camping kicks ass
DIG/CAMPING/THINGS I MISSED FOR BEING OUT OF TOWN
This weekend was my first camping trip with my archeaology class, and I was pretty nervous. I mean, if I had had a miserable time, I was stuck going twice more. Despite not really knowing anyone in the class, I had so much fun! It is hard not to when you have 40 college students and one professor sitting around a huge campfire drinking beer and telling stories. The people who are in the class really are there because they want to have a fun time, and it is really laid back.
Even the digs, where we are more focused on the job at hand are relaxed. You can't not be laid back, you would go crazy otherwise! We spend our days (8-5) at the dig site, which means you are either in the pit digging with shovels and trowels, or you are carrying buckets of dirt back and forth, or sifting the buckets of dirt looking for lithics (pieces of rock flaked for tools, either the tools themselves, or the flakes that were removed to create the tools), pottery, bone, shells, any evidence of human occupation. Collectively known as debotage, essentially trash that got left behind.
The only bad part about these trips is that I miss out on weekends. Like this weekend, I missed the Jones public party, and I missed it last year for Mardi Gras, and granted, I don't regret doing what I did instead, but it would have been fun to go to my own party. AND I missed this freshman on my floor getting drunk, she is super sweet, and just started drinking this semester, and she is one of the nicest people i have ever met, but I just can't picture her drinking, much less getting drunk. Val and I are excited that she is drinking, not that we want to pressure anyone into drinking, but it is nice to have people on our floor that will come drink with us, since most of our floor is anti-alcohol. Rachel (the freshman) has a roomie who is totally anti-alcohol, but she is an odd girl anyways, nice, but odd. Besides, rachel is so much fun that we like hanging out with her anyways, and now she will come to parties with us too!
Rumor has it that these two girls down the hall from me got drunk that night too, and I was like, WHAT?!?!?! Becuase these are girls who are non-drinkers, and uber conservative, like, they are moving off campus next year because the floors are not going to be single sex.
I also missed two of Val's friends, and Emily's cousin visiting. I got an angry phone call from Turner, Val's friend who went to the greek festival with us last semester. I checked my messages as soon as I got phone service, and I hear this, "Sally Johnson! This is Turner Partain. Where the hell are you? I am at Rice and you are on some dig?!?! BITCH!" Apparently when he found out that I was out of town, he was like, what a bitch! and Danielle and Daniel didn't know that we knew each other I guess, and Dan was shocked, she was like, but sally is a nice person!
Katie, the roomie, asked me yeysterday if I was fighting over myself on our whiteboard. Val had written "I heart you" on our board, and yesterday, Danielle was like, who loves you? and I was like, Val loves me. And Dan proceeded to write "I heart you TOO!" while she made an angry face. She had to prove that she loved me as much as Val. It was just funny that Katie thought I had written both messages. How weird would that have been? I am not that desperate!
This weekend was my first camping trip with my archeaology class, and I was pretty nervous. I mean, if I had had a miserable time, I was stuck going twice more. Despite not really knowing anyone in the class, I had so much fun! It is hard not to when you have 40 college students and one professor sitting around a huge campfire drinking beer and telling stories. The people who are in the class really are there because they want to have a fun time, and it is really laid back.
Even the digs, where we are more focused on the job at hand are relaxed. You can't not be laid back, you would go crazy otherwise! We spend our days (8-5) at the dig site, which means you are either in the pit digging with shovels and trowels, or you are carrying buckets of dirt back and forth, or sifting the buckets of dirt looking for lithics (pieces of rock flaked for tools, either the tools themselves, or the flakes that were removed to create the tools), pottery, bone, shells, any evidence of human occupation. Collectively known as debotage, essentially trash that got left behind.
The only bad part about these trips is that I miss out on weekends. Like this weekend, I missed the Jones public party, and I missed it last year for Mardi Gras, and granted, I don't regret doing what I did instead, but it would have been fun to go to my own party. AND I missed this freshman on my floor getting drunk, she is super sweet, and just started drinking this semester, and she is one of the nicest people i have ever met, but I just can't picture her drinking, much less getting drunk. Val and I are excited that she is drinking, not that we want to pressure anyone into drinking, but it is nice to have people on our floor that will come drink with us, since most of our floor is anti-alcohol. Rachel (the freshman) has a roomie who is totally anti-alcohol, but she is an odd girl anyways, nice, but odd. Besides, rachel is so much fun that we like hanging out with her anyways, and now she will come to parties with us too!
Rumor has it that these two girls down the hall from me got drunk that night too, and I was like, WHAT?!?!?! Becuase these are girls who are non-drinkers, and uber conservative, like, they are moving off campus next year because the floors are not going to be single sex.
I also missed two of Val's friends, and Emily's cousin visiting. I got an angry phone call from Turner, Val's friend who went to the greek festival with us last semester. I checked my messages as soon as I got phone service, and I hear this, "Sally Johnson! This is Turner Partain. Where the hell are you? I am at Rice and you are on some dig?!?! BITCH!" Apparently when he found out that I was out of town, he was like, what a bitch! and Danielle and Daniel didn't know that we knew each other I guess, and Dan was shocked, she was like, but sally is a nice person!
Katie, the roomie, asked me yeysterday if I was fighting over myself on our whiteboard. Val had written "I heart you" on our board, and yesterday, Danielle was like, who loves you? and I was like, Val loves me. And Dan proceeded to write "I heart you TOO!" while she made an angry face. She had to prove that she loved me as much as Val. It was just funny that Katie thought I had written both messages. How weird would that have been? I am not that desperate!