All This Discourse About How To Spell Vergil…if Ur Not On A First Name Basis With Ol Publius Then Why

history is a subject i adore and over the years i’ve been studying it, i’ve picked up some great skills! here are my five top tips for aspiring historians out there, whether you know you’re one yet or not ;)

1. read!

no matter what you’re into, someone in history will be #relatable. want to study a gay king who kissed his gold-digging boyfriend in public? james i is right here! what about a prince who wore dresses to court? well, have you heard of philippe d'orléans? maybe you want to learn about the noblewoman who inspired dracula and bathed in the blood of local ladies! elizabeth báthory’s your girl. whatever you’re interested in, there’s someone out there who’s written about it - and learning about your course beyond the syllabus will improve your understanding as well as your writing skills! if you’re struggling to find a way to make a particular period interesting, just message a historian - i’m more of a social historian, but i’m always happy to talk about any aspect of history, and i’m sure others on tumblr feel the same!

check out:

academia.edu - papers about pretty much anything you could want to read, ranging from very accessible to heavy academic language

google books - a great starting point for literally anything, you can search “gay women 14th century” and you’ll find the historical lesbians you’ve always wanted

jstor - great for academic texts, but you can only read three per fortnight unless you sign up with a bunch of spam emails

2. take it outside the classroom!

history is all well and good in theory, but visiting historically significant locations can change your understanding completely. whether it’s a local graveyard to trace the stories of those before you or a medieval castle, visualising the lives of people you study makes the subject far more engaging (and easier to remember in the long run)!

check out:

travel journal masterpost by @stillstudies

historical days out for under £20

museums and galleries with free entry

3. make a timeline!

again, visualising history makes it so much easier to remember. whenever i start a new module of history, i make timelines by buying a huge roll of the cheapest wrapping paper i can find and taping it up onto my wall, patterned side down. i’ll make a really rough timeline of key events (e.g. my tudors timeline started with the accession of different monarchs, deaths of important people, where henry viii’s fancy led to) with big markers and then as we go through the course, i’ll add more detailed information in different colours! then, when i’m revising, i’ll tape another piece of wrapping paper over it and try and reconstruct it from memory. some people in my class use flashcards instead, with one for each year - do whatever works for you!

check out:

formatting and using flashcards by @illolita

flashcard tips by @tbhstudying

flip cards by @brokestudiesnrefs

4. make profiles of key figures!

when i was studying the american west, i found it really hard to keep track of all the generals because a) i’m about as far from a military historian as you can get and b) i hated them all. so to try and remember them, i made them into characters - some of them i doodled, some i made on the sims, some my history class acted out together. it’s a great way of forcing yourself to both research individual figures and remember little details about them - i’m a bit of a perfectionist, so looking up tiny facts about each rank to make The Perfect Sim really helped them stick in my head!

5. make your own history!

at the end of the day, it’s you that has to remember these facts for an exam. why not make a game out of it? reenact a key argument with a friend, read out preserved letters dramatically to yourself, watch historical dramas involving the figures you’re studying. if you can get yourself to remember things outside of a textbook, you’re halfway there!

check out:

studying history by @universtudy

writing history essays by @thehistorygrad

i hope you can find these useful! if you have any questions or just want to talk history, feel free to message me :)

The Moon in Motion

Happy New Year! And happy supermoon! Tonight, the Moon will appear extra big and bright to welcome us into 2018 – about 6% bigger and 14% brighter than the average full Moon. And how do we know that? Well, each fall, our science visualizer Ernie Wright uses data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to render over a quarter of a million images of the Moon. He combines these images into an interactive visualization, Moon Phase and Libration, which depicts the Moon at every day and hour for the coming year. 

Want to see what the Moon will look like on your birthday this year? Just put in the date, and even the hour (in Universal Time) you were born to see your birthday Moon.

Our Moon is quite dynamic. In addition to Moon phases, our Moon appears to get bigger and smaller throughout the year, and it wobbles! Or at least it looks that way to us on Earth. This wobbling is called libration, from the Latin for ‘balance scale’ (libra). Wright relies on LRO maps of the Moon and NASA orbit calculations to create the most accurate depiction of the 6 ways our Moon moves from our perspective.

1. Phases

The Moon phases we see on Earth are caused by the changing positions of the Earth and Moon relative to the Sun. The Sun always illuminates half of the Moon, but we see changing shapes as the Moon revolves around the Earth. Wright uses a software library called SPICE to calculate the position and orientation of the Moon and Earth at every moment of the year. With his visualization, you can input any day and time of the year and see what the Moon will look like!

2. Shape of the Moon

Check out that crater detail! The Moon is not a smooth sphere. It’s covered in mountains and valleys and thanks to LRO, we know the shape of the Moon better than any other celestial body in the universe. To get the most accurate depiction possible of where the sunlight falls on the lunar surface throughout the month, Wright uses the same graphics software used by Hollywood design studios, including Pixar, and a method called ‘raytracing’ to calculate the intricate patterns of light and shadow on the Moon’s surface, and he checks the accuracy of his renders against photographs of the Moon he takes through his own telescope.

3. Apparent Size 

The Moon Phase and Libration visualization shows you the apparent size of the Moon. The Moon’s orbit is elliptical, instead of circular - so sometimes it is closer to the Earth and sometimes it is farther. You’ve probably heard the term “supermoon.” This describes a full Moon at or near perigee (the point when the Moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit). A supermoon can appear up to 14% bigger and brighter than a full Moon at apogee (the point when the Moon is farthest from the Earth in its orbit). 

Our supermoon tonight is a full Moon very close to perigee, and will appear to be about 14% bigger than the July 27 full Moon, the smallest full Moon of 2018, occurring at apogee. Input those dates into the Moon Phase and Libration visualization to see this difference in apparent size!

4. East-West Libration

Over a month, the Moon appears to nod, twist, and roll. The east-west motion, called ‘libration in longitude’, is another effect of the Moon’s elliptical orbital path. As the Moon travels around the Earth, it goes faster or slower, depending on how close it is to the Earth. When the Moon gets close to the Earth, it speeds up thanks to an additional pull from Earth’s gravity. Then it slows down, when it’s farther from the Earth. While this speed in orbital motion changes, the rotational speed of the Moon stays constant. 

This means that when the Moon moves faster around the Earth, the Moon itself doesn’t rotate quite enough to keep the same exact side facing us and we get to see a little more of the eastern side of the Moon. When the Moon moves more slowly around the Earth, its rotation gets a little ahead, and we see a bit more of its western side.

5. North-South Libration

The Moon also appears to nod, as if it were saying “yes,” a motion called ‘libration in latitude’. This is caused by the 5 degree tilt of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. Sometimes the Moon is above the Earth’s northern hemisphere and sometimes it’s below the Earth’s southern hemisphere, and this lets us occasionally see slightly more of the northern or southern hemispheres of the Moon! 

6. Axis Angle

Finally, the Moon appears to tilt back and forth like a metronome. The tilt of the Moon’s orbit contributes to this, but it’s mostly because of the 23.5 degree tilt of our own observing platform, the Earth. Imagine standing sideways on a ramp. Look left, and the ramp slopes up. Look right and the ramp slopes down. 

Now look in front of you. The horizon will look higher on the right, lower on the left (try this by tilting your head left). But if you turn around, the horizon appears to tilt the opposite way (tilt your head to the right). The tilted platform of the Earth works the same way as we watch the Moon. Every two weeks we have to look in the opposite direction to see the Moon, and the ground beneath our feet is then tilted the opposite way as well.

So put this all together, and you get this:

Beautiful isn’t it? See if you can notice these phenomena when you observe the Moon. And keep coming back all year to check on the Moon’s changing appearance and help plan your observing sessions.

Follow @NASAMoon on Twitter to keep up with the latest lunar updates. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Artistic conception of the auroras os Saturn and Earth (jupiter’s image is real - ultraviolet) Instagram: wonders_of_the_cosmos

It is about to be the start of the next academic year so I decided to post this masterlist. Here are all of my original study posts so far and they are sorted by topics.

All of the information below can actually be found on this page  (/mystudytips). It is constantly updated so if you want to look for my posts in an organised way you can always go there.

General

My Masterpost for Students

Start off your semester

10 days to prepare for next semester - #16

Motivation

Setting Goals - #1

Should I switch my studies? (answered)

How to deal with procrastination? (answered)

Study Skills

Study routine/steps

Marty Lobdell’s Lecture of Study Less Study Smart - #7

Focus/Concentration

Tools to help you stay focus - #12

Tips on staying focused - #14

How to shake off restlessness during study session (answered)

Study Management/Planning

General Tips - #2

How to make revision time table? (answered)

My Bullet Journal Set-up

Building study habits

Great study habits and developing them (answered)

Good study habits for high school students (answered)

What is HabitRPG? - #4

Lectures/Class

Why should we attend our classes?

Essay-writing

General steps on how to write an essay - #6

Reading

Masterpost on reading skills

How to go through your readings

Memory

How to memorise a page? How long does it take? (answered)

General Note-taking

A summary on how to take good lecture notes - #13

Type or write? (answered)

Type or write? updated + my approach (answered)

Is writing notes on iPad a good idea? (answered)

Should I take notes right now? (answered)

Consolidating lecture notes and textbook notes (answered)

How to get better handwriting? (answered)

Flashcards

Making flashcards for vocabularies (answered)

OneNote and other applications

How to take/organise notes? (feat. OneNote) (answered)

Updated and comprehensive post on how to take lecture notes on OneNote (answered)

How to use Cornell note-taking method on OneNote: Great for taking class notes! - #9

How do I use OneNote? (answered)

Introducing Notability

Exams and Tests

A Complete Exam Study Guide - #10

How to deal with anxiety before and during exams? (answered)

How to study for exams effectively? (answered)

Demotivated because of unsatisfactory grades? (answered)

Tips to prepare for take home exams

Printables

My printables

Summer planning printables (mine)

Semester planner printables (mine)

Note-taking printables (mine)

Organisation

My general study organisation system (answered)

My high school organisation system (answered)

My notebook organisation system in high school (answered)

Study space

My desk organisation - #18

Maintaining a clean desk (answered)

Stationery

Pen recommendations (answered)

The highlighters I use in bullet journal (answered)

My pens, pencils and notebooks (answered)

A comparison between Zebra Mildliners and Optex Care - whether they will smudge // with photo (answered)

Tech-stuff

What’s on my iPad mini? - #8

iPad Air or iPad mini for school? (answered)

Free apps/programs (that can substitute expensive ones) (answered)

Laptop recommendations for school (answered)

Which macbook pro should I get for college? (answered)

The app I use for writing and organising documents on iPad (answered)

The stylus I use for writing on iPad (answered)

A comparison of stylus (answered)

Amazing resources

Free online courses - #3

English Reading and Writing free online course

College Info Geek - more college tips, and free book

College and University

Things i wish i knew before college - #15

Tips on starting college (answered)

Personal records

Tips on writing a perfect résumé (answered)

Getting unsatisfactory grades?

Tips for students who may have unsatisfactory grades at the moment (answered)

Being called “you’re trying too hard”? (answered)

Anxiety and depression / Feeling unhappy?

Dealing with depression, stress and anxiety (answered)

Can’t study because of depression? (answered)

Will studyblr help with my anxiety and perfectionism? (answered)

Anxious about getting your results? (answered)

Sleep and Breaks

How to put sleeping schedule back on track for school? (answered)

Summer Posts

Summer opportunities - #5

Study during summer - prepare for the next semester - #11

How to make the most of summer (masterpost)

I have been led to this article twice in the past few months and I think it’s proof I just need to stop making excuses and start taking steps to make the things I want to happen a reality.

Thought Catalog

10 Brutally Honest Reasons Why Your Life Is So Boring Right Now

“But then I’d have to put on real pants” is a legitimate excuse that you use to not do things.

Brazilian cherries aren’t related to common cherries at all! They look like this and taste rather sour:

Also, if you’re not used to them, Brazilian grapetrees look really alien:

The fruit is formed in the trunk, not the branches!

Yep, that's definitely a rock.

Okay, I’ve seriously been slacking. Time to write a week’s worth of updates! 

June 11th

Back to the museum! On Monday, we were given topics to write about that related to ancient  Cyprus. The museum is looking to add this info to their website within the next year, and they’re even thinking about putting together a written publication. This means that my little blurbs about Cyprus could end up in an actual museum publication! Holy crap! 

I chose to write about “Trade and Contacts with East and West in the Prehistoric Period.” Let me tell you, those Cypriots sure had an extensive maritime trade network. There was a lot of information that I had to condense and write summaries of. Doing that pretty much took up my whole day. 

June 12th

Tuesday was absolutely amazing. Mimika had arranged for Dakota, Haley (the other intern), and me to meet the curator of the Antikythera Shipwreck exhibit at the National Museum, where she’d give us a personal tour! Dakota and I met Haley at the Cycladic Museum, and then we trekked to the National Museum from there, which was about a thirty minute walk. We ventured through Omonia, which is the sketchiest district in central Athens, apparently. But, it was broad daylight, and there were three of us, so we were okay. I actually kind of liked Omonia and would love to go back and take good photos there. But there are anarchists there…supposedly. Everyone keeps warning us about them.

The National Museum is absolutely GIGANTIC! It was a bit daunting, actually. We were told to go around the side to the office entrance, where we would meet the curator, Christina Avronidaki. However, we couldn't find said entrance, so we walked through the front. We told them we were to meet with Dr. Avronidaki, but they had no idea what we were going on about. So…we had to go back around and locate the office, which we finally did. 

We were introduced to Christina, who’s a very nice woman. She gave us special passes that gave us free reign of the museum. I mean, with our special passes from the Greek government, we’d be able to get in for free anyway, but I digress…

I almost cried during the tour of the Antikythera exhibition. It was just so amazing; I’ve been reading about the wreck (and the Mechanism, of course!) for YEARS, and to finally see it was one of the best experiences I’ve had to this day. The so-called Antikythera Mechanism was way smaller than I thought it’d be! It was smaller than my head (and I have a pretty small head). I always had it in my mind that it would be some huge device, but it wasn’t at all! I felt almost as cheated as I felt when I saw how small the Kritios Boy is…my other favourite part of the exhibit was the marble sculptures. They are definitely a sight to be seen. Where they were buried in sediment on the sea floor, they were pristine. However, where they were exposed, they looked all “corroded.” It was extremely eerie, but also SO COOL. I’ll upload some pictures later. 

After we said goodbye to Christina, we wandered around the museum for another hour and a half. Just like at the Acropolis Museum, I saw so many pieces that I’d already seen in textbooks. Seeing them up close and personal, though, was something else. I managed to humiliate myself, however. I wanted to pose with one of my favourite pieces of sculpture, the Artemision Zeus/Poseidon. As soon as I tried that, a guy from the museum started flipping a shit and causing a scene. Awkward…you see, in situations like this, I laugh when under pressure. That just made it worse. Needless to say, I left that room as soon as possible. 

Other highlights included seeing the golden death mask of “Agamemnon” from Mycenae as well as the National Museum’s collection of Cycladic Art. We then went to turn in our badges, and we did so by sneaking through a gap in the back wall of the Antikythera exhibit. Like a boss. 

After we left the museum, we stopped at a café in Omonia. It was really nice to unwind and get to know Haley a bit better. We had an interesting conversation about our interests in art, and Dakota and I talked about archaeology. Then, we parted ways since Haley had to go back to her apartment at 1:30. Dakota and I tried to find the Numismatic Museum and got pretty turned around. I wanted to give up since the bandaids I’d put on my toes kept falling off. Result: bleeding blisters on my pinky toes. Ouch. But, we eventually found it and toured the collection. The house was absolutely beautiful, except for one tiny little detail: swastikas. Everywhere. Swastikas on the floor mosaics…swastikas on the walls…oy vey. Later, we learned that the house belonged to Heinrich Schliemann for a time. That explains everything. If you know anything about classical archaeology, it’ll make sense to you, too. But the coin collection itself was quite impressive once you put the swastikas out of your mind. I do have to say that coins aren’t really my thing, though. I understand their importance to finding the chronology of a site, but studying them isn’t really something I’d want to do. 

Dakota and I split up near the Cycladic Museum. She needed to send some postcards, and I wanted to head back to the BSA to disinfect my blisters. Fun. Right near the BSA, though, I walked past a dead kitten. That totally ruined my mood. :(

That night, Dakota went out with her friend from Bryn Mawr who happened to be in Athens for the week. I just hung out. It was a pretty long day, after all.

June 13th

Wednesday was our last day at the Cycladic Museum before heading to Patras for two weeks. At breakfast, we heard some pretty hilarious stories from Alice about the time she spent working at the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. Apparently, the guy who played Watson got fired for being racist, tries to hide the fact that he’s from New Zealand, and took voice lessons to lose his Kiwi accent and sound British. He sounds like a winner. And then the guy who plays Sherlock won’t answer to anything but “Sherlock,” so his true identity is a mystery. Great stuff.

At the museum, we sent our summaries on our topics to Mimika as soon as we arrived. A short time later, she called us into her office and proceeded to tell us how absolutely astounded she was by how well we wrote! She couldn’t believe that we’d only been in college for two years and said that that post graduate Greek students could hardly write summaries that well. Thanks, Bryn Mawr Archaeology Department! I knew your extremely high standards were good for something! Basically, I felt happy for the rest of the day just knowing how highly she thought of us. I then moved onto a new topic to write about. This time, I chose the history of writing in ancient Cyprus. It was very interesting indeed! 

We headed out to get lunch at 1. Both of us got tiropita and had our meals back at the office. It was pretty sweltering in there. Mimika then told us that another curator, Maria (who’d given us a tour of the museum’s Cycladic collection), was absolutely frantic and needed our help! Sasha and Dakota to the rescue! It turns out that she needed our help to write tweets for the museum’s Twitter. So, we spent the rest of the day coming up with the best tweets ever in Haley’s air-conditioned office.  When they get posted eventually, EVERYONE will be flocking to the museum. There was one that I wanted to put in about Nero and the violin-shaped people figurines, but it was probably better that I didn’t…

That concluded our first leg of our internship. We said goodbye to Mimika and headed back to the BSA to pack (supposedly). We bought laundry detergent on the way because we planned to wash our clothes before leaving. That never happened, and we figured we’d just wash our clothes in the hotel bathtub in Patras. Euro 2012 was on…

June 14th

Off to Patras! Well, first I had to finish packing. It was a bit of a disaster. How the hell am I gonna manage next time? When everything was stuffed into my bags, we left the BSA and took a cab to the bus station. What a busy place! There, we called Konstantinos “Kostas” Paschalidis, who was going to be our guide/“boss” in Patras. He’s one of the guys in charge at the dig site and is a curator at the National Museum. 

Our bus left at 12:30. I wanted to stay awake and look at all the scenery, but that just didn’t happen. I took a much-needed nap at around 1:00 and woke up around 1:45. Okay, so it wasn’t much of a nap. We pulled into Patras at 3:20, which was a bit later than we should have, but that was okay. We got there intact! 

We met Kostas at the bus station. He’s a really cool dude. Hilarious, actually. He has a cute little hatchback from the 80s that just barely managed to fit our luggage. Score! We then arrived at the hotel. It’s so nice! Our room’s a bit small, but it’s really cool because it has the best wallpaper ever. Pictures will follow. And about the laundry situation…there’s no bathtub. Still have to figure out what to do about that. The sink’s a bit shallow…

At 8, we went to the lobby to meet Dr. Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki. She’s the head curator of the Prehistoric Collection at the National Museum and has been working at the dig site since the excavation started in 2008. She introduced us to the two post-grad students we’d be working with, Katarina and Panagiotis. Kostas was a bit late, but then we headed out when he arrived. We went up to the square near the hotel and went to a cute little café. I ate so much (I’d only had a Luna Bar at the bus station) salad, and I even tried a spinach-type dish that I really enjoyed. I shared an eggplant with Dakota, and Lena shared her onion pie with us. I also ate a ton of olives, since those are really growing on me. Oh, and I had two glasses of white wine. That was fun. 

The conversation was mostly in Greek, but occasionally Dakota and I were included. Kostas translated some stuff for us. I was very slightly buzzed at that point, so I didn’t really mind that we didn’t have to talk as much. Then came the dessert platter. Oh my god…heaven. We left at 10, at which point the cafe (and the streets) were absolutely bustling! Things really come alive in Europe after 8PM. But we were too tired to do anything else, so we went to sleep after we got to the hotel. We had to be up at 7 to go to the dig! 

June 15th

Happy birthday to my husband, Tim Lincecum! 

Ahem. Anyway. We woke up at 7, which was kind of difficult. I took a lightning-fast shower, which helped wake me up a bit. Then I slathered myself in sunblock/bug spray. Breakfast started at 7:30. Dakota and I met Kostas, ate, and left the hotel at 7:50. Then, we headed to the dig site. It’s about five kilometres from our hotel and up a lot of winding roads. At one point, it becomes all dirt and gravel, and it gets really bumpy. I’ve never been on a road where only inches separated you from safety and certain death by falling off a mountainside. It was crazy. But Kostas playing Greek music from the 60s-80s was a fun perk. He made a habit of telling us when certain songs were from. “Yes, this is early 80s." 

We got to the end of the road, where we met Katarina and Panagiotis. We then had to hike a few hundred metres to the site itself. I immediately managed to tumble down a steep slope. I scratched my leg up pretty well, but I felt awesome. First battle wound! I later figured out my contacts were behind every little stumble I had. My left one was bothering me, so it screwed with my depth perception. Also, I have pretty flimsy ankles. 

Kostas gave us a tour of the site when we arrived. He introduced us to the workmen, but none of them speak English. I was immediately blown away by the view. From the hill (which is more like a really small mountain), you can see the whole city of Patras, as well as the Ionian Sea! I can only imagine how beautiful the sunset would be from up there. The background noise was a lot of cowbells ringing and roosters crowing. On an opposite hill, there’s a weird family who gets all defensive if you try to go near them. Turns out the National Archaeological Service is renting the hill we’re working on from them, but they don’t like it. The cowbells grew closer, and it turns out that they belonged to goats. Kostas doesn’t like the goats because they go to the bathroom on the site. 

The settlement is from the Mycenaean civilisation and probably dates to around 1500 BCE. It was incredible standing on floors so old. The upper part of the site has the remnants of what could’ve been an Archaic Temple (so, maybe 6th-5th centuries BCE). Lena told us that it may just be one of the oldest Greek temples EVER.  And I got to stand on its column bases! It also has an apsidal structure and what appears to be a destruction deposit. Kostas was working more in the lower level, however. That’s where a bunch of walls have been found. I got to stand in actual Mycenaean ROOMS. It was so amazing to be surrounded by so much history (or prehistory, if you’d prefer). We didn’t do much after the tour, but Katarina taught us how to distinguish pot sherds from rocks. As the workers were shovelling dirt into a wheelbarrow, we went through the dirt looking for sherds. More often than not, we heard Katarina say, "that’s a rock.” “Yep, that’s a rock.” “Rock.” “Petra.” We did find some sherds, however, so it wasn’t a total failure. Then, we watched the workers uncover more of the wall in square Θ17 (we learned about all the site divisions and how to classify objects). 

At 11:30, we had lunch in the “air conditioned” place, as Kostas calls it. It’s a small grove of trees that provides shade and a nice breeze. I only had a granola bar, but I shared it with Dakota. Panagiotis had a few breadsticks that he shared with us. We’d definitely have to buy our own food.

The day continued much like that. When I was on the upper part of the site with Dakota, Kostas came up and said, “Sasha, I think I found something of yours!” It turns out he had my left contact lens. No wonder I’d stopped rubbing my left eye! They found it on Wall 2. Who knew that the Mycenaeans had advanced contact lens technology? Basically, we had to put it in a baggy with water, like a goldfish, if we wanted to save it. Its shape was a bit wonky, but it looked normal after it got hydrated. So, that was fun. 

Among the day’s finds were a very tiny bronze ring found in the upper part and then some later, Archaic pot sherds on the lower part. You could tell because of the glossy black glaze. Kostas got so annoyed and was like, “GET OUT OF MY SITE!” It was pretty hilarious. Oh, Archaic pottery…why you in a Mycenaean layer? 

We left at 2:15, and I managed not to trip on anything else on the way back to the car. Score! Once back in the hotel, we showered. Oh, that was much needed. Then, Dakota and I took a nap until about 8, when we headed down to the city’s wharf. Patras is a really nice city. It’s much smaller than Athens, but it is still pretty lively. The docks were full of people as the sun began to set. I’d laid eyes on one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Pictures to come. We then headed to a market to buy lunch food for the next two weeks. Peanut butter jelly time!!! After dropping our food at the hotel, we went out to eat back down by the sea. We found a place where I had a salad and a veggie burger. Let me tell you, that was one of the best veggie burgers I’d ever had. Omnomnomnom. 

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, watched Euro 2012, and slept.

June 16th

Had to wake up again at 7. We ate breakfast with Kostas and then went back to the dig. Working on a Saturday, hellz yeah! 

This time, I didn’t fall on the way to the site. I think it’s because I was actually wearing glasses. Either that, or I was just extremely excited because we were gonna excavate a pot of our very own! We’d be real archaeologists! 

When we got to the site, Kostas gave us a bunch of tools and brought us to the room where the pot was. Katarina told us how to work around the pot so we wouldn’t break it, and we started to excavate. We were so excited. I may have been singing the theme song from the movie “Holes,” but it was totally necessary. YOU GOT TO DIG THEM HOLES. 

About a half hour in, we’d already exposed a lot of the pot. We were talking about how it should go into a museum and how our names would be attached to it. So exciting. But then, Kostas had to come and burst our bubble…

The pot was a lie.

Well, it really was an ancient Mycenaean pot, but it’s one they rebury every year for the next season’s Bryn Mawr students. Bummer! Kostas called it “Persephone,” because it goes to ground for about six months every year. 

For the rest of the day, we watched the workers uncover more of a wall. We did help Panagiotis, though. He showed us how to find walls and use a brush to expose stones. He then had the idea after lunch for us to do a little bit of surveying. Of course, that wasn’t necessarily allowed, but whatever. After lunch, we went down a really steep slope that had a goat path. We’re not goats, though, so it was a bit of a tricky descent. We ended up in a rocky field full of a plant known as “donkey thorns.” They’re a really interesting looking flower, kind of alien-like. Basically, we found a bunch of sherds. We didn’t take that many back up, but Kostas found some Corinthian-style roof tiles! Those are from the 5th century BCE, so they’re way post-Mycenaean. The climb back up was a bit more difficult because it was so steep. A plant stabbed my leg, which I didn’t appreciate. It was also 104º F, but what can ya do? 

Then, we classified some more pot sherds with Katarina and wandered between the two levels of the site. We left at 2 because Kostas and Lena had to drive back to Athens to vote. That’s kind of annoying that they had to drive three hours, but this is an extremely important election.

That night, Dakota and I went back down to the wharf and watched the sunset. Then, we went to dinner at the same place we went to the previous night. Mmm, veggie burger. We watched the Euro 2012 game because it was Greece vs. Russia. It was a really intense game, but we left just before halftime to get froyo. 

On our walk back to the hotel, we heard a shit ton of screaming. It seemed as though there were a riot starting! But, it just turns out that Greece had scored a goal. Crazy, man. We got a bit lost on the way back, but we managed. I turned the TV on when we got to the room and watched the rest of the game while Dakota skyped her friends. 

GREECE WON. 

And then the honking and shouting didn’t stop until 2 AM. Greece, you DRUNK. It’s just the quarterfinals. But they weren’t expecting to beat Russia, so…I guess that’s okay. I wonder how it’s gonna be for the elections today. 

June 17th

Woke up at 5 AM to watch the Giants game. I hoped Timmy would turn it around in Seattle. After giving up two homers in the first, he settled down. And then we came back and scored 4 runs for him. But then I fell asleep, and when I woke up, the game was tied in the 6th inning (or maybe the 5th). A relief pitcher was in, so I was confused. But I was too tired, and I fell back asleep.

Woke up for real at 12:30. My leg was really hurting from pulling a muscle when I fell a few days ago. My calf is just really tight. Anyway, we walked up the hill to see the Byzantine fortress, but it was closed. Boooooo. 

Dakota and I split up, and I got lunch at the café we went to a few nights ago. I had a huge salad and fourteen olives. I’m an olive fiend.

After lunch, I took a photo walk. I think I got some good pictures. 

Then I got back to the hotel. And now here I am, trying to write blog entries. 

Remind me not to slack for this long ever again lol. 

THE END (for now)