Weekends

...probably my favorite part about working, rather than being in school!  Since it's been a while, I wanted to share a couple photos and stories from the past few weekends.

I went down to Williamsburg for Class of 2011 graduation - so much fun!  It's hard to believe that they are all grown up.

I got to spend time with a lot of friends that weekend, including Shoop and Stephen :)  Saturday evening included some Magic Hat #9, Harry Potter 7.1, and a fun German train game.

Paul enjoys home cooked meals...except this one!  I put a little too much cayenne in my cajun chicken and penne, thus the tears.

I got plants!  I bought Basil (pronounced Bah-zul) the basil plant Mothers' day weekend, and then Paul and I got Tom the tomato plant and Holly the jalapeno plant at a farmers market a few weeks later.  Basil has gotten several significant haircuts already for some delicious pesto :)

Paul and I also went to NJ for memorial day weekend...and this weekend we helped my dad fell a tree.  What's next?  This week I'm headed down south to Clover, VA to join Longwood University's archaeological field school for the week.  After that I'll be driving down for a week doing archaeology at the Great Dismal Swamp with American University's field school.  I'm really excited for the opportunity to work at these sites, and enjoy those humid Virginia summer days.

Holiday Highlights

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  I feel a little better now that we're caught up with holiday greetings.  It's been an exciting, crazy, and fun holiday season but somehow I'm very glad that things are winding back down...I've had plenty of days of a full stomach, given my liver enough of a workout (I neglect it shamefully sometimes), and eaten my fair share of tasty desserts.

Psyched to go to Narnia again, in our 1940s gear!

Some holiday highlights: None of the four dogs assembled at home got into the turkey neck, mashed potatoes, or cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving.  They (or rather their dander) did prove a formidable enemy to Paul's sinuses on Christmas, though.  Maybe I should buy stock in benadryl...  I had a fun weekend in Williamsburg to celebrate Gaudete Mass (third week of Advent, Gaudete means "rejoice") and finally got to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Narnia #5 or #3, depending on how you're counting.  I spent about a week in New Jersey with Paul's family - the first few days were intentional, and the rest were the result of the crazy post-Christmas blizzard that dropped over two feet of snow in the area.  All the same, the Masurs proved lovely company, especially due to their tolerance of my love of "boring" historical films.  I actually made it to a few daily Masses, and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was beautiful (I don't care what you said about the music, family, it was awesome).  And for the big news, my brother Chris and his girlfriend Katie got engaged on Christmas Eve - congratulations!

I headed back to work this week - not as an intern, but a contractor in the Repatriation Department of the NMAI.  I'm very excited to be spending the next four months in the office.  Especially since I've discovered the bountiful Smithsonian library system.

The Journey Home

Last Wednesday morning (and by this I mean back during our road trip), it was still raining.  As a Virginian, and more importantly, as a William and Mary alum, I am quite used to pouring rain that continues for days on end.  However, Wednesday was epic.  Weather like this doesn't happen every day in the southwest.

Hail-covered road near Flagstaff, Arizona

Our projected route took us out the south entrance of the Grand Canyon, southeast to Flagstaff, Arizona, then further east to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  As we checked the weather report for Flagstaff, there were predictions of thunderstorms, a chance of hail, and even a few brief tornado warnings.  Being that I am incredibly impatient, I insisted that we leave as planned.  It started hailing as we arrived in the small town of Williams, about twenty-five miles west of Flagstaff.  A cop was directing traffic off of Route 40.  Thirty minutes later, we made it onto the highway - only to find out that there had been several accidents.  The chilly temperatures (42 degrees F) allowed hail to accumulate on the road.  It looked like the area had been blanketed by a dusting of snow!  About ten miles from Flagstaff, we saw demolition caused by a tornado, right by the side of the highway.  Thankfully we got through the storm safe and sound (without seeing Phoenix's tennis ball-sized hail), and did not stop until the dark stormclouds were far behind us.

Central Plaza in Santa Fe

It was pretty smooth driving for the rest of the day - blue skies and white fluffy clouds all the way to Santa Fe.  Once we arrived, Paul and I strolled around town and looked around the cathedral.  Santa Fe is a beautiful Spanish colonial town - its layout reminded me so much of Antigua!  Lots of shops, churches, and a few museums that I'd love to return to visit someday.

On Thursday, we drove through Texas.  There was not much in Texas except farm towns and dust, at least along our route.  We made it to Mesquite, an eastern suburb of Texas, for the night.

At Cafe du Monde!

Friday we drove through the rest of Texas, then made our way through the beautiful bayous of Louisiana.  The landscape was quite refreshing.  By late afternoon we arrived in New Orleans.  I must say that in all my traveling, I had never experienced real culture shock until this moment.  The streets and cars and buildings and people were just a little too much for me to deal with after several months in the wide open spaces of Colorado.  All the same, I enjoyed our time in the Big Easy.  First we visited Cafe du Monde to try some fresh beignets and coffee.  Both were, of course, delicious.  We walked around the French Quarter a bit, then slipped into a brewpub for some craft beers, after which we found a little hole-in-the-wall place for gumbo and more local brews.  The walk back up Bourbon street was not nearly as awkward on the way back to our hotel as it had been on the way towards the French Quarter.  Thank you, beer.

New Orleans at dusk

Saturday took us through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and into Georgia, where Paul and I stayed with my Aunt Sharon.  It was nice to catch up - I hadn't visited her house since my family stayed with her during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.  And finally, on Sunday, after a very early morning Mass, we drove back up to Virginia (and a home cooked meal).  Finally.

It's funny how quickly I seem to have acclimated back to life in the east.   It's a whole different world - traffic lights and houses and highways and trees.  The sky isn't so big here - there's always something obstructing the clear blue (or gray and rainy) sky.

So what's next? you might ask.  I'm in the second week of an internship at the National Museum of the American Indian.  I work in the Repatriation department at the Cultural Resource Center in Suitland, Maryland - and I'll be there until right before Christmas.  I'll be sure to update soon (what is repatriation, anyway?)

On Home, and Hovenweep

All of the sudden, my life here has become almost, well, busy.  I'm down to the last three weeks of my internship, and perhaps for the best, I'll be working a lot, and running all kinds of crazy places before Paul flys out for the "extended" trip home.  I've snagged a sweet babysitting job, Crow Canyon's open house is set to happen this Saturday (somehow I've been assigned to the decorating committee...), and to boot, Mom and Dad are flying out for a visit mid-next week - we'll be driving up north into the mountains for a couple days.  I can't say that I'll miss the gloriously lazy evenings and weekends on campus too much.  I was never very good at being bored - or being motivated to get anything done unless there's a deadline.  As much as I despise beltway traffic and sprawling suburbs, it will be so good to be home.

Home.  It has come to mean so many different things to me over the past few years.  Home, where I grew up.  Home, where I walked colonial streets and figured out what kind of person I wanted to be.  Home, where I walked Spanish colonial streets and figured out what kind of person I wanted to be.  Where there are always people bugging me to bake pie; where leaves fall in the autumn;  where scorpions and rattlesnakes do not roam.  But most of all it's a place where I share my life with loved ones, and where I can be at peace with God.  It's human intimacy - in the best, most wholesome sense of the word - that I miss most when I'm away.  Hugs.  Heartwarming conversations.  Coffee.  Meals.  Smiles.

I remind myself each day that I am living such a wonderful experience out here.  I breathe deep as I walk up to my cabin in the chilly evening air, gazing at the big dipper and the milky way.  I soak in the sun during lazy lunches in the field.  I savor the delicious southwest-style food that the kitchen staff cooks up.  Life won't always be this simple, and this time is truly a gift.

My supervisor pulled one of these out of a kiva on Friday!

Last Saturday we took another intern field trip.  First we visited the Anasazi Heritage Center just a few miles north in Dolores, CO.  It was really cool to see some artifacts on display (mostly some unusual ceramic vessels), and grind maize with a mano and metate (it's really hard work!)  In the afternoon we drove west, across the border to southeast Utah.  A note on Utah: it's really desolate, at least the eastern portion that I have seen, aut at the same time the landscape is absolutely magnificent.  We visited the main site (Square Tower) of Hovenweep National Monument and hiked a few miles into and around the canyon.

Hovenweep's "Twin Towers," a fitting reminder for 9/11

It was a late site, late 13th century, with a whole ton of towers on the rims of canyons.  The function of towers in this period is still in many ways a mystery.  The fact that they built a big one inside the canyon leads me to believe that their function was not just defensive.  In any case, we headed back to Cortez in the early evening for a delicious dinner at the home of one of Crow Canyon's archaeologists, where I ate green chile stew, my new favorite food, for the first time.  I'm serious, this stuff is delicious.  It's like southwestern-style pot pie.  Only better.

The "Castle"

Excited for home, three weeks and counting.  But trying to make the most of every day I have left on the great sage plain.

A Tale of Two (or twenty) Kivas

Last weekend - back when it was still August - the interns took a weekend camping trip to New Mexico.  We're only about an hour from the border, and it took us about two hours to arrive at our first destination: Salmon ruins.  Salmon (pronounced Sal-mun after a local family, not the fish) is a site known as an "outlier" to the political/social/economic system of Chaco Canyon.  Think of the Roman Empire, and the way that Roman architecture spread throughout Europe in the early centuries AD.  Chaco was kind of like that - and associated sites are identifiable by similar architectural traits, burial patterns, kiva styles, and a lot of attention paid to astrological alignment, among other factors.  Salmon archaeologist Paul Reed gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the site - meaning we got to learn about cool things like potential cremation remains and coprolites (yep, centuries-old poop) - and the destruction and reconstruction of Salmon's great kiva after a huge flood in the twelfth century.

Great House (Pueblo Bonito)

After our tour of Salmon, we drove another hour or two south to Chaco Culture National Historic Park.  Chaco has been on my list of places-to-visit since I first learned about it my freshman year of college.  As I have mentioned before, Chaco Canyon was (debatably) a huge political/social/economic system operating in the southwest between the ninth and twelfth centuries AD.  Chaco is known for its monumental architecture: three or four story "great houses" - village-size communities, and "great kivas," really big variations of the circular underground religious structures still used in modern Pueblo societies.  T-shaped doors, architecture with small, narrow stones and bands of dark stones, and "chinking stones" are also traits associated with Chaco.  (Are you still awake?)

Great Kiva (Chetro Ketl)

T-shaped door (Pueblo del Arroyo)

Banded masonry (Pueblo Alto complex)

We spent the weekend hiking and touring Chaco Canyon's bounty of great houses.  We also saw a lot of petroglyphs (pictures carved into rock), and some pictographs (pictures painted on rock) and did a lot of stargazing - there were some pretty cool shooting stars.  There is very little light pollution in Chaco, and we went to a presentation on astronomy given by a park ranger on Friday night, and even got to look through a gigantic telescope.

Petroglyph

Supernova pictograph

It was my first experience camping since the fateful night freshman year when I sprained my ankle.  Definitely a fun (injury-free!) weekend.  I'm pretty sure I ate my month's allowance of peanut butter in three days.  Peanut butter on both sides of the bread keeps the bread un-soggy from the jelly.  A peanut butter apple with granola is also a lovely breakfast.  Peanut butter is pretty much indestructible, and delicious.

Destination: Mesa Verde National Park

Durango & Silverton Railroad (2004)

Right now I'm sitting outside a hole-in-the-wall bagel shop in Durango - about 50 miles east of Cortez.  This morning I drove one of the interns to the airport at oh dark thirty, so I figured I'd enjoy the change of scene out this way.  Durango is definitely a tourist town - complete with artsy shops, a historic railroad, and a lot of unique places to eat.  It's definitely a treat to get a bagel - you don't see them very often between St. Louis and well, California.

Mesa Verde at dusk

Today completes week four of my internship.  I just about have the weekly routine down (including unofficial field trip Fridays) and time is starting to pass a little more quickly.  This past week the interns got a taste of Crow Canyon's weekly program for students and adults who come to learn about archaeology.  We got to tag along with the adults in the lab, and the lab interns (also known as "labbies," we are "fieldies") got to come dig with us.  The week also included a field trip to Mesa Verde National Park (making it my second consecutive Friday in the park) about an hour southeast from Cortez.

Balcony House

Last Friday, I took a trip to Mesa Verde while most of the other interns were networking at the Pecos Archaeological Conference (I figured I'd save my networking for the east coast).  I drove around the park, getting a chance to see all kinds of pithouses and cliff dwellings.  I also took a tour of Balcony House - which meant climbing a 30-foot ladder to get to the site, and crawling through a narrow tunnel to get out.  It was a neat site - though I don't think Mom would have liked the heights very much :-P  In the evening I stuck around the park to hear George Mason Professor James Snead give a lecture on his research concerning ancient roads.

Mug House

Yesterday we toured Mug House - a pretty out-of-the-way cliff dwelling on Wetherill Mesa (to the west of Chapin Mesa, the main attraction).  We really had to do some adept rock-crawling to get down to the site, but it was worth it.  We got to see a painted kiva, and some pretty cool other structures.  The interns also drove to Spruce Tree House on Chapin Mesa.  It is splendidly preserved, and it was pretty awesome to give it a look with a more discerning eye than I had at 16 (when I visited Mesa Verde with Mom and Dad).

Otherwise, I've been doing a lot of chilling out, tasting the local beer (the writers of Dear Beer Friend would be proud), and working my way through the first season of Glee and The Columbian Exchange.  I wanted to thank everyone SO MUCH for sending me mail.  It is really nice to come back from the field and find a letter or postcard in my box.  You guys are awesome.

Interns at Mug House

This weekend: relaxation.  Next weekend: the great Salmon ruins and Chaco Canyon expedition.  It's going to be pretty epic - so keep your eyes peeled for an excited post mid-week six!

Trade in these wings on some wheels

So it's my last day here in Antigua. I am just about out of quetzales and time, so it sounds like it's time to go home. We finished classes on Thursday (which involved a lot of papers and a lot of partying) and I've just been trying to wrap everything up before I head out...I leave for the airport tomorrow at 3am. Somehow I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight.

I will try and update you a little more, and put up more photos once I'm home. I can't wait to see you all! Thank you all so much for reading this blog and keeping in touch while I've been gone. It's been a hard but incredible four months, and I'm looking forward to an exciting summer. It will so good to be home.

Lasts

Hi all! It's hard to believe that a week from not I will be arriving into Dulles Airport. These four months have gone by so fast! (Though I must admit sometimes time seemed to drag by) Now begin the "lasts" of my time Antigua, as I think of what I need to get done before I go.

I sent in my history final essay today - "Maya, Marxists, and the Military: The Role of Indigenous Guatemalans in the Armed Conflict" - and am set to turn in my anthropology essay Tuesday (I have yet to write it...) No worries, it will get done. I have two Spanish exams this coming week as well, but that's not really a reason to stress out, either. I must say it will be nice to be back to the rigor of W&M classes in the fall, though I'm sure I'll complain plenty about it.

This past week we did a couple fun things. Wednesday, Tamara and I attended the Antigua Cooking School and learned how to make tamales (there are three different kinds), guicoyitos rellenos (stuffed round zucchini - in the picture), arroz en leche (rice pudding), corn tortillas, black beans in several ways, and Guatemalan guacamole. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything. It was a lot of fun - I can't wait to make Guatemalan food for some daring taste-testers.


We took a field trip on Friday to Iximche, a post-classic Maya site. We were supposed to have our own Maya ceremony but our sacerdote's car broke down. However, we got to watch amother ceremony...including a chicken sacrifice. It's really not as dramatic as you would think. We learned the meaning of our month and day of birth in the Maya ceremonial calendar. I am a Kawoq, which means (among other things), that I will make a good teacher and spiritual leader and I generally end up guilty of doing things. Hm.

I'll make a post before I head out next weekend. Can't wait to see you all! It has been too long.

Days Go By

My little boyfriend, José, one of the boys I tutor at the Semillero de Mi Angél Guardián. A bunch of us went to the pool a coulple Wednesdays back.

Well, it’s my next-to-last full weekend here in Antigua – hard to believe! I have now been here a full fifteen weeks and only have two more before I head home to Virginia. How the time has flown! I must say I am beginning to feel ready to go home. Things are winding down here: we have done course, program, and homestay evaluations and I am only a few more classes, two papers, and two Spanish exams (and a trip to the Maya site of Iximche) away from heading home. It will be so hard to leave Antigua. I have come to love the city we well as my host family and everyone at CIRMA so much!

I know it’s been a while since I posted. I have had a lot of papers, projects, and exams lately – it seems the semester is finally catching up with me. The transition to new leaders for next year at W&M has taken place as well, so I’ve been busy trying to keep up with events and planning at home. All the same, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to have more adventures here.

Mom and Dad came to visit last weekend. I met them at the airport Thursday – I can’t tell you all how good it was to see familiar faces!! We made our way to Antigua and got lunch (Dad enjoyed Gallo, Guatemala’s beer), then Mom and Dad rested while I went to classes, a colloquium speaker, and a CCM board meeting by skype. We checked out the Meson Panza Verde (Green Belly Inn) for dinner and turned in relatively early. On Friday I showed Mom and Dad around Antigua. They must have brought the Virginia rain with them, because we had our first shower of the rainy season! I finally got to visit the Antigua Vineria (wine shop), which I had been eyeing up for about three months.

We took a bus to Panajachel at Lake Atitlan on Saturday. Mom and Dad learned what an adventure it is to travel by minibus in Guatemala. We took a boat tour and visited a few towns on the lake, where people tried (and succeeded) to sell us things, then got lunch and drinks, followed by walking around the town. We got stranded by a rainstorm and so we were driven do get more drinks. We all enjoyed dinner at a French restaurant called Chez Alex, where the waiter spoke English and I didn’t have to order for Mom and Dad. Or rather, I ordered for Dad, and then the water asked in English how he would like his steak done. (Way to steal my job!!) The next morning was a little clearer so we got a good view of the lake before heading back to Antigua on another exciting journey. I was sad to see Mom and Dad leave on Monday – but it helps to know I’ll be home soon.

Santo Hermano Pedro (Saint Brother Peter) procession on Sunday

Mostly I’ve been catching up on e-mails, phone calls, and homework this week – and my goal for the weekend is to get my history paper done – then I’ll be a third done with classes! Things I have yet to experience: hiking up the Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross) to get a great view of Antigua, attending a cooking school so I can cook for some more adventurous eaters like Mom, Beth, and Derrick, and learn what my birth date and time really means, according to the Maya.

I forgot to mention this before – thank you to those of you who sent me Easter cards, and mail in general – it brightens my day to hear from you!! I have learned that the Guatemalan postal service is more than a little unreliable. Take care and I can’t wait to see you all soon. I should be posting at least one more time before I head home.

Happy Easter!

Well, it's another Monday and I'm beginning to realize that I have a lot of work to get done before the semester is over. We have four more weeks of normal classes, then one of finals. It's hard to believe things are starting to wind down.


The second half of Semana Santa was pretty incredible. I got a chance to help make an alfombra (the key: patience, water, and a good sense of humor) on Holy Thursday, and then watched the procession destroy it. It's quite a sacrifice when you think of how much time pepople put into these works of art...hours and hours. I took advantage of the abundance of vendors to eat plenty of tostadas mixtas (see previous entry) and empanadas - sort of like apple turnovers, just not as gooey and buttery. A note on Guatemalan food: after a while it seems like everything is sweet, from coffee and tea to fruit (they eat a lot of fruit here) to bread to sodas. I can go days without having actual dessert and still feel like I have OD'd on sugar. So I guess that's why I drink beer, to balance things out ;)


I really enjoyed going to Masses and Laudes (Morning Prayer) this week. When you spend a couple hours at church every day, you begin to feel like you know everyone there, even if you never talk. It makes me feel a little at home. While Mass on Holy Thursday and the Good Friday service were packed, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses were not nearly as full. It's like our professors tell us - in Latin America, there's much more emphasis on the sorrow of Christ's suffering and death than the joy of His resurrection. However, there was plenty of celebration in the carnival atmosphere of the processions throughout the week.


The Easter Vigil Mass was beautiful - as everywhere, it begins in the darkness (tinieblas), and then they light a small fire outside the church, light the Easter candle, and then we all light our candles from it. There was a cantor accompanied by guitar at the beginning of the Mass, as we stood, our candles illuminating the dark church. I have no words to express how...incredible this was. The weekend was fully of so many joyful moments. I could tell you about them but somehow it would not be the same. I miss home but am learning and growing so much here, it's worth it.


Yes, we went out for a "special" easter dinner - two of the other students and I - to an Italian restaurant. I indulged in tortellini in a cream sauce with bacon, and a glass of the house wine. Yes, it was amazing. Can't eat like that every day but it's a nice treat.

Sweet Water

Actually a decent picture

Pirate Face

Wench Pose

Hm...

No swimming...really?

Hello All! I know it’s been incredibly long since I’ve posted. Things have been going well and now I am officially halfway through the semester. After a project as well as written and oral exam in Spanish class, I think we’re going to get “midterm” grades. We only have six or seven weeks of classes left, come to think of it.

Through all my travels on weekends, I have remembered that what I love best is just to be at home. Whether that’s home in Clifton or Williamsburg, or home-away-from-home here in Antigua, that’s where I am happiest and most comfortable. So while there are a lot of places I’d like to visit, I’m going to keep the weekend trips to a minimum from now on. (It might also help to mention that I generally get sick when I travel…) That said, next weekend we are making the much anticipated trip to Petén. Yes, that means Tikal, and a few other sites as well. I’m pretty darn excited. Kelsey and Anna, I’ll say hello to the spirits of Spearthrower Owl and Yax Nuun Aiin (or however you spell it) for you.

Last weekend Tamara and I ventured to Rio Dulce and Livingston. A quick note on the name ‘Rio Dulce’: the noun ‘dulce’ can mean a sweet, cake, or pastry. The adjective can mean sweet, fresh, or tender. It probably translates to ‘Fresh River’ as this is where the river meets the sea (ten points if you’re thinking of the John Denver and the Muppets song). And unlike the popularized term of the same spelling, ‘Dulce de Leche,’ it is pronounced [d-oo-l-se] – not [d-oo-l-che]. Dang Argentineans (just kidding).

We spent Friday traveling: a van to Guatemala City, where we caught a bus to Rio Dulce. I sat next to a French guy and realized how badly I speak French now that Spanish has taken over. It was 5:30pm by the time we got there, so we got a luxurious hotel room – private shower in the room and everything! However, I feel obligated to add that there was no door separating the shower from the room… We got dinner at a place by the water and watched the evening light fade on all the boats harbored there, enjoying the smell of not-quite-the-ocean-yet.

Saturday after breakfast we headed out to the Castillo de San Felipe, a fort built in the sixteenth century to keep the dastardly pirates away. At one point I tried to make a pirate face, but realized how miserably I fail at it. After way too many bad pirate jokes and silly pictures, we headed back to Rio Dulce (the town). We got lunch at a hippy joint and took a scenic boat ride up the Rio Dulce (the river) to Livingston. It was beautiful –and there is nothing like that feel of the wind on your face as you speed through the water. I wasn’t feeling too well by the time we got to Livingston, so we got a couple beds at a hostel and I passed out. I wasn’t too up to dinner that night, but enjoyed watching Tamara eat her tapado: seafood stew that contained (literally) a whole fish and a couple cut up crabs and shrimp with plantains. She kept saying that the fish was staring at her. I would be inclined to agree.

We wanted to check out the music scene, but as ten o’clock rolled around and places still weren’t open, we dug in for the night. I’m a little sad I didn’t get to see more of the Garifuna culture in Livingston, but hey – I don’t have dengue or malaria, so I’m not complaining. We spent Sunday traveling home: boat to Puerto Barrios, taxi, double-decker bus to Guatemala City, taxi, and chicken bus back to Antigua. Somehow, that turned out to be a pretty efficient trip: 6:30am-2:30pm.

It was a pretty fun trip, although I’m sad I didn’t get the chance to drink rum in Livingston. ¡Que lastima! (what a shame!) I made up for it by going drinking and dancing, Guatemalan style, on St. Patrick’s Day. Don’t worry, I didn’t drink that much. I have to have my wits about me to beat off the men with sticks. Just kidding! Well, sort of ;)