A Wrinkle in Time: Indy-Andy Begins!
June 1, 2013
And so the clock ticks as I wait until the hours turn and tonight becomes tomorrow. Tomorrow I fly to Rome to begin my two and a half month long journey in Europe, most of which will involve excavating in Greece. My name is Andrea, but you can call me Indy-Andy the Archaeologist for shits and giggles, or just Indy-Andy for short. I am an archaeologist by trade and a traveler by pastime. I recently started a MA in Classics and in the fall will apply to Classical Archaeology PhD programs all over the country. Yep, I’m a nerd. A big, giant one. But, I like to think that I am the coolest nerd of all – I get to travel the world every summer and dig things up! What are these things, you ask? Well, let’s get one thing straight – archaeologists DO NOT dig up dinosaurs. Those are paleontologists. I DO NOT DIG UP DINOSAURS! This misconception often surfaces when I tell people what I want to be when I grow up and it drives me nuts. Anyway, I dig up things that people have left behind, specifically things that the ancient Greeks and Romans have left for me to find.
This summer I’m traveling to Greece to excavate a Bronze Age (i.e. really really old) site. For the safety of the site I think that it is best to not say exactly where I will be excavating, just know that it is someplace cool. In the past I have excavated in Rome; at a villa/bath complex at the edge of the city, as well as at Ostia, the ancient port city of Rome. Archaeology really gets my blood pumping, and as a runner I can tell you that an excavation high is a million times better than a runner’s high. Especially when you find stuff! During my first excavation as a lowly field school student I found a four-foot tall marble statue. Yep. Not too shabby for the first try. Obviously it was just luck that I happened to be assigned to dig in that particular area on that particular day, but regardless of how the situation arose I still found a flippin’ statue! Quite the feeling, let me tell you. For a really excited response, ask me about the joys of knowing that your statue will one day be in a museum.
Anyway, I have decided to start this blog to catalog my archaeological adventures. Think of me as the modern (and more importantly, FEMALE) Indiana Jones. Okay, things might not get that crazy, but you never know! This is not my first foray into the blogging world. Last year my best friend and I moved to Rome for seven months and tried to keep up with our blog, but I must admit we failed miserably in that respect. Don’t get me wrong, what we did write is fantastic (if I don’t say so myself), but the real problem is that there just isn’t enough of it. We somehow both ended up being really busy, working too much (illegally, I may add… oops), and not writing down our ridiculous stories from the Eternal City. Practice makes perfect.
After our journey in Roma ended I started my MA program and now am back to excavating again. I can’t wait! But before the excavation fun starts, I’m spending a week in Rome, a few days in Athens, a few in Santorini (the most amazing archaeological site – AKROTIRI!!! – on Santorini is finally open again! Nerd-gasm.), then a month and a half excavating and being covered in glorious Greek dirt, then two weeks in Germany, just hiking around Bavaria and drinking beer in Munich. Ah the life of an archaeologist… too bad my bank account isn’t as happy as I am. I will be updating my readers (who should really tell their friends about this fantastically awesome blog which will continually grow – I promise!) throughout my travels this summer and hope to entertain and inspire. If any of you lovely people have questions for me PLEASE write a comment and I will gladly answer your request! Especially if it’s something like “Where is the best gelato in Rome?” Expect a long answer. “How do I become an archaeologist?” is an even longer response.
Sooo I hope by now you’re wondering about the title of this entry, “A Wrinkle in Time.” Well, I’ve spent a few summers abroad (and a lot of cash!) and at this point leaving the country every summer just seems second nature to me. I’m not the only one – after conversations with fellow archaeo-philes I’ve realized this is a common feeling among archaeologists. We expect the world to stop when we’re not there. It’s almost as if we’re in some sort of strange time dimension while we’re traveling/excavating and of course nothing else interesting is going on back in the gold ol’ U.S. of A. Obviously I know that this is not the case (unfortunately the world does not in fact revolve around me), but to a certain extent this is how I feel. Recently I’ve been realizing that my “wrinkle” is not a wrinkle at all. Time continues to fly no matter where I am. Whenever I go abroad I leave people behind. Of course I like to focus on the positive aspect that I am going to amazing places, eating delicious food, finding cool old stuff, and meeting new people, and not that I am missing out on my “real” life. Until now I have never really considered myself to be “missing out” on anything when I cross the pond – I have always considered my summers to be periods of gain rather than loss, however there are two sides to every coin. Regardless of where you are or what you’re doing, you’re always missing out on something – that’s the reality of things. But missing out on some things means gaining other experiences sometimes. This works both ways – being abroad can be positive and negative, while being in Kansas (yep, I really am in Kansas – not kidding!) can be both gain and loss as well. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve begun to realize that my passion comes at a price. While I’m off gallivanting through the Mediterranean my “real” life in the USA doesn’t stop and wait for me. It keeps flying by.
I don’t know that my two worlds can ever coexist peacefully. They will likely be in constant conflict as I leave people behind every summer. Such is the life of an archaeologist.
This is by no means meant to be a “woe is me!” type of entry, more of an introspective one. Obviously I get to do cool, fun things all summer as I cover myself in sunscreen from head to toe three times a day (my nickname in high school was “Lobster”… I trust you can figure out why), but these adventures come at a price (and not just the one on my credit card bill!). What happens when I’m an archaeo-mom? Do I bring my kids to the dig? Do they make baby sized steel-toed shoes? Or trowels? (Okay, that would actually be kind of cool…) Will I miss out on two months of their lives every year? Okay, okay, I’m only 26 and NOT popping out kids any time soon, but these are the things I’ve been thinking about this week as I begin to grasp the “ramifications” of leading my cool life as Indi-Andy the Archaeologist. I guess I’ll just cross that bridge when I get to it.
Alright, enough of this emo crap, back to the fun! After three plane rides tomorrow I will land in one of my favorite cities and the place I called home for seven months: Roma. I can’t wait to see all my friends, rekindle my love affair with Piazza Navona, and spend most of my day eating. Hey, no judging – I spend all the other minutes walking and sweating my butt off! Also, giving dirty looks at creepy Italian cat-callers burns a lot of calories. (I should specify that I do not think all Italian men are creepy – really it is a smaller portion of the population than you would think, but I think this small sect of them play on the American mentality of falling for a foreigner while traveling abroad. They’re smart – they know girls want suave Italian hotties, but the ones who have figured this out are not usually the ones you want to split a bottle of wine with and are rather lewd. Hence the dirty looks.)
And so, I’m finally all packed and ready to experience another summer of excavation and travel. I hope you will join me as I dig up old things and experience the wonders, trials and tribulations, and fun of being an archaeologist. Cross your fingers I don’t get sunburned too badly ;).
Next post will be from Roma!
(P.S. I’ve never actually read “A Wrinkle in Time”… just felt like I should come clean on that. I just thought it was a fitting title.)
