We've been QUITE busy with our archaeological digs; we found out just a few months ago that we'd be getting the chance to do some work at some sites here, and we were mostly pretty excited to do it. When we got here, though, what actually happened was very different from what we'd expected.
We've been split into groups and sent to either Thermi (the site near our hotel) or either of two sites in Mytilini, doing work either with metals or ceramicware. Tuesday was the first day we went to the sites, and it was a very bizarre day. We heard from other groups that the museums didn't even know we were coming; as for my group, when we got to Thermi the woman there greeted us and asked us what we were studying. When half our group had announced our majors, she stopped us and asked, "What are you DOING here??" None of us were intending to go into the field of archaeology, and she was clearly disappointed. She turned and spoke with the three younger women who were there to teach us, and they argued amongst themselves in Greek for about 20 minutes while we stood there in bewilderment. Finally they split us

We returned from our site to find that almost everybody else had had similar experiences of being shunted around, away from any actual progress being made at the sites. The group was pretty unruly at that point. I wasn't sure if I was going to say anything to Professor Kugler, but when he approached me and asked me how my day had been, I just poured out all my feelings, my existential notions about the whole thing. I gleaned that he'd spoken to others about their experiences already, because it became apparent that he had expected me to "whine" about the archaeological dig, and he had already prepared defenses against any complaints I might raise. I wasn't prepared for this, and I was upset that he'd practically written me off in his mind as an ungrateful brat before actually listening to what I had to say. After he'd left me sitting by myself, I took a walk down the beach and threw rocks angrily into the sea, feeling pretty abused and sorry for myself. Unhealthy I know, but I respect Kugler a lot and probably put too much stock into his opinion of me. In any case, the whole day was kind of a downer.
After Sophia's class that night - she teaches our "Modern Greek Culture" class in the evenings, which is basically just an overview of sociological methods and notions in Greek context - we had a group meeting to discuss the dig. Many people presented logical arguments for why we should reduce the time spent at the dig sites - the way the idea was presented to us, whether we had a choice in the matter, whether we'd still have time to work on our projects and papers, etc - but there were also some students who just plain whined about their own personal problems with the way things had gone. Pretty depressing, for a group of 20 year olds. Kugler wrapped the whole thing up by "playing the parent" for us and telling us to give it another try the next day. It always makes me feel better, talking things over with him, so that was pretty good.
He turned out to be right; these past two days have been much better. Now we're only there for 3 hours, and Kugler spoke to our excavators about maybe letting us observe them more in their work so they could teach us how to actually do things, instead of just giving us pickaxes and essentially telling us to go play in a sandbox for a long time. So we've learned more about how to reconstruct a site, mixing mortar and placing stone layers one on top of the other. We've also learned about identifying animal bones - I can tell the difference between sheep, goat, and pig's teeth now, and distinguish between upper, lower, right and left teeth - and about rendering drawings of stone walls, with accurate measurements of angles and things like that. Georgia, a grad student who I've become friends with, also showed us today part of the site where they've found entire clay vessels "frozen in time" in the ground, such that they have to actually dig AROUND them to see where in the room they were and in what condition they were in when they we

Anyway, that was basically the only problem we've had with the trip so far, and for 5 weeks in a foreign country I think that speaks pretty well for us as a group and for Kugler as an organizer.
Our hotel, for example, is amazing. I told you about how I almost broke down and cried w



Speaking of animals, there was a cat hanging around here last night who we all wanted to bash over the head because of the constant - I kid you not, constant - meow meow meow that kept us up, on and off - I kid you not - from 11 p.m. to 7 in the morning. So I think we'll all keep a glass of water by the door tonight, so in case he comes by again, he'll get a sploosh.
For now I think I'm off to bed. Kali Nixta!
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