Sunday, August 4, 2013

Pit Week #2

We last left Michelle buying a Latin grammar tea towel at Vindolanda. It's been many weeks since that day. Let us now return to our story...

On Monday, we began planning in the pit. Now, planning basically entails setting up some strings and measuring tapes and grids...and crying because you're spending your entire day drawing rocks even though you have no artistic talent and rocks are weird. It was glorious.

On Tuesday, we continued the planning process. Why don't we consult the journal to see how Tuesday went...

Journal Excerpt: "Today was almost like any other day in the pit: Digging in the dirt, being a serial killer, same old, same old. The major difference was that today, we were evidently working on the face of the sun. It was the hottest day I have heretofore experienced. It was like running around FSU's campus in the middle of September...on fire. In fact, next time I go for one of my cross-campus fire runs, I will know what to expect because I know what it feels like."

Yes, that was Tuesday. We continued all the drawing and then pictures of the pit were taken. After dinner, Sara and I took a walk down to the river and discovered the passageway to Narnia. It was a good day.

Wednesday...oh goodness...

Journal Excerpt: "On Wednesday, the excavation of the Pit of Despair began. That's right, today consisted of digging up all the rocks that we spent the past two days drawing."

On Wednesday, my little group also found out that we had been given nicknames. Apparently, Kaitlin, Sara, Nicole, and I became known as the "Fantastic Four." It was great fun. Kaitlin was labeled the Invisible Woman, Nicole the Human Torch, Sara the Thing, and I am Mr. Fantastic. Not going to lie, it's pretty great to be a superhero group. We are pretty fantastic. Also on Wednesday, I had a very important learning experience. Keep in mind that at this point, I have been in Durham for almost a week and a half:

Journal Excerpt: "Today, I discovered how to actually plug in my converter... :)" 

Nice job, self, nice job.

Thursday was a pretty good day, and I'll tell you why:

Journal Excerpt: "Today was, by far, the creepiest day of my existence."

Basically, I was on my serial killer game all day. On Wednesday, Chris' hat had been stolen and generously given to me to do with what I pleased. I, of course, showed up in the pit on Thursday wearing said hat. I then made Chris wear my hat...it has a little bow on it...I'm evil, I know. Anyway, so later that night, everyone went to the Castle Bar after the lecture (oh yeah, there's a castle in Durham just BTW) and some people stayed out later than others. I took the opportunity, with the help of my good friend Connor, to leave creepy notes such as "Impending Doom was here" around Chris' room. (Chris and Connor were roommates) So, after leaving my notes, Connor tells me about the window-door, where a human can hide...and it's on Chris' side of the room............draw the obviously conclusion. I threw open the curtains when Chris got back and he had a minor heart attack. Glorious.

Friday - Last Day in the Pit

Journal Excerpt: "I rescind my previous comments about the hottest day of the dig because today was absolutely it. It was also the dirtiest day of the dig for me. I was covered in just...brown."

That about sums it up for Friday. Hot. Brown.

And that's week 2!


Saturday, July 27, 2013

I'm really good at this "blogging" thing...

Hey guys, it's been a good long while, hasn't it? I just wanted to let everyone know that I am, in fact still alive...however, I'm sure most of you have noticed that I have not blogged in about three weeks (LOL).  The cleverest among you may also have realized that I fly home today...

So here's the plan. We will play the catch up game. I haven't finished my journal for the trip as of yet, but that will come along on my various flights over the next 24 hours, and then I will blog away for all of you so that you may experience the wonderful journey that I have been on over the past month. I feel bad for not having blogged, but at the same time I really enjoyed every minute not spent blogging, so I think you'll have a great deal to read about and enjoy.

Today we said goodbye. I was, of course, my usual poised self...weeping in the street as my new friends rode away to the airport. I'm currently the only one left waiting to head to the airport. The best news of the day is that I will be reunited with my darling Sara-Ladd in Amsterdam, so I have one of my new best friends along for the longest part of my journey (all smiles). OK, well that is the update for now. Check back in the next few days (weeks, months, years...when will I finish my journal?!?) for the rest of my stories. Gotta catch a plane!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Hadrian's Wall and Vindolanda

As promised, I have returned to tell you all about our first field trip to Hadrian's Wall and Vindolanda this past Sunday. Hadrian's Wall was pretty amazing, I must say, but what's even more amazing is how I got to see it...on a four mile hike along the wall. I hiked four miles. Yes, you read that right. Michelle Sauer, avid nature hater, hiked four miles along Hadrian's Wall...I almost died. Four miles. I feel like that's how much I usually walk in total in like a month. I was super proud of myself at the end of it because it wasn't just a "walk four miles on this nice, flat ground" kind of hike. There were hills. Lots of them. Tall ones. Some even as tall as multiple humans stacked on top of one another:

Journal Excerpt: "On the walk up to begin our hike, Sara looked at the tall hill and said, 'Wow, that's tall. That's like 10 of me stacked up.' Kaitlin and I respond with, 'Is that how you measure things?' And thus, the Sara-Ladd was born. Sara's real first name is Sara-Ladd, so it became the name of our new unit of measurement. Hadrian's Wall is slightly more than one Sara-Ladd." 

For this rest of this hike, we were measuring all hill and wall heights in Sara-Ladds. It was hilarious. Even though we were dying, (no seriously, I thought my life would end, which is super depressing seeing as I haven't disposed of my pit partner yet) we were laughing a lot of the time. One particularly hilarious incident of laughing occurred even after we had finished the hike and were leaving Housesteads, the Roman fort at the end of our four mile journey.

Journal Excerpt: "On the way back to the bus, we decided to take a shortcut through the grass to save walking time seeing as we had just walked four miles in the treacherous forest. Here's how our conversations went:
  Sara: 'Oh no, now we're off-roading it!'
  Me: 'I'm an off-road vehicle!'
  Kaitlin: 'You're just a vehicle.'
  Sara: 'You're a princess car, and you're following eight other cars to make sure the way is smooth.'
  Me: *dies laughing*

So, I think that about sums up my experience at Hadrian's Wall. After that, we ventured on to Vindolanda, another Roman fort that has been excavated. We walked around the fort for a while, and then went to the museum. The museum was fascinating. They had old Roman coins and letters that had been sent back and forth between ancient peoples. I had a wonderful time and really wish we had had more time to look around and see all the things. It was here, however, that I discovered the gift shop and totally nerded out in front of everyone. In the gift shop, they had these flag-looking things hanging up (I'm not really sure what the official name is, but I'm hanging it on my wall and that's all we really need to know) and there was one that was simply labled 'Latin Grammar.' That was it. I got it...and I was super excited about it...to the point that I'm sure I was frightening. I mean, not as frightening as when I'm in serial killer mode, but frightening in a completely different way, like, "Why is that girl so excited about Latin grammar?" The world may never know...

Monday, July 8, 2013

Old Books and Edinburgh!

Hello my lovely readers, I know you're all anxious for more. Well, let me fill you in on the last couple of days here at Durham. I am officially stationed in the Pit of Despair for the long haul, and I'm pretty excited about that. What I'm not excited about is the way that the sun beats down upon the workers of the pit. It truly is something to despair over.

Journal Excerpt: "On my second day in the pit, I looked super cute, but my adorable style turned on me when the sun came shining through the clouds and down upon my thighs. It ended badly for me, as I recieved a burn on my legs which subsequently turned into a really awkward tan line. Needless to say, I have procured sunscreen to last me the duration of the trip."

So...that was pretty awesome. After that lovely experience, Nicole and I hit the old book store that we discovered in Durham. Life made. I got a 1902 copy of a book of Tennyson poems and a 1926 copy of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. The collection grows!!! We were accompanied by Little Chris, the other Chris working the dig. My pit partner's name is also Chris...keep this in mind, as it will become important in the near future. By near future, I mean now. Little Chris has offered his aid to me in my quest to dispatch Chris (my pit partner) as my next victim in my series of murders. The name thing is confusing, yes? So sorry. Anyway, here's what I had to say about this offer of assistance.

Journal Excerpt: "I'm a little leery about taking on an accomplice because that could get messy later, but I think I might appreciate the help and Nicole is already a witness, so what's one more body?"

I know, I'm charming. I make friends everywhere I go, and then instantly threaten to kill them.

Now, for the really fun story: EDINBURGH!!!!

On Saturday, I journeyed to Edinburgh with Kaitlin, Sara, and Nicole, who are quickly becoming my best friends on this trip, and two of the Fulbright guys, Matt and Robby. It was the best day of the trip. Edinburgh is so filled with history and interesting, fun things to do that the day seemed to fly by and we were grasping for extra time to just be there. We went to Edinburgh Castle, where I, of course, got a miniature. The collection grows!!! (wow, twice in one post I'm talking about my collections...go me.) Kaitlin and I decided to perfect our British accents at this point, which was brilliant seeing as were were in Scotland...don't think about it too much, just go with it. For lunch, we went to the Elephant House where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the Harry Potter books (Natalie would be so jealous) and it was so cool. After luch, we walked down to Holyrood House, the Queen's palace in Scotland, but it was closed for a royal visit. Turns out that the Queen had just left the day before. We then ventured on to Mary King's Close to take a tour of the city undergroud. It was a really fascinating tour, barring the few disturbances that we encountered along the way. During the ghost story portion of the tour, our guide dropped her stick in order to scare all of us. She was successful. Nicole and I jumped out of our skin. This was minor, however...

Journal Excerpt: "This incident was less disruptive, however, than the incessantly irritating small child that I wanted to bludgeon to death with that stick.  He was literally the least well-behaved child I have ever encountered in my life. If it wasn't frowned upon, (and morally repugnant, apparently) I would have kicked him in the face."

It was a magnificent day, and it got even better on the train ride back. The four girls got a table together on the train and had the best time talking and laughing about the experiences of the day. We were in first class, so we got tea and cookies which made everything that much better. I literally think we laughed the entire ride home. We were so energized when we got back that we even took a walk down to the city center in Durham and then down to the lake. I'll let the journal field this story for me...

Journal Excerpt: "A scary, potentially drunk man who was completely unintelligible came up to us and said and/or asked something...we did not understand...the world may never know...We also decided to take a stroll down to the river where we found a sketchy little bench hiding in the woods...I claimed it as my own."

Well, guys, that's about all I have time for tonight. Big day digging in the pit tomorrow, but I know I'm still behind on keeping you up to date on my trip. On Sunday, we went to Hadrian's Wall. Tune in tomorrow for my post about that adventure!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Pit of Despair

Well guys, today was the day. The day you've all been waiting for. Yes, that's right...I was thrown in the pit today.  As funny as it sounds that I finally made it to the long awaited pit digging portion of my trip, it was actually so much fun today.  I got to the site and started digging with my friend Nicole on the "evil lump" of dirt that we had been working on yesterday. Not long after we began, however, I was reassigned to the pit, and it was perfect:

Journal Excerpt: "I looked down at the new area I'd be working, and my assigned pit partner looked at me and said, 'Welcome to the Pit of Despair.' It was at this moment that I knew I was exactly where I needed to be. There were clearly my people."

My day at the dig was basically perfect at this point...I had been placed in the pit to dig, a Princess Bride reference had been made...it was truly a brilliant day. We worked and it didn't take long before I convinced my pit partner that I am, in fact, a serial killer, and completely capable of making him mysteriously disappear...Like I said, it was a very pleasant day.

We continued in the Princess Bride vernacular, referring to the sides of the pit as the Cliffs of Insanity and the red dirt area as the Fire Swamp. Once we realized that there were 7 of us working in the pit, we all also began referring to ourselves as dwarves. We found some things, but not much to talk about. Mostly, I just moved a lot of rocks and dirt out of a giant hole in the ground. Magnificent! Seriously, people devote their lives to this. It's kind of marvelously mundane, but at the end of the day, the contribution to the whole is pretty cool.

So that's about it for today, except that there is a blog for the Binchester site itself and I found a picture of myself on it today, so that was nifty! Check it out if you want to see me hard at work or learn more about the dig: http://binchester.blogspot.co.uk/

Oh yeah, in other news, I got the chance to hear a British man say "namby pamby" today....so, yeah...life complete.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Happily in Durham

Good morrow, all! I know you've been waiting patiently for me to post, and so I am here to put your minds at ease (for I know you worried so much about my safe travel) and to entertain you with stories of my journey and my first few days here at Durham University.

As you all know, I was unable to make it out of Tallahassee on the intended day of my departure, but fear not, I was rebooked on the 9:35am flight out of Tallahassee the next morning...delayed until 10:07am...further delayed until 11:35am. It appears as though the plane that I was initially supposed to be on the night of the 29th was the same plane to be used for the 9:35 on the 30th...It had some serious issues, but either way, I made it out of Tally that day:

Journal Excerpt: "I am now on the 11:20am out of Tallahassee on a plane that isn't having 'mechanical problems' like the original plane I was scheduled to fly out on. Mom is here with me so I have found no need to examine others for signs of witchcraft as of yet, but it has occurred to me that this may be the case regarding my inability to leave this city."

So, after making it out of Tallahassee, the world kind of opened up for me, and I didn't really have anymore travel problems, unless you count the inability to completely confirm that my luggage, which was sent to Atlanta on the 29th, would actually be on my flight to Amsterdam...but that's a different issue altogether. I quote my own journal, yet again, to say, "Once you reach Atlanta, the world is shiny and new!" And it certainly was. I was put in business class on the flight to Amsterdam to make up for the mishaps with my flight the day before. It was magnificent:

Journal Excerpt: "I sat next to a nice man on his way to Berlin, and we didn't say anything more than our final destinations. I love people who hate people. We're a good bunch."

When I finally made it to Amsterdam, we got in early and I was only 3 hours away from that final leg of the journey.

Journal Excerpt: "I have been sitting quietly in the gate area attempting to use the horrible wifi to contact my Florida-bound friends and dodging glances from the mysterious European passengers...They can tell I'm an ugly American...I just know it."

After Amsterdam, I flew to Newcastle where I was picked up and taken to St. John's College at Durham University, where I am currently sitting now. It is so beautiful here. The Cathedral is literally steps away, and with my proclivity towards art history, it is all I can do not to be there every waking moment.

On the 2nd, I had Fulbright orientation and got to tour the city with the group, but before that, all of my electronic devices used to make my hair look accpetable mysteriously died or simply were not having it in Europe...that is to say, my curling iron pulled the 'I just don't work today' card, forcing me to buy a European one. With that trial out of the way, however, I had a fabulous first day in Durham. I had to eat breakfast, which is basically a chore for me (we all know I'm not about that breakfast life) but at least it's a nice time to talk to people. We got our student ID cards this day...mine is, of course, atrocious, but it will do to get me into the library and make me feel like a legitimate student. That night, my friends and I...SIDEBAR: Yes, I have made friends already, and I know you're all shocked...don't worry, so am I...sat up for hours trying to find train and hotel tickets to stay this Friday night and Saturday day in Edinburgh, Scotland. Eventually we gave up and decided to just go in for the day Saturday, but either way, I'M GOING TO SCOTLAND THIS WEEKEND WOOO!!!!!

Today, and I know this is what you want to hear about most, was my first day at the Binchester archaeological site.  Why don't I just journal this one for you...

Journal Excerpt: "This morning, I got up and got ready for my first day of pit digging. After deciding to sleep later than 7am and just had a truly wretched hair day, I slipped into my man boots and dirt-ready apparel and headed down to breakfast (which is still a foreign and uncomfortable time for me.)"

That sounds about right. No, but seriously, the site is amazing. I got to dig in the area outside of the fort where the bathhouse would be located. I worked with another girl in my group and we found some pretty interesting stuff. In addition to clearing out some of the dirt and rocks in order to make way for the excavation of the Roman stone areas, we unearthed a great piece of pottery and a seriously well preserved cow bone. Picture to come on Facebook!

Ok guys, that about sums up my first 3 days of adventure at Durham. I hope this keeps you in the loop for now. I will keep you updated on the rest of my activities...look for some serious fun when we hit Edinburgh this weekend, but please do enjoy the stories from today and look for my pictures later! They are amazing! Local time: 10:18pm...you people are so lucky I care about blogging for you rather than sleeping early.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Departure Delayed

Well folks, the first day of my journey was a bumpy one...and by bumpy, I mean I'm still in Tallahassee.  Due to mechanical problems and weather, the fine flyers at Delta messed up all the things and I was unable to leave this town. Sad face. During these dilemmas in the airport, however, I had time to write a little bit in the journal that I'm keeping during my trip, and because of this, I have the details of every inconvenience perfectly recorded so that I can remember this blissful day for the rest of my life.  It was a lot of angry faces and even progressed to crying openly in public when I was told that I would have to wait until tomorrow morning to start my adventure.  I guess the upside to the fiasco is that they bumped me up to business to make up for the inconvenience of being stuck here another day, so that should be rather lovely, but I was obviously incredibly upset (which I hate being...especially in public) and experienced a myriad of expressive moments that I documented like a boss. In addition to these moments, however, there is one particularly interesting observation that I made over the course of the three or so hours that I was stranded in TLH that I thought I would share. 

Journal Excerpt of the Day: "I've taken a scan of my fellow passengers, and none of them appear to be from the show Lost, but I am keeping my wits about me for the duration of this trip. May the odds be ever in my favor..."

It reads almost like a captain's log. I don't know what I'm captain of exactly, (perhaps just my life) and I can't tell you why feeling stranded and helpless makes me quote the Hunger Games, (oh wait, maybe that one is easily explained...) but either way, please wish me luck that the odds will in fact be in my favor as I officially start my journey to Durham tomorrow!

Oh yeah, by the way, my suitcase is currently in Atlanta...and I am not. Awesome.