area, and I heard two girls speaking English, so I wanted to say something, but I wanted to wait until they said something more obvious that would confirm my suspicions that they were here for the dig. My computer finally connected to the internet on that side of the airport, so I was messing around online until I heard them mention a group.
     That's when I asked if they were there for the Balkan Heritage Field School, and they said yes! Their names were Mathilde, from Switzerland, and Gena from the U.S. I'm not sure if Gena spells her name that way, but it's shortened from a name starting with a G, but it sounds like Jenna. We began to talk and get to know each other before the fellow who was driving the shuttle for us showed up. We were waiting for some other people, but two people on a flight were delayed, and someone else missed their flight. We all got into the shuttle, and we were on our way.
     We arrived at the Villa Terres hotel about an hour and a half later. After we got our luggage, we all waited to be shown to our rooms. My room was on the second floor, all the way at the end of the hallway. I have a double bed and a balcony all to myself! The balconies have cute little tables set up, and I love sitting on the balcony to write, but people keep smoking below me, so once that happens, I have to go inside because I'm allergic to the cigarette smoke. (I was trying to finish this post outside where it is cool and refreshing, but someone had to ruin it with their godsforsaken cigarette. Please keep your stick of bullshit away from me, thanks.)
     Our dinner was soon after we arrived, but it wasn't a lot. I was actually kind of disappointed in the dinner. It was just a bunch of vegetables, which I guess was because I was sitting next to folks who ate vegan and vegetarian and didn't find out that there was even chicken until it was almost gone, but I did get one little piece. At least I brought some snacks with me here. We got wine with dinner, and we talked a lot. I talked with Cyrene, who was from L.A., for a while on my balcony and eventually we all went to put our feet in the pool, and we were wondering when we would be able to swim. Apparently, we needed to sign something before we went into the pool, so we weren't allowed to swim in it yet. Some of the other folks were tipsy and just went right in with their clothes on. I wanted to do the same, so badly, but I decided it was probably best that I didn't.
     It was nearly midnight when we decided to go back to our rooms, so I tried to sleep, but I ended up talking to Folklore Fiancé instead because they were still awake. We talked for a bit, and I messaged some other people, and I couldn't fall asleep at first. I set the alarm and finally passed out. My alarm woke me up at 6 a.m., which I shut off and promptly fell back asleep. At 8 a.m., I woke up in a panic, thinking I had missed the breakfast, but it was at 8:30 a.m. today, so I went out to the landing and Mathilde was reading Circe (the same book I'm reading!) and waiting for others to come out. We all went down for breakfast together.
     My breakfast was an apple,  bread with cheese and sausage, two other bits of some type of sausage links(?), bread with honey, and a lot of water. We took a short walk after breakfast and then we all went to our rooms to get ready for the welcome orientation and introduction to everyone on the trip. We have lunch and siesta from one until four o'clock, and then we come back for a lecture.
     I will let you know how those go!