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: 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! 

Field School: Preparation

     If you follow me on other platforms, you know that I am getting ready to go to Bulgaria for my first field school. I'll be documenting the experience (as much as I am permitted to do so!) on this blog until the end of my session. Since I work a full-time job already, I chose to take the minimum session amount and go for two weeks. Due to the fact that I'm not doing this for university credit (I have already graduated undergrad, and I'm entering my M.A. program in the Fall), I was able to go for the shorter period of time. Additionally, it was a little cheaper than paying for college credits. It did cost me a little more because I paid for a single room; this was mostly because, as a non-binary trans person, I found that it would be a little difficult to place me. I didn't want to be grouped with a gender I don't identify as, so, luckily, I was accepted early enough that the "early bird" cost was almost the exact amount cheaper as it cost to get a single room. I just hope that nothing is messed up and I end up with a roommate.
     Traveling as a non-binary person is frustrating because a lot of the time you have to indicate an honorific for the airline, and it has to match your passport. However, if they had given me the option for "Reverend," I would have been fine. I'm an ordained interfaith minister, and I use "Reverend" for my gender-neutral honorific for the most part. Once I get my Ph.D., it'll be Dr.! But, until then, I wish I could have chosen "Rev." at the beginning of my title instead of what I had to choose.
     Anyway, I leave tomorrow! (Yikes.) And I still have some shopping to do. (Extra yikes.) Don't be like me, kids. Shop for everything and have it at least three days ahead of when you're supposed to leave. My anxiety is skyrocketing because I checked the weather in the areas I will be in Bulgaria, and there's going to be a lot of rain. I currently live in the desert - we don't get a lot of rain where I live. I don't have a raincoat. Heck, I don't even have a coat. So, I'll be doing a couple runs during my lunch hour today to try and get a light jacket, a cheap wallet (my current wallet is one I do NOT want to lose), a drawstring backpack (surprisingly hard to find?), a cheap computer bag, and some tape to make sure my luggage tags don't get ripped off my luggage. I should also get a luggage lock, but not sure where I can get that, so I'm going to need to go to 1-3 stores before I go home tonight.
     Fantastic.
     I've already packed my carry on, but need to rearrange my plastic baggy of toiletries because it's already too full and I have to decide what's the most important to put in it. I haven't traveled out of the country since 2009, so I was no longer familiar with the rules and regulations for carry-on bags. Additionally, I've never flown out of Las Vegas before, so I'm extra nervous about that.
     I did a lot of my planning early on, in November, when I knew that I was going for sure. I paid for my program and single room first, and then for my flight second. My flight wasn't too bad, but it was almost as much as the trip cost me. I needed new luggage because my favorite suitcase, which I bought in Japan in 2007, was beginning to finally break (what a lifespan; I'm really rough on my suitcases). A set of three was about $110. Then, I realized I didn't have any pants anymore, because again, the desert, and the ones I did have no longer fit. Ordered those last week because I could not find my size in a store. I have literally gotten all of my clothes for this trip over the last week or so. If I hadn't had to move in the middle of getting ready for it, I might have been more prepared (long story short: our apartment had gone way downhill, and now we're living with my fiancé's (lovingly referred to as Folklore Fiancé on other platforms) family). Either way, I have to make do.
     One of the other things I wanted to make sure I had were knee pads. Even for someone with healthy and never-injured knees, it's important to have those or a kneeling pad; however, I had a knee injury nearly two years ago (imagine unpacking mannequins off a truck and then BITING it right onto your knee), and it never healed quite right. So, it was imperative for me to have them before I left. That, and a bucket hat, two things I never thought to buy until a little under a month ago. I still have to do laundry and pack my checked bag, but then I go to the airport tomorrow morning at nine!
     My flight is at noon, and I have a flight from here to Detroit, then Detroit to Paris, and then from Paris to Sofia. So, a lot of different flights!! However, I love flying and that's not my issue. I just hate waiting. There's some time between each of my flights, so I have a total of about sixteen hours of travel time. Then, I have to find my hotel when I get to Sofia. It seems that there is a free 24-hour shuttle service from the airport, though, so that's great! I don't think it's too near anything for me to see and I have to go back to the airport to get the ride with the rest of the group, so at least I chose the hotel well. I want to make sure I can stay awake long enough to get myself out of the jetlag, though. I can't sleep on planes. So this will be an interesting trip...
     The other thing I managed to mess up because I did it last minute was the most annoying thing because I should have known better since I have gone out of the country three separate times before this: currency. I ordered €50 from my bank because I forgot - I knew, and I forgot - that Bulgaria doesn't use Euro. So, now I have Euro for my layover in France, I guess, and for when I get to the field school because of the leftover fees I still owed them. I just need to make sure I take my cards with me, too!
     But, because I figured I wouldn't be able to post for a bit once I started flying all over the place, I wanted to get a blog post out a little earlier than I was planning! Shout out to my co-workers and my mom for contributing for the trip when they didn't have to :3 (one co-worker got me a holographic elephant journal for the trip! With owl stickers! So, that's going to be my travel journal.)
     I'll probably post Sunday evening once I get into Sofia because I'll be trying to focus on traveling! Either way, if you want to follow me before I post again, be sure to check out my other social media platforms:

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Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my frantic rambling!