The Alpha
Well everyone else in the world seems to have a blog in one form or another and with all that has been happening lately I figured I would create one to keep those who care informed.
So in turn I shall begin.
Towards the end of my Junior year I applied to Academic Programs International (API) to study abroad in Poland. Why Poland? The reason is because I specialize in Eastern Europe for my Archaeology degree. Also my family has friends in Poland and Amee didn't want to go to Russia so I conceded. We found out a couple weeks ago that we were both fully accepted into the program and have begun handing in all the forms to API, the IPO office, and financial aid. As of yesterday we both only need to hand in one more form that allows us to get major/global ed credit for the classes we take there. I just need to get one last signature for that form and will be writing an E-mail shortly to the advisor I need to talk to since she is never there when I stop by.
The only snags we have encountered is that we now are scrambling to get roughly 15K each to pay the program. This isn't to much of a problem supposedly since Umass should be covering the cost for us. However we may not get the money before we are suppose to buy our plane tickets so we are trying to find an extra 2k to cover our plane tickets, since all are money is going to cover our normal bills.
The second snag is we need to find a sub-letter for our apartment for the Fall Semester of Umass. We were going to try Craiglist which will hopefully work. Otherwise that another 4K we need to find.
The last snag only really effects me in that I thought simply studying in Poland would fulfill all my Global Ed Requirements, including the language, which is what I thought the Global Ed adivor told me. Apparently it doesn't. So I will need to take a Polish language course when I come back, which they actually might be offering come spring semester.
I also applied for the Umass Archaeological Field School at the end of the semester and got into that. This field school was the main reason I started this thing.
Today was Day 1.
Each day the field school is suppose to start at 800 and end at 1700. Today being the first day we got to start an hour late and end an hour early. Which I am very thankful for. There was no digging today or anything that much fun. No today we had a nice three hour lecture, straight. Then we came back and learned about a few stones, plants, and pots. We were then sent home to read almost 200 pages from a book that is basically, from what I have read, laws on archaeology. My brain feels so fried. They told us that only the first few days would be like this and it would get a lot better. I can't wait.
Well I suppose you all want to hear more about the dig. Well let me first tell you the location of the dig is TOP SECRET. That gave me a laugh when they told me that. Our dig is an attempt to find a lost Indian fort in Deerfield, this will be the fourth attempt by Umass to find it. The evidence for the location of the dig seemed pretty convincing so I hope we find it. If we do find it we also run a slight chance of uncovering some Indian remains since atleast a few Indians were suppose to of died in the Fort when it was attacked and destroyed by the Mohawks. Since the fort was lost less than 400 years ago there is a small chance of finding the remains, apparently New England soil is highly acidic and destroys most organic remains so 400 years is a long time to be buried in New England. Although knowing the soil is acid should help if I need to get rid of a body. The only down part to finding those remains is that we would have to abort our dig right there.
If we find those remains or don't find anything in two weeks we move on to a secondary site that is full of various lithic artifacts, this way we get atleast some practice in archaeology.
Well its getting late and this is a lot longer than I thought it would be. Back to my 200 pages of reading. I'll try to keep updates on the Dig for those who just have to know.
So in turn I shall begin.
Towards the end of my Junior year I applied to Academic Programs International (API) to study abroad in Poland. Why Poland? The reason is because I specialize in Eastern Europe for my Archaeology degree. Also my family has friends in Poland and Amee didn't want to go to Russia so I conceded. We found out a couple weeks ago that we were both fully accepted into the program and have begun handing in all the forms to API, the IPO office, and financial aid. As of yesterday we both only need to hand in one more form that allows us to get major/global ed credit for the classes we take there. I just need to get one last signature for that form and will be writing an E-mail shortly to the advisor I need to talk to since she is never there when I stop by.
The only snags we have encountered is that we now are scrambling to get roughly 15K each to pay the program. This isn't to much of a problem supposedly since Umass should be covering the cost for us. However we may not get the money before we are suppose to buy our plane tickets so we are trying to find an extra 2k to cover our plane tickets, since all are money is going to cover our normal bills.
The second snag is we need to find a sub-letter for our apartment for the Fall Semester of Umass. We were going to try Craiglist which will hopefully work. Otherwise that another 4K we need to find.
The last snag only really effects me in that I thought simply studying in Poland would fulfill all my Global Ed Requirements, including the language, which is what I thought the Global Ed adivor told me. Apparently it doesn't. So I will need to take a Polish language course when I come back, which they actually might be offering come spring semester.
I also applied for the Umass Archaeological Field School at the end of the semester and got into that. This field school was the main reason I started this thing.
Today was Day 1.
Each day the field school is suppose to start at 800 and end at 1700. Today being the first day we got to start an hour late and end an hour early. Which I am very thankful for. There was no digging today or anything that much fun. No today we had a nice three hour lecture, straight. Then we came back and learned about a few stones, plants, and pots. We were then sent home to read almost 200 pages from a book that is basically, from what I have read, laws on archaeology. My brain feels so fried. They told us that only the first few days would be like this and it would get a lot better. I can't wait.
Well I suppose you all want to hear more about the dig. Well let me first tell you the location of the dig is TOP SECRET. That gave me a laugh when they told me that. Our dig is an attempt to find a lost Indian fort in Deerfield, this will be the fourth attempt by Umass to find it. The evidence for the location of the dig seemed pretty convincing so I hope we find it. If we do find it we also run a slight chance of uncovering some Indian remains since atleast a few Indians were suppose to of died in the Fort when it was attacked and destroyed by the Mohawks. Since the fort was lost less than 400 years ago there is a small chance of finding the remains, apparently New England soil is highly acidic and destroys most organic remains so 400 years is a long time to be buried in New England. Although knowing the soil is acid should help if I need to get rid of a body. The only down part to finding those remains is that we would have to abort our dig right there.
If we find those remains or don't find anything in two weeks we move on to a secondary site that is full of various lithic artifacts, this way we get atleast some practice in archaeology.
Well its getting late and this is a lot longer than I thought it would be. Back to my 200 pages of reading. I'll try to keep updates on the Dig for those who just have to know.