Er...yeah, so its been a while...

I've probably used that title before, but alas, it captures perfectly the situation. Hmm, so the last time I posted, it was a recipe that I had made up on the fly--a great (and cheap) Indian dish. And in that post I had made a promise to provide an update on what's been going on in my life. Of course, such a thing didn't happen. Call it a combination of being swamped by the demands of graduate school and an avoidance of posting, for whatever strange reasons. Laziness perhaps? Reluctance? Who knows, who cares? I think, however, that now that I am adjusted to my life in Tucson, now that I have friends and such, and also since this upcoming semester should be somewhat easier, I will have more time (and inclination) for posting.

So, what has been happening? Well...since those few posts that I made in September, things have actually been going swimmingly. I submitted an abstract to the SAAs, spoke with the newest bioarchaeologist hire at the ASM (Arizona State Museum) about some fieldwork opportunities, and made connections with the archaeology community at large. By the end of October, I felt pretty solid--no more homesickness (well, I still miss home but still...) and I was building a good group of friends. Halloween was a blast, and good things kept going from there.

In November, I went home briefly--it was like a dream. Four days, and then it was over, and I was back in town. But it was wonderful, and I managed to squeeze in time with a lot of people. The Friday I came back, I had a wonderful dinner with my friends Fumie and Natalia--a home-made sushi dinner that was so incredible I could never have anything close to that again. The next day, went out with other friends for sushi--yes, again, but that wasn't my plan--and then to Natalia's house, with Fumie, for a party. That was an awesome weekend.

Then, the following week on Friday I left for a 9-day (well, 11 if you count the days of travel) field season at the site of La Playa, near Trincerhas, Sonora, Mexico. It was an awesome site/trip...we excavated a good number of burials in short amount of time. It was a bit rough on the body though, cause I was up at 6:30, worked until 4:30, relaxed for a bit, drank, then worked on research/notes for my term papers which were due shortly after I returned. But it was all good, though I was worried that I might be messing myself up by not giving myself time to work on the papers.

In the end it all worked out. I returned home from my trip, turned in a paper, gave a presentation on Thursday and bam bam bam started working on my term papers. Somehow, despite taking breaks and goofing off here and there, I managed to get everything--and I mean everything!--done. I turned in a paper on 9/12, on 10/12, and then on Monday, 15/12, I turned in the last two. And suddenly I was done. My semester was over. What a relief! Though weird, because now I had all this free time (relatively speaking) and nothing to do with myself. Hmm....

So now, here I am in Portland, visiting with my dad, brother (who also flew in for the holidays) and the relatives I have here, my awesome cousins Jamiy and Nattie. Plus Grandpa came in too, which is cool. Relaxing, relaxing and relaxing, reading fiction books and just surfin' the net. Though I do have a few things to do, related to my Oaxaca trip last summer, a fellowship I am applying to, and wrestling with the Financial Aid office. And, to top it off, my friend Steven B. is supposedly coming to visit, which is great.

Anyway, to end this post, 3 of my 4 classes have posted grades, and so far I've received all A's, so hopefully my last class will post the same, and I'll have a 4.0 GPA. One hopes, but even if not, considering everything--4 classes, fieldwork right before finals, and relaxing a bunch but still being on top of everything--I'm still set to do very well. Cheers.