Summertime

[brigdh]

I have plans for the summer now! Okay, well, they're more the outline of plans rather than the type with nice schedules and all the details filled in, but for now they will work, particularly as they at least allow me to tell people where I will be and when.

I'm going to Cyprus for slightly over a month, to work on the excavation of Bronze Age village. It's not actually the area I'm interested in, but seeing as the most appropriate project was canceled for "political instability"*, this will have enough technical similarities of excavation to be useful. Plus, it's much better to be doing something, anything, than sitting in New York all summer. The site's right near the middle of the island, just a little south of Nicosia. I have to be there on May 27th, and so I will disappear from the internet shortly before that. There's a chance that I might still have intermittent access to email; more likely not, and in a few weeks I'll probably post an address so I can instead guilt you all into writing me letters.

It's still an improvement over my experience in Nevada, as this comes with, you know, electricity and running water and other such extravagant modern refinements.

That ends the 24th of June, but I'll still be on Cyprus for the rest of the week to visit other sites and places (I don't know anyone who lives in Cyprus, do I? If I do, let me know and we could meet up). On the 29th, I'm flying into London. Since I've never been in London before, or anywhere in England, I decided not to buy a flight home immediately, and I'll be there for the weekend, until the 3rd. Again, if people would like to meet up (and actually somehow know their schedules two months in advance), just let me know.

So! That's my summer. Mainly, I'm just glad to finally know where I'll be.


*Although Cyprus itself has led to my mom calling me to announce things like "Did you realize you'll only be 600 miles from Baghdad?!" and mispronounce Lebanon; clearly I never should have taught her how to use google.

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm pleased to have a career in which lots of travel is pretty inevitable. I really sympathize with you though, since I didn't manage to lay these plans until, like, earlier this week. Last-minute worrying is terrible. But good luck with your summer!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been seeing you mention it from time to time. That must really suck to have been working at it for so long and still not have anything settled.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! I totally want a personal assistant. I could make you do everything I don't want to do! It would be awesome. Unfortunately, I think the only way I could afford it was if you were paying me.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Good idea. We just have to figure out how my having a personal assistant would be to the good of the nation/humanity/whoever's funding the grant. Hmmm. I need to write a several-page essay on how my getting more sleep would lead directly to a cure for cancer, AIDS and rainy days.

We could always make the golem anyway, to have it be your personal assistant!

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on having it finally settled! Cyprus should be ideal, I would think: civilized, professionally interesting, and (they tell me) very, very hot and sunny.

If it would make your mother feel better, I can get onto my own mother and see whether there's anything that can be done by way of an emergency-local-contacts list. Not that such a list would necessarily be able to do anything more for you than the people running the dig would, but this sort of thing seems to soothe mothers anyway.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it.

That's very kind of you, but I do expect be much more in contact with 'civilization' than I was in Nevada, and I really don't think such a thing would be necessary. And besides, I should probably get her adjusted to such experiences with as a few additional measures as possible, particularly if I do end up in Pakistan next summer like I hope to.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Cyprus! Awesome! You going to be able to take pictures?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I know no reason why not! I'll totally have to bring a disposable camera or two with me so I have things to show people when I get back. *grins*

[threewalls]

Congratulations on having your summer organised. Cyprus sounds useful, interesting and fun.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I find having a plan, finally, to be very reassuring. And I certainly hope to find it so.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

...is there where I mention my flight to Japan flies into London on the 30th of June and my flight to Dublin is on the 1st, which can be shifted to an evening flight? Granted, you'll have to cope with my jetlagged as hell, but...

...dude, how often are we going to be in the same country? :D

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, awesome! We totally have to hang out; I mean, what are the insane chances of our flights happening to cross like that?

And no worries. I'm sure I'll be jetlagged, too. Granted, just by a few hours instead of, you know, Japan, but still enough that I probably won't notice anything about you. XD

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Argh, wait! Don't change anything! My dates might be changing. Man, I'm so disappointed. This is messing up all of my plans.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Nope, haven't changed anything. Yay for procrastination. >.> But, no, that sucks. Argh. :(

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It sucks lots. I mean, the reason why I have to delay will be fun in itself, but now I'm terribly worried that I'm not going to have enough time to find an apartment, and I won't be able to meet anyone- I might not have enough time to see London at all- and I have to go through the complicated process of trying to change my tickets. And wah, wah, wah. It has not been a good day so far.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Breathe. Breathe. But. :( *crosses fingers for you*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Thank you, though.

[lost-romanov.livejournal.com]

That sounds really cool. Where did you want to go? I mean, what area are you interested in?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm really interested in the Indus civilization (http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html), which was along the borders of what today is India and Pakistan. It was around during the same time period as the Cyprus site, though.

The project I really wanted to go on that was canceled is actually in Oman, just across the Gulf from where the Indus was, and early examinations of the site looked like it was a heavy trading center with the Indus, and possibly even had a group of immigrants from there. So that would have been really cool, and I might join them next year if they don't push it back again. But on the other hand, my advisor is also planning a project about the Indus in Pakistan, so I'll have to decide between the two at some point.

[lost-romanov.livejournal.com]

That's really cool. I'm curious- is participating in excavations required if you're in your grad program? I mean, obviously one would want to go, but I wondered if it was a requirement.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

When you go to write your PhD thesis, it's supposed to be based on your own original research. Which would not necessarily have been on an excavation, but even if your specific area is something like faunal analysis or radiocarbon dating (things where most of the actual work you did would be in a lab instead of in the field), it's fairly heavily expected that you would have participated in the excavation as well, so you'd have a better understanding of the context and the area and so on.

And, for that, people expect you to have already done several seasons of excavation before you do your own research. That's because your PhD research is often a plan that you develop, or lead, or create yourself, and so you need to have enough experience that you know what you're doing, and won't just destroy some ancient site.

So, it's not really a requirement in the same way that a required class would be, or like passing your comprehensive exams, but it's almost impossible not to go on excavations. And hopefully that all made sense!

[lost-romanov.livejournal.com]

It made lots of sense. I think it's so cool that you do that.. I'm headed vaguely in the graduate school direction, but in literature/political theory, so it's a whole different ball game in terms of research. Fewer foreign countries, more sitting around reading Plato.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*grins* Grad school is sort of scary, particularly the application process, but I'm enjoying it a lot.

And hey, you may get to go to fewer exotic places, but it's my understanding that people in those areas finish their degrees much faster than we do. So they are benefits to both sides!

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Your summer sounds so exciting and exotic. Cyprus! Remnants of a Bronze Age village! England! I'm happy for you.

Also, I think outlines of plans are great for a balance of structure and spontaneity.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee, thank you! I'm very excited myself.

That's a good point. It's not as fun to have everything planned down to the last minute.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm excited!

[solo.livejournal.com]

Argh! Why London? Why not Scotland? I could pick you up from the airport and offer accommodation for however many days and a tour of castles and the like...

Why yes, I'm serious. All you'd need to do is hop on a cheap flight to Edinburgh or Glasgow. :-)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That's so kind of you, and incredibly tempting. But I don't know how many flights I can take in such a short span of time! I don't suppose I could tempt you to London instead?

Now with improved grammar!

[solo.livejournal.com]

I'm... kind of looking into it, but it would be a 'down and up in one day' type thing, which would mean I'd get into Central London by c. 11am and have to start making my way back out to the airport again around 4pm. It would also probably have to be the Sunday... I don't know how that fits with your plans?

Re: Now with improved grammar!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm so touched that you'd even consider flying over for me. I feel really special.

Sunday would be fine, as I don't have any real plans yet. kessie might be in the country at the same time (I don't know if you two know each other?), but I'm sure we could all meet or, haha, she might be sick of me by then.

Re: Now with improved grammar!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Agh, wait! Don't buy any tickets- I might have to change my dates. (And believe me, I'm terribly annoyed myself, as this is throwing off all sorts of plans I had.) I'm so sorry to change things like this, but I genuinuly had no idea things might be rearranged myself.

Re: Now with improved grammar!

[solo.livejournal.com]

Okay, let me know how it goes. My email addy is me.n.thee at gmail dot com. Good luck!

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! Cyprus has always sounded beautiful to me.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I know! I'm so excited.