Sorry for the delay on these...I've been busy. Since we got a few extra days in Hanoi, I got to go around the city more and do some shopping and exploring. Myself and a few others went to the Old Quarters where most of the shopping is. The streets are organized in the sense that each street sells the same stuff - silk/fabrics, jewelry, etc. Being without a decent map (the hotel one ) and being without a guidebook on this trip, we wandered around kind of aimlessly until we came to shops that interested us. After shopping we went to see the Ngoc Son Temple (Temple of the Jade Mountain), which is on a small island in the middle of the Hoan Kiem Lake. There's a variation of "The sword in the stone" King Arthur ... read more

While traveling to our site, we stop in a few cities on the way there. Going from Hawaii to northern Vietnam via military transit is different, but is nice because you don't have to worry about the smaller travel details (or any travel details, besides showing up on time). The other nice part of traveling military air, is that you're in a big cargo place (C-17), so once you have reached altitude you can crash on your sleeping bag/air mattress on the floor. Anyway, we stop in Guam to refuel, then spend a night in Pattaya, Thailand, and another night in Hanoi, Vietnam, and then teams split off to go to their final destination. We were put on a helicopter (Mi-17), which was not as awful as I had anticipated. It was cloudy, so we didn't ... read more

Although I don't usually post anything when I've visited places in the states, the next couple months will be different since I am working in Hawaii! I have been to Hawaii before - about 4 years ago, and did a few tourist things around the island (O'ahu). This time, since I have a bit of money to work with, I hope to do more! Even if my fun is restricted to the weekends, it will be a good time. Thus far, I've been able to go to Wakiki beach (which I can walk to from my house), Diamond Head Crater, Koko Head Crater, and Kaua'i. Besides drinking Mai Tais and going to the beach, I do actually have to work during the week.... bummer. I'll be in Hawaii until late October - then shipping off to ... read more

Finishing up during the last few days in the field always involves lots of drawing (which I had to do two trench section drawings by myself... I was very glad to be done), photos, and brushing. The excursion we went on a few weeks ago was to a few other archaeology sites, and apparently I had already been to them in Cappadocia, but it's always better when you get a guided tour from the site director. Sorry for the delay on getting this up... due to the semester starting and other issues it took a little while to get this together. Panoramic picture is from the dig house on our site. Not too much else to say other than we ended on time this year. The big finds for our team would be finding our first ... read more

Today I had booked a second day tour with Rock Valley Tour group, which I have been very pleased with the service they have for the price. A lot of the tours here are run in big bus groups with one tour guide for 45-50 people! Today's group was a Japanese women traveling the world for the next year, and a family from Alfred, NY! They are the first Americans I have run into in the last week here, and they happen to be from western NY. Our tour started with the Derinkuyu underground city, which is the biggest underground city in this region. It was pretty cool - both temperature wise and site seeing wise. This underground city goes down 85 meters - or approximately 280 feet. The earliest parts of these undergrounds cities were ... read more