One Month and Counting...

I leave for Ecuador in a little over a month to return to the Pambamarca Archaeology Project run by UCLA. As a new staff member (having been a student of the project's field school last year) the upcoming 6 weeks seem like they can't come fast enough. I want nothing more than to be covered in dirt right now, mapping out walls that I will learn to loath due to their misshapen, cangahua plastering and napping next to Inca ruins on my lunch break (after eating a tuna and mustard sandwich for the 16th day in a row). Add to all that the appeal of electric showers that catch fire, farris wheels run with VW beetle engines, and project pets (aka adopted stray dogs), and I am like a little kid looking into a candy shop window. I can't wait to just get there already!

Additionally, I'm doubly excited because after my stay in Ecuador, I'm working as staff on another UCLA project, UMAP (UCLA Mayan Archaeology Project) in Belize just outside the town of San Ignacio. We're working on the Maya center of Aguacate which currently is an untouched site, and apparently there's rumor going around that we'll have access to GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), possibly the coolest 'new' technology of the past decade to hit the field . Seeing as I'm pretty positive that I want to get a PhD in Mayan Arch., it would probably be a good idea to actually make sure I enjoy the site conditions. So in a way, this project will be a make or break experience in terms of deciding where I should specialize.

Needless to say, I'm bouncing off the walls about my upcoming 10 weeks in the field. This is "what I'm going to school for" being put into a real world setting. This is where I get to not only live like a dirty hippy who doesn't wash her hair but twice a week, but also I get to show my fellow archaeologists my dedication and love for the discipline all while improving my technique and delving into an entirely foreign culture... or two. This is me starting a long list of resume building project experience and maybe actually showing graduate programs that I'm committed to the career path. This is essentially me in my element.

And my adventure is only one month away...