Paradise
June 18, 2014
On Sunday I finally returned to our lovely little beachside excavation town. It’s been quite a happy reunion. Seeing all my old friends has been wonderful, as well as meeting new ones. Being back in the town has been very refreshing, too. All of my schoolwork is finished (unless I get another email from KU telling me to reformat my thesis again, or if they tell me “this stinks,” although hopefully they’ve abolished their “this stinks” thesis critique) and I find myself wondering how to fill my time instead of wondering how I can finish all my tasks. It’s quite nice. Today, for example, I took an unplanned hour-long nap after a particularly sleepy two-hour rotation at flotation sorting today (with seven hours of intensive field work preceding that, I might add). Apparently my absence from the beach strip was noticed (aw, it warmed my heart!), but other than that I didn’t feel as though I had missed out on anything – I didn’t waste precious work time because I have no work to do. Ahh, this is the life. I think a lot of people think I’m crazy when I tell them that I spend my summers digging in the dirt, but what they don’t realize is that after a day of back breaking labor I get to sit with good friends and good food along the Aegean, listening to the waves crash on the shore. How can you beat that?
It’s amazing how simple life is here (well, at least I perceive it to be so, but maybe it really isn’t) and I often wonder how the Greeks fill their time. They work impressively hard (especially to feed all of the hungry archaeologists who love their cooking!), then get to enjoy the wonderful place they live in with friends and family. They have the life everyone wants: a seaside villa in the Mediterranean. This is the life.
I often realize how incredibly lucky I am. I get to spend a summer in paradise. I get to enjoy good company, good food, and dig up history. I also get covered in dirt from head to toe and have to lather on the sunscreen, but let’s forget about that for now. And since this summer will more than likely be my last in this particular corner of paradise, all the more reason to enjoy it. This is the life. This is paradise.
