Endings without beginnings

When life decides to deal a blow, sometimes it delivers one that is so devastating that you stop functioning for a bit. You avoid things, people, work, whatever. And even though you know you can pick back up the pieces, that you can move on...your numbness keeps you from doing so. But sometimes you need the time to accept what has happened, to lick your wounds and recover before you can emerge out of your self-imposed exile of the mind. Thus why I abandoned this blog for a bit, despite my promises of writing once a week. Despite the small kinds of joy I found in writing it.

You see, in the beginning of July I had written to a former project leader of mine, asking for the final informe (report) from the project I worked on in 2011. I needed the data contained in that report to finish writing my proposal for INAH to get the permissions to carry out my own planned dissertation project. This project was to start sometime in September--in fact, this very week. A week later, I received the blow that life was to deal me.

The former project leader emailed me to tell me that he thought my project was unworkable, and that he was not willing to commit his time nor the project's time and resources to something he did not support. I remember reading the email and going numb, standing up, leaving my chair (I was out at a coffee shop in Oaxaca, getting ready for a day of work) and taking a deep breath. Trying not to lose my shit....well no, not close to that. I wasn't about to do that. But I did feel like the rug had been pulled out from under me--that I was facing a gaping crevice and I wasn't sure how I was going to get across now, and the only feeling is a sinking in my stomach as I faced the abyss.

What was there next to do? There was contacting my adviser, there was choking back the tears, there was playing my favorite computer strategy game, there was doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. For a week or a day. For a month. Oh there were things I still managed to get done, academic and business related. I am never a total slack-off even at my lowest moments. But there were many hours of being selfish, of mindless entertainment. Of numbing and being numb as I wrestled with the next thing to do. The next step. I know I'm being overly dramatic. But the thing was is that I was so close. Grants had been applied for, equipment purchased. So much time spent and so much thought invested, this project had become me. And I was so excited about it. And then I had to put it away. At my lowest I wanted to put it all away, just drop this futile pursuit for a PhD and settle with the letters already at the end of my name.

Two months later I'm picking up the pieces again. I am moving forward. There is nothing really to do except that. Hopefully things are going to look up again, and I'll find a PhD project soon. Until that time I am going to keep plugging away at the little things that are within my control, the things I can do. And I'll keep writing, writing articles and chapters, writing emails, and writing on this blog. Maybe the writing will help me to find the next path or fork in this life I call mine. One can always hope.

 

Resurrection....again!

Welcome back for not the first, certainly not the second...but yes! The THIRD coming of this blog. The Randomness of Atom is back, at least for the summer. But summer romances are some of the best, non?

In all honesty I hadn't thought much about the blog in a while. I wasn't even sure I would do it again, but a fleeting urge to do so did flit through my mind. However when I had received an email from Grandpa asking if I was going to be doing the blog again this summer I thought to myself, why not? Well more like I thought that yes, I should do the blog again. Because not only is it fun but also its a great way for people to keep up with my adventures.

Plus, this summer things are quite different. Last summer, though I had a good time overall, was much more difficult than my 2008 field season. Problems with getting into the field and onto the projects I had expected to join but was prevented from doing so, problems with the la migra ($100 down the drain my friends!), and of course heart-aches and breakups. Last summer was a test of how well I can deal with life giving me some fairly sour lemons, but I did make the finest limonada that I could.

This summer is going to be way more tranquilo. I'm not doing any archaeology--well I just did a week in Trincheras analyzing cremations--but instead will be focusing on my ethnography of pelota mixteca players and their community networks. Given that games are only played once a week--albeit in different communidades throughout the state--there will be a lot of downtime, which I plan to use for prepping for comps (er that is my PhD comprehensive exams), getting my reading lists together for that, writing articles, and just doing research en general.

And of course....relaxation! A visit to Mexico City, a visit maybe to Guatemala. Travel travel travel. And a return to myself. Yes. Its going to be a good summer. Now if only I can find a place to stay :)...

Maybe not blood or tears, but there sure is a ton of sweat!

Whoops, another long silence. Heh sorry. But I've been thinking that the reason I haven't been posting as much as I did last year cause well, I have a lot more responsablities. Not only am I technically the person in charge of the rescue of a rescue project at the Casa Mixteca, but I also have my own project I'm trying to work on. This personal project is going fairly well--the ethnography is great. Yesterday I went to a partido de pelota mixteca and did 3 interviews!

Anyway, I thought I'd give a little peek into what I'm working on at the Casa Mixteca. Here is a portion of my field diary. This is an excerpt from the first week. Cheers!

24-6-09 Miercoles
Clime: hace sol y calor
Trabajadores: MS, PGRC, Felipe, Julio

1. Finished taking the photos of the E & S walls of CN/P3, as well as the entrance to CN. Took detail photos of estuco.

2. Julio continued with the desyerbe, clearing plants in the CN and the other places missed earlier with the weed wacker.

3. After discussing procedure with Memo, decided to dig pozos/postes in the corners of rooms 3W and CN of P3 to find the piso first, to know at what depth we need to take everything else down. Decided to start MS with Felipe in 3W/P3 while Memo starts with Julio in CN/P3.

4. Felipe  esquina SE de la extension este de 3W, MS  esquina SW of 3W/P3

5. Soil is wet, café in color, feels Sandy.

6. A few centimeters below the erosional fill, Felipe found what could be the floor or fallen estuco. Decided to open another cuadra next to his to see if we can find more or if its just fallen estuco. Opened up the cuadra immediately to the right of the one already opened.

7. Determined that it was estuco from the walls. Took 2 photos on personal camera to document and told Felipe to continue going down to the piso.

8. Piso found by Memo in the SE esquina of CN/P3 about 16 cm down.

9. Piso found by Felipe in the SE corner of the eastern extension of C3W/P3 at a depth of 15-20cm below the superifcie (13cm). Took pictures:
016 – SE corner C3W/P3
017 – same

10. MS found piso in SW corner, C3W/P3, about 18-20cm down.
018 – SW corner, C3W/PS
019 – same
020 – same

11. Directed Felipe to look for piso in the east extension 3W/P3, NE corner. Found floor.
023 – NE, EXT E, C3W/P3
024 – same

12. Took photos of piso found by Julio in esq. NE, CN/P3 at depth of 30cm.

13. Directed Felipe to dig in the NW corner of C2W.

14. Found piso in SW corner CN/P3  took photos.
025 – NW esq, C2W/P3

15. Depth of erosion in the wall from the foundations is 15-30cm.

16. In the NW corner of CN/P3 went down to 30cm but still have not found piso, may have to take it down another 10-20cm to find the floor.
027 – SW corner CN/P3
028 – same

Welcome to my Casa Mixteca

Hey everyone...I moved to a new house and we finally have a decent internet connection in the house! Actually, it works great. I gotta get ready to go decir despedidas (say good-bye) to Lindsey, the physical anthropologist who worked this year for the same project as I did last year, but just wanted to give a quick update and let everyone know that I am doing very well.

We started excavations at the Casa Mixteca, a Mixtec house site that is near the "collective" site of Monte Alban (a 20 minute camioneta ride away) and is of course Post-classic and awesome. Right now there's just me, the person technically in charge of the project, a student from ENAH and a worker. We are working in the north room of patio 3, one of the larger rooms, and we hope to finish up tomorrow with that and move onto the next room. Its taking a bit longer, not only cause of the lack of personnel (or human labor) but because its a big room with a lot of erosional fill. Its a lot fun though, and I will post pictures shortly.

In the mean time, here is a great pic of me relaxing during the lunch hour.

Coxitlahuaca...not quite Shangri-la, but close enough for this archaeologist!

What does one see everywhere when they go to Coixtlahuaca, aside from a carpet, literally of tecomates (ceramic sherds)covering the ground everywhere you walked?

Incredible vistas! This valley was amazing and breath-taking. Imagine a place that is very mountainous but the vistas stretch for miles, and the next mountain range you see could be kilometers away. The valley literally spreads out below you.

Here's Dr. Steve Kowalewski and Leonardo discussing something important or another about how we were going to proceed with the excavations that day. It was some crazy work we were doing--I've never excavated and backfilled in one day, and we did this three days in a row! Here we at the top of a large hill--look how beautiful everything looks from this high up.

Coixtlahuaca is for the most part a Postclassic site, and this era is especially famous for its polychrome pottery. I was dying to find one all week--unfortunately I kept picking up a bunch of bi-chromes with varying shades of red. Finally, on my last day up there, I found a fragment or tecomate of a polychrome pottery vessel. Sweet!

Here I am in the unit on Friday. Okay, so this picture is a bit posed--we had already done all the work, and photographed and did the plan drawing. But I couldn't resist getting a shot of myself as a working archaeologist!

Here is Rodrigo and Jorge, the team from UNAM (the big university in Mexico City) that was doing some of the electromagnetic testing of the site. It was there data that we were using to pick where we were going to excavate, to see how good the results of the electromagnetic testing is. We got mixed results--where we dug on Thursday and Friday the data worked very well.

And finally, a picture of the crew, from Monday. From L-R, its me (of course!), Leonardo, our two young helpers Xochitl and Blanca, and Dr. Steve Kowalewski. Marisol, the other archaeologist on the team, took the picture.

Though I was only up there for a week, I had a great time and met some wonderful people. Working with Steve was great--and he's invited me to come work with him next year from Jan-June--so want too! Just gotta figure out how to skip out on my classes :P. Plus, I had to lead my own units--I was put in charge! And that was exciting enough. Now I can say that I lead a crew, albeit briefly.

Can't wait to go back!

Politics, a dance of swords, and bits of life.

Its official. I am working with the team at Monte Alban, doing some work on the Casa Mixteca. Originally excavated as a rescue project in 1999, we're now going back to it to see what was missing from the drawing plans, topographic information, and other misc. things of the site report produced then and fill in the gaps. Having reviewed through all the informes from 1998 to last year yesterday, I know that in 2008 they set the goal to take a new look at the site with the idea of doing some preservation work, since it seems to be in an area of high erosion and danger from the ever expanding mancha urbana (basically, urban stain).

So again, not exactly what I was hoping to do this summer, but the main thing to remember is that my own project comes first, and all this stuff was for experience and so I could get my FM-3. I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong--Ron (Dr. Spores) says its a jugdemental thing and not a logical thing and I should put it behind me, but I still can't help wonder if it was something I did in the past year, or in the three days between my meeting with the Dra. and when I first heard the rumor that I would be pulled to Monte Alban.

However it happened, it sounds like things aren't incredibly exciting nor peachy up in Tepos. Next year should be better...and hey, unlike some people I know (who shall remain nameless) I've haven't been blacklisted from Oaxacan archaeology! In fact, I have been invited to work in the very bosom of the political firestorm! Perhaps its a keep your enemies close thing, but everyone who works here tells me that this is a good thing, and a way to prove that I am a good, loyal worker...unlike some people I know. Cheers!

Been a while, head in strange space...

Sorry for the long silence on posting. Most of the blame can be laid at the feet of simple exhaustion at the end of a long day of fieldwork and an impossibly slow internet connection during my week at Coixtlahuaca--which occupied my time from May 31-June 5. Digging there was fun, and I promise to post pictures soon of a wonderful and awe-inspiring landscapes and vistas, plus some great archaeology.

View of the valley from one of the sites we worked at.

The week in Coixtlahuaca was followed by my birthday, which was a mixture of sadness and happiness, but thankfully landed more on the latter side of the divide. I had a lovely dinner with Dr. Ron Spores and his brother and sister-in-law, then went out with friends where we danced till 2:30 in the morning! My hair was wet when I took it down before going to bed!



Sunday--the actual B-day--was rather quiet, though a friend of mine that I had met in Coixtlahuaca did come down to Oaxaca and we went out to a bar or two. At the second the bartender invited us to a free mezcal and beer, which was nice. He tried to send another one, but we said thanks but no thanks. Er. Then we went home, watched a movie and passed out. My friend left the next day to Mexico City.

And I left to go to Nochixtlan to help out a friend for the week. Unfortunately, while at the top of the Cero Jazmin, I received a phone call from Bertha, indicating that I had received an email from Dra. Nelly Robles, and that it would be best for me to come back to Oaxaca asap and get stuff straightened out and started up with her.

Well, its the second day. I'm awaiting "instructions" so I can know what the hell I'm doing. Sigh. And my mentor, Ron, is happy about it. I don't think he's going to charge in like a white knight, and I don't know if its going to do much as it seems I am being unfairly selected to be jerked around (which is right now too depressing to relate but I promise a post on this later), but its nice to know he cares. We'll see what happens.

Since I seem to be stuck at an impasse, I have decided to concentrate on what actually matters at the moment, which is my ball court project. On Sunday a friend and I are going up to meet with a Señor who seems to be heavily involved in arranging pelota mixteca or ball game matches, and there's supposed to be a tournament in this one village, which I am looking forward to. I also need to start hitting up some ball courts, though since I did limit myself to at least three, I don't think I should have too much trouble accomplishing that task.

Till next time, I promise that a post will follow this one very shortly.

Sundry things

Hey, only 3 days later. Not bad--slowly getting better at this, back into the swing of things. Well, Thursday was an interesting day. I met up with Bertha in front of the immigration office and we spoke with a woman, clearing up some of the confusion I had had about what the necessary documents are for changing my status from Tourist to FM-3 Student (basically means that I can be in Mexico as long as I please, can come and go as I please, and I just need to renew every year before it expires...sweet!). The woman indicated that I just had to get what was on the list, with the exception of a letter from a school here in Mexico saying that I've been accepted, since...well, since I'm not a student here in a school but as a student archaeologist learning on a field project.

So no more apostille! Thank god, though I still plan on getting one next year any way just to be safe.

After parting ways with Bertha, I took a colectivo to Mitla to see Richard. First stop was at a Modelo store, cause you can't go to Richard's empty-handed. Then, since I had not had lunch, it was a trip over to the Mercado and a bee-line to my favorite torta stand, where I chatted with the Señora behind the counter. Lo and behold to my delight she did in fact remember me, and we chatted pleasantly about how said it was that los gringos don't like el sabor picante, qué lastíma. As I walked out of the marketplace I had a pleasant run-in with Elena, nuestra concinadora from last year. We greeted each other with loud exclamations and platicamos mucho, and she even gave me two free bottles of Yakult, the sweetheart. I promised to make a visit with I came back to Mitla.

Finally, I went over to Richard's, where we shared some beers and he gave me advice on my ball court project. Then, when he indicated that he needed to back to bed (Richard is very sick), he lent me his hat and coat and this guerita trudged it back to Oaxaca, taking the bus which thankfully stopped in Tlacolula so I could pee and, an added bonus, buy some tamales. Sweet.

Friday I spent most of the day in Teposcolula with Bertha and Willy. I got a chance to see the exposición about the site nearby, Pueblo el Viejo or Yuncundaa in Mixtec, and I also spent some lovely time in the rose garden of the ex-convento, listening to the birds and the wind. Funny enough, while I was watching a video produced for the exposición, there was a temblor or small earthquake which shook the walls of the building. For a moment there I stood up in indecision, not sure if I should run outside or stay put. Thankfully it only lasted for about ten seconds--later on I found out that the epicenter had been in Puebla, the state to the northwest of us.

Olga, the coordinator for the site, found me at one point and we walked over to where Bertha was so we could do a tour of the site. Olga mentioned my wanting to work at the site, to which I very carefully responded that I did and what I could do for them. She indicated that to her it didn't matter much and that there was a lot of work to do, and for me to give her my email so that she could talk to Dra. Nelly and confirm to me a yes or a no. Cognizant of wanting to make a good impression, I was very polite and answered her questions, asking my own in turn.

Anyway, the site visit was nice. Afterwards we stopped for dinner at the Palapa, which was only okay. Waited around for a bit while Bertha talked to some people at the municipio, then it was back to Oaxaca. Wily and Bertha dropped me off at El Centro where I met up with Ricardo, Véronica, and her sister whose name I can't recall at the moment. A few (and I literally mean only two person) beers later, we called it a night and I cabbed it back to Cinco Señores, the colonial where I kinda live but don't (our address is technically in Fernando Sandoval Gómez).

As for today? Worked more on translation stuff for my FM-3 and learned to play bridge, which I still don't quite understand and which I figure will take a few more games (or a dozen) before I can even begin to sorta grasp the rules. I think there are also plans to go out tonight, but we'll see.

Looks like I will be doing some archaeology (god willing) fairly soon. Till later!

Solicito a INM...quiero quedarme aqui!

Sorry for the long silence since the last post. Not too much exciting stuff going on, though I've been recently occupied with changing my immigration status from "turista" to non-immigrant student, basically an FM-3 that's a little easier to obtain than other immigration documents. Getting this thing is going to require jumping through a few hoops--a lot of redundant copying, tiny little passport photos, carta personal to say that yes, I do want to work and live and stay here in Mexico. Also puts me out about $300, but its well worth it. Not only do I have the coverage when I'm doing research or working on a field project, but I no longer have to deal with 6 month tourist visas that sometimes overlap, and it only takes $50 to get the sucker renewed each year.

Thankfully in this process I have Berta,la mujer extraordinaire, to help me out. She's going to help me with getting the formal letter from the Foundation's Yucundaa project and the letter proving that I have a place of residence here. So, the only big hoop to jump through is getting an apostille (Thanks Hague convention) for my master's degree to prove its legit. This is proving to be slightly difficult although not daunting--thankfully I have some people who are willing to take care of it, just not at the time I need them to do so. So I'm hunting my brother down, trying to get in touch with him to ask him the biggest favor in the world.

Travis, if you are out there....call me yah?

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.

How strange to be back......

Ha ha. When I graduated two years ago from MAPSS I pretty much though that that would be the end, that except for the occasional party and random happenstance that I would never set foot on campus or the Regenstein Library ever again. Well, life and work has proved my very wrong.

I'm actually at the Reg, as we not very affectionately called it, right now doing research for a project proposal I plan to submit to G. Feinman. It's kinda odd being here, but thank god its the summer quarter when there are very few students roaming the bookstacks. If this had been any other quarter, I probably would have taken one look at the multitude of 18 to 22 year old college snots and fled in horror at subjecting my crone-ish self to their presence.

But in another sense it feels great to be here. There is a certain feeling of belonging, that in truth I am indeed right at home surrounded by books and learning, doing research for articles and submersing myself in the pleasures of reading about my field and interests. Though, I still feel as I did back when I was actually a student here and not some strange visitor--that I just can't wait to get the hell out of this Brutalist prison and back into the sunshine.

Catching up...last days

Hey hey...sorry its been a while. Had a very interesting and fun weekend with a bit of strangeness mixed in. Too long to tell at the moment, not without a pitcher of beer and 5 friends at least, but suffice to say that there is a good chance I might be in Oaxaca for 6 months next year doing survey work. Awesome. Spent Saturday visiting sites along the highway between Oaxaca and Mitla...took a lot of pictures and had a good time, all of which will be posted to the blog soon--alas, would have posted them tonight but unfortunately the computer I'm on tonight does not have photoshop. Sigh.

Oh well. Things are wrapping up now...we are in the final stages of nuestras tareas en el laboratorio. Next Saturday is the exposition in Matatlán, and after that its basically packing up and shipping out. Its kinda funny actually because the field seems so long ago...almost can't believe that I spent almost 8 weeks hiking up and down a hill, spending 8 hours a day in the sun, excavating some here and there, burials...all that stuff. I miss it a lot, and can't wait to go back. In fact, I may have several opportunities coming up for next year, and my hope is to spend 6 months next year surveying in the north of Oaxaca, the Mixteca Alta, if everything pans out right.

Well, gotta run. Big post on my weekend coming soon!

Updates and such....

Hey ya'll, thought I'd give everyone a brief update. Finally got the immunization restriction lifted on my student account (thanks ma!) and was able to register for classes! Yes, so exciting...okay I admit it, I'm the nerd supreme and picking classes is quite the thrill for lil' ol' me. I'm registered for a archaeology theory course, which should be interesting as I took something similar my last quarter at UChicago so it will be fun to compare. I will also be taking a course taught by my advisor and the professor I most want to work with, T. Inomata, on Mesoamerican archaeology, focusing on Mexico north of the Maya region. Sweet.

The last class was kind of hard to choose as originally I was supposed to register for another requirement but at the last minute an email was sent out detailing a change of plans. Shoot. So I had to rush around and try to choose another course...and unfortunately there were none that really grabbed my attention. Finally settled on a course with the topic of Anazasi archaeology (the more general Southwest archaeology course is being taught by a professor I had been just warned against) and funny enough one of the two professors teaching that course is C. Adams, who is a good friend of my Grandpa's who he worked with during a field season at Crow Canyon. Sweet! Already got the connections...

In other news, we've moved into the lab and out of the field officially. Arg, would rather be hiking up the hill than spending nine hours in silence, but that's a story best told over several beers in sympathetic company. Also, my time down here is coming to a close, which I am really sad about. Not sure if I want to come back at all, in all truth. Oaxaca is too much like home, I love it here. Plus, I'm a Mexican for all those concerned anyway...and suddenly I have become fluent in Spanish. Oh well. That's why I'm going to try to extend my ticket!

As promised....

Pictures of me with some of the workers on my last day in the field. Excuse how sweaty and dirty I look...I was shoveling dirt for 4.5 hours!

Yo y Juana la Cubana

Yo y Usiel

Yo y Teofila

Yo y Joel

Yo y Memo

Also, pretty busy weekend this weekend, but quickly running out of time! This weekend went up to Oaxaca to met up with a good friend of mine, then me and the roomies went with a friend of mine, dutch archaeologist Steven Brusse, to La Fortalezza, a Post-Classic Zapotec site a half hour hike from Mitla. I will be posting pictures of that and the story on Wednesday.

Btw, I am also officially registered as a student at UA and have picked my classes! Woohoo, I am on my way!

Last day, unexpectedly....

So, today was my last day in the field. Rumors had been going around that I may be moving into the lab soon, but didn't think it would happen quite this fast. I was expecting to work all next week...then understood that I would prolly be in the lab next week...then found out for certain today that nope, going into the lab tomorrow. Sigh. Had to say good-bye to everyone--will be posting some of those pictures later this week. It was hard though, a lot of them were sad to hear that I wasn't coming back.

Today was spent wrapping things up. Finished two units that were still left to do and took a few elevations. Then once that was done spent most of the day helping with backfilling. Lots of physical labor, though worth it and good--think I definitely gained the respect of a lot of the workers for the simple fact that I could shovel like the best of them, filling buckets and wheelbarrows with speed. We spent a lot of the day making fun of Usiel and cracking dirty jokes. It was a blast...shoveling dirt meant I got very dirty indeed, covered from head to toe in fact. Afterwards of course I took pictures with a bunch of people...all dirty and stuff, but that's archaeology for you.

One cool thing...I got a blister! And then it popped, probably when I was hauling some buckets of dirt for a bit. God I hope it turns into a caulus, then my archaeology friends can stop making fun of me for having such smooth baby hands.

Bail! Bail! Bail!

On one of the few days I forgot my camera....the site was very interesting today. When we woke up this morning I noticed that there was a light drizzle. Linda informed us that there must be a tormenta somewhere, perhaps in Veracruz, otherwise it wouldn't be raining in the morning. La fresa, our new roommate, was given the chance to stay home since she was still sorta sick and there wouldn't have been much for her to do. I wasn't jealous of that at all, as I would so rather be in the field than stuck in the lab.

So we drove up to the site and it was still drizziling a bit, thank god I had my raincoat with me. We walked up in the rain and at one point entered the nebrina (fog) that was hanging heavily around the top. Once en la encima, gosh it was incredible! Everything was covered in the fog, and of course I forgot my camera! Still raining a bit. The site was practically a lake, which meant we had to bail water out, even if it was raining since you just cannot live it sitting there.

Minvera had the good idea that we should form a cadena (chain)and pass buckets along. Being the good sport that I am and wanting to get some physical labor in I put myself at the front and filled cubeta (bucket) after cubeta of water. I did this for over an hour and it felt incredible! I felt so strong and accomplished afterwards, hauling heavy buckets and passing them on. It rocked.

Eventually the rain cleared up and we were able to get to work. Since the season is winding down, most of the crew backfilled while I mapped, worked the transit and even got to excavate a little. Sweet. Tomorrow we will have to bail as well since its raining right now--the rainy season has officially started--and I will of course be at the front of the line, bailing.

Atzompa rocks!

As I mentioned on Friday, this weekend we made a visit to the site of Atzompa, which is located fairly near Monte Alban--not quite spitting distance but close enough to see from one of the higher points at the site. We started out the day a bit early, meeting up with the site director of Monte Alban--and a ton of other sites as well throughout the valley--Nelly Robles and a crew of archaeologists that worked at the site at the botanical gardens en La Iglesia Santo Domingo. While everyone else climbed into trucks Nelly hopped in with us and we were off to the site.

It was quite a drive up there, taking a half hour. We stopped nearer to the bottom of the site to check out some house structures and a magote (unexcavated mound) that appeared to be a public building given that it was a single room alone with a very wide staircase or access point. After checking out some of the structures there we climbed back in the various trucks and drove further uphill, getting out again and hiking the rest of the way to the top of the site.

Excuse the language, but the site was fucking sweet! There were magotes everywhere, and there was a really nice elite complex with a small ballcourt attached. I asked Augustin, Nelly's assistant at Atzompa, questions about the ballcourt and he just smiled at me and said, wait till you see the big one. We climbed over a few magotes and I turned--and had my breath stolen by what was a fairly large ballcourt, really well built and just gorgeous! Moving on from the ballcourt, we went to one of the main plazas that was surrounded on all sides by very large magotes and at the end one could spot another elite complex...this one the apparent site of where the rulers of Atzompa actually lived, since it had almost 20 rooms, a large patio and a very unusual curved access point or entrance.
After checking out some of the vistas that one could see from one of the larger magotes--actually a lot of the surrounding valleys including the valley in which Mitla is located-- we climbed down to our trucks and were greeted with a cooler of ice cold water. Yes! Then we got into our respective vehicles and drove to Nelly's lab. Right when we got there I saw they had a whole set-up for making and cooking tlayudas, which was sweet since it meant we were going to get lunch, how nice! We checked out the lab and saw some really cool artifacts, then headed outside for hot tlayudas and cold beer. Sat and chatted and ate for a while--I actually managed to eat 1 3/4 tlayudas and down two beers--then got the contact info for some of the archaeologists, sweet networking!

We headed home around 3:30, Meg and I passed out in the backseat. Gary and Linda stopped in Tlacolula to pick up a few things and we woke up in time to purchase breakfast items at the Pitíco. On the way back to Mitla Meg and I were laughing about my sunburn, since it was brown in the center (from previous exposure) and red on the edges where my skin hadn't seen sun before. All in all it was quite a fun and excellent day and might in the future provide me not only with some research help for my project but also some good contacts for work here in Oaxaca. Sweet!

Nelly, Augustin, Gary y Linda.

View of the first elite complex.

The largest magotes with the other elite complex located right in the center of the photo.

Oh, and the photo of me at the top. There was this one pine tree with long needles and I said to Meg..."look its like hair" so I demonstrated and she took a picture. Silly, but fun.

Gosh what a week!

Erg, its been long but very interesting. We had so much excitement at the beginning at the week with out super-secret find and after that it was...well, sorta anti-climatic but interesting anyway. Last night Meg and I went to the lab to do some work and drink beer, but had to stop halfway through because the rain had become so loud and it started hailing--again!--that we couldn't concentrate and had to shout at each other to even talk. Then we walked home, taking off our flip-flops since we didnt want to slip--I only remembered about all the dog shit later of course--and walking in a river of ice-cold water. Suddenly all the lights went out and we were in the dark, but we weren't far from the house and we were laughing the whole time.

Being at the site has been interesting. The workers have started to call me "jefa" and ask for my opinion on things. I guess they figure since I yell at them to do things that I am a boss of sorts now. And I do tell them what to do quite often, or they will ask me what they should do--which is pretty cool. They recently asked me if they should take out this rock that appeared to have fallen, but I didnt want them to do anything without consulting Gary first. And Joel was like, "pero tu eres una jefa" and I told them I didnt have enough experience but it was still pretty cool.

Went to the farm yesterday as well, where we saw the baby goats. A calf had been born that morning so it was still all wet and new. Pretty sweet. Then the mother turned around and we saw the afterbirth still hanging from her, and being silly Meg and I took pictures while our new roommate was grossed out. But its shit like that that you don't get to see everyday and as a city girl its still quite a new experience for me. I got one sweet pic of it that is so going on Facebook to gross out everyone else. Heh.

Tomorrow we go to Atzompa, which is a site near Monte Alban and I think was as sujeto of the larger city. I have never been there before so I am pretty excited. Plus, I know a few of the archaeologists that work there, having met them earlier at the director of Monte Alban's birthday party, so its a good opportunity to make connections and get my name out there. Afterward Meg and I are probably going to have lunch in Oaxaca then head back to Mitla to go check out some caves that she had visited previously. Pretty exciting day tomorrow if I do say so myself. Now we're off to drink beers at el magote, an unreconstructed temple/house/edificío of some sort. Laters.

How many hours can one spend in a dark dank place?

Today we continued the last bit of work on the super-secret-cool thing that we opened on Sunday. We had some mapping to do of the interior walls and we had completed the south wall yesterday--which took forever!--and today we managed to finish up the north and west walls. Of course, doing that meant spending most of the day in a tiny cramped space, just under 2m long and 1m wide, with three people stuffed inside--Minerva, Teofila and myself.

I hadn't really thought about it, but when Teo mentioned that she had only left to eat lunch, hadn't even left to drink water or go to the bathroom, I myself realized that I too had only left a few times--to eat lunch and work the transit twice. And let me tell you, spending all day in that place was not a cakewalk at all--we wore masks all the time to not breath in the dust, so fresh air was a luxury, and it was hot in there with three bodies. It was actually very exhausting!

But at the same time, we enjoyed ourselves--giggling and laughing and cracking jokes and making fun of Usiel who was frightened of the fantasmas that might be inside. I haven't laughed that much at the site in a while. And once we were done we crawled out, sweaty, dusty and tired...and certainly ready to climb down the hill!

Teofila y Minerva.

Cena en el cerro

Normally we spend Sundays in the lab and I hit my head against the wall after spending 8 hours tracing rocks into Adobe Illustrator and suddenly climbing that giant hill doesn't seem so bad. But this Sunday things changed up a bit--we went to the site instead as we had found what we had hoped to find all season long--has to be a secret though! What we found was incredibly exciting and extremely sensitive, so los jefes felt it was best to work on it as soon as possible and not leave it open to the possibility of being looted longer than necessary.

So we spent all Sunday at the site...had a photographer from National Geographic with us so the day would pass slowly then speed up when exciting things were happening. We didn't finish till quite late and by the end everyone was starving. Thankfully, the miracle worker known as la esposa de Pedro showed up with a almond drink called pozole (which funny enough is also a red broth corn soup that is absolutely delicious!) and chicken tamales. While she passed out the tamales, Teofila, la hija de Pedro and also one of our trabajadoras, passed out the pozole. I drank at least 3 cups and ate 2 tamales and was stuffed. It was a very nice way to end a quite interesting day.