The advice I would offer to future people on the trip is to bring goggles. You will go to beautiful clear water with fish, and cool rocks: its worth having a way to see below the waves. One of my most memorable moments was swimming fifteen minutes out from Bidi Bidi Beach (definitely go there) and using goggles to look under water and I saw a school of small yellow fish and massive beautiful rocks. The water is so clear in the Mediterranean that with goggles you can see so much.
After this excavation I plan to return to another dig; there is something so special and memorable about being able to uncover an item or building lost to history. I am considering trying a medieval dig either the summer before my junior or senior year. While at Site I got to meet a women who specializes in Medieval archaeology and she gave me some recommendations to look at.
I have learned so much from the people at site, having the chance to be at a hub of professionals from all different sectors of archaeology was an invaluable opportunity. I had the chance to work with a professional here who taught me to use a total station. With the total station I helped take measurements at different excavation areas of the site to create a plan. I also learned more about potential avenues I could peruse following my architecture interests. One of my most memorable happened while assisting with the total station at the acropolis, while measuring the castle above pirates cove. We waited up at the acropolis for about an hour setting up and tracking, in the early morning. The view from the top and the rumbling of the waves below will always remain in my mind.
My perspective has been shifted in a lot of different ways. I am certainly a different person now than when I left. One important factor that changed my perspective I think, is the people I met not from St.Olaf. The Oles here were great and I have made many friends with them but we all came from a similar background: we are oles. However meeting and rooming with people from all over the world really expanded my perspective on difficult countries, and academics. I learned more about how differently academics work outside the US. I also got to meet professionals who practiced classical archaeology as opposed to post-processual archaeology: it was fascinating to see the older methods in practice and how they differed. Being at site definitely confirmed that I want to peruse higher academia and travel more: I am still unsure If I want to do archaeology or an adjacent field like another anthropological pursuit or historic preservation.
