Here we go again...

...I started at my new job this week. I must say, I enjoy this as well as dread it. The endless changing school and moving home episodes in my childhood left me with this ambivalence towards adaption. I always look forward to being around new people, finding out about them, getting first impressions crushed or confirmed. And I love roaming new places with something unexpected around every corner.
But on the other hand, I hate chit-chat, and jeez, there is so much of that at a new work place. Everybody asks the exact same question, and although I vary my answers a little here and there, it remains the same. And getting lost over and over again, taking the extra long way home and getting exhausted just getting to the supermarked, is a little annoying.

In the end, it is a good mixture of both joy and annoyance, curiosity and exhaustion when starting over at a new place. Having the softest start into a new job ever by doodling about the first two days and then going on a study-trip for the rest of the week, I´m pretty lucky. It makes it so much easier getting to know everyone, remembering names (nothing is more horrible than using all the wrong names all the time) and building a network for the coming months.

And being in Arendal now for my first week, I´m excited about getting out in the field, driving around, and starting my real work ;-).

Being inspired...I hope

Reading other peoples bloggs are pretty easy and enjoyable. I love to find little text with a witty, intelligent twist that make me think, and it always leaves me with the feeling I wanna write something like that, too. A while ago, I had a Twitter-conversation about being creative and how many forms of creativity there are. Inspired by a blogg post (and response to my comment as well) by that very same person, I will try not do dissappoint her now with this answer of mine :-). This persons blogg post is about some questions "tagged" on her by (surprise) yet another blogger. I thought there were quiet appropriate qustions since you can absolutely get lost in their complexity and write a book about each one, or you just kid around and make it a funny little note.
Anyway, here it goes:

I am: jeez, there you go...it´s the most essential question ever, and you have to start with that one. Well, since my work is kinda a lifestyle, too, I have to say I am an archaeologist. I tried to describe that in an earlier blogg post, but let me stress it again, that "job" takes a lot of what defines you and your everyday life - at least, it does for me. Otherwise, I am a curious soul with hopefully an positive attitude towards life and people (though I can turn around in 2 seconds).

The bravest thing I have ever done is: realising how hard being an archaeologist is, and still wanna do it? No, seriously, what is bravery anyway. I try being honest at (almost) any given situation. First, because I so absolutely suck at lying (would I be an actor, forget the Oscar). And second, because I expect being told the truth, even if it should be a horrible thing to hear. I don´t know if that counts as bravery, but considering the way people react to reality (the real one, I mean, not the one in peoples head) when confronted with it, I should say I come pretty close.

I feel prettiest when: talking to people. And by that, I don´t mean that chit-chat, everyday, "how´s it going" stuff (although that of course has its goods). I rather mean real talk, about subjects that engage, frustrate, amuse and dazzle. These kind of conversations where I can contribute, make a turn left or right, make me feel pretty and exciting. I know, that is not the kind of answer people expect on this question, but that´s just the way it is. I give a s**t about looks :-).

Something that keeps me up at night is: music. I have to admit, I have a rather annoying habit (though only when living alone) of taking my Ipod to bed (instead of a book, which would be the wiser choice). I can spend precious hours of possible sleep, switching from song to song. I should absolutely stop it, or at least turn to audio books, because it makes me real edgy in the morning, deprived of valuable sleep!

My favourite meal is: right, let me think............................................................still thinking...............................................something italian? (sorry, I really try to be creative here. And I love food, but I really can´t think of anything - I like food in general).

The way to my heart is: honesty and humor and not taking yourself too serious. I always fall for those people: easy going, but still caring for a sense in life; laughing about silly things, but recognising when something´s not funny anymore; generous, but not pushy. And it doesn´t matter if that person is male or female, I just enjoy being with positive, open people with a brain in their head. Oh, and being fluffy, and furry and cuddly (a.k.a being a puppy/kitten/baby meerkat) i always melting my heart :-).

I would like to be: a better version of me. A less lazier, less whiny, less insecure version of me. Just have to never stop trying to get better (in what ever way) or to find new challenges that makes me grow.

Now, I cross my fingers that this is a tiny bit as expected, and feel free to comment :-)

I´m such a lazy-ass

Well, just look at the date of my last entry....that´s almost a year ago.
But to my defense, I´d like to add that there were some strange, huge and confusing changes in my personal life which still have an aftereffect on me today.
On the other hand, I was unemployed, speak lots of time, the last 4 months or so, which should make a pretty good condition for updating this little project here. But anyway, can´t change that now.
I just have to kick myself in the bottom (excuse me my english) for a change and make a difference. So, i gonna start at a new job next week, and I´m so looking forward to it since I´m starving for something to do. Not that I didn´t do anything these last months, it just wasn´t work. In the meantime, I will find something to write about, so to just get used to write again.
In the end, it´s the thought that counts, aye?

Recap after 7 weeks of chaos-dig, or how to be an archaeology-potato

I thought I´m gonna do this once a week, but here I am after almost two month down the line and this is my second posting *bad-girl*. But what can I say, I never ever noticed these weeks gone by :-).
Being placed at the find-reception, my work is supposed to be washing finds, let them dry for a couple of days, preparing special treatment for ceramics, metal or leather, cataloging/identifying the different types and writing tons of lists of all the small bits and pieces that get discovered outside by the rest of the dig-crew.
Sounds real nice, right, even if you get annoyed by picking teeny-tiny pieces from the mud (see picture 1 for a bunch of debitage) and not loosing them

But it is mostly fun, cause not only can you see, feel and wonder about all those fabulous findings like arrowheads (see picture 2 and 3) or shiny rock-crystal pieces (se picture 4), but you avoid getting soaking wet, cold and grumpy while drinking coffee/tea inside.

But don´t be fooled, a dig amongst vast amount of stones like ours means damages to knees, back or other rather essential body parts. Weather as hazardous as 3 degree (celsius) combined with 15 m/s wind and heavy rain paired with snow is not really helping, so the sick pour in and when nothing else can be done, they get my job, cause it´s safer to work inside.

That´s how I end up being "a potato", cast from dig-team to dig-team and good for almost any work to be done. Deturf is one of the favourites because it´s rather heavy and boring (okay, I have to confess, I rather like it, but only done with a shovel and rolling the turf off, then using a hatchet-thing following the excavator dressed in a helmet and a neon-vest).
Cleaning the surface with a shovel is a classic activity for cast-arounds like me, because you cannot demolish anything by digging too deep (you just stop whenever the turf stops and something else shows up), you rarely find anything and it´s practically the second most boring assignment you can get. But alas, sometimes there are some pretty findings right under the turf, or you, as a matter of fact, discover a new structure, like I did last week.

While cleaning an area that was if anything uninteresting, I found a stone-formation close to an hearth with the tiny difference of the charcoal laying around it rather then in it. Maybe, time will show that it´s an production area?

Another nice advantage is the breathtaking nature you get while being outside for seven hours a day, just take a look:

Soon, I have a week off, and this time I´m gonna bring my camera which I foolishly enough forgot to bring for the first two month of the dig. Hopefully, I will be a more reliable blogger as well, and you can get more updates on the progress of the dig since my time at the reception will be done as well, and my life as an outsider will continue for good.

Back to Chaos - or Welcome to Hammerfest

Well, there am I, back in the northernmost part an archaeologist can get stuck. Already while landing the plane, I thought "jeez, nothing has changed here". Hammerfest was northernmost city until some years ago some other tiny place has taken over the honour. Otherwise, there is not much to tell except that one of those huge oil/gas companies has chosen this lucky place for it´s own. And there are lots and lots of reindeer annying the inhabitants, especially those trying to grow a garden around here.
But out of my perspective, this place is heaven. Not only is there a good chance to work for along period in one place and having my own apartement for the time as well - but the dig itself is awesome. Last year, there were lots and lots of finding from a period which is not very well documented and we really are writing new history here. My colleagues are some very fine people and one can walk to everything one might desire. There are mountains close by for walks and the sea right outside the door for fishing. Heaven, one might say....
But one has forgotten about the factor that makes everything rather complicated - CHAOS! And this dig is infested with it. Last year, the de-turf should take two weeks and after two months we had cleared half of the ground. Our barracks, which should have been on site before we arrived, were still in the making, pumps hadn´t arrived and the place to get from the boat to land was rather dangerous to use, along with a million other stuff that was missing or didn´t work.
This year, the first day was spend waiting...There was so heavy wind, that the boat-folks couldn´t allow us to get to the dig and we sat waiting in our rooms for the wind to calm down. Which it didn´t. Today, we were ready and excited to finally start, but as usual, there were several meetings, a lot of talk and planning before anybody did anything. And on the trip back both the boat-folks and the bus-folks were an half hour late which meant more endless waiting.
But hey, I´m back in the field, muddy cloth and dirty nails, and just give me some days and I report back with spectacular findings...and even more chaotic stories :-)

Roma, my love!

This city gets millions of visitors each year: old couples, groups of giggling girls, school classes, newly-weds, Christians waiting for their chance to meet the Pope...The list is endless, I know. And still, it got me. Completely!
There is nothing to be said which has not been said some hundred times before, or some travel guide has mentioned previously. So I won´t comment on St.Peters Square, Forum Romanum or the Trevi Fountain. Of course, I had to see it all, and especially Piazza Navona will stay with me. But after some hours with screaming kids and huge tourist-hordes, I needed some quietness.
And that is probably where Rome has surprised me entirely. You just have to steer away from the stream of people, seek yourself in to a tiny, mostly darkened alley with a bredth of three meter or less and you got some room to breathe. You´re not alone, but it is italian phrases, instead of loud american bawling (sorry, I don´t mean to offend all Americans, just the ones I heard clearly some hundred meter ahead of me), German nonsense (hey, I´m German and I can behave!) or French tittering.
Romans have a reputation for just saying whatever comes into their mind, and even with my very limited knowledge of the Italian language, I could understand what it meant.
And finding those little islands of good taste in a place full of tourists traps is worth the hours of traffic noise and illegal sellers jumping at you every corner. Cause, have you found a ristorante with those magnificent pasta and pizza-courses, where the whole wine-cellar is positioned on the wall above your table, and the first that meets you is a basket with warm bread and some bottles of olive-oil, then you see, taste and smell what Rome is beyond the Colosseum and the Vatican.
But there is so much more: the marked at Campo de Fiori, where I went as often as possible, just to buy a bag of tomatoes which I ate right away (and earned some strange looks from both tourists and locals); or the night life at Trastevere, where you get your head-banging Peroni (my warning to you all, never more than one bottle at a time) in a tiny pub and drink it outside with some three dozen strangers in the streets; the take-away pizza-shops near Piazza Republica, the cats at Argentina and the shops at Via del Corso.
I could go on of course, but my heart is in those tiny alleys and the cosy restaurant somewhere hidden in the vast array of what Rome represents. I will come back for sure, but this first impression of the city is one of the most breathtaking a place has left me with.

New Year, New Tear?

2010, jeez. Had some different plans finalized for this year, but I kinda found out, that life is a bitch sometimes and things definitely take much more time than my impatient brain tolerates.
But so what? I didn´t start my studies right after school, I won´t make a career right after my graduation from university. But who says, I have to anyway?
I see all those people getting nervous because they don´t have children/husband/house and car before they´re 30.
Life has a certain amount of time: years, months, days, hours. Why don´t just follow the path you see instead of chasing the next highway?
Don´t get me wrong - of course, I have plans. I am indeed one hell of a ambitious student wanting more than anything else to finally do what I love most and be the best at it! But I can´t imagine that my life perishes when things go "wrong" meaning not like I want them to go. So, I take another turn and who knows, maybe (just maybe) there is something worsewhile at this new place as well.
That said, I will continue to pick my brain to finish this thesis I hold so dear right now and see where this leads me
Happy New Year by the way!