"Cheers to the breezes...and the treeses"

Yay for finally being caught up, about time right? Well we finally finished up all the work in the field, it has been a painful and yet very incredible past five weeks of work-I don't know if I ever really explained what we were doing out in the field and I'm too lazy to read through my novels so here it goes: I know I explained the fact we had two 5X5 meter sites, one of them for midden deposits (we look at the material in each of the 25 squares created in one of the 5X5m sites) and the other for special features such as hearths, burials, postholes (where the wooden poles would have stood in a building/housing structure), etc. By the end, we had found a few postholes in the one site, indicating there had been a circular house there years ago. In the other site, we dug 10 cm down, excavating items like pottery pieces, shells, nerrites (ie, shell of the Devil), fish bones, animal bones, even human bones (I think in all we found two burials-pretty cool, although we've been told most people would freak out to find human remains..archaeologists are a different breed!), beads, spacers, adzes (tools), etc. We left squares 7, 9, 17, and 19 to be processed through a wet screen-this system involved dumping buckets onto 1/4 in. and 1/16 in. screens that were poured down with water to find the smaller stuff throughout the layers. These squares were known as sample squares. After this process, we would excavate another 10 cm. and repeat the process until we hit a sterile layer. We got down 40 cm. before we hit a layer with barely anything in it and collected quite a bit of material! Just to give you an image, as we were processing finds into the computer yesterday, we came up with about 350lbs of pottery pieces found in our 5X5m site-that should be fun to send home!

So today is our last day on the island, it's definitely amazing how quickly things come to an end. I'm still very torn between wanting to stay here forever and excitement that in just over 24 hrs. I'll be back home! I did not expect to look forward to going home as much as I have, but I think that by this point our group is on edge from having been around each other for so long-there have been no tiffs or arguments but everyone is definitely emotionally and physically exhausted-I blame it on the heat! I think the thing that set me off in my wanting to come back home was the manager of Hurricane Cove Bungalows...I could go on for hours about this woman, trust me. Long story short, she has called Fitzpatrick at multiple times at 5am complaining about us...usually if our group had been a disaster case I would be very understanding and I did give her the benefit of the doubt for the longest time, but this past week she has gone a bit too far-we were suppose to be able to stay here until the weekend but she suddenly, and without any particular reason, decided we had to leave by the 4th. Therefore, I'll be heading home tomorrow instead of Saturday-I can honestly say I can't complain though.

Other than that, last week was as usual a wonderful week-Fitzpatrick had a slide show set up for us during class on Wednesday so we were able to see a bunch of pictures he and the other directors had taken-it was weird to see five weeks of work summed up in a 30 min. video! Thursday night Rachel, Kirsten, and I stopped by Sunshine's to get the much talked about Killer Bee...it's a wonderful rum punch, with a sting ;) waka waka-I got a great fish dinner and hung out with the girls and talked with a few locals for a bit. Afterwards we ran into some of our med-student friends and they gave us a ride to Rumours for karaoke night...apparently Mr. Vegas, a popular singer from Jamaica was there and I didn't get to see him! I probably heard him though, I was going to try to be an annoying fan and steal a picture with him but I got too tiered and went home early with a few people. By the way, I love the open container policy here-Rachel, Kirsten and I took a KillerBee to go, went back to Oualie and got Kirsten's bottle of rum and took shots in the back of the car...if only we could get away with that in the States! It would make car rides so much more fun....!


Friday night was more of the same, we started off by Oualie as usual and a couple of our guy friends had created superlatives for us! I was awarded "Bubbly McBubble Pants"..I thought it was really cute. More Culturama fun times after that, and the rest of the weekend was spent soaking up the sun and studying for the exam on Monday. Saturday night was a complete bust, I decided to say in and get some extra studying to do so I could relax part of the day on Sunday but I ended up getting so hot I sat down on the tile and passed our for a bit...and then decided it was my bed time and that I wasn't getting anything done that night. So much for a crazy last weekend! All in all I think the exam went pretty well, there were a few questions I felt as though I should have known but I think I may have done alright! Let's hope so at least, I need at least a high C or a B to complete my minor in Anthro!

It felt amazing finishing the exam, we had to put in another hour of work throughout the day to finish processing the finds but the rest of the day was spent by the beach and enjoying the last two days of freedom! It definitely felt much better to have all of the studying, readings, work, lab, etc. out of the day and have a couple of days to enjoy the beach (and work on this awesome farmers tan) before heading home. Last night the group decided to go to Sunshine's for dinner (I was finally going to get my lobster dinner!) because we had heard a band was playing there...what we didn't know was the Culturama festival down town had decided to go to the area around Sunshine's, Chevy's and Lime, so by the time we got there, there were hundreds of people dancing around to the music, food and drinks everywhere, it was unexpected and crazy fun! Although last night was the first night I've experienced true tourist racism on the island since I've been here...one girl got her camera stolen and then was told she could get it back for $100EC, another guy was turned down to get food when he had been waiting in line for 20 min, and the people at the bar didn't appear overly concerned to get meals out to people unless they were obvious locals (I got my meal maybe two hours later? It was worth the wait though, delicious wings!). It was kind of disappointing but I'm glad I experienced that at the end of the trip rather than the beginning.

Well, after a long day of enjoying the beach, hanging out with everyone before we leave, and drinking to celebrate our last night here, I can honestly say I'm alot more upset about leaving than I thought I would be. Last I checked with my emotions, I was extremely excited to get home but this last night has been an emotional rollarcoaster! Unexpected but well deserved-we had a great night at Oualie's hanging out with our local friends before we head on, it was great to say goodbye to everyone but it made me realize how wonderful this trip was and fortunate I have been to have met the people I met and experienced the things I experienced. Besides a few minor bumps, this trip, as every study abroad program will tell you, has been a life changing experience. Cheers to you Nevis!

"Real Talk. Not Cute." (Part 2)

Continuing on the saga...

I came home from the presentation and got ready to go to the Crane's house for dinner, they're an amazing family from Scotland I met while hanging out at Oualie-they have a younger boy named Colin and a gorgeous girl our age named Lauren. They invited a couple of people we've met at the bar including this baller chick named Siri; she's from Norway and just randomly decided to pack up and head down to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks-last time I talked to her she was heading to St. Martin and thought about staying another week touring another island. One day I hope I have enough courage to jump on a plane and adventure about on my own..although I still think I'd have more fun with a smaller group! In all it ended up being, of course, my partner in crime Kevin, Colis, Moy, Andy, his date (I didn't catch her name but she was visiting for the weekend from Dominica), Colis' friend John, Zac, and I (I think a few others stopped by as well throughout the night). Colis cooked up some delicious chicken, fish, hamburgers, beans and rice with coconut milk, and a salad...it was probably one of the top meals I've had on the island, I don't think the family understood how grateful Kevin and I were to get away from our college budgets and enjoy a real home cooked meal!

Me being me, I was really excited to be in a household rich with different cultural backgrounds-we had Scotland, US, Norway, Nevis, St. Lucia, and Dominica within one room. Unfortunately, we had a couple drinks and after being in the sun all day I got exhausted by midnight and took a power nap in the chair for a bit...I felt really bad for eating, drinking, and then sleeping in their chair but apparently I wasn't the only one...Zac did the same thing too. haha So much for the energetic youth right! I somehow pulled enough energy to go into town with Kevin, Siri, John, and Colis and we checked out the village where the late night partying goes on for Culturama...and I'm not lying when I say late night-more like into the early morning. I don't know how people do it but from what I hear, the music and dancing doesn't stop until sometime after 6am...!? Luckily we made it back a few hours before dawn for some well deserved sleep! Ps, talk about a small world, John grew up all around the US, most notably a few places in NC as well as Ft. Collins, Colorado for a while...I can't think of anyone else that has heard of it, much less lived there! I thought it was interesting at least. The group decided to go out to Lover's Beach on Sunday so a good majority of the day was spent sunbathing and studying-a fair compromise if you ask me! Lover's is a really nice beach just a hop skip and quick swim (or walk. I prefer to take the road...) away from Hurricane Cove-it has a nice stretch of black (from the volcano) and white sand and waves more like what we're use to in the States. Gorgeous area and very secluded!

By this point in the trip I was beginning to be torn between ready to go home and never wanting to leave. I've missed the States incredibly, it's funny how little things I didn't think would bother me turned into huge issues after a while. Mosquitoes became my primary enemy after a while-my legs are so scarred up by random half-asleep episodes of 'attack-the-itch', it's amazing how the mosquitoes in NC will barely compare to the swarms here. As I write this I can spot three or four of those buggers flying around my computer and I. I also started missing my car and the ability to be independent. I finally realized I was starting to get irritated because alot of my freedoms I'm just so accustomed to had been taken away-I couldn't go out to a store in the late evening if I needed something, the manager gave us strict rules about what time we should be in from where (keep in mind these were casually enforced the last two weeks of being here...) and where we could party (apparently we couldn't stay in the bungalows and drink because we were too loud but if we went out and came in late she would get upset too), and I haven't had any significant alone time unless I'm in the shower or sleeping.

Despite these factors, I love everything about this island. I like the fact you have to be outgoing and make friends to find your own fun and the culture is very intriguing. I can definitely see myself moving to the Caribbean for an extended length of time in the future-my ideal situation, as I've fantasized with a couple of my friends, is to find a mate back in the States and move to an island on a whim, perhaps someplace with a little more tourism and nightlife so that I could find a job..although I've already had three job offers while being here! If nothing after college happens I know where to go! haha Interestingly, living among a different culture for an extended time has made me appreciate my background more. In the past few years I've grown jealous of the cultures that have so many unique traditions where as I feel as though I have none to offer. Perhaps that has come from being a member of Fusion, and the fact people can bring different foods and dances and traditions and beliefs to the table and teach the rest of us something.

Living here has a) made me realize my own rich culture and b) made me realize I have the ability to appreciate other cultures based on my background. A) I really do have a culture-it's Christmas time and food and traditions with the family, it's alcohol and fireworks on the 4th of July and realizing every year we've yet to learn the two should never mix, it's Halloween and awkwardly dressing up and asking our neighbors for candy (it really is an awkward concept if you stop to think about it), it's football season, and hip-hop and Hollywood and all these things that I'm sure I would be fascinated by if I weren't an American myself. B) I have been overwhelmingly blessed to have grown up in the family I have where I've been encouraged to accept others despite looks, backgrounds, beliefs, orientation, etc. In recent years I feel like my fascination with different cultural groups is a defining factor that makes me, me and I have my family as well as my American background to thank for that-as I mentioned, if I weren't an American I'm sure I would be just as intrigued by our culture, but I'm glad I grew up in a place where our traditions are strong but not strong enough to override my ability to learn about others. For a while I felt as though I was embarrassed to say "I'm from the States" because well, some people just don't like us, let's face it. I also felt like there's a stigma that comes along with saying that and I was afraid they would automatically assume I'm a rich, white person from the States, looking for a safe, touristy way to spend my vacation. In fact, it's almost a treat to now say "hey, I'm from the States" and in fact, I would like to go somewhere only locals go...it's nice to surprise people and change their minds on how they tend to see a group.

Alright, enough rambling on now! Thank you all for reading my book, I'll be doing personal autographs on August 5th and 6th....;)

"Real Talk. Not Cute." (Part 1)

Mkay. So apparently I've had so much to say about this week I'm going to turn it into two different posts to break it up a bit =)

So the beginning of this next week, whatever week we're on, was awesome. Tropical depressions = awesome, because they get you out of lab work and push back the assignment you've been neglecting to work on because you haven't finished the readings needed to work on said assignment. So Monday we had the pleasure of experiencing tropical depression Bonnie, before she became all big and famous. Locals say that besides actual hurricanes, that was the worst storm they've seen in a while. We didn't lose power because we were running on a backup generator (much to my dismay, we had an assignment due Tuesday and I didn't want to be on the computer with a crazy storm around so I figured at least if the power went out I could have a legit excuse to not finish it...it got pushed back anyways though, lucky me!) but a good majority of the island lost all forms of technology...internet signals were down, the power was out, and we lost cell phone reception for a couple days after that night. It was actually interesting to be in a place where technology is so much more unstable than what we're use to-in the States our power goes out for a couple hours, maybe a day tops but here it was about a 48 hr period, longer for some, where people were lacking power. I don't know how to describe it but it was nice being in a place where technology wasn't so readily available after a bad storm.

Needless to say, we only went to the field Monday and Thursday that week, the rain continued Tuesday so we got out of field work for a couple days-it felt absolutely wonderful to get out of the sun and wear no sunscreen for a couple days, my pores have learned to hate me after 7 weeks of this...if I'm not wearing sunscreen I'm soaked in bug spray, I can't wait to get back and now have to worry about either one =) Although the excitement, there is always a consequence to pay for supposedly good things...we had lab days Tuesday and Wednesday, which equate to nerrite syndrome...I don't know if I've mentioned these devil shells before, but nerrites are the tiny shells that have little snails in them...well apparently they were a big source of food back in the days of the Amerindians and we have the lovely pleasure of cleaning them out-they're tedious suckers to clean out so having to do this for 8-9 hrs a day for two days in a row is excruciating-ie, nerrite syndrome. It's real.

Thursday night we had the chance to experience the first official night of Culturama, somehow fourteen of us managed to cram into a van with a woman and the four kids she was looking after-I felt bad for the family but they didn't seem to mind-the kids found it hilarious 14 drunk students were taking pictures and cutting up and apparently one kid thought my hair was pretty cool...he would try touching it and then the little kids would laugh, I told him that it felt really soft and smelled like coconut and encouraged him to play with it but he got really shy after that haha So this first night was pretty cool, it was like a huge block party with live music by the port. They had a kids talent show and a few bands playing, Green House was there I know, I'm not sure who else played. Apparently the real fun was suppose to begin at midnight but we got there pretty early and I got tiered out quickly (that's happened more often than I thought it would here...the sun sets so early and after a day of being in the sun I get tiered around 10pm now) so a few of us went back early and just hung out by the bungalows. It was still cool to be able to say I was there the first night of Culturama!

Friday was incredibly fun, the group took a ferry over to St. Kitts to explore the island for the day with our program directors. Alot of the tour consisted of driving around the island and stopping at different sites but even the drive was relaxing and definitely a nice change from field work/lab. First stop was by the "first place of Amerindian contact with the Europeans"-there was a giant rock with a couple of petroglyphs, one of a monkey and the other of a dog maybe? There was also a guy that had a monkey in a diaper so we all had a chance to hold the adorable little thing. Next we stopped by the Romney Manor which contained the Caribelle Batik factory, this place was my favorite stop of the day. So this batik is a style of art that involved taking a completely white canvas and dipping it in colors repeatedly until one completes the desired look. They dip the canvas in different single colors and add oil designs and repeat this process until the look is finished, I was told it takes an average of nine days to complete because they have to dip the canvas and let it dry, and then do it all over again. The end results are really unique and interesting, I'd like to find a piece for myself one day!

The next stop was another favorite of mine; we went to the Brimestone Hill Fort which is now a World Heritage Site on the island. It has been said it is one of the "finest works of military engineering carried out by the British in the West Indies." It was creating just before 1690 in efforts to protect the island against the French. The site was incredibly large and contained different rooms used for barracks, workshops, bastions, a dough shop, first aid, etc. I'm a nerd and actually enjoy visiting places like this and wondering what happened exactly where I was standing some couple hundred years ago. Afterwards we stopped by the "Black Rocks" on the East side of the island, these rocks were formed by a massive lava flow millions of years ago and look incredibly unique. We took some pictures of the great scenery and then went to the Belmont Estate rum factory...I think we all found a little slice of Heaven that afternoon. Rum bottles everywhere. Need I say more? The taste-tester explained to us the process of creating the right mixture, I never knew alcohol involved so much science! The rest of the day was spent in Port Zante where we relaxed and shopped for a couple hours before heading back to Nevis.

Friday night was spent enjoying the bar and Enrique's again, except it was more fun to go out in a smaller group and not worry about trying to make everyone in the large group happy. It's always hard traveling in large numbers, especially trying to go out at night when people have different preferences of when to go home and what they want to do, so me and a couple of my closest girlfriends ended up being the best way to travel. That is why we frequented Oualie's as much as we did throughout the trip-it was a place everyone could go to and people could leave as they pleased-if some wanted to continue the night a small group would go out and if not, they could go home and continue drinking in the bungalows or go to bed!

Anywhoo, Saturday was another awesome day touring around the island. Rachel, Alyson, and I decided to take a roomie's day out and discovered a few interesting bee-hives with the "Bee-man."...That's really what they call him on the island. His name is Quintin and he's some British guy that casually decided to live in Nevis and has been here for about 23 years now. His job is to take care of the bees on the island, in many ways including conservation and extermination...although the latter doesn't excite him quite as much but you gotta do what you gotta do I suppose. He showed us a solar beeswax melter at his house, a couple of boxes of hives (we got close enough where they were just swarming around us-I think I've gotten over my fear of bees to a small degree! As long as I don't sit on them anymore...although I have been informed you don't know if you're allergic to bees until you've been stung the second time so I tried to stay far enough away where I wouldn't find out), and an incredibly huge natural hive created in an abandoned house behind an incredibly rich couple's property.

After conquering my fear of yet one more bug (I can be in the same room as cockroaches now, yippee!) we drove over to the Jamaican Bakery for some hydration and croissants and then walked over to the Alexander Hamilton Museum for our archaeology presentation! First noteworthy comment, Alexander Hamilton was in fact born on the island, right around where the current museum stands...I didn't know that until this trip! Secondly, this presentation was a way for the island to stop by the museum and look at our finds and learn more about what we're doing on the site-honestly, looking at all of our finds in the cases and the information placed around it made me feel like the past couple weeks of hard work had a) paid off and b) was quite legit. I guess I never really felt like I was doing anything incredibly important because who would want a group of students excavating a site when only half of them are considering doing this as a real job in the future? Apparently it's alot more important than I thought and I was very glad to feel like I had made a contribution to preserving and interpreting the archaeological history of the island...Nevis hasn't had nearly the archaeological attention as many other islands have had in the past, so I do feel like our efforts have been extremely important.