Buongiorno!!

Hello from Italia! The trip has been fantastic so far. After an extremely loooong day of traveling, I finally arrived at Camping Zeus. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but out camp grounds are literally a 2 minute walk from the entrance to Pompei. Our tents are set up in an orange grove, which is beautiful but makes for lots of ants everywhere. It's an experience.
I'm starting to settle into the routine of the group. We wake up and leave at 730 every morning to get an espresso or cappuccino and the cafe up the street. Then we walk up the hill to the different sites we are working on. We work all morning, have lunch, clean pottery or sort ecofacts, and then leave at around 6 to go make dinner and hang out in the camp. And it is all done in the actual ruins of the city. Its a long, but wonderful day! I'm still not over the awe of looking up to see Vesuvius or Capri or the remains of a set of stairs or a 2000 year old piece of pottery.
Other than me and the other intern, everyone else on the team has been working on this project for at least 3 years. They are all extremely helpful and great about showing us the ropes. I've been memorizing different types of construction build for walls, how to identify ancient vs modern reconstructions of edifices, how to analyze and document structures and pottery, how to identify ecofacts in flot, and on and on. I learned how to survey an area using a total station yesterday to make a digital 3D model of the sites we are working on. You have to learn quickly and hope that you can retain everything.
Our director gave us a lengthy tour of the city on the first day. We walked around for about 9 hours, and I still don't feel like I saw everything. There are so many houses to see and paintings to gawk over. Maybe I'll get around to everything in 5 weeks. We shall see!
The people here are really nice too. Everyone on the project has been here for so long that the people living in Pompei know the VCP very well. It makes living here and learning Italian much easier and more interesting.



I remembered the city being beautiful, but the longer I'm here the more I love it.

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

"All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go..."

I'm sitting in the airport about to board my first flight out of Little Rock! All of my bags are packed, and I really am ready to go! Stupid me forgot to take my laptop out of my backpack going through security, so I've already had a minor run-in with the law...bodes well for the trip haha. On to Charlotte then Paris then Naples then Pompei...it's going to be a long day, but here goes nothing!!!

___

In Charlotte! I'm the only one at my gate, but it happens to be directly next to a stocked bar with both World Cup games on. Win? I think so! Hello Corona Light and GO NETHERLANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts and Such

Leaving tomorrow!! I talked to our Project Coordinator today! She is already at Pompeii waiting for everyone to arrive! I'm still a little shocked to be actually going, but I guess it's time. If you want to know more about the project I'll be working on, here's the site. Read away!

Via Consolare Project:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~pompeii/