Beer, Tattoos, and Smart Phones...

... are apparently all thing archaeologist have. so, I'm a hot mess today. Last night was crazy fun. but ended in drunk'n ness. Archaeology day was fun. I played with Atlatl's all day and face painted. I turned painted all over myself... and anyone else who would let me haha. after Achie day was over we got free pizza and beer. Beer is gross but it is growing on me. All archaeologist ever do is drink cuz there is nothing better to do in the middle of nowhere. I played with my bubble machine all day yesterday that was great fun too. my parents send me bubbles, and toy boats for the flood. and other silly things. everyone is jealous of my toys.
soo onto the learning part. We are finally past learning the skull parts. now we have moved onto vertebra which we have a quiz for tomorrow. I'm so bad at these quizzes. I will be lucky if I ever get to a 60%... lets just say I keep the average low... I've accepted that I suck at these quizzes... damn text anxiety. however though all of this I feel like i am learning a lot. I just don't reflect it well. and this will end up making me a kick ass TA for physical anthro next year. Well this BLT is calling my name. and I need to study a bit.

Stay Tuned!

boats and bubbles

I don't know what to say anymore really. it is the same thing day after day. Saturday is Archaeology day which will be exciting i'm helping with Atlatl throwing! The water is going down. go figure after I get my flood safety kit from my parents. They sent me arm floaties a bubble machine aaand three plastic boats... one of which i promptly lost to the river cuz the wind blew it the wrong way. umm.... I can't think of any stories because its late and i'm tired aaand yeah. long week. we shall see about this weekend. and what happens then.

Stay Tuned!

the weekend is here!

first I'm so mad. I typed out this sweet blog and the damn thing deleted itself. so now this will probably be short.
My feelings of the place have sort of changed. my friends have gotten better. aka I made friend and we hang out and stuff. Class is still really hard and I am still doing bad on the quizes. but fun fact Jane who is in charge here was the teacher of Kathy Reichs who is the person who wrote the books that BONES is based off.
the flooding is getting really bad I'm gunna try and post a picture of where the water is at now. I have more but i'll post all that when I get home.
Last night the TA's came out with us to the bar. and we all had a LOT of fun...aka lots of people got shwasted. (not I) but I did have my first beer. my first full beer all by myself. it was a blue moon.
yeah so sorry this post is short now it was longer before but now i am sick of typing cuz i've been at it.
OH i finished my first lab. its due monday. I hope it is good.....

ok no picture because apparently it's not going to work.

Stay Tuned!

Day 2 (mental breakdown)

Remember that one time when I was excited to go to field school... yeah that was silly of me. Today is my breakdown day, which means I have been overwhelmed and just want to cry. I actually have been randomly tearing up and chugging water all day to stop myself. Apparently I am overdue for a really good cry.
anyway why am I so upset? well here is what happened. Today we have been in the lab all day long. The lab is windowless with super cold AC for the remains and so it doesn't get gross and hot. So I'm freezing my butt off all day long with no signs of life just bones in front of me. I am freaking out because I am completely lost trying to start my first lab and study for my bone quiz that is tomorrow morning. I am really far behind everyone else and although we are broken up into Beginner (me) intermediate and advanced I still feel like I lack a lot of knowledge. This has however lead me to want to make Wooster add at least a Bioarchaeology course. Anyway it makes me feel really dumb and it is very frustrating.
I feel better now thanks to Paul, my mom and Katie, whom I called (Paul I have been texting}. So I think this evening will go better for my brain and emotions even though I have to lock myself up for another 2 hours and hardcore study.
You see these quizzes are going to be really hard. No word lists or anything. we are identifying bone FRAGMENTS and have to come up with everything on our own and I have forgotten a lot of my physical anthropology. Granted this quiz is on 3 bones but we need to know left from right and know them is fragmented form. Its going to be a challenge here to say the least. Oh and the quizzes are cumulative which I hate but I guess it will make me retain it better.

ok enough of my bitching. So fun facts. The place is flooded we are right along the river which is flooded so that's fun. We cross a ferry to go anywhere, breakfast and dinner. speaking of we eat at this ladies house who is amazing she had the most kick ass house ever (I think it is her house) with the best view. THE BEST! They have a chimpanzee there Crazy! Yesterday we went out to the site where the field students work... it's a mound site in the middle of a corn field so it doesn't look all the impressive. My two roommates are both in the field program so I never really see them. which is good I guess because I wont get sick of them. their names are Shantele (she rocks) and Monica (she laughs a lot).
Almost everyone in the Bioarchaeology program are girls we have one guy. The field program has 4 guys.
so yeah. I don't remember what else I was going to tell you about this place. Very little cell reception. apparently all the kids go up on the hill to the cemitary to hang out (good cell reception there) I think this weekend I will venture up there. The people at the bar across the street are nice. They let us use their WiFi. I'm working on getting photos up. I think I will do that on the weekend when I go to Louie's and am sitting eating some food.
So yeah. I think i have made it though mental breakdown number one and have learned that i will never transfer because this must be what it feels like and it sucks.

Stay Tuned!

I made it!

I made it! I survived my flights now I just need to survive the bugs... ugh. so many bugs. So here is how things are... No cell phone service... well very shoty service. Internet at the restaurant across the street or in the computer labs. There are a LOT of girls in this program. and a lot are in the Osteology program. So I feel kinda dumb here. Most students are from ASU (which the program is through) or they come from schools that actually HAVE Osteology classes and Forensics classes. So I feel like I am going to be really behind and seem really dumb. But the people are all nice.
Days seem really intense and crazy... we are diving right into this stuff. I don't have my itinerary with me so I can't tell you exactly what we are doing but I will update you soon on that. Tomorrow I know we are getting a "tour" tomorrow. Which means that we are going to learn where all the buildings are that we will use. soo like 3 haha.
OH, breakfast and dinner... yeah we have to cross the river for that. which is kinda funny. The town is super super tiny. Big news for Kampsville they just got a new ice cream shop! which will so kindly stay open late for us for when we get out of class.
Yeah so I'm sitting in the restaurant that has free wifi munching on some chips that my room mate got and yeah its interesting I'm super tired so probably early to bed.
(Pictured is Where I am staying above the Archaeology museum.)

Stay Tuned.

24 hours

yeah... so 24 hours until I should be on my first air plane... kinda makes me stomach hurt. or maybe that's because I haven't eaten yet this morning. anyway I'm really excited and freaking out. I'm not sure I know what to expect when I get there. I mean I will have classes but now fun will it be? how hands on?
Tonight I have work which sucks but will help me not think about things and get all worked up. I will also help make the day go faster. Tomorrow will be a long day though. I have flights and to wait in the airport until like 4:00 when someone gets there to pick us all up. Although bonus I get to look for someone with a sign which I find amusing.
Anyway last minute checks today I guess. hope I have everything.

Next post will be on my adventures! probably my adventure in flying if the airport has wifi. ack flying.

Stay Tuned!

Where and what

So I Google Earthed where I will be. Don't let this photo fool you I AM still in the middle of nowhere. This is a little patch of town life. surrounding this area in all directions are farms. Also, I lied when I said we were by the lake, we are by a river. my bad.

Alright so a closer look at what i will be doing. I will be learning about skeletal analysis in a problem-oriented context.I of course will be taking the beginner level course. While learning about bones I will also be learning about North American Archaeology. We will visit archaeological sites and research centers in the area and have archaeologist working in the area come talk with us.
I will have lectures everyday by Dr. Jane Buikstra from Arizona State University. she will teach us about skeletal anatomy; osteological techniques for age and sex estimation, paleopathology (this is the study of ancient/old diseases) and genetic relatedness. We will also get to study skeletal collections! (all of this is a summery of my syllabusss by the way)
My course work will be pretty intense. with 8 quizzes, 5 lab reports, and 1 presentation/final paper. (keep in mind this is over 6 weeks) anyway a typical day for me (according to this will look like this)...

6:15am meet for breakfast
7:30am return from breakfast
8:00am Class
10:00-10:15 break
more class
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30 back to class
2:00-2:15 break
more class
4:00 break before dinner
4:30 meet for dinner
6:00 return from dinner
7:00-9:00pm evening classes
Then homework and off to bed... I hope.

Saturdays end after lunch.

Alright that's my entry for today. Next up will probably what the heck is going through my head before I leave.

Stay Tuned!

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

As some of you know I am going to field school this summer! I was accepted to a program through Arizona State that takes place in Kampsville IL. It seems to be in the middle of nowhere... but it is by the lake (hmm maybe I should pack a swim suit.)Anyway, I will be taking two classes over the 6 weeks that I am there, Bioarchaeology and Human Osteology. Bioarchaeology is the study of human remains in an archeological setting. and Human Osteology is the study of human remains. so Lots of dead things here.

Anyway I am really excited to be going and to be finally be learning about something I am interested in. I leave this Sunday the June 12th and will return July 23. I am going to try my best to update this blog while I am there, although I make no promises because I'm not sure if I will have internet or if I will have time. It looks like I will have very intense days. Starting at 8:00am and ending at 9:00pm Monday though Saturday, although Saturday is a half day.

I hope to keep you all updated on the cool things we are learning about and what field trips we do. I will also hopefully be inspired for Senior I.S. and maybe come up with a topic. If I fail to update this while I am gone I will defiantly give a detailed update when I get home.

Stay Tuned!