Pink Fruit, Pink Dirt, Pink Floyd
July 14, 2013
So it’s gotten to the point in my Greek adventure where I never spend any time in my room aside from sleeping and therefore am VERY behind on writing up my many tales to tell. Sorry! Sorry for the “sorry” – I’ve been hanging out with too many Canadians. Anyway, two weeks ago on our Sunday excursion we did the usual drive to an archaeological site, but this time the view from my window was a bit different. Why? The dirt was PINK! Not kidding. The region we visited has a mineral in the soil that turns it pink. Not just a slight hint of it, but all out bright pink dirt. Since I spend about 40 hours a week digging up dirt, being covered in it, pushing wheelbarrows of dirt, lifting massive buckets of it, etc., I am easily distracted by it and pay extra special attention to it. Yep, it’s weird.
After we visited the archaeological site we stopped for lunch, which was promptly finished off with something else pink: watermelon (or “karpousi” in Greek), which is pretty standard free and fantastic dessert in Greece. At some point while we devoured our karpousi, though stuffed from our meals, Pink Floyd started playing in the background (after a slew of other songs that you’d think you wouldn’t hear at a beachside restaurant in Greece). Therefore my fellow dirt infatuated comrades and I declared that it was a pink kind of day and continued to stuff ourselves with our favorite pink fruit.
As I sat there giggling with my friends about the oddly themed color day I started to feel a very familiar feeling: spoiled. Most of the meals that I have eaten this summer have taken place right on the beach, listening to the waves hit the sand and rocks while I enjoy some of the best food I’ve ever had. I think these are definitely grounds for feeling spoiled. For two months I get to live la dolce vita and enjoy the sweet life that is the Mediterranean. I have a “spoiled” moment at least once a day and I’m glad that I continue to feel this way. It always reminds me of what my family and friends would be doing at the same time in Wisconsin or what my new friends in Kansas are up to. It makes me think of what my life would be like had I not decided to become an archaeologist and very proud of the choices I’ve made. Not that spending my summers in Kansas or Wisconsin would be bad, but spending them in Greece seems better. Though I know my mom would likely be sitting on the porch with a – ahem – substantial glass of wine looking out onto our front one acre field and the forest across the street, I get to sip on a slightly smaller glass of wine while gazing out onto and endless sea of blue waves. My “spoiled” moments also remind me of a very important decision I made when I was 19. When I was 19 I changed my major, which sounds so trivial now, but had I not taken a chance and leapt into archaeology my life would have gone in a very different direction and I would certainly be in a different place, in all senses. I would not be in Greece, I would not have an awful shorts tan from my weekly 40 hours in the sun, I would not get to dine while listening to the sea, hit up the beach after a long day’s work, or get to drink wine with new friends and sing silly songs after a bit too much of said wine… yeah, waaay too much wine last night. I can’t imagine being any place else or doing anything else with my life. All I can imagine are more summers like this. Each summer will of course be different; different people and different trenches to excavate, but I know that each summer I will continue to have more fun than I had ever hoped to, meet amazing people, and unearth artifacts and buildings that haven’t been seen in thousands of years.
It’s sad that my time in Greece is almost up. We’ve been excavating for four weeks and only have two more. I don’t want to stop digging and I don’t want to not be able to see all of the amazing people I’ve met here on a daily basis. But all good things must come to an end. Here’s to another two fantastic weeks! Hopefully the next two will not involve nearly as much wine as last night though… and hopefully this post makes sense because my head is killing me.
