Week 3
Sunday, the 16th, was the worst lazy day ever. It started off like last week, woke up late, did nothing, did my laundry, did some more nothing. It was great, however, throughout the day vehicles were bringing in chairs and tables and wood and posters and stuff. I could hear the townspeople building something, moving chairs here and there, general loud conversations happening all about. And then it occured to me. Lane told us the day before that the 16th was festival day. Oh no. I walked outside to peak what was happening and they were building a wooden stage a block away from the house I was staying in! The chairs and tables were all set up as if it were party time. Imagine "Día de los Reyes" in San Martín but in another obscure random town in mainland Greece. Dr. Lane told us he's had one to many parties here and was going to spend the night in Athens without us. Great, he knows it's bad and he's gonna make us suffer. By nightfall it seemed as though all the townspeople went to the local church, I followed but they seemed more dressed up than I was, in my dirty white T-shirt, shorts, and flip flops. Supposedly they were going to start at 10. If by 10 they meant 12:30 then they were right on time. I tried to go to bed at 11 but sound checks and quick clarinet riffs kept me up. Had it not been for the fact that their festival was a three man band, one singer, one drummer, and one clarinet player. I would've watched/partied with them. Closest music style I can think of is Clarinet Grunge with vocal and drummer back ups. Gods it was annoying. Around 2 we all decided we should go down and at least drink with the people, then we find out you have to pay to go in and enjoy that terrible music. No thanks. Maybe it will be a calming lullaby to put me to sleep. I think it worked... Between trying to shove my head in the pillow and shifting my body to find the position with least noise, Dr. Lane walks in greeting us all good morning. It became 7am at some point. The music finally stopped around 8 and Monday began with Dr. Lane as awake as possible and four of his research assistants half asleep.
Unfortunately he split the group in half again and I was one of the lucky few who got to go out into the mountains and dig holes. Dr. Lane came with us so he helped bear the grunt work. When we returned we find the plaza arranged differently but still having dozens of chairs and tables. The day after their festival is the traditional dancing party! Yay! They started around 8 and we joined them around 10. We were graciously accepted and the ones organizing it all propped us a table and brought over some chairs. He also handed us meat on a stick and a beer. It was really nice to see the groups all go up and dance during their song. Each group had a different outfit representing their heritage and the dances were also unique. That all ended around 10:30 and that was one of the best nights I've had so far. I laid down for 5min and I was out like a light.
Tuesday was a slow day, all 5 of us went to the museum and worked and entering pottery shards into the database. Not much happend that day except during my first break I went back to the bakery and bought another giant loaf and they gave me a free slice of pound cake, so I think I'm warming up to them...or they give one to all their customers...
Wednesday, was mountain work again, only this time, the team that went out there on the previous time didn't plot GPS points, according to Lane. So Connor and I re-hiked the original route, re-plotted the points and dug the last remaing holes. All in all we finished by 11:30. With no Lane in sight and miles away from the house, we decided to walk it and hopefully hitchhike. Weather was nice and there was a nice breeze to keep us in a good mood as we walked the unpaved road. The minute we hit paved road a BMW came from behind, no way were we this lucky. And we weren't, loser speed passed us. So we walked the lonely road on the boulevard of broken dreams. Maybe another 30min passed and a priest in a Chevy car appeared from behind. It was God's way of saying "I have seen you efforts and I bless thee". But I guess the priest didn't get the message as he sped past us. After a quick break and some more walking an elderly couple in a beat-up pickup approach from behind. Surely the elderly, with their years of wisdom can empathize with two men carrying odd archeological equipment. And they did! They stopped, we said kokino, they nodded to the back and we were on our way. Strong breeze to the face after a sweaty day was the best way to relax.
Thursday was more museum work, however, we could see the finish line in sight. Therefore we started to go a little faster in exchange for accuracy, it wasn't until we were near the end of the day did Lane realize what was happening. We weren't ommitting information on purpose, however, with the excitement and desire to finish faster, we had forgotten key information. Dr. Lane would review our work that night and see if he can backtrack and fix them or if on Friday the group will have to reopen and re-analyze the material. That night our chef prepared ground meat and spaghetti, I gobbled that up in minutes. But I didn't want to make a mess so I asked her for a spoon and she looked at me quizzically. She goes and fetches a spoon and hands it to me, and remains there speaking I'm greek and gesturing why I needed it. I showed her it was to scoop up the pasta, like a normal human being. She exaggerated rolling her eyes and did a quick hail Mary prayer. I quickly ditched the spoon and showed her I could roll the pasta at the edge of the plate and that pleased her greatly. Pro-tip: don't use a spoon for pasta anywhere in Europe apparently.
Friday morning a group left to the museum to finish off the remaining data-entries and I stayed with somebody to do inventory of what's here as well as clean the house. It was a really really slow day. We finished the inventory check in under an hour and cleaned sporadically throughout the day until the others arrived. Once they did, Lane had to rush to Athens to mail something off so the rest of us did more nothing about the house. There's not much to do in a small village, where everyone takes a 2h nap at 3 and the nearest town is 5mi away. That night Cris, Connor, and I went to the bar to drink I'm celebration of finishing the project. Saturday was clean the house day, so all of us did our Shar eand cleaned up as much as possible, nothing else notable happened. Sunday we hiked Mt. Parnassus, that'll be a separate blog, though a short one.
Unfortunately he split the group in half again and I was one of the lucky few who got to go out into the mountains and dig holes. Dr. Lane came with us so he helped bear the grunt work. When we returned we find the plaza arranged differently but still having dozens of chairs and tables. The day after their festival is the traditional dancing party! Yay! They started around 8 and we joined them around 10. We were graciously accepted and the ones organizing it all propped us a table and brought over some chairs. He also handed us meat on a stick and a beer. It was really nice to see the groups all go up and dance during their song. Each group had a different outfit representing their heritage and the dances were also unique. That all ended around 10:30 and that was one of the best nights I've had so far. I laid down for 5min and I was out like a light.
Tuesday was a slow day, all 5 of us went to the museum and worked and entering pottery shards into the database. Not much happend that day except during my first break I went back to the bakery and bought another giant loaf and they gave me a free slice of pound cake, so I think I'm warming up to them...or they give one to all their customers...
Wednesday, was mountain work again, only this time, the team that went out there on the previous time didn't plot GPS points, according to Lane. So Connor and I re-hiked the original route, re-plotted the points and dug the last remaing holes. All in all we finished by 11:30. With no Lane in sight and miles away from the house, we decided to walk it and hopefully hitchhike. Weather was nice and there was a nice breeze to keep us in a good mood as we walked the unpaved road. The minute we hit paved road a BMW came from behind, no way were we this lucky. And we weren't, loser speed passed us. So we walked the lonely road on the boulevard of broken dreams. Maybe another 30min passed and a priest in a Chevy car appeared from behind. It was God's way of saying "I have seen you efforts and I bless thee". But I guess the priest didn't get the message as he sped past us. After a quick break and some more walking an elderly couple in a beat-up pickup approach from behind. Surely the elderly, with their years of wisdom can empathize with two men carrying odd archeological equipment. And they did! They stopped, we said kokino, they nodded to the back and we were on our way. Strong breeze to the face after a sweaty day was the best way to relax.
Thursday was more museum work, however, we could see the finish line in sight. Therefore we started to go a little faster in exchange for accuracy, it wasn't until we were near the end of the day did Lane realize what was happening. We weren't ommitting information on purpose, however, with the excitement and desire to finish faster, we had forgotten key information. Dr. Lane would review our work that night and see if he can backtrack and fix them or if on Friday the group will have to reopen and re-analyze the material. That night our chef prepared ground meat and spaghetti, I gobbled that up in minutes. But I didn't want to make a mess so I asked her for a spoon and she looked at me quizzically. She goes and fetches a spoon and hands it to me, and remains there speaking I'm greek and gesturing why I needed it. I showed her it was to scoop up the pasta, like a normal human being. She exaggerated rolling her eyes and did a quick hail Mary prayer. I quickly ditched the spoon and showed her I could roll the pasta at the edge of the plate and that pleased her greatly. Pro-tip: don't use a spoon for pasta anywhere in Europe apparently.
Friday morning a group left to the museum to finish off the remaining data-entries and I stayed with somebody to do inventory of what's here as well as clean the house. It was a really really slow day. We finished the inventory check in under an hour and cleaned sporadically throughout the day until the others arrived. Once they did, Lane had to rush to Athens to mail something off so the rest of us did more nothing about the house. There's not much to do in a small village, where everyone takes a 2h nap at 3 and the nearest town is 5mi away. That night Cris, Connor, and I went to the bar to drink I'm celebration of finishing the project. Saturday was clean the house day, so all of us did our Shar eand cleaned up as much as possible, nothing else notable happened. Sunday we hiked Mt. Parnassus, that'll be a separate blog, though a short one.
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