Leave Something for the Archaeologists
Cyprus
2005-04-29
3:30 am
... and Wishes Make Wishes on You...
Well, I've received about as good a confirmation as I'm going to get. It looks like I'll be excavating in Cyprus this summer. A little village frozen in the Chalcolithic...
I'm of course waiting for everything to fall through - as these things have tended to do lately... But, if this DOES all happen as planned, this will be very helpful, taking me one step closer to earning that much-coveted P... H... D...
The excavation is through the University of Edinburgh - one of the places I'm applying to, so that could possibly be helpful. But I'm willing to go just about anywhere in the world right now, provided I can finally stop compromising my research interests to fit those of a school at which I don't belong. And, obviously, I'm willing to go anywhere merely in PREPARATION to follow these interests - so that's got to impress someone somewhere, hm? Let's hope.
But to be perfectly honest with you, dear reader - I'm really rather nervous about the whole thing. Navigating a foreign country after a 20 hour plane ride and no sleep. I arrive on the other side of the country from where I have to be. Somehow I have to get to the research center with all my gear - and make a good impression when I get there - so maybe they might think I have the slightest inkling of what I'm doing and throw a little extra "suntin-suntin" my way, so's I's can add a little blang to my CV thang... just a little sparkle-flash to push it over the edge, so all the ivory towers out there can say "Ou. Aren't you pretty, little sparkle thing? Come, be a spoiled academic and live in our fabulous castle like in Harry Potter..."
But honesty again dear reader - I'd be happy just about anywhere I could work on something I was actually interested in - anywhere I had a dissertation committee, a bit of funding so I could do my research full time - basically a run of the mill phD candidate at anyschool, USA. I don't need castles. I just need a chance to, for once, give it my all.
And that's what I'm going to do in Cyprus. I'm going to give this excavation everything I've got - I'm going to dig my ass off (probably literally...), I'm going to analyze til my brain leaks out of my ears, I'm going to conserve and curate until the whole damn country is covered in PVC foam, seperated, and labled in tiny, plastic artifact bags.
And when I leave, all the villagers will gather together as I walk off into the sunset, a trowel in my hand. And they will say "there goes one anal retentive son of a bitch..."
And I'll turn around and look back at the research center - my long hair, a dusty, twisted mess - and, as I holster my trowel, I'll say "My work here is done."
Insert theme music... Archaeologist puts on hat, turns and walks into the distance... Fade
Alright... so maybe I'll take a bus to the airport instead...
Do you think I'll need the semi-automatic weapons this trip?
