Aditu Field School- 1-7 Aug 2017

PC: Mae Stace
Week 1 has ended and per usual, flown by.

 I arrived in Bilbao after 3 flights around 11 am (6 am back home) absolutely exhausted.  But sticking to my schedule I grabbed my luggage and bought my first bus ticket to the Bilbao bus stop from the airport. After I arrived to the first station I had to purchase a second ticket to get to Vitoria-Gastiez and then a third ticket to finally arrive in Uharte.  Let me tell you- my Spanish was very elementary but I made it through on the little I know!



Meeting in the town center I ran into Stevie (Vermont), another girl going to the same field school, and we decided to stick together to meet our ride.  The ride up to the San Miguel Sanctuary was a long windy one lane road to the tippy too of the mountain. We are so high up that we are above the clouds and it looks like a sea of fluffiness on a cloudy day.  Standing at the edge we can look down on the hawks scavenging for food.

The accommodations I am staying at is a refurbished hotel that is attached to the esteemed San Miguel Sanctuary. The regional catholics are well known in the Catholic community with the current Pope being trained by Basque church leaders. It is very interesting because they tend to stray away from what are normally stereotypical catholic mentalities.  It is a more liberal mindset and helps to explain why the current Pope is so open minded.

On Sunday we had the opportunity to observe a traditional mass. The service lasted only an hour and mostly consisted of vocal music, the priest had a wonderful voice and there were tons of harmonies being sung- I was very impressed!
Sunday evenings are off so a few of us went to the refuge for a burger and a beer just to get to know each other a lit bit better.

I have two room mates for the next few weeks, Kelly is from California and Tessa is from England. There is also a girl here that did the internship program at the FAC so I recognize her from our paths crossing earlier this summer.  It is crazy to think how big the world is and that I can still run into people I have met before!

Our work days start off at 8:30 every morning, normally starting at the excavation site. We work until our tea break at 10:30 and after a short break go back to work.  Lunch has been delicious sandwiches made of white baguettes and fresh fruit so there are no complaints there! After lunch is lecture and then we go back to work, depending on the weather back outside or doing lab work.  San Miguel is a very popular hiking and tourist spot so there are generally people filtering in and out the area. Many are curious and stop and watch us work or will ask about the site. It is odd to be watched but it excites me that others are just as interested in the regions rich history as I am.

There is no way that I am going to have my normal summer weight loss because we are fed a traditional three course meal every single night! I am attempting to try as many traditional meals as I can while I am here but some take a little bit of courage to attempt.  All of the fish is fresh so it is served with the bones still in and the head looking right back at you.  The meat is also cooked quite rare. When  I ordered a flank of pork chop a few nights ago and tried to eat as much as possible but could only do so much, it was practically still moo-ing.

Monday could not have come quick enough because it has been chilly and rainy the past two days. Since the site was too wet to work on we had to spend the days inside working on learning how to quickly and accurately sketch the skeletons and how to clean very old bones.  It is much different than the methods we use at the FAC, everything is so much more fragile that any method we would use back in Tennessee would obliterate the bones.


We ended up using the day off to hike down to the village that we are staying at. The hike took about an hour and a half and was very steep. The fog rolled in thick and fast and we probably should have waited a little longer for it to pass.  Unfortunately the taxi could only pick us up at 1:15 (there are only 2 in the entire town!) so we had to just get the things we needed and head back up to the sanctuary.

Next week a group of us are going to be taking a short bus ride to Pamplona to explore the city and do some touristy things!  I am also unable to take a lot of pictures throughout the normal work week but am going to be taking a lot on my weekend excursions.  I feel like I am forgetting a lot of details and will try and do better this upcoming week- I have already started a little note on my phone to jot down the main points!



PC: Mae Stace

Comments

  1. Hi Erin! We enjoyed your latest narrative. You make it very interesting, and love the photos too. What an adventure! Be safe and we'll be waiting for your next posting. Love you! Gram and Gramp😘

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  2. GO ERIN!!! This is so fun and I can't wait to hear even more in person!!

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