I didn't sleep much the night before because unfortunately as pretty as the view is there is a tram line and cars running directly below and apparently the Italians like shouting to each other on the street at 2am on a Sunday night, I dread to think what Friday night will be like. We ended up closing the doors to try keep the noise out but then of course we boiled.
I ended up getting up at 5:30 in the morning which was nice as I had a leisurely shower and breakfast with a lovely morning coffee (just milk no sugar, i'm adapting so fast! Next i'll be having it black!) and delicious lemon flavored yogurt. I also awoke to bird noises, I hesitate to call it 'song' because it sounded like crows cawing and brought to mind gory Game of Thrones scenes. It was awesome.
We were out the door and off for the bus by 6:45, it took about 40 minutes to get to the dig sight, but we passed some fantastic scenery on the way-i'll try take some photos tomorrow morning if I remember.
Once at the dig site we got issued our steel cap boots, gloves, dust masks, hard hats and Gabii t-shirts. Super cool. We then had a safety orientation and a tour up to the temple of Juno which was awesomely huge. Unfortunately one of the strict regulations of the site is no photos of anything to be published on the dig allowed because it's all copyright...which really sucks and unfortunately means it's all going to have to be left to your imagination. I will try take some photos at some point anyway to show people back at home but no blog posting :(.
Everyone was really nice, there are quite a few of us, probably about 50 altogether which I was quite surprised about. Also go me, only person outside the US on the dig! According to the girl's my accent is 'cute'. First time I've heard that one before. I've also started being called 'Wheels' because of my suitcases broken state, which I find hilarious.
We spent most of the bus ride exchanging different slang words which was pretty fun, I learnt that a common American insult is calling someone a 'tool' which I found hilarious. They had also never heard of skulling (e.g. I skulled that glass of water so fast!) they say chugging instead. Interesting stuff.
We were provided lunch which was nice, apples and subway style sandwiches with ham and mustard and greenery. Good stuff. And in the shade thank goodness. We had only 6 hours in the burning heat today, tomorrow onwards it's a solid 8. And it is unimaginably hot. You are digging in the burning sun with no shade for a solid eight hours in the middle of the day, dripping in sweat and chugging warm water. It's only the first day and a girl already fainted half-way through the day which was pretty bad. She just collapsed face forward on the rough dirt and had to be carried off somewhere. Hopefully she's ok by tomorrow.
The dig site is, for lack of a better word, AWESOME. It also very confusing and everything is everywhere. From 6th C walls to 2nd C concrete pilled on top to a medieval church ruin just chilling a few meters away. Unfortunately our legal licence only extended to the basalt road so by Italian law we aren't allowed to cross over and explore the road or church or other ruins without huge fines and getting arrested. Fun times.
We also had a look at the previous excavations done on the site which included two infant burials with bronze finds and spearheads and unbroken pottery. Plus bones! Bones are awesome. We got to see a sarcophagi which is pretty cool. Unfortunately this summer is excavating a hut from even earlier so i'm guessing 7-8th C, which is cool but not as cool as mortuary stuff. Yay post-holes!
Everyone was really nice, there are quite a few of us, probably about 50 altogether which I was quite surprised about. Also go me, only person outside the US on the dig! According to the girl's my accent is 'cute'. First time I've heard that one before. I've also started being called 'Wheels' because of my suitcases broken state, which I find hilarious.
We spent most of the bus ride exchanging different slang words which was pretty fun, I learnt that a common American insult is calling someone a 'tool' which I found hilarious. They had also never heard of skulling (e.g. I skulled that glass of water so fast!) they say chugging instead. Interesting stuff.
We were provided lunch which was nice, apples and subway style sandwiches with ham and mustard and greenery. Good stuff. And in the shade thank goodness. We had only 6 hours in the burning heat today, tomorrow onwards it's a solid 8. And it is unimaginably hot. You are digging in the burning sun with no shade for a solid eight hours in the middle of the day, dripping in sweat and chugging warm water. It's only the first day and a girl already fainted half-way through the day which was pretty bad. She just collapsed face forward on the rough dirt and had to be carried off somewhere. Hopefully she's ok by tomorrow.
The dig site is, for lack of a better word, AWESOME. It also very confusing and everything is everywhere. From 6th C walls to 2nd C concrete pilled on top to a medieval church ruin just chilling a few meters away. Unfortunately our legal licence only extended to the basalt road so by Italian law we aren't allowed to cross over and explore the road or church or other ruins without huge fines and getting arrested. Fun times.
We also had a look at the previous excavations done on the site which included two infant burials with bronze finds and spearheads and unbroken pottery. Plus bones! Bones are awesome. We got to see a sarcophagi which is pretty cool. Unfortunately this summer is excavating a hut from even earlier so i'm guessing 7-8th C, which is cool but not as cool as mortuary stuff. Yay post-holes!
You can have an awesome photo of my oh-so-official name badge instead of dig photos.
Me and two of the girls (there are 8 of us to our flat) also split a pack of beer so now I'm sitting on the balcony typing this while sipping my ice cold beer. Life is good.
This is so exciting. Crazy that someone fainted! Drink lots of fanta to stay hydrated. (Also the San Pellegrino orange drinks are excellent.)
ReplyDeleteI know it was really crazy!! I will certainly do so :-D ooh I shall have to try thanks for the tip!! Ooh and had gelato for the first time last night! So gooood! The lack of a non fuzzy camera is annoying me a lot though. All my photos as you can see are pretty average! Miss you and looking forward to june next year :-)
DeleteI giggled out loud twice reading your posts and my boss looked at me very strangely.
ReplyDeleteCrazy that you're the only non US person there - it's up to you to represent NZ my dear and sounds like you've made a good start with the beer!
The wind and rain howl outside as I write this and it's very hard to imagine sweltering hot days but I'm very much looking forward to your next posts so I can feel just that little bit closer to you - and the sun. Much love x