How is everyone? I have been MIA for a really long time, way out of reach of phone coverage and internet but things are going very well at the moment. I am still alive and I figure that´s pretty fantastic.
I am currently in my 3rd excavation. I know, I said I was heading for 2 but those wonderful people from my first excavation invited me to join the next one, and who was I to turn down a fantastic chance to hit up the Pyrenees??? (Speaking of, it is the beginning of AUGUST and I am freezing my ass off... I bet it's crazy hot in NY and Philippines or whereever it is you currently are. Heehee.)
Really quick update:
Week 1: Portugal. Seville.
Lisbon, AMAZING. People are great. Music is fantastically passionate and melancholy. Food, AMAZING. Hostel... the owner is all I could remember (Ah Leah, if only we were there at the same time...).
Lagos. UNBELIEVABLE. A true black hole. Did not want to leave, except for the fact that my FAVORITE camera in the world (my dual lens, you know the one) got washed over by salt water while I kayaked the coast. Had to buy a new one in Seville and send my old one home. Really great place. LEARNED HOW TO SURF. Met tons of Australians who partied like we pregame during Spring Break. I would have as well except for the fact that we have been partying non-stop before graduation and I was a bit burnt out.
Seville, Spain. Beautiful. Hot and dry as heck but the FLAMENGO (???) was to spectacular.
Weeks 2-5, Dig 1: La Cova Gran (Santa Linya, Les Avellanes, Catalunya Spain)
Found hoards of stuff. People were fantastic. Food was amazing. Stone tools... ridiculous amounts of BPs, BPFs, etc. etc. and realized how I must be living in the wrong city as everyone around me are ridiculously good looking. First 2 weeks were filled with Brits. 2nd 2 weeks were filled with me struggling to get back my spanish... and fumbling with spantalian. FYI... my spanish is better, but now I can't remember my Italian.
Lived right next to the river so we swam a lot and the ONE bar in the really small town became our second home... every night. CRAZY! Oh... and HEROES ended in week 3 here. Ah, seeing it a second time and in Catalan... that was an experience.
Weekend of the 15th, went to visit Rolf (a colleague from the American Museum of Natural History) at his site, Atapuerca... only probably the most important paleoanthropological site in all of Spain. LIKE A FACTORY, the place is huge and breathtaking. Got the insider's tour and met tons of great important people. Lots of fun! That was one helluva 10-hr one-way trip up to Burgos, but was soooo worth it considering how much fun it was.
Week 4: discovered a new archaeological site, filled with Horse remains, lithics, AND HUMAN BONES!!!
And because I got so excited about finding a HORSE TOOTH right away, they called me Caballo-Loco (crazy for horses)... and now we call the site CABALLO LOCO (crazy horse). Pretty fantastic. Age 21, discovered a Neanderthal occupation site in the middle of no where. INDIANA JONES CAN EAT MY DUST.
Weeks 6-7, Dig 2: Balma Guilanya (Solsona, Catalunya Spain. Right at the mouth of the Pyrenees)
IT HAILED. Freezing mornings and evenings. Great weather. Very much like the Poconos... really pretty. HIKED A LOT!!! 4-hr excursions in the mountains... I nearly died 7 times. I've only 2 lives left, it seems.
FOUND HUMAN BONES!!! Woo-hoo! Really exciting stuff! Slept on the floor of a small preschool for 2 weeks. Nothing but a highway nearby. It was fantastic! You could see the stars`perfectly. Only thing was that there was nothing to do, really. Not much anyhow. But hey, if there's one thing Spaniards can do right, that would be to party.
Both weekends, FIESTA MAYORES of the two small towns near the first excavation. Spaniards know how to party, all right. Bands and dancing all night long. AND CHURROS... granted they were burnt, but hey, if you're hella tired and just a little drunk, anything tastes good at 5 in the morning.
Great experience. Got to know tons of people and now I have friends to stay with in Barcelona, the Basque Country, Valencia and Madrid anytime I want. The archaeological experience I gained was pretty fantastic... I BECAME THE GO-TO PERSON WHENEVER THEY FOUND BONES!!!
There are pictures up online. I am pretty amazed at how far I've gone and the friends I've made, the experiences I've had. Good times. 7 weeks flew by so quickly and now I'm in another excavation experiencing new things... AND ONLY SPEAKING SPANISH. Ah, life is good.
Week 8, Dig 3: Pinilla del Valle (Rascafria7/Pinilla del Valle, Castilla y Leon Spain... 1.5 hrs north of Madrid)
Day 2. Arrived yesterday and today we began the excavation. Working in El Camino, a hyena den just FILLED with tons of faunal bones. It's great! Bones bones bones. All Spaniards mainly from Madrid and the only english I speak is with Rolf. Best part, I DIDN´T HAVE TO PAY FOR ANYTHING.
Bad part... the food is sooooooo good... I think I'm gaining back all the weight I lost the past 7 weeks, all in 2 days. The food is unbelievable. We're staying at a youth hostel in the middle of a natural park located in a valley of beautiful mountains. It is freezing in the morning and the evening and is absolutely beautiful. Not as Alpine/Pocono-ish as La Balma, but more like... south Jersey or Minnesota. Really great! Not so much in the middle of no where as the other 2 digs (internet and phone coverage!) but we are situated 15 mins out of the nearest town (Rascafria) but right across a 5-star Monestary-turned-hotel. It really is beautiful, and as soon as I get a new working camera, I will send pictures. (Camera #2 fell in the river, cheap camera # 3 does not work.)
Right, back to the bad part... the food... the hostel chef cooks up a CRAZY storm of 5-star quality food. 3 courses and ALL THE SANGRIA I WANT. Oh that stuff is lethal. Today we had caviar and bocadillos of smoked fish for appetizers, and perfect steak and frites for second dish, and PERFECTLY MADE FLAN for dessert. Lunch was also a 2-hour feast. Yesterday, was also ridiculously good. Rolf tells me it will be like this every day. This weekend, I plan to head down to Madrid, meet up with a couple of friends and borrow running shoes because there is no way I am going to lose any weight if this keeps up. IT'S ONLY DAY 2!!!
Right, so that's about the gist of me and where I am and where I've been the past few days.
PS- Mahou beer sponsors the Pinilla excavation. In our shed, there is a WALL OF BEER AND SHANDY. 8-feet high from edge to edge. LETHAL.
Right, well that''s about the gist of it. I sort of miss you guys, but not really. Haha, I kid. I do miss you all but I am having such an experience here in Spain that time flies by so quickly. I will be seeing you (hopefully) in a month, and for most of you, I would love to hear updates of what is going on. Seriously, I have nothing to do but walk around after dinner or sit in my 2-bed private room alone trying to get through Dan Brown´s Deception Point (the book is ABOMINABLE!). Please, do go on and fill me in with lovely updates of your lives and I hope to hear from you soon!
NOTE: the best way to reach me at the moment would be either a text message or an email here to my GMAIL account since Facebook/MySpace/Friendster etc are all banned on the computers here in our lab in Pinilla. So if you sent me a facebook message recently (considering I haven't checked in a while, I think there have been quite a few), I won't be able to check them until I (a) go to Madrid for a day trip, or (2) return to NY in one month.
A little bit more of an update... one week in the new excavation:
As with other sites, with money come lots of publicity. Bueno, yesterday on the site I work on now (Pinilla del Valle) was a huge day of publicity. Tons of folks visited with cameras, questions and all. Some made it on the television news (my sector, El Camino, received a lot of attention since it produced 2 neanderthal teeth that appears to be the oldest homonin remains in the state of Madrid). I, as usual, made it on the newspaper! Well, that is, my back did anyway. So here are some of the news clips that talk about my site. Some are decent, some are outright ridiculous, but hey, that's what you get with sites that are alloted a huge amount of money.
No pictures online but we had a double-page spread in print! Have a copy with me.
My back is actually in the picture!!!
El Sondeo sector of NavalMaillo with Marisol, Ignaci, y Carmen (who last year excavated in both Catalan digs I was in before Pinilla). Small frickin world.
NavalMaillo, larger view. Only one of the 3 caves with human occupation levels producing lithics and faunal remains.
Los jefes. Alfredo, the geologist...who loves 50s rock&roll, some famous delegate of Madrid, the lady who feeds us amazing lunch every day in her restaurant, some other well-off richie of Madrid, Juan Luis Arsuega- the jefe of jefes of Atapuerca and paleontologist of Pinilla, and Enrique Badequano- the archaeologist who is super awesome and dances to all types of music we put on in El Camino.
Arriba del la Cueva de Buena Pinta (translates to the Cave of Good Looks/Good Looking Cave) because it looks so good. Another carnivore den. It is pretty cool.
Cova de Buena Pinta with the total station. This is why it looks so good. It has a large hole in it! lol.
Sarah y yo excavating our little awkward corners in El Camino - a hyena den FILLED WITH FAUNAL BONES AND NO LITHICS!!!
ah... no lithics... que bueno!
Nohemi and Ana, the cool hot Biologas of El Camino. Super awesome people!
And so that´s it for now. Still alive and doing well. Be back in a month!
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