The internet here is very slow, and particularly so when all the other students are online. Currently I have a brief reprieve because the rest of the students are still out working in the field, and I'm not. I'll explain why in a short while.
Let's take a look back to Sunday, which was quite possibly the best day I've had here so far. We went to Anse la Roche, a secluded beach only reachable by hike or by boat. We hiked there, which was pretty fun, and then were boated back, but while we were there, we did some great stuff.
First off, we played frisbee on the beach (as we always do), which was great. Not an actual game, just throwing around and stuff. Then we swam around for quite a while, and I snorkelled again, which was fantastic. Seriously, I recommend snorkeling at a reef or something for anyone who has yet to do such a thing. It's awesome.
After that, we swam out to a rock outcropping (it was about 100 feet from the nearest shore, but the water that direction was very rocky and dangerous, so we had to swim from the other direction which was about 300-500 feet out). It ranged from 12 feet to 25 feet at the majority of its points, excluding a small area that was climbable if you swam around the backside. One of the guys discovered that at one part, nearest the 20-25 foot ledge, the water was 15 to 20 feet deep at the shallowest. So, we went rock diving. It was crazy, it was one of the best things yet, very exhilarating, very exciting, I loved it. There are pictures, but I don't have them because I couldn't carry my camera out to the rock.
After jumping, I sat on the rock for a long time and just relaxed. It was exceptionally peaceful, on a rock in the middle of the ocean, seeing waves crash everywhere, more sailboats in the distance, and everything being so serene and whatnot. Quite awesome.
So we boated back, and hung out the rest of the day, and it was just overall a great day.
But back to work on Monday. Luckily, Tuesday, it started pouring (I've said this before, but I don't think I've ever seen rain this hard, except for on Wednesday, and we're getting there). Sadly, this meant that we were in the lab all day, cleaning and sorting pottery. Very dull work, but better than being outside in the heat and digging all day.
Wednesday, it rained again, but even harder, like I said. This was some of the heaviest rain I'd ever seen. Fortunately, we had finished all the lab work the day before, and so had nothing to do on Wednesday. So, after sleeping in late, I arranged a game of mud frisbee. We went to a nearby cricket field which was deserted (for obvious reasons, namely the torrential downpour), and started playing ultimate. We couldn't really accomplish much until the rain let up on occasion, but we played anyways. At one point, the frisbee caught a gust of wind, and flew over 100 feet into the air, and then got swept away and landed on a nearby house's roof. We had to go and get it back, which ended up with us talking to a local guy with the thickest accent ever. None of us have any clue what he said. At all.
Anyways, during the game, the rain picked up even harder, and we watched (and listened, it was eery, hearing this happen) as rain clouds, and sheets of rain swept over the mountains in front of us and waited for about 2 minutes as it approached, thundering and roaring, and then drenched us. Like crazy. And then, a tree snapped in half because of the wind (no small tree, either. I'm talking about the kind of tree you can't get your arms halfway around, with probably a 5 or 6 foot diameter) and fell over the wall surrounding the field (it was nowhere near us, though, it was a large field). To be fair, the tree had probably endured similar abuse recently and already had one leg in the grave.
Regardless, lots of fun, and then more hanging out and relaxing that night. We worked all day (9 hours) in the field the next day and had lecture), which brings us to today.
Today was another full work day, leave the hotel at 6:45, work until 4 with a 30 minute rest break at 9:30 and a 30 minute lunch break at 12:30. I however, was selected to be in the lab all day to sort more pottery, along with two other students. Or, one other student, and one student/staff amalgation (she's still a student, but she's done the trip before so she's in charge of the lab and has authority and such). Which meant, we sat inside sorting pottery while playing movies on a computer and eating chicken. And we finished sorting everything early, so I got to come back and use the computer.
Anyways, this is the last full week, so next we'll I'll be coming home. If I can get internet, I'll post again before then.
Ta ta for now!
Matt
Friday, June 17, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Sorry for the Delay!
Hey everybody, sorry for the delay in posting, it's been about a week or so, hasn't it? We think the British students are hogging the internet, so I haven't had any except on my ipod, and it's a lot more difficult to update this on there than on a computer. So sorry!
Anyways, what's been going on this week?
Well, I need to make a quick revision from my last post, Mopion, the place we went on Sunday, was not a hike, as I had said. In fact, it would be quite impossible to hike to Mopion, as the nearest piece of land aside from a mound of Conch shells nearby is about 5 miles away and is completely uninhabited. Mopion is a small sandbar, maybe 40 yards long by 10 yards wide, if that large, with a large umbrella at one end. To get there, one must take a 30-45 minute boatride into the open ocean, past any neighboring islands. It was an amazing, albeit highly sunburn-producing, experience. We played a small scale game of frisbee across the length of the island (my team won, 7-0). I also got to snorkel while I was there, which is a thoroughly rivetting experience. Anyone who has never done so, I suggest they do it without hesitation if presented with the opportunity, especially in a place like the Carribean. There wasn't much around there, but getting to see the coral reef around Mopion up close was exceptional. Under the water, it seems like everything's part of an entirely different world, and there were fish everywhere. Vibrant, multicolored, blue, purple, yellow, and orange fish, big and small. It was outstanding. Sadly, my camera is not waterproof, or I would have taken a thousand or so pictures of them to show everyone.
Then, it was another journey back for a nice relaxing, aloe applying day.
Monday through Thursday were fairly regular work days, excepting that we found another human burial, this time in the trench we had been digging. This means that there was likely a house built over the trench (burials were most often done in the post-holes of longhouses of the relatives), so there've been some interesting stuff found in there. One of the other human burials has been completely uncovered (to be clear, that makes for 4 burials that we've been working on in this area, and one in Sabazan that we, unfortunately, will not be able to excavate before it ultimately gets washed away in the rainy season. This most recent find, the one I helped excavate, another one that was already known of but not as prioritized, because it wasn't quite as close to the tide, and a fourth in a very awkward beach wall that has yet to be worked on because we can't figure out how to excavate it without hanging from above or using very tall ladders from below). So yeah, pretty cool stuff.
Yesterday, Friday, we went on a field trip to Grenada, which was really awesome. My facebook status had a brief summary of what went on. Very brief. We had to catch the 6 AM ferry off Carriacou to Grenada (which involved waking up at 5:30, which, sadly, isn't much earlier than we have to wake up daily for work), but we got to watch the sunrise over the open ocean, which is really spectacular, especially when there's no land in sight. We arrived in Grenada around 8, and took a tour bus around to all the cool places on Grenada. We went to an old fort, built by the French, taken over by the British, then recaptured by the French. It overlooks the bay and main city of Grenada, as well as much of the countryside. There are a lot of pictures on it. Including quite a few of me standing on the outermost, tallest wall. What can you say? Send a 20 year old guy to another country and he will invariably do stupid things like that. I didn't fall, promise. In fact, despite the wind, I think I balanced exceptionally well thank you very much. Didn't even lose my hat.
We went to a beach on Grenada and saw boats and the petraglyphs (ancient rock drawings). I only got one good picture of the petraglyphs (to be honest, they weren't very exciting. Maybe if Dr. Fitzpatrick had explained them instead of the tour guide, we would have found them more exhilirating. He has a knack for turning seemingly boring things like human dispersion throughout ancient Carribean current routes surprisingly interesting). They were made by the same group, the Amerindians, as we have been excavating.
From there we went to the Rivers Rum factory. It was seriously cool. It was an old, archaic rum factory. I have tons of pictures of it, they use an old wooden wheel powered by water to crush sugar cane and then they boil it and let it ferment and make rum.
This is the part where mom covers her ears. Or eyes, I guess.
They gave us free rum samples. I tried the tiniest shot of 150 proof rum (75% alcohol by volume). It was seriously maybe a centimeter tall, in a plastic cup the size of a shot glass. It was like an explosion in my mouth. An explosion of fire. For real. It was crazy. I'm proud of myself for taking it like a champ, cause I didn't puke or cry or anything. I just chugged a ton of water afterwards. Before I drank it, Dr. Fitzpatrick and the other administrators had my pose, and I think there may be a video of it. Apparently it was hilarious (cause I'm the kid known for not drinking, and I was slightly terrified at the sheer strength of this stuff). But I did well. I didn't get drunk mom, promise (I knew you didn't close your eyes).
Fun fact, it is illegal to transport that stuff to America, because it is too flammable. Anything about 70% alcohol is illegal to transport by plane. So they make a 69% version as well, haha.
Next we went to a chocolate factory. Unfortunately, I won't be able to bring back any chocolate as souvenirs because, frankly, it won't survive that long. Delicious stuff. Powerfully chocolate, as well. 60% cocoa, 71% cocoa, and 82% cocoa. Sheer chocolate, dark as anything. The 82% was crazy. But it's an entirely organic chocolate company. They grow all the cocoa there, they pick it by hand and they do everything themselves at the factory, and the factory is completely run by solar energy. Crazy stuff.
We had lunch there, which was fantastic. It was a buffet lunch with tons of food. Delicious, I must say.
From there, we returned to the ferry and came back to Carriacou by the 5:30 ferry. Apparently it was the roughest ride the ferry has had in quite a few years, and walls of water were spilling over the top deck (being stubborn and strongheaded, I refused, along with most of the other guys, to go down underneath to the cozy inside area with food and drinks for sale and braved it out with Dr. Fitzpatrick and Jonathan on the top deck). We got soaked. Thoroughly soaked. We were standing by the railing, and as water would come up, we'd duck down to avoid it, but got drenched regardless. We managed to stay standing the whole 2 hours (an especially surprising feat seeing as Dr. Fitzpatrick only has one real leg, and Jonathan's relatively clumsy). We finally made it back to Carriacou, went to our rooms and passed out. I'm pretty sure I slept for a good 13 hours last night. It was fantastic.
Today has been pretty chill and simple. We went to the beach some more and hung out. We've become really good friends with this guy Mike, he's our age and is the bartender as the restaurant across the street. He took us fishing earlier in the week, which was done with fishing line wrapped around an aerosol can since they don't have fishing poles. We caught some stuff, but only small fish. Almost a crab.
Anyways, he showed us how to climb coconut trees today, and we got coconuts, cut them open with a machete on the beach, and drank coconut milk. It's kinda bland tasting, like a mixture of skim milk and water, more on the water side, but not bad. We played a bit of frisbee on the beach, and just relaxed and listened to Jack Johnson. Good day. Tonight is more karaoke, which I may or may not attend, seeing as the vocal talent of some of the students here tends to have a negative correlation with their desire to sing when intoxicated. I'm trying to spare my ears. Dr. Fitzpatrick has already, with fairly unanimous support from the students and staff, banned a few students from singing, haha. Not as if that will really stop them.
Well, that's all for now.
Tomorrow it's off to Anse-la-Roche, the place I thought we were going to last week. A hike, a beach, and a boatride. It'll be fun. If I have internet, I'll try and post again afterwards. Maybe I'll put up some more pictures.
See ya!
Anyways, what's been going on this week?
Well, I need to make a quick revision from my last post, Mopion, the place we went on Sunday, was not a hike, as I had said. In fact, it would be quite impossible to hike to Mopion, as the nearest piece of land aside from a mound of Conch shells nearby is about 5 miles away and is completely uninhabited. Mopion is a small sandbar, maybe 40 yards long by 10 yards wide, if that large, with a large umbrella at one end. To get there, one must take a 30-45 minute boatride into the open ocean, past any neighboring islands. It was an amazing, albeit highly sunburn-producing, experience. We played a small scale game of frisbee across the length of the island (my team won, 7-0). I also got to snorkel while I was there, which is a thoroughly rivetting experience. Anyone who has never done so, I suggest they do it without hesitation if presented with the opportunity, especially in a place like the Carribean. There wasn't much around there, but getting to see the coral reef around Mopion up close was exceptional. Under the water, it seems like everything's part of an entirely different world, and there were fish everywhere. Vibrant, multicolored, blue, purple, yellow, and orange fish, big and small. It was outstanding. Sadly, my camera is not waterproof, or I would have taken a thousand or so pictures of them to show everyone.
Then, it was another journey back for a nice relaxing, aloe applying day.
Monday through Thursday were fairly regular work days, excepting that we found another human burial, this time in the trench we had been digging. This means that there was likely a house built over the trench (burials were most often done in the post-holes of longhouses of the relatives), so there've been some interesting stuff found in there. One of the other human burials has been completely uncovered (to be clear, that makes for 4 burials that we've been working on in this area, and one in Sabazan that we, unfortunately, will not be able to excavate before it ultimately gets washed away in the rainy season. This most recent find, the one I helped excavate, another one that was already known of but not as prioritized, because it wasn't quite as close to the tide, and a fourth in a very awkward beach wall that has yet to be worked on because we can't figure out how to excavate it without hanging from above or using very tall ladders from below). So yeah, pretty cool stuff.
Yesterday, Friday, we went on a field trip to Grenada, which was really awesome. My facebook status had a brief summary of what went on. Very brief. We had to catch the 6 AM ferry off Carriacou to Grenada (which involved waking up at 5:30, which, sadly, isn't much earlier than we have to wake up daily for work), but we got to watch the sunrise over the open ocean, which is really spectacular, especially when there's no land in sight. We arrived in Grenada around 8, and took a tour bus around to all the cool places on Grenada. We went to an old fort, built by the French, taken over by the British, then recaptured by the French. It overlooks the bay and main city of Grenada, as well as much of the countryside. There are a lot of pictures on it. Including quite a few of me standing on the outermost, tallest wall. What can you say? Send a 20 year old guy to another country and he will invariably do stupid things like that. I didn't fall, promise. In fact, despite the wind, I think I balanced exceptionally well thank you very much. Didn't even lose my hat.
We went to a beach on Grenada and saw boats and the petraglyphs (ancient rock drawings). I only got one good picture of the petraglyphs (to be honest, they weren't very exciting. Maybe if Dr. Fitzpatrick had explained them instead of the tour guide, we would have found them more exhilirating. He has a knack for turning seemingly boring things like human dispersion throughout ancient Carribean current routes surprisingly interesting). They were made by the same group, the Amerindians, as we have been excavating.
From there we went to the Rivers Rum factory. It was seriously cool. It was an old, archaic rum factory. I have tons of pictures of it, they use an old wooden wheel powered by water to crush sugar cane and then they boil it and let it ferment and make rum.
This is the part where mom covers her ears. Or eyes, I guess.
They gave us free rum samples. I tried the tiniest shot of 150 proof rum (75% alcohol by volume). It was seriously maybe a centimeter tall, in a plastic cup the size of a shot glass. It was like an explosion in my mouth. An explosion of fire. For real. It was crazy. I'm proud of myself for taking it like a champ, cause I didn't puke or cry or anything. I just chugged a ton of water afterwards. Before I drank it, Dr. Fitzpatrick and the other administrators had my pose, and I think there may be a video of it. Apparently it was hilarious (cause I'm the kid known for not drinking, and I was slightly terrified at the sheer strength of this stuff). But I did well. I didn't get drunk mom, promise (I knew you didn't close your eyes).
Fun fact, it is illegal to transport that stuff to America, because it is too flammable. Anything about 70% alcohol is illegal to transport by plane. So they make a 69% version as well, haha.
Next we went to a chocolate factory. Unfortunately, I won't be able to bring back any chocolate as souvenirs because, frankly, it won't survive that long. Delicious stuff. Powerfully chocolate, as well. 60% cocoa, 71% cocoa, and 82% cocoa. Sheer chocolate, dark as anything. The 82% was crazy. But it's an entirely organic chocolate company. They grow all the cocoa there, they pick it by hand and they do everything themselves at the factory, and the factory is completely run by solar energy. Crazy stuff.
We had lunch there, which was fantastic. It was a buffet lunch with tons of food. Delicious, I must say.
From there, we returned to the ferry and came back to Carriacou by the 5:30 ferry. Apparently it was the roughest ride the ferry has had in quite a few years, and walls of water were spilling over the top deck (being stubborn and strongheaded, I refused, along with most of the other guys, to go down underneath to the cozy inside area with food and drinks for sale and braved it out with Dr. Fitzpatrick and Jonathan on the top deck). We got soaked. Thoroughly soaked. We were standing by the railing, and as water would come up, we'd duck down to avoid it, but got drenched regardless. We managed to stay standing the whole 2 hours (an especially surprising feat seeing as Dr. Fitzpatrick only has one real leg, and Jonathan's relatively clumsy). We finally made it back to Carriacou, went to our rooms and passed out. I'm pretty sure I slept for a good 13 hours last night. It was fantastic.
Today has been pretty chill and simple. We went to the beach some more and hung out. We've become really good friends with this guy Mike, he's our age and is the bartender as the restaurant across the street. He took us fishing earlier in the week, which was done with fishing line wrapped around an aerosol can since they don't have fishing poles. We caught some stuff, but only small fish. Almost a crab.
Anyways, he showed us how to climb coconut trees today, and we got coconuts, cut them open with a machete on the beach, and drank coconut milk. It's kinda bland tasting, like a mixture of skim milk and water, more on the water side, but not bad. We played a bit of frisbee on the beach, and just relaxed and listened to Jack Johnson. Good day. Tonight is more karaoke, which I may or may not attend, seeing as the vocal talent of some of the students here tends to have a negative correlation with their desire to sing when intoxicated. I'm trying to spare my ears. Dr. Fitzpatrick has already, with fairly unanimous support from the students and staff, banned a few students from singing, haha. Not as if that will really stop them.
Well, that's all for now.
Tomorrow it's off to Anse-la-Roche, the place I thought we were going to last week. A hike, a beach, and a boatride. It'll be fun. If I have internet, I'll try and post again afterwards. Maybe I'll put up some more pictures.
See ya!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Long Time, No Post
Sorry for the delay in posting everyone!
I was alerted to the fact that I hadn't posted anything in a while by my mother, thanks very much mom.
Well, it's been rather eventful lately, to be honest. I just got back from karaoke and a big feast/party thrown by the local police at the botanical gardens, partly in our honor. One of the program directors sang Poker Face by Lady Gaga. I have to say it was hilarious.
But, earlier today was pretty chill, just went to the beach, got my left shoulder pretty burnt, played frisbee, snorkelled a little, etc. It was a nice, relaxing day after a week of working at the site.
Speaking of the site, I got to excavate a human burial Thursday! It turns out to be a lot more particular and precise work than the rest of the excavation, because keeping the positioning intact is just as important as preserving the bones themselves, and therefore we had to be careful where we dig so as not to shift the bones at all. It was a complete skeleton, buried in the fetal position (presumably wrapped up in a cotton hammock), on top of a large turtle. This was the most striking feature, because this has not been observed before, in the Carribean or other island nations, and presumably anywhere. The Amerindians (the society we're excavating) ascribed great importance to turtles, because of the duality of their amphibious lifestyle which represented life and death, or the earth and spirtitual realms. It is assumed that this person (gender yet to be determined) was important, possibly a leader or a shaman, and that is why the turtle is present.
Also, when examining the mandible, we found a third molar eruption (wisdom tooth), meaning the person was at least 18 or 19 upon death, but judging by the wear on the other teeth in comparison to the wear on the third molar, they were most likely between 30 or 40.
Crazy stuff. It was exciting.
Last night, I was invited to do an impromptu concert at a restaurant across the street. It's owned by the same guy who owns the hotel in which we're staying, and he had heard me playing, so I got to play a concert/jam sesh at the restaurant for our group and some of the locals. Pretty awesome stuff!
Anyways, we're heading to Mopion tomorrow, it's a secluded island reef in the southern bay of the island, and you can get there by hiking through the mountains, or by boat (we're taking a boat). Apparently it's gorgeous, so I'll post pictures soon!
Til then!
I was alerted to the fact that I hadn't posted anything in a while by my mother, thanks very much mom.
Well, it's been rather eventful lately, to be honest. I just got back from karaoke and a big feast/party thrown by the local police at the botanical gardens, partly in our honor. One of the program directors sang Poker Face by Lady Gaga. I have to say it was hilarious.
But, earlier today was pretty chill, just went to the beach, got my left shoulder pretty burnt, played frisbee, snorkelled a little, etc. It was a nice, relaxing day after a week of working at the site.
Speaking of the site, I got to excavate a human burial Thursday! It turns out to be a lot more particular and precise work than the rest of the excavation, because keeping the positioning intact is just as important as preserving the bones themselves, and therefore we had to be careful where we dig so as not to shift the bones at all. It was a complete skeleton, buried in the fetal position (presumably wrapped up in a cotton hammock), on top of a large turtle. This was the most striking feature, because this has not been observed before, in the Carribean or other island nations, and presumably anywhere. The Amerindians (the society we're excavating) ascribed great importance to turtles, because of the duality of their amphibious lifestyle which represented life and death, or the earth and spirtitual realms. It is assumed that this person (gender yet to be determined) was important, possibly a leader or a shaman, and that is why the turtle is present.
Also, when examining the mandible, we found a third molar eruption (wisdom tooth), meaning the person was at least 18 or 19 upon death, but judging by the wear on the other teeth in comparison to the wear on the third molar, they were most likely between 30 or 40.
Crazy stuff. It was exciting.
Last night, I was invited to do an impromptu concert at a restaurant across the street. It's owned by the same guy who owns the hotel in which we're staying, and he had heard me playing, so I got to play a concert/jam sesh at the restaurant for our group and some of the locals. Pretty awesome stuff!
Anyways, we're heading to Mopion tomorrow, it's a secluded island reef in the southern bay of the island, and you can get there by hiking through the mountains, or by boat (we're taking a boat). Apparently it's gorgeous, so I'll post pictures soon!
Til then!
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