Arrival!

It's been a whirlwind--I arrived Wednesday morning (at 3 am), saw apartments all afternoon (8 of them, starting at 3 pm!), went to dinner and decided on this one after much back and forth (location vs. comfort vs. price). Then yesterday, I went to the gym at the hotel, had breakfast, and then moved in! As it happens, settling in took nearly the entire day, between being shown how all of the heating, air conditioning (!!!), TV/cable, hot water (gas in kitchen, electric in bathroom), and clocks worked.

Everything was great, so I went shopping for essential groceries, returned and discovered that the internet wasn't working! I spoke to the landlady and they were going to get a new wifi router today. As it turns out, this morning I found a router in a closet, found cords in a shoebox, reset the router and - voila! - internet!

Apparently on Tuesdays and Saturdays a man comes around the building with farm-fresh milk and sour cream, so it's ok that the milk I bought yesterday was sour when I opened it (I've added "check expiration date" next to "Milk" on my shopping list!). I can hear chickens and roosters outside, so I suspect there are fresh eggs to be had as well, but it might take extra time to discover!

I'll try to stay on top of updates -- feel free to bug me about it, if I let it slide!

Here is the view from the apartment:

And here you can see the inside:

The results of my first shopping trip!

And my first breakfast (I had already eaten an egg/potato/onion scramble). Yummy pastry is thanks to my lovely landlady, Nana!

I am a bad blogger...

So, after months of silence, two posts in one day! The pictures say a lot, so I'll try not to repeat too much, but just put them in context.

Russia is amazing. I have met so many wonderful and generous people here. We're staying at the guest apartments of a man named Misha. We also eat at his cafe, drive his car, and bathe in his баня (banya). His son Misha (Mikhail Mikhailovich) helped us this summer with survey and excavation. Yet another summer where (for the most part) I lived in the lap of luxury. We have hot water, a shower, a washing machine (!), clotheslines, and brand new beds and sheets.

Since this is very irregular (from what I've been told by other archaeologists), and I wanted to be able to say I had lived like a "real" archaeologist, I moved to the camp where the Russian archaeologists and students were staying (not far from the archaeological site of Stepnoye). I had SO much fun! We bathed in the Ui River, stayed up late around the campfire, singing Russian songs (I now know the chorus to 3!), and waited rain out in the storage yurt. Catherine and Jim promised that I would get over my romantic ideas about camp life... but so far, I just loved it! Dima and Lena Zdanovich lead the Russian expedition--a beautiful team! Natasha Batanina was my life-saver in the camp--as the best English-language speaker, she was always willing to translate for me or the Russians--even when I'm sure she got really sick of it. She and her sister, Masha, provided most of the campfire songs. Masha let me stay in her tent (with her adorable dog, Alyssa), when I discovered that my tent, in a strong rainstorm, does indeed leak. I can't describe everyone, or I will run out of time (and space!) in the blog, but I was so glad to meet everyone I did at the camp--and I miss them already!

Unfortunately... I had to leave the camp. A week before it was going to leave anyway (and 3 weeks before the end of the project!), I spilled boiling hot coffee on my legs. So, for the last week and a half, I've been confined largely to the house, doing lab work. I don't need painkillers anymore, and it's starting to be itchy (meaning it's healing), so that's good--but I still walk strangely! The doctor at the hospital in Plast said that I couldn't get the injured area wet for 3 months, so at this point I'm feeling worst for my roommates who have to live with me being stinky! :-) Though I think I've mastered the art of upside-down showering... At least my hair gets clean.

This may have been the most unlucky summer of my life, since earlier this season, I sprained my ankle. That's mostly feeling better, though I've still got a lump on my foot... I'm looking forward to my first stop at Cornell being to the medical center for a full exam! :-) At least I was able to tough it out through the survey--I only needed a couple of days off before I was walking on it again (and the burn happened 3 days before the survey was done). The other Catherine here (there's always another Kathryn!) also sprained her ankle--the day after I did!--and she had to stop survey altogether after it re-sprained.

Many people have asked about the weather. It does, in fact, swing between high 30s/low 40s and 90s (Fahrenheit), though the majority of days have been in the 70s/80s and nights in the 50s. In May it was colder and much windier, but we never spent the night outside in May. July has had some pretty warm days, though from what I've read on Facebook, I'll take warm in the steppe over warm in Chicago! We also had a lot more rainy days in July than we had before.

As for work, we've found a lot of cool stuff--including a least a couple very large scatters of ceramic sherds, which is great news. We also had luck in some of the test pits we've done already. The survey wrapped up last week, and the team is working only on test pits now. I'm recording photos and artifacts in my last week.

I've only got 4 more days living in Stepnoye, then off to Chelyabinsk for one night, before returning home!

Photos from Russia

Stepnoye

Here are some photos with captions from the first two months in the field!

On my way home...

The trip to Araceibo was a success! I haven't had great access to Internet since we left the hotel, so I haven't had the chance to upload pictures, but I'll do that when I get home.

Right now, I'm at the airport, waiting for my flight to Chicago, via Ft. Lauderdale. Wish I had time to stop and see Debi!

So, I haven't written much recently; we had been busy back-filling, which is really physically exhausting. Also, I've decided to stay in Puerto Rico for an extra week.

Right now, I'm staying in Rio Piedras, a suburb of San Juan where the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is located. I'm crashing with one of the other students I was digging with. Yesterday I got the chance to explore more of San Juan than I did on Saturday. I saw the other major fort--Castillo San Cristobal and the pier made famous in the movie "Captain Ron."

This afternoon I'm going to pick up a rental car so that we can drive to the Araceibo Observatory for another try tomorrow. Then, on Thursday, to El Yunque, the rainforest near San Juan. I'm going to try to do some horseback riding then, too!

I'll try to get some pics up of these trips and write some more about the excavations, but it's been hard to get wifi access since we left the hotel.

Much love to my readers! I miss you all and will see each of you soon--even if I have to fly to LA or London to do it! :)