This week has been insanely busy. Press coverage is starting to ramp up, with the first bit of coverage coming from "Trouw," a Dutch periodical. You can view the article here, but you might need to translate it from Dutch: https://www.trouw.nl/es-bb76da1f
A photo of me was even used on their website main page as the story grab:
In the article itself, my pic appears in the second photo, though it's just my hat, and in the background of pic 4. This week, NOS Dutch National News spent two days on-site with us for a story that will air in the Netherlands at 8 pm this Saturday (I think that's 2 pm EST in the US). There are other press-related things in the works, from what I understand.
We work our asses off during the day, so downtime is important.
Every morning starts with a briefing before heading into the field.
Most days we can't set up our shade tents due to the wind gusts, coupled with our proximity to an active runway.
To wind down a little, we took a nice excursion to The Quill Gardens for dinner last week, which has an amazing view and even more amazing food. I also had the best damned gin & tonic of my life there. That's not an exaggeration- it was AMAZING. Just look at it. Seriously. Look at it and tell me it doesn't look delicious:
You want one now, don't you? I know I do.
We clean up well, huh? My hair is so unruly now that I have to wear a hat, lest I look like
one of the hundreds of stray dogs on the island.
We're all history geeks here and we embrace it. We wouldn't be here otherwise. Last Wednesday (May 19) was our first weekly session of "Boozy Scholars." I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but it was a smashing success. The core tenet of Boozy Scholars is that we all have to present a historical or scientific topic of interest to each other. As the name suggests, we have to have a little buzz when we do it. There are no other rules, except to drink shots of the cheapest rum we can find on the island before each session. I presented on archaeological illustration, naturally. I just showed my web portfolio with a little narrative on some of the different projects that I've worked on. Everyone's presentations have been fantastic and hilarious. Topics ranged from pottery analysis to the island's reforestation program; from dental calculus to Statia's coral nursery off the coast of Crooks Castle. Last night (May 26) was our second installment.
Snacks, booze, and (sort of) learning.
As I mentioned in the last blog entry, we planned to hike The Quill last weekend, and we did. If I learned anything that day, it's how out of shape I am- especially compared to people almost half my age. I leave you with this image of me sitting at the edge of the volcano.
Don't let my smile fool you. I was so overexerted that I could feel my
pulse in my eardrums.