Summer 2005
Summer 2005
10 June | 11 June | 12 June | 14 June | 16 June | 18 June
10 June 9:32am
And a happy birthday to me! Here I am waiting at Heathrow for my gate to show up. My flight out of DC was delayed by over 2 hours. Though I guess there's a silver lining as my wait time here has been cut from 4 hours to 2. Not bad I guess. The flight was mediocre. Maybe it's the lack of sleep or that I just saw an episode of "The Office" on the lfight, but I swear, as I was leaving the plane, at the gate, surrounded by a bunch of people, was the creator/director/actor Ricky Gervais from the show. I have no idea how else to explain it. A perfect twin if it wasn't. I wish I had stayed a bit to find out more, but I was determined to get to my next gate. I made a quick trip to the loo to get refreshed and dammit, my fav. blue shirt was soiled - wet and stained. I'm pissed because I have no idea how it happened (especially since I had water proofed my bag a few months ago). I'll have to look into it later. As for now, must go over my agenda for when I arrive in Paris. Adieu!
11 June 5:00pm
It always starts out rough.
So yesterday afternoon, I crashed. And for a good 1.5 hrs all of my frustrations melted into thoughts of ice cream and small children playing in the sand. Oh how I didn't want to wake. But I forced myself up and made my way a few blocks down to the Jardin du Luxembourg. I had seen it last year and found it very pretty in the spring. With flowers all in bloom, it was gorgeous. At this point I realized a fatal mistake in all of my packing. I was snapping shot after shot with my camera and noticed the "low-battery" blinking a bit. "Well that's silly," I thought, "It's a new battery. I guess I should have charged it before leaving. No matter, I'll just charge it when...oh fuck!" I quick recap of my extensive packing experience replayed in my head and I realized, packing the battery charger was in no scene. After many attempts to calm myself down, I left the Jardin and grabbed a small dinner at a nearby cafe. I headed back to the hotel and did a quick search through my bag, praying that I had packed it but forgot. No such luck.
Fastforward to this morning. Rather, very early morning. The time? I daren't check. But annoyed was I at someone knocking at my door, waking me up. My immediate thought was someone got the wrong room. Or maybe I actually do snore and it was very loud. And finally "It's a killer and if I open the door or acknowledge that I'm awake, he'll kill me" And that final thought was what stuck into my head until I fell back asleep.
Now we fast forward some more. This morning I woke up with a sore back and shoulders, yes hotel room, sleeping on a brick really isn't comfortable. The 9 Euros I spent on the continential breakfast was shoddy and I'm contemplating just skipping it altogether tomorrow. I finally got myself motoring by 10:30 and made my way to the Louvre. Since I had already gone there I didn't bother with too many pictures (that and the camera was dying), but I did do a good amount of walking. I did hit all three halls, though spending little time in the last. I did see Venus di Milo, the Mona Lisa and painting of the Coronation of Napoleon. Even though I saw them last year, I did spend a decent amount of time around the Roman statues, friezes and busts. All memories of Roman Art History came back in bits and pieces, making me wish I never threw away my notebook from the class. Afterwards I Walked around the Jardin de Tuileries and rested my poor feet. There are some really beautiful places in paris. It's so cozy and busy. I made my way to Bastille via the metro. (It really is amazing how comprehensible the metro really becoems. I was so fearful of it last year.) A little comparison. Paris' metro is 100 times better than D.C.'s. IT's more efficient, faster, more frequent, cleaner, oh I could go on. D.C, I ont he weekend, still is maddening ebcause of all the tourists using it. It's near impossible getting on unless you know what you're doing and are aggressive. (I did find that a bit with Paris' RER), but the metro, the entire time I was on, was hardly crowded. Maybe it does all depend on the frequency of the trains. One can expect another in about 2-5 minutes. In DC, it varies by as much as 12 minutes.
But now back to the events du jour. With tired feet, I pushed myself to an electronic store about a 10-minute walk from the Bastille metro stop. Finally found my new 60 Euro battery charger and jumped (if I could) for joy. Hooray options B & C are now scratched off the list (B- call family and have them mail ASAP the charger to Poitiers or C- buy many disposable cameras and spend beaucoup d'argent on cameras and processing film. So now I've finally made it back after a late lunch/early dinner and a quick trip to a chocolaterie (OMG they had statues made out of chocolate! I felt like Alfred Molina in that scene in Chocolat). Finally got the carger working and I shall nwo lay down and relax. Tomorrow is the train trip down to Poitiers and it'll all begin. Adieu!
12 June 1:30pm
Well, I have arrived in good, old Poitiers. And old it is indeed. The town was a medieval town, so there are many buildings and churches that have remained somewhat in tact since then.
After a madness in getting to and locating my train, I finally got a chance to rest, sweaty and all. (I'm always frantically rushing if I need to take an unknown transportation. Just in case I end up getting lost, I always want to make sure I have plenty of spare time. Luckily this time I had 20 minutes of it). My train companions were a mother and her two young children, rather than insult my improving skills of the language, I shut my eyes and "rested" for the 1.5 hour ride.
I arrived safe and sound and quickly found the director. Thankfully we spoke in English, but I know it's only a matter of time before it's all French for me. She dropped me off downtown and gave me the afternoon to explore and sitesee, (having me find my way back to the station at 6).
My first impression of Poitiers is that it's peaceful (but that could be because 1/4 of the population are students and many are home for the weekend.) The town has two walking tours, easily located by a solid blue or yellow line. I'm now traversing the blue line and have walked past a number of cathedrals an churches, (many of which I'll have to look up later). I am currently writing this entry in front of La Cathedral Sainte-Pierre. Many of the cathedrals were constructed or originated in the 11th or 12th century and have expanded and evolved over the years. A cheap thrill right now is spotting a soccer ball stuck behind a gargoyle on the front of the cathedral.
So, peaceful and quiet it is with a few children playing in front of the steps, birds singing and a few pedestrians walking by every now and then. The sky is clear and there's a nice breeze in the air. A good 20 degrees cooler than back home. I can't imagine the weather back home. And I certainly don't want to go back to it now. I've got three hours to kill before I start making my way back to the train station. Supposedly there were to be three other American girls on this project, but for various reasons, they cancelled out. I wonder what's in store, how many will be students. how many will be French. how many will speak English. In three hours, I'll be on my way to find out. Cheers.
14 June 1:40pm
A quick moments rest before heading back. It's been a crazy few days after arriving at the site. The knowledge of my French has been greatly tested a number of times. And by the end of the day, my brain has shut down. My only solice has been a Brit, who I've been chattign with whenever I need a break from all the French. I try my best to follow along and reply, but after a while it just becomes gibberish and my mouth turns to putty. There is also a Quebecian who speaks very good English, but sometimes the accent's a bit too think. The French students seem to enjoy testing their hand in English, so when they do, I have a tendency to slowly talk back. So I'm sure by the time I return, I will have a French accent and talk very slowly. ;) Must head back now, I'll try to make the next entry about the site, which is pretty nifty.
16 June 1:45pm
Oh what chaos and stress! Things have finally started to settle in. I'm just now able to follow along with the speed of the conversations, slowly, but I'm now running into the problem of vocabulary or lack of on my part. It's finally starting to come along.
Again, I have very little time so I summarize. The site is looking fantastic. I haven't worked on anything like it on that scale before, so everything is new. The stratigraphy, the ceramics, the methodology...everything. So it's been a huge learning process. The site is about 60m x60m (I'm guessing). There are two perpendicular roads that make up two boundaries. The rest consist of houses/shops. one shop is thought to be a blacksmiths because of the particular artifacts found in previous excavations. Right now, we've just begun to take the floor out of one of the rooms. We're hoping to find more beneath it because in one corner, it's been taken down a bit further and there are more stones, similiar to what the walls are made of, but they're on a slightly difference alignment. So hopefully there's more below. The site itself dates to the 3rd and 4th century AD before it was burned down in a fire. It possibly could date further back, but we won't know until we dig more. Gotta run again!
18 June 2:10pm
One week has past and I've managed to survive. No tv. No internet. And somehow I still have managed to stay busy. This is the first time since I've arrived that I've had more than 15 minutes of free time...and boy does it feel great.
Over the weekend, most people left either to go home or to Poitiers. The ones that were left were myself and three of my housemates. Feeling like the "exculded ones", we made our way to Poitiers for a mixture of a few drinks and a few guys. By the end of the night, we were satisfied with having a "few" drinks. We grabbed a few decent drinks at a Moroccan pub, had a few playing "the burping game"...(for those unfamiliar, when a person burps, everyone in the group must call out a different color. The last person to do so must make a sex noise. Twas a game introduced to the group by yours truly.) So the game was quite fun and many burps and sex noises were shared. We managed to nap some free passes to a "discotheque" (or in America, we say "club") and away we went. My first experience in a discotheque resulted in mixed feelings. The place itself was nicely decorated, but the way overpriced drinks and crappy music compromised the atmosphere. Eight Euros for a water-downed screwdriver...no thank you. We headed back at around 2:30am and the night ended on a high note. By the time we got back to the apartment, the moon had just about set and being in a town with very little artificial lighting, the night sky was simply gorgeous. Coming from a person who loves astronomy, I was in heaven. The sky was just littered with stars. The milky way never looked so enormous, (if it wasn't the milky way, then by God, I was still stunned). If I could, I would have taken pictures, (but of course it was impossible). We finally tuckered in and slept and slept. So there's the evening in a nutshell.
I've decided I wante to take pictures of the site at the end of each week to show the progress of the excavation. The site has really started to come along. I've been working in one area that's a depression in the ground. It's believed that underneath is a cellar. I've scraped away the mortar of the floor and have come upon a number of rocks that are forming a valley. In pockets of no rockers, loose dirt reveals holes in the ground - a good indication that there's something below. We don't know yet how big this cellar was, but hopefully with more excavation, we will figure it out.
I am hoping later today I will go and visit the town's archaeological museum, to learn more about the history of the town. One thing that I am lackign right now, are postcards. I have a long list of people who want one and thankfully the museum carries some. And by "some" I mean "one". So, shhhh! various people may receive the same card, but they'll never know...or will they?
I hope that either next weekend or the following I'll be able to travel around a bit. Bordeaux doesn't seem too far away and neither does La Rochelle (which is on the Atlantic Coast). But being without a car or convenient means to go to Poitiers (to hop on the train), it may end up a bit difficult to manage. But fingers crossed eh? And now I shall break from writing. God, it's hot today!
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I arrived in one piece in Paris. Once I got onto the plane to Charles DeGaulle, I crashed. My only frustration was that the flight was only 40 minutes long...not enough for a decent nap. But nevertheless, I slept. I arrived at the airport with a half-awake, one-track mind: find the RER. It appears there were a few othe rAmericans with the same mind-frame. Three of them happened to be some pretty cute guys. Sadly their minds were very "one tracked" and weren't too interested in chatting or helping a fellow traveler out. Two others were an older American couple who ended up more or less following me around as I managed to the platform. I did help them figure out how to get to their hotel. My guess in all of this, once you've ridden one metro system, you've ridden them all, because they were quite clueless how it all went down. Didn't help that I had a reliable, comprehensible metro map and theirs looked like a 3-year old drawing. In any case, they got to their location and I finally got my hotel. This hotel (as oppose to next month's) was Hotel Dacia Luxembourg. A 3-star hotel, but honestly you can barely tell. But maybe it's because I'm traveling alone and therefore must get the smallest room. The room barely fits the block of wood they call a bed. The only bonus about it is that the pillows are quite comfortable. But a room's a room and I don't need much luxury. (At least, though, they should have been able to get me a room with a working telephone. But I guess not this time.)
Cheers!
Cheers!
