Friday, May 28, 2010

Day 13: The Adventure Continues

Thursday was a very different kind of day! Firstly, it was sunny all day without a droplet of rain. Secondly, it all started off with a visit from BroadBand Network Three's (BBN3) Sarah Berman. Sarah (pictured below in the blurry photo) is a video journalist from BBN3's Vancouver sector, and she spent the day at our McKenzie Creek camp videoing, interviewing, and getting the classic tour and background information of the excavation site and the program. The video is not yet on the website, but we hope that it will be soon! This program seems to be getting a lot of good feedback and reviews from our visitors, which is very heartening.


As Sarah was working with Bob, the students almost fell back into their routine. Most of the excavation units, after numerous artifacts being documented, are now sterile. Andy and Suzannah, the now professional excavation unit setter-uppers, fell back into their roles and set up more units immediatly to the west of the sterile units. Some of these new units were already assigned by the end of the morning, which is good because time is flying by and we must catch up to it! Suzannah and Andy also set up some units near Paul's wooden plank area so that he can start excavating in an orderly fashion (see below).


Paul spent the day working on his project too. He had decided to measure the length and width of the boards near the ofuro in order to compare it to the wooden planks that make up the road a few meters nearby. Paul is doing this in order to rule out the possibility that his potential structure is not just a pile of logs meant for the road. The picture below is of some of the planks from the road that Paul has measured.


While the rest of us were excavating, our dear Sonya worked in the lab today with former field school student Christie Leung (a laboratory star) who volunteered to help out (see picture below). Sonya worked on her project in the lab by completing paperwork and itemizing artifacts. Her project is to compile all of the information on artifacts found from the submitted artifact forms.


Another exciting event seems to be the distribution of nicknames. Sean is now referred to as "Buttons", due to his uncanny ability to find bottles. Just kidding, he is a magnet for buttons. Suzannah, according to me, is now "Goomba", and Andy has been dubbed "Mr. Clean", for his bizarre ability to stay clean no matter the weather, and his ability to wear white shoes in the mud, for the last three weeks, without getting so much as a speck of dirt on them. In the picture below you can see (from left to right) Mr. Clean, Buttons, Verena, the back of Simon, the side of Andrea, and Tin Can Guy.


After the work was done, the gang went home, and then some went to... Karaoke Night! All organized by Buttons (Sean), who is always singing away to songs that he alters to be archaeologically related, while we work. Yes, the students are bonding, and what better way to do so than by singing horribly, and loudly to classic tunes such as "It's Not Unusual"? The social aspect of this field school is another fabulous reason to sign up for the program. Below are Goomba, Buttons, and Paul.


This week is now complete because Friday's laboratory session has been canceled, and will instead be held on Monday, so we will see you then!

Over and out!

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