Summer in the Balkans?

Weeell, yesterday I received an email from the anthro student society about some summer opportunities in archaeology that looked so cool, I thought I'd share them. Not entirely sure if I'll be able to do this in my undergrad (but rest assured, I will be doing it at some point). The archaeological projects that are open to student participation are in Bulgaria and Macedonia and there's a few really neat ones. There's 12, but here's the one's I think are most interesting:

Fresco Hunting

Searching in abandoned chapels in Western Bulgaria to document medieval frescoes.

Excavating early Neolithic settlements: remains of dwellings with under-floor drainage systems, kitchen spaces with ovens and grain storage, and artifacts such as pottery sherds, clay figurines and jewels, all from the first half of the 6th millenium BC.

Excavation of Heraclea, an ancient city in North-Western Macedonia, named after Hercules. This excavation focuses on the residential area in front of the already uncovered theatre. Basically a lot of pretty cool Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique stuff, as well as some real lab and archaeological processual training.

Apollonia Pontica Excavation: Ancient Greek colony in Bulgaria. Many of the artifacts originally found at this site are now in the Louvre. Since the first excavation, a pre-Christian temple has been unearthed, presumably dedicated to Apollo as well as a later Byzantine basilica.

*All pictures are from the website of the Balkan Heritage Field School: http://www.bhfieldschool.org/bh2007.html
So anyway, those are my favourites, the last town looks especially beautiful. These are also awesome opportunities for training in dealing with artifacts as well as creating all the documentation and mapping that goes along with an archaeological excavation. Needless to say I would looove to do something like this. Being a student there are so many opportunities to get involved in excavations, and the experience, I think, is a huge asset. That's why I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I might be able to go in the summer. :)

Amazing Art by Olga and Andrej Dugin

So, when I was younger I was given a storybook full of children's stories by my aunt, and there was one tale in particular that stuck in my mind. I found it somewhat captivating because of its incredible illustration. The story, called "Dragon Feathers", follows the quest of a carpenter's son who is out to win the hand of a rich innkeeper's daughter. Her father says he will not agree to their marriage unless the boy manages to bring him three golden feathers from the tail of a dragon who rules over their land, and who has a reputation for being cruel--aka he eats people. Nice future in-law.

Anyway, the illustrations really are something special. They're the kind of pictures you can look at for hours, because they are full of symbolism and strange and unexplained details. There are a number of truly odd creatures that I  found so intriguing--were they dangerous? What the heck was that thing doing there? What does it have to do with the story? In a way, the illustrations are more of a story than the text.

Some of the things to look for in the pictures below: The Dragon's Wife (how does that relationship work? Is she human?), the odd architecture, (in the tree scene) the strange hooded figure sitting off to the side and the random letters in the tree, the ground and carved into the wooden gate in the house scene, the super-weird flying knight thing in the pink robe, and the walking bagpipe in the other house scene. These are only a few of the incredibly interesting details that can be found if you take a good look at the pictures.

Brachiation

Just recently I started studying anthropology, and for a while I've been interested in primatology; I'm considering doing graduate studies in this area. I just find it so fascinating how human-like primates are in their behaviour--some even seem to have a human-like sense of humour, and a self-awareness you don't see in most animals.

Today in class, we covered 'brachiation' which is the graceful swinging from tree to tree that many primates do. Gibbons are particularly good at this. Their arms are longer than their legs, showing their advanced adaptation to this form of locomotion. These apes (not monkeys) are part of the group of primates closest genetically to humans, but they're much further from us when compared with chimps, gorillas and bonobos. Gibbons are naturally monogamous, (debatably) the only great ape who does this. They're not considered social (in comparison with other apes), and form small family units that drive away other gibbons. Anyway, I found this video while searching up some examples of brachiation, and I must ask, who wouldn't want to study something this awesome? This cheeky fellow certainly seems to have that aforementioned sense of humour. See for yourself...

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La Vie En Rose

Alright, so there's a significant reason why this title is in French--in a few days I am taking off to the land of all things French to visit my boyfriend, whom I've been with for almost a year now (yay!) for a much-anticipated visit. Being that I live in Canada, we don't get to see each other all that often. Very lame. I've proposed they just use some of that pent-up techtonic energy and jet Canada somewhat into the Atlantic Ocean so we're closer, but they don't seem to be going for it. Anyway, naturally it is on my mind, so Imma write about it a bit.

My Frenchtastic piece of French (who I will refer to as 'Mec' in the future) lives in what I think is one of the most beautiful areas of the country (though really, don't quote me on that because I haven't seen all of France by a long shot). It's a region called 'Rhône Alpes' and it is surrounded by mountains. Gor-ge-ous. He tells me that there's already snow on the tops of the mountains, which makes me even more jealous that I don't live near enormous chunks of rock.

Another thing I love about France--the language. After about a bajillion years of studying, I am finally getting kind of good at it. I know lots of useful words. Like 'maïze' and 'oeil' and 'autochtone'...and 'degage' and 'ta gueule'. Yeah, you pick up lots of useful terms. I'm getting pretty good at this cheek-kissing thing too. I only rudely and completely ignored his father while he was trying to greet me once so far! Lemme tell you, it seems pretty simple, but I'm still not sure who I'm supposed to kiss and when. But in all seriousness, it really is great to finally feel that I'm making progress in French. Despite it being an official language of our country, they really aren't very serious about English students learning it, which is a pity. However, it's pretty difficult to find an opportunity to practice if you live in English-speaking Canada.

So all in all I am très excited for this trip. Honestly, I wish I could go see him every month. That's, of course, the best part. La France wouldn't be the same without him. I wouldn't get to mock him, or have him explain to me the strange, strange ways of his people (just kidding, hon) or explain to him the even stranger ways of mine (no, mon amour, 'beaver tails' are not real beaver tails...NO Mec, I did not have to kill a bear with my bare hands to be considered a full-grown woman at 18). Though we will both be studying the whole time (which we actually can do together because we're AWESOME) it will be fantabulous to hang out :).