Huesos huesos y más huesos

Another day in the field. Today we all had a hard time waking up: I dont think my body will ever be able to get used to this schedule, or if it does it will be by the sixth week, and then its too late cause thats when I leave beautiful (but poverty-stricken) Perú. This peruana named Grace joined our team, and she is very cool- she is teaching all the palabrotas (or swear words) of Perú. We excavated fragments of a cranium, a nearly complete cranium and a mandible in the morning and that was a lot of fun cause I used the bamboo picks Grandpa gave me. I also finally put in a working battery today, so I was able to take pictures of all the scary skeletons they've found in another area. There's also this dog, the "site" dog, who is very sweet and cute and always knows when we are having breakfast. Her name is Pinina and she loves it when you scratch behing the ears; took a picture of her too. I so want to take her home and fatten her up, cause I am always uncomfortable when I can see a dog's ribs.
Anyway, the day passed quickly again...cant believe that I am already almost done with the first week. But the work is so hard and there is so much to do that the time just passes. The big bonus here is that everything is so cheap- we paid nine soles, which is about $3, for lunch for the entire week. I also only paid about a $1 for breakfast this morning...but then I spent a bunch of money on chips for the local kids cause you know I am just nice like that. Again, there was a lot of dust, we came home looking like we had all rolled in it or something. It makes shower time fun, cause you get to see all this dust and dirt sluice off your body. It also makes me appreciate showers that much more.
When we got back, some of the girls and I planned to go to the Internet café together, and while they showered I went to buy some food, which was actually kinda hard to do cause there is no supermercado like in Oaxaca (el Super P). I had to go around to a couple of places, and there was no meat to buy; mañana mañana the lady from whom I bought potatoes told me. But listen to this, its only 1 sol for a kilo of potatoes, 1 sol for a half kilo of ahí peppers and 1 sol for a kilo of carrots. 3 onions cost me 80 centavos. Haha beat that. 2 eggs were only 50 centavos....god I love Perú. The best thing is that I havent spent any of my own money- the program gave all of us a stipend and so far I have spent very little to survive here. ¡Qué bueno!
Well, its interesting learning archaeological methods in another language, one which I have some familiarity with but sometimes I still miss some things. It will be interesting when I work on a American dig and only know how to do everything in spanish, like el dibujo, or la ficha, which is simply the a) drawing the site and b) cards in which we note what we have found (bones, cermaics, etc.) Its kept me on my toes though, and since most of the girls, especilly all the ones I share a room with, are españolas, I am sure that when I get back I will be able to speak very fluently. Plus, el jefe de mi área (the boss of my area) speaks to me mostly in spanish, and Grace only speaks spanish too and she's the one I work with the most.
One thing I have learned today...bones may perserve well, but they fall apart like nothing. I was brushing a rib trying to remove the dirt and it broke. Poo poo. And, sacrums (tail bone) are sure funny looking.
Well, gotta go cook with the weird ingrediantes that I bought today. Hopefully I will be able to cook something edible...hasta luego and wish me luck!

Eve