Nijmegen

My first week in Nijmegen has been pretty eventful, and the other girls and I are finally getting our bearings. Today I went into town by myself and rode around for a while, taking in the sites, and managed to know where I was the entire time. Small victories.

Monday Lindsey and I rode to work with Marike. Our "flight attendent," Jerome (pronounced Yeroom) showed us around the Archaeology Bureau's office and then took us around the city. We picked up the other two girls, Jess and Laura, from the train station, and then went to buy groceries. I should mention that at this time we were starving; Lindsey and I hadn't eaten since the small breakfast on the plane Sunday morning. Nobody seemed to think we might be hungry or willing to tell or drive us to a restaurant that day. So we stocked up on groceries. Monday night we all went in search of a restaurant in our village of Lent, but all we found was a small pub where we met Hank, the owner who spoke no English. We decided visiting Hank would become our Monday Night Ritual.

Tuesday was our first day of real work. Lindsey and I cleaned bones from a monastery all day and the other girls washed pot shards. We were in a huge room in the office called the depot, where they store all of the finds. It reminded me of the giant storage area where the arc is stowed in Raiders of the Lost Arc, and every time we go in we're hit by the smell of ancient stuff.

Wednesday was our first "field day." All four of us were taken by Jerome to a site in a residential area of the city, where they have to excavate before some buildings go up. It was the center of the Roman city, so while we were measuring heights all day Jerome would find pieces of terra sigliata, a type of red pottery that kind of looks like plastic, to give to us. The field day was okay and I think it will get better once we start digging. We were a little unclear at first as to why we were walking around with giant rolls of tape measure and a camera taking numbers down, but Jerome explained that we had to measure the height so the bureau would know if they had to charge more for their services.

Thursday we got our bikes. Lindsey and I washed pottery all morning, and then went with a guy to some of the other digging sites around the city. At one, where a parking garage will go up, they were in the process of digging out a grave. It is actually an ash box, as cremation was popular at that time, and the stone was imported from Belgium or France. It was really neat to see that, and we had to wear our hard hats for the first time. That night they basically said, "here are two bikes, find your way home." Yeah. We got lost for two hours. After riding two to a bike for a while and then deciding we had no idea where we were and stopping for ice cream, we walked. After asking for directions, we finally found the city center. Then I remembered that somewhere on the map was a park called Kroningburger Park, and near it was an Irish pub called The Shamrock. We had been walking for hours. We were dirty, sweaty, thirsty, starving, and pissed off. Needless to say, the lure of the pub called to us, and we found our way their suprisingly fast. And so a bad night was turned into a good one.

Friday morning Lindsey and I rode to the office, and then discovered that Marike had gone back for the other two and taken them to buy their own bikes. They came walking in with kiddie bikes in tow and slightly angry looks on their faces, but it all works out. That morning was spent with Louis in the depot, sorting rocks and pottery and learning to tell the different types of stuff. That afternoon Floris, one of our collegues, took us on a walking tour of the city. We went to the oldest brewerey in Nijmegen and walked the city center and the Grotemarkt. Floris is a worker at the museum in town, and restores old metal, so he took us to the park near the museum, and yesterday lindsey and I visited it. The museum was awesome, full of everything from archaeological artifacts to classical dutch paintings to modern art. Friday night we also went out on the town and found a really awesome club called the Underground, which didnt even get hopping until about 1 in the morning. Bars here close a lot later than in Iowa, needless to say.

And that brings me to today. It was a lazy day, and we all kind of went our separate ways about the city.

---

---