The Sea and Me

In case you couldn’t tell from the stunning photos of the view from my front door, the waterfalls or the beaches, Samothrace is a beautiful natural patchwork of green olive trees, rugged pebbly beaches and tawny, sun-soaked fields. Above all, it is the pristine sea that frames every view, the perfect water absolutely clear to depths of at least 20 feet.

I am absolutely enjoying it – but also suffering from massive Catholic guilt. What am I doing to preserve this cleanliness and beauty? How am I doing on my stewardship of this gift for the next generation, or the one after? These thoughts are feeing my addiction to the No Impact Man blog, a website written by a New York Times columnist who has sworn off all impact-causing behavior for a year. In Manhattan. With a two-year-old and a Prada-loving wife. I’m absolutely fascinated by his progress – he intends to try absolutely everything and then see how much of it his family will retain at the end of the year. Check it out here: www.noimpactman.typepad.com

His experiment poses big questions: if I am worried about greenhouse gases, am I worried enough to keep red worms in a box in my kitchen to compost our vegetables and other organic waste? (Good luck convincing Courtney on that!!!) Am I ready to stop freezing things for storage or to spend an extra 25% of my already strained budget on organic local groceries? Must we city-dwellers stop patting ourselves on the back for taking the subway and not bagging our fruit at the grocery store? How sustainable are any changes I make? Yes, I have taken to the good-for-the-earth showers – rinse, turn off water while you soap up, rinse, exit. But can I keep this up in a New York winter in an apartment with a drafty bathroom? Even if I do, without millions of others doing the same, will the few gallons saved each day make any difference at all? Or should I luxuriate in the hot water and plan to go down with the ship?

Whatchya think? Should we all live like we have a personal tie to keeping the water clean, the air breathable, the landfills smaller? Any mini-tips out there on how to be green? Any reactions to No Impact Man?

26 Hour Weekend

It's the end of another 26-hour weekend. We went back to the restaurant with the amazing chicken-in-a-bag and delicious saganiki, a spicy melted feta-and-tomato dish. Yum! I will try to learn to make both of these so I can replicate it at home for anyone brave enough to take the subway to Astoria. On Sunday, Amy and I had a coffee in the port town with Lucas, the hotelier's son. I smiled and nodded as they spoke in Greek. So far, I'm afraid I only know a few words -- please, thank you, this one, just a little, big and helicopter. Helicopter -- a totally useful addition to my vocabulary.

For the rest of the afternoon we lazed by the waterfalls. I edited my thesis and read a book while nude and semi-nude hippies swarmed all over the pools. One group sat in front of me at about five -- they had been swimming ALL DAY and they STILL smelled awful, so I packed up and went home.

Our group is slowly shrinking -- Professor Wescoat's son, Hugh, leaves today. Cindy is safely in NYC. And Amy leaves on Sunday. But I'm still hoping to get in some Samothracian Olympics and a few good game nights before we all head back to the US!

Jumanji

During the still weather last week, the many tiny residents of the island invaded our hotel. Overnight, like a biblical plague, we were attacked by ants, mosquitoes, gnats and spiders. We were already living with huge crickets that jump towards you, not away, when they're scared. They share the bathroom, shower and hall with us, and Ryan has one as a bedmate. Due to a crack in the foundation, and another under the window, I had ants all over my pillow and throughout my thesis documents a few days ago. When I dragged the sheets out and sprayed all sorts of chemicals on my bed, our hotel manager, Evangelia, just laughed at me.

One of our dig mates, Eliza, coined a new adjective -- the island has 'gone Jumanji' on us. YUCK. As you likely all know, I HATE bugs. This is a learning experience.

Since bugs are gross, here are some photos of me measuring columns this morning with Yong, the architect, and other teammates.

Festival, Cindy and the Simpsons

Yesterday we went to the Saints day festival. The evening before we heard bells ringing from the burnt-out church. The congregation had gathered in lawn chairs on the porch and in the parking lot. I saw the priest and cantor there from the church I go to in Chora, although I'm not really sure what everyone was doing. On Thursday morning at 10, we heard more church bells and a few hours later the breeze carried the strains of Greek guitar. After lunch, Yong, Hugh and I went down to hear the music, sample some roasted goat, and raise a glass with the locals. What a resilient group! Here is a photo of Zora, an archeologist at another site, and one of the museum guards enjoying the music. It's possible that I got in on the Greek dancing.

In other news, my roommate Cindy departed yesterday. She was in the middle of buying an apartment in New York when she left and had to go home to sort out the details. Real estate in New York is never easy, I suppose! I'll miss her. She was nice enough to lend me another dress. Maybe this one will fit!

Finally, I am very happy in Samothrace and do not really miss home too much -- but today is the Simpson's premiere! And you can buy Simpson's themed foods in select convenience stores in the DC area made to look like a Kwik-E-Mart! This is one element of pop culture I am sad to miss. Any reviews or news on the movie would be welcomed!

Last weekend

It occurs to me that I have not made you all jealous about last weekend. I would like to make everyone jealous today, myself included, because I am on my 9th day of data entry in a sticky 90 degree office with bugs -- fabulous beach pictures will help me remember the many benefits of working in Greece this summer.

So here's a photo of the crystal clear water. Here is a photo of Chipos, a pebbly beach that is just beautiful. We spent the day in the shade of a rocky outcrop. You can swim around the side of this cliff and find little covces and a private beach. So beautiful!

And here is a photo of Ryan being SO lazy that he needs to drink his beer out of a straw, so as not to strain his neck. Genevieve and Amy are laughing at him. Actually, all of us are.

Back to data entry!

Goat day at last!

So, GOATS! Here are my encounters with dozens of goats on Sunday alone. Goats are a regular feature of Samothracian life. You can hear their bells on the breeze at night and in the morning. 81.8% of the dig team enjoys this sound – the other 19.2% say it disturbs their sleep. I am actually listening to a bleating goat while I type this – appropriate, because 45.4% of the dig team enjoys eating goat. Here are some photos – the goats waiting by our porch on Sunday. They are near our rental car – you can’t park your car under the trees here, because goats will climb up on in to eat the leaves from the trees. They actually sit in the branches (take THAT, Kevin Owen! Goats can fall from trees! Maybe not camels….) Cindy bought a goat bell as a souvenir before brunch. Then we saw goats at the beach, politely crossing in front of a goat-crossing sign. We also got a shot of a goat from the car – looks like he’s moving fast!

I did not take a photo of the goat roast we have for dinner every Sunday.

In other goat news – my first week, I ran at dawn most days. One morning, a baby goat paced me for half a kilometer! There may be more goats than people here. Last week, I saw an actual shepherd using a crook to put the goats in a pen. Wow. You can buy said crooks near my church.

I’d love your addition to the goat statistics – charming or noisy? Cute or tasty?

Tragedy Strikes Samothrace

I know I promised you goats today. I did take a lot of goat photos and collected interesting facts on the Samothracian goat. However, that will have to wait until tomorrow.

At about 4AM this morning, the Church next to our hotel and worksite went up in flames. One of our dig-mates was up to get a glass of water, saw the flames, and had the hotel manager, Evangelia, call the fire department. The inside of the church is completely destroyed. We smelled the smoke during the night, but I thought it was our mosquito coil and went back to sleep. We are very lucky that it wasn’t the usual windy Samothracian weather, or our hotel would surely have burned.

The smell of smoke is hanging in the air even now, 12 hours later. The wind also carries the cries of sobbing of women just hearing the news or visiting the church. It is a small chapel, only used for private devotion or the annual patron saint’s festival. They had just whitewashed it for the saint’s day, coming up on Thursday.

We all hoped it was an accident, but the main church in the port town was burned this morning at 8 AM. What senseless destruction.

Working, working, working

I know that, from the outset, it sounds like vacation -- Greek island in the middle of nowhere, someone cooking and cleaning for you, a few feet from the ocean, games most evenings, yoga....

wait a minute. It IS pretty vacation-like.

However, this consulting thing is killing my beach time. I'm editing from 5:30 - 6:30, 12:30 - 3:00 and 6:00 to 7 or 7:30. With weighing coins and typing in little data cards in between. I'm really looking forward to being done next week when they submit their proposal!

This is my long excuse for why there are no pictures of goats today. I'm sorry! I will definitely get many photos of goats this weekend, but I ran out of time today. However, I'm not complaining, because I'm pretty sure I'd get no sympathy from the desk bound!

Workin' for the Weekend

So today, we did more work with coins. This is actually very interesting, although I couldn't really sum up for you what I'm learning. But I think I'm learning to LOOK at the coins in a different way, and this will help when I look at Renaissance coins at home.

I am also looking at the goats in a different way, now that I know Shanley loves them. I will do a 'life-cycle of the Samothracian Goat' post tomorrow. Please do stay tuned.

I'm off to do yoga. I hope my roommate will call out the poses to the porch, despite the fact that she got an eye infection and can't really see (no contacts allowed, and her glasses are an out-of-date prescription. poor girl. let's all hope she mends soon.)

Coins, coins, coins.

Today, I typed in information on and looked at more coins. Tiny little bronze coins. Pitted, green corroded coins. Coins in envelopes. Coins in drawers. Coins in fingers, not on the floor!

Okay, clearly the coins are messing with my head.

In other news, my fellow dig-mates think I'm crazy (or they should) because I am having super weird dreams. Last night, I actually got up in the middle of the night and yelled at an 'intruder' I thought I saw in my bedroom. The conversation with this trick of light/figment of sleepiness (that seemed to be a youngish, tall man wearing only a towel) went like this:

umm, who is it?
Hey, hello, who IS it?
HEY! HEY, HELLO-OOOO, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!!!
then i touched the wall through this figment and felt really stupid.

Big discussion at the breakfast table by the five people who woke up hearing this. Not that anyone came running, but they claimed to be waiting for the 'scuffle.' Someone pointed out that the only likely intruder would be a goat eating a towel, not a person wearing one!

I better lay off the ouzo before bed!

It's a small world after all...

Yesterday evening, while I waited FOREVER on skype trying to sort out my new cell phone plan with Sprint, I saw a consulting request in my spam folder. I responded to be polite, but was a month late and didn't expect any reply. Within 10 minutes, I had a one-day assignment at my full daily rate with a new client. Yay!

I am shocked and amazed that I can be on the phone with a 1-800 number in the States, chatting on IM with John and also picking up consulting assignments while sitting on a porch overlooking the sea and being stared at by a family of goats.

What a teeny, tiny world we live in.

Shout out to Sarah (thanks for the postcard! real mail! Sweet!) And here's a photo of tonight's borrowed dress from the 1980 team....

The 26 hour weekend

Each Saturday, we get off of work at 6 and are released from dinner. We report back to ‘work’ at ouzo hour on Sunday evenings at 8. As one of my co-campers stated, it’s probably good that we don’t have two evenings off – we’d only get in trouble!

This weekend, we rented a car. It was so fun to buzz around the island. We went for drinks, dinner and dancing on Saturday. I have no comment about this except for the photo. Please don’t even ask! Wild night. We spent most of Sunday laughing at me for the antics of Saturday evening and early morning!

On Sunday, Amy was kind enough to drive me up the hill to Mass. When I got back we all headed to the ‘sandy beach’ – the only beach on the island that isn’t mostly stones. There was loud europop, comfortable beach chairs and umbrellas, and pool toys courtesy of Hugh. This is the life, my friends. Here too, the photo says it all.

Sunday evening, Professor McCredie hosted us at his house for a drinks and snacks. The house is lovely – a cantilevered design built into the hill and framed around a central court and grape arbor that spans the outdoor corridor in the center of the house. The corridor has lovely mosaics of river stone that Professor McCredie, his children and colleagues installed one summer. I can see why he’s happy to spend so many summers here!

Today it was back to work, but I’m enjoying learning all about ancient Greek coins! Hope you had great weekends as well!

Photo tour of the office

Here is my day in photos:

Hugh (Professor Wescoat's son who has joined us for the summer) eating a Hobnob, our favorite cookie, at coffeebreak.

More coffee breakers (promptly at 10 each day).

Professor Marconi and his wife Rosalia, who joined us two days ago, exploring the Rotunda of Arsinoe. They are both skilled Spoons players, and Professor Marconi grabbed the last spoon from me in a show of strategy and cunning during last night's game.

The Hieron, one of the larger structures in the Sanctuary and the site of evening yoga lessons led by my roommate, Cindy.

Measuring blocks (sorry, the rulers got cut out.)

Ryan drawing blocks.

Our favorite block, William.

Stars and Lamps

I don’t have much to report for myself today. Yesterday evening we were treated to a lecture on the constellations by the conservation professor. It was fun to lean back on the columns at the site and peer at the same stars and constellations the Greeks used to achieve their phenomenal navigation at sea. (Side note: those clever Greeks managed to circumnavigate Africa in about 600 BC. I’m very impressed – especially since the constellations are not the same in the Southern Hemisphere. I really wonder how they managed that?) It was very interesting. On the other hand, the last time I gazed at the stars in Greece I was 18 and sitting on a beach with a cute boy and a bottle of wine chilling at the edge of the surf. The electricity went out on the island and the three islands surrounding it, so I was able to see the Milky Way for the very first time. “Turning to my companion, this East Coast girl said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could see this in our own country?” The cute boy from Illinois replied, “Um,. Yeah. About that. We can.”

Doh.

Anyway, with 12 other people, this was considerably less dreamy, but it was fun. You can’t take photos of stars, though, so here’s a nice photo of a lamp. One is molded, one is wheelmade. Any guesses? You too can be an ancient Greek pottery expert…

Samothracian Fashion

Every evening at 8 we gather for 'ouzo hour' on the terrace. You've seen the photos and read about the menu. I don't think I've explained the fashion, however. Ouzo hour is the one time of day when we are all clean and nicely dressed. The men show up in pants and collared shirts, the women all wear dresses, and Mr. McCredie even wears a jacket and tie.

But I brought only one dress.

To supplement my meager wardrobe, I chose two dresses from seasons past from boxes found in the attic of the museum.

Please enjoy the photo of the 1972 showstopper, affectionately termed 'the jungle jumper' by yours truly. Note the colorful print and oversized cloth buttons.

Food in Samothrace

Life in Samothrace is punctuated by food. We have breakfast at 6:30, coffee break at 10, lunch at noon, fried ouzo snacks at 8 and dinner at 8:30. Before we got here, we all worried that we'd be hungry around 6. But no. We are stuffed. Constantly. This is because:

1. someone else cooks
2. the servings are HUGE and no one wants to offend the cook
3. there's little else to do
4. greek cookies are tasty

I am not complaining, mainly because it seems like a miracle that someone else is always cooking and cleaning for me. I don't even have to take a dish to or from the table! But the down side is that I've gained 5 pounds....



ALREADY!



I've only been here for ONE WEEK!!!!!!!!


So I am off for a run. Wish me luck in my daily encounter with the fried zucchini patties, fried battered zucchini flowers, fried calimari, and fried meat.

26 Hour Weekend

I am writing at the end of my 26 hour weekend. We get off of work at 6 on Saturdays and then come back to ‘group life’ at 8 on Sundays. You’ll get no complaints from me, though – a 6 day work week in Samothrace is preferable to a 5-day workweek in scores of other places! Last night we hiked up to Chora, a picturesque little town 4 kilometers uphill from where we live, for drinks and dinner. Dinner was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. They have a phenomenal dish called ‘chicken in a paper bag’ that is the best chicken I have ever experienced. And they make homemade French fries in olive oil right over a fire – delicious. The view from the bar was fantastic, although I forgot to take a photo – here’s our attempt to capture a perfect sunset on Friday night.

Today I went to Church. Wow, I do not understand anything they’re doing at the Greek Orthodox Mass. After sitting there for two hours, I even managed to miss Communion! It didn’t look like ours, and I think the bread I got last week wasn’t the real deal either. Communion seems to involve putting a cloth to your chin that the priest is holding with his right hand at the base of the chalice, and then being served something by the priest on a spoon that he sticks in your mouth with his other hand. Then you pat your mouth and move on. Sigh. Maybe I’ll be up to speed next week. After Mass, Amy and I enjoyed crepes and then a small contingent headed out for the waterfalls. They were beautiful, as you can see here. The pools were nearly 30 feet deep, and the water was perfectly clear. We lazed around reading and doing crossword puzzles and ‘chill-axing.” This is apparently a new term coined on Samothrace, derived from the verbs ‘to chill’ and ‘to relax.’ It remains to be determined whether this is an acceptable Scrabble word….

Fair Weather

Today I am feeling much better. Rather than napping, I was able to work on my thesis for a few hours. Yay! Twelve pages down, another 13 + editing + citing to go!

We had a nice game of scrabble last night despite a ferocious and sudden wind storm that upset the board and broke a few glasses, scattering beach floats and bathing suits down the hall in its wake. The sudden and mercurial changes in weather here are part of the charm, I am told. It is apparently not unusual that at ouzo hour I felt warm in my new Samothracian Jungle-Print Jumper dress (just wait until I get a photo of this specimen from the 1972 dig) and that only a half hour later we all grabbed sweaters before dinner.

Today I have spent most of my time cataloguing lamps. The existence of a large number of lamps at a sanctuary points to nocturnal cult rites and activity, so we are hoping to get a sense of which buildings might have housed evening rituals based on the concentrations of lamps found within or near specific building sites. In the abstract, I think this is very interesting. In actuality, it involves a lot of typing into FileMaker. Thanks to my IPod, this isn’t so torturous, and hopefully we will find an interesting answer in a day or two.

The 4th, Drugged Kate, and How to Reach Me

The end of the 4th of July included REAL gin and tonics with limes imported from New York -- Greece doesn't seem to grow limes, as far as any of us know. We finished dinner and had a rousing game of pictionary. But the highlight of the evening was Professor McCredie's entrance, with great fanfare, in Sylvester the Jeep, sporting the American and Greek flags. We all clapped. We clapped harder when the ice, gin and whiskey made it's appearance.

Here's a photo from ouzo hour -- Yong, Genevieve, Melissa and Amy; Professor Wescoat and her family --- Bailey (standing), Ryan and Abby.

Today, I have nothing to report because I feel drugged. I took another 2.5 hour nap that I will blame on the pills the doctor gave me. I can't wait to feel better -- my thesis is weighing on my brain!

Finally, you can reach me by mail at:

American Excavations, Palaiopolis, GR-680-2 Samothrace, Greece

or by phone at 011-30-25510-41166. No pressure, but Michelle asked for my address in order to use up her air-mail stationary. All notes are welcome!

Finally, a shout-out to the birthday kids! My sister Kerri, July 2, Andy Sawatzki, July 3, and Michelle Woolley, July 4. Way to get older, everyone.

Greek Medical System

Happy fourth of July! It is a normal workday here, but we had special delicious Greek custard pastry this morning and I am about to attend an extra-special ouzo hour this evening. Word is that Professor McCredie decorates his car for the 4th of July -- this should be fun to watch!

Unfortunately, I am allergic to the special delicious Greek custard pastry. It looks cooked, but perhaps the custard wasn't fully cooked, so I had an allergic reaction and had to be taken to the local clinic. My professors were very nice to me, and stayed the entire time to be sure I was okay. The doctor was less impressed-- he was convinced that I was just suffering from anxiety and offered some Zanax. I explained that my tongue was swollen to double its local size, and so it was probably a real problem, even if raw egg doesn't usually make an appearance in this particular pastry. They gave me an IV with some sort of drug that worked almost immediately and my tongue was back to its happy self. Then the drug made me super dizzy. But in the end, I was fine -- about an hour after the whole shebang, I was back at the hotel having lunch and then taking a long nap.

The Greeks were nice and efficient, although the hospital attire was interesting. The woman who actually put the IV needle in -- with five nurses arguing and watching -- was wearing an orange United Colors of Benetton tank top, jeans and sandals. Another nurse sported the same top in gray. My doctor was wearing a tie-dyed T shirt and pants. About 10 staff were in every room, and many of the shelves holding up the saline solution, or whatever they use for IVs, were made of plywood sheeting on metal ikea supports. Appearances aside, they did their job and didn't charge me anything. Amen to socialist medicine!

I am mostly just embarrased that, after 24 years from my last attack, I don't know better than to ask about raw egg! What a hullaballoo. Looking forward to a normal day tomorrow!

My place by the sea

So here is a photo tour of my life-for-six-weeks! This is the team, or part of it, seeing Samothrace for the first time. As you can tell, it was pretty windy on the ferry. Left to right you can see; Ryan, a Harvard architecture student; Eliza and Melissa, conservation students at my school; Cindy, my roommate, also an IFA student, and Genevieve looking out towards Samothrace as we approach. Here is the view from my room. Pretty nice! Here’s my hallway. I have to say, late night trips for water are beautiful, with the moon over the ocean and the breezes winding their way through the ‘hall.’ This is where we have ouzo hour – they serve ouzo, beer, and tasty fried Greek snacks every night before dinner. This is the view from the dinner table.

I landed in a pretty fine place, don’t you think?!?

Today, we had a tour of the site. I neglected to bring my camera I’m afraid. It was fascinating to walk through the site with archeologists. It can be so difficult to picture an ancient city or temple area as it would have looked when it was built, but with Professor McCredie and Professor Wescott, it suddenly came alive. I’ll give a description – and some photos! – tomorrow. Off to ouzo hour!

RE-plugged!

Today was our first day of work. We spent most of the day removing dust covers, setting up electricity, printers, scanners and computers, and just settling in. Tomorrow we will get to see the site -- I can't wait!

The most exciting development, however, was the establishment of hi-speed wi-fi. I am now as wired in Greece as I am at home. This expands the possibilities of entertainment significantly (Itunes Movie Night, anyone?) and allows me to keep the blog AND use skype! Yay!!! Oh, and the research possibilities are endless.

I'm headed in to shower before dinner and put the clothes I found in our attic in to be washed. India killed my clothes, and so I'm grabbing leftovers from previous dig teams stretching back into the 1960s. I have a wild dress from a woman who worked here in 1972 -- this will be a VERY fashionable summer. I promise photos.

Stay tuned for an inside glimpse of a tiny island and even smaller social circle!

Semi-Precious

We have arrived! It is so wonderful to be in one place for six weeks. I unpacked the three t-shirts, skirt, shorts and two dresses that I own and 'settled in.' This is an amazing place to be. We took the ferry together as a group from Alexandropolous on Saturday morning. Looking over the rail, the water was a perfect sapphire blue. It was breathtaking, the exact color of the stone. Towards the coast, you could see a line of topaz-colored water fringing the shore. From the ocean, Samothrace looked blue and gray in a hazy mist, but as we drew closer, you could see the green of the pines and the deep browns and grays of the looming mountain at the center of the island. You could also see Sylvester, Professor McCredie's ancient orange Jeep, waiting at the dock. We loaded 9 people and all their luggage into two cars. After my trip to India, that seemed like nothing! After lunch together, we were free to do as we pleased for the rest of the weekend. From the door of the bedroom, you can see the ocean, only about 100 yards away. We eat lunch and dinner on the porch each day, and sunset from the dinner table, looking through the stone porch supports and a lovely bush of pink flowers, is really amazing. I am so blessed to have six weeks here. On the other hand, I think 'semi-precious' may be a good metaphor for the trip. We are so lucky to have someone cook every meal for us -- but it is meat, meat, and more meat. We are also lucky to have someone do our laundry -- but we were told not to have them wash anything we value! We are only 100 yards from the ocean -- but it is a very rocky beach with a strong current. Etc. Personally, I love it. I'll take garnets and opals over quartz any day of the week.

We spent the afternoon swimming, and then I had my first run in six weeks (ouch!). There were lots of goats and a few people to stare at me as I wheezed my way back into shape. Today, I hiked uphill to Chora, a small town with twisting cobbled streets and gracious cafes spilling down the slope. I went to Mass at the Greek Orthodox church. That was really something, I'll write more about it sometime.

Anyway, I'm settled -- and I think we get internet every other day! I'll keep you posted on the sleepy happenings of our little expedition.