What is average? The average day is 24 hours. The average meal is protein, carbs, veggies, fruits, and a little bit of oil. The average amount of dirt you move each day is little to none. If you wanted a blog post where all of this is true, then you have yourself in for a special surprise because none of these facts are true, at least, not when you are interning in Gazipasa, Turkey for archeological excavation. Especially in week three, routine is quite out of the ordinary.
First of all, let’s get something straight: a day is not 24 hours. It’s 48 hours. It starts at 5 in the morning when I hear the not too distant garble of phone noises. Probably the second worst part of the day is getting up and waiting for the van. I do not recommend it. Then comes the worst part by far: riding in the bus for 45 minutes. I’ve heard rumors that it is actually 15, but it definitely feels like an hour. As the morning progresses to be slightly more entertaining, wasps proceed to besiege breakfast while we curse at them and watch Patrick hack away at the carcasses he has mutilated with a fork. At this point it feels like 12 hours into the day. But once we get to the acropolis, it starts to get more interesting.
Digging in the sun all morning would normally sound like the worst part of the day, but in AC Unit 2, where the ground is fertile with stones and barren of walls, the most common thing I find is soil. Unfortunately, the most relevant piece of anything that Unit 2 has to offer is the packed pocket of pottery positioned between bedrock. Thanks to the advances of modern technology, we will be able to date the building to the west of Unit 2 a lot more accurately. Occasionally a piece of something other than a rock or pottery, like a part of a column will be part of wall-fall, but other than that, pottery, glass, and nails are the big finds for Unit 2.
Snack time is the best part of the first 24 hours: eating nuts, chips, tea, water, Powerade, … is super refreshing, and just enough to motivate me to hike up the acropolis again. Then digging for the second time doesn’t feel so monotonous.
Finishing up the first 24 hours is lunch, which consists of 60% rice, 20% bread, and 20% other, including 10% oil and 5% meat, except for chicken day on Fridays; then it balances out better.
Napping on the van on the way back to the apartment is what makes the days feel longer, hence the 48 hour days. The first thing the guys do when we get back is get into the pool: by far the best part of the day. Of course, to balance out the serenity of the pool, pottery time goes from 4:30 to 6:30, if we are drawing; 4:30 – 7 if we are washing. Drawing is fine since you can easily get distracted with a piece that seems impossible, and in fact is. Washing, though is where you have to deal with talking and interacting with people while bending awkwardly so you can get your hands in the muddy kiddie pools to properly wash the pottery which was just handed to you. Thank goodness there is dinner because otherwise we would be washing until we broke the brushes.
By far the best meal, dinner is much nicer than lunch and light years better than breakfast. You get to sit in the shade of the dig house, eating more rice and other delicious Turkish food. Then it is notebook time, which is basically a version of this post, only limited to digging part of the day and in much more detail, much more. Then the walk from the dig house back to the apartment is just the most friendly reminder that the day was just one in a sea of many. That’s when you realize that a month is approximately 1440 hours long but still 30 days. Make sure you get at least 5 hours of sleep and lots of water, and cacophony will be here to wake you up at 5 again before you know it.