Last Day In Sicily

July 1st 2011
My last day in Salemi. I am so sad, I do not want to leave!!!!!! I love it here, I love the weather, the people, the food, everything. When I left my home in the states I was afraid I would get home sick. But in reality Sicily became my new home and now I don’t want to leave. Today we had to do a very sad thing, we had to back fill LCZ.  It was a very sad thing to fill the hole we had worked so hard, on for some many days, back up with the same dirt we had removed so carefully. After back filling we all packed up and went to the beach one last time. We decided to go to a new beach, it had small stones instead of sand. It was a very beautiful beach and the water was just the right temperature. At one point we took a walk around the beach and found two old Nazi bunkers, left from WWII. After the beach we went back and me and Leah packed our bags, and cleaned our room. It was so sad to see the room so empty. After packing was our last Deno dinner, then chores. After chores all of us got cleaned up and went out for drinks one last time. It was so much fun, I am really going to miss the people I met on the school. I stayed up all night and then at  4am on July 2nd I grabbed my bag, said my tearful goodbyes. I then got in the very same car that brought me to this beautiful place and drove off to the airport. I am never going to forget the experience I had on this trip, and although I kills me to leave this place I know I will be back. I don’t know when or how, but I know this is not the end of my adventures in Sicily.   

Shopping And Backfilling

June 30th 2011
Today we back filled the castle pit. It didn’t take long, only about and hour or so. But still it was really hot and there was no shade at the castle. After we back filled we went back and got cleaned up and then went back to town and went to the museum. It was pretty cool the exhibit of the museum, was the Mafia exhibit.  The exhibit was very graphic and I feel a lot of it was lost because there was no English translations or subtitles. However I do think that despite the language barrier I still understood the horror and pain that the mafia brought to the country. After the museum, we all went off and toured the little shops of Salemi. After shopping we went home and had some dinner. It was Emily’s last night in Sicily so a few of us went out for drinks after dinner. Its sad to think that I only have one day left in Sicily. It still seems like I have only been here a few weeks. Tomorrow should be fun We are going to back fill LCZ, then beach!!! Well a domani

Farwell Kelly

June 29th 2011
Today we is Kelly’s last day, so we decided to go to Monte Polizzo. Monte Polizzo is a old site that many groups including Stanford, have dug. There are old medieval houses, and an Ilymian acropolis ruins on the mountain. It was fun to hike around the mountains. The weather was nice and the hiking was great. After hiking we all crammed 7 into a tiny 5 person car and headed home. Once home we washed the last of the pottery. I had a feeling of accomplishment when we finally finished washing. It good to know that we cleaned all that we had dug. After dinner we all got cleaned up and went out for drinks to celebrate our last night all together. We went to about three different places that night. It was so much fun. I’m going to really miss Kelly. Leah, Kelly, and I became something of a trio, these last few weeks. I’m so glad she decided to come to this field school, and we got to know each other. She lives in California so we decided that for new years we are all going to fly out to California and have a reunion!!! I cant wait to see the west coast and have us all together again!! Bye Kelly, I will miss you have a safe flight!!!

Castle

June 28th 2011

Today we started on a new site CAS which is short for castle. Yeah thats right i am digging right next to an actual castle!! The students mainly led the dig. We mapped, organized, and took the elevations. In this pit we only had to dig a 1 meter by 2.5 meter pit 160cm deep. But it still was in direct sunlight, and it was crazy hot again today. All the students spent the day at the site. So that was kind of fun to get to be with everyone the whole day instead of getting split up.  We dug till around 5 then we all went back and changed and went to the beach for about an hour. It was so warm and refreshing. I love the beach. Its so sad to think that i have to leave in just 3 days.... I don't want to leave Salemi.

Bottom

June 27th 2011

Today i had my mapping exam in the morning. It was really hard we work in groups and had to map the stratigraphy of a wall. It most difficult part was group communication. But my group did alright. After that i spent the morning working on LCZ. Dr. Kolb told us that we are only going to go down another 60 cm. He decided this because the pit was getting dangerously deep, and we want to try and finish up another site before we have to leave. Originally we were supposed to dig till we hit bottom. So my group stayed in the field all day and we dug and dug and dug and low and behold about 60 cm deep we hit the bottom. I know its so funny, and also a huge relief. So my group stayed later and finished cleaning out the pit. Yay im so glad we are done with this pit. Now we will be able to have more free time before we leave, and more free time means more beach, which means yay me.

Last Sunday

June 26th 2011

So i woke up early and went to church, when i got back we all packed up and drove to Motya which is an Island that has an old Phoenicians ruin on it. We had to take a ferry to get there. The island had a museum that was really cool cause i got to see the larger pieces of the stuff we have been digging. After that we took the ferry back to the main land and then went to a few little shops. I bought some sea salt that is mined right in the town and some wine. After that we went home and spent a few hours washing pottery, then we got some pizza. It was a pretty nice day very relaxed and laid back. Just what we needed after a long hard week.

Palermo

June 25th 2011

wow what a day.... How to start. Lets see. First off we woke up really early and took the bus to Palermo. Palermo is the capital of Sicily, it has tons of historical buildings and museums. I have to say Palermo is not what i thought it would be. The streets where really dirty and people where a lot rougher. But maybe i just thought that because iv been stuck in a small slow paced village, for almost a month. At the end of the day i was ready to go back to my temperately home i missed my Salemi.   Once in Palermo we met one of the T.A. Cousins and she showed us around the town. We went shopping had lunch, went to a really cool church. We also visited the theater that Godfather III was filmed. But the coolest thing i saw in Palermo was the catacombs. To enter the catacombs you walk down this long hallway to a basement of sorts. The first thing you see when you enter is what looks like fresh bodies lining the walls. I don't mean bodies stacked or piled. No each body is in its own cove of sorts that is cut into the wall, and the body is basically hanging on the wall. It was the coolest and creepiest thing i have ever seen. I the bodies where specially preserved. Even though most are over 200 years old they still have skin and hair. There is one body of a young girl they call her Sleeping beauty. She is about two and she looks like she is just asleep. I have never seen anything like that. It was amazing. Dr. Kolb said that Sicilians have always been strange about death. He also said that people would go to the catacombs and have family meals there. I know right it sound so creepy. But yeah More about Palermo, did i mention that there is tons of shopping. Lots of venders fill the streets, selling necklaces and belts. Our departing bus was at 2 so the day wasn't very long. I wanted to go into this little shop that sold wine that we had walked by. When we went into this wine shop, and the lady started to tell me about the shop. She said that this shop is very special, because everything sold in her store was made by people who do not pay dues to the Mafia. She said that most people are scared of the mafia but they are not. Because that have such a large group of friend that are all against the mafia and they look out for each other. I know how cool is that!!! so i bought some wine from the store, cant wait to try it. I would like to go back to Palermo sometime, check out more of the city. I would like to had a personal thanks here to my sister Rebecca. Thank you sooo much for the Fossil wristlet you gave me for my birthday. I use it everyday!! its perfect. I think i would have gone crazy if i had to worry about having a purse when i was here. I used it in Palermo and i didn't even feel nervous about it getting stolen. I take it with when i get Gelato. It holds my camera perfectly too. So thanks again sis!!!!!When we got home i took a nap, then we went into town and got beers and hung out, waiting for the party to start. The party was supposed to start at 9ish but the pizzas didn’t get there till 10. And then the people had this prank gift thing that took hours. And they wouldn't let us eat till they got done. However it was taking so long that they stopped half way through opening and we had what was now cold pizza. But it was past 11 and i was so hungry it didn't even matter. After pizza some people hung out for a while some when to read or watch a movie. Most where really tired from getting up and touring Palermo. Today was really fun and best part tomorrow is Sunday yay no digging!!