First week in Durham

A LOT has happened this week, and yet it doesn't feel like very much.

Let's see...

Monday was spent with the Archaeology Department Induction and the Social Sciences Induction.

They were scheduled at the same time.

Needless to say, I gave Archaeology first go and then caught the last half of Social Sciences.

They both were really helpful.  I am absolutely amazed at the resources and opportunities that they have for their post-graduate students here.  I am used to being accepted and then a combination of being ignored and being hounded by my department.  I loved BYU but it is amazing what can happen when a department has a well-managed structure in place.

You need structure to grow and they have it here in spades.

Tuesday was spent at college induction talks, getting some minor shopping done in the Market area, and exploring a bit.

In the evening I went to the department party for a few minutes.  It really crowded and unbearably hot pretty quickly.  Despite that, I met some really interesting people and really enjoyed myself.

Wednesday I matriculated for the university.

That was SUPER cool.

In the morning I went to Gray & Sons to purchase my formal robes.

Bring it on Hogwarts.

I also experienced my first REAL Durham rain.

It was lovely.

After lunch on Wednesday I met with my main supervisor and she gave me a tour of the department.

It is huge...and amazing...and I am really excited.

She is very kind and it seems that I will have a great deal of control and freedom with her as my supervisor.  Considering everything, that is the best news I have heard in quite some time.

I finished the day at university matriculation in the awesome Durham Cathedral.

Long distance shot of the cathedral from one of my walks this week.

It was a lot of pomp and circumstance but absolutely awesome!

The speech by the vice-chancellor really inspired me and again spoke to my soul that I am exactly where I am meant to be.  It is a testament to me that God leads us when we listen because I would have never chosen this for myself and yet I can't see myself anywhere else.

It is a glorious feeling.

Thursday I attended a department induction meeting for the PG students in the morning.

After lunch I spent a good 2 hours shopping for necessities and wandering around Durham.  With the other walking I did that day I did about 3 hours total of just walking.

It is the best way to get to know a place and blow off some steam.

I walk about 45 minutes after breakfast, to any errands I have, and usually between 30 minutes to an hour in the evening to get a "brain break" after working all day.

It is glorious, and my legs are toughening up really quickly.

So things are coming along.

Next week will be a little mad as I meet with my supervisor, mentor, and bank but I am hoping things will calm down on the living necessities soon so I can get to my thesis.

I spent an hour this evening walking and hashing out ideas and I am rearing to get working.

Eucharist at Durham Cathedral and General Conference

This morning was pretty interesting.

Really cool, and really interesting.

This morning I walked my dressed up bum to Durham Cathedral to attend Eucharist.

I have never attended a service for another religion before and I was really excited for the experience.

Durham did not disappoint.

It could have been the surroundings,

 (crazy right?)

or the music, or the grand ceremony of it all, but I found it fascinating and lovely.

There was this great choir, beautiful prayers, and a lot of standing, kneeling, and group speaking.

It was all very new and old at the same time.

I was grateful for the experience.

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Everything here kind of reminds me of the service at the cathedral.

There is A LOT of "pomp and circumstance" attached to EVERYTHING.

In a way it is really nice, it really causes you to understand that you are a part of something with a history and a tradition.  It is definitely a motivator to carry on the greatness that came before you.

On the other hand, I have been grateful that General Conference is this weekend.

Despite the time difference I am able to watch it live (starting at 5pm).

I love the simplicity of the gospel and even the responsibility that is placed on us as disciples of Jesus Christ to seek out our divine heritage and mission.  It definitely is not thrown in your face but requires a great deal of work and effort - like any relationship and thing worth knowing does.

There is truth and wonderful people being led by the Spirit of God in every single corner of the globe.  During the service they would quote a scripture or discuss a concept and then say something along the lines of, "great is the mystery of faith".

At certain points it was slightly difficult for me when I could see things that were missing, lost, or changed.  Subtle words in the scriptures that would change or shade the meaning of the verse, conception of the Father and the Son and their mission, and a lack of...newness.  

For example, here is a quote from the first reading of The Liturgy of the Word:

"Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds." (Hebrews 1. 1-4)

We KNOW that God the Father speaks for himself and also through His son, Jesus Christ, has done so from the beginning, and continues to do so (think the First Vision of Joseph Smith).  This comes through both scripture and modern revelation.  They have ALWAYS given their word through prophets, and continue to do so. (Amos 3:7, Ephesians 2:19-20, etc.)

I have taken for granted the truth that has been so a part of my daily life.

This weekend is just another example of that.

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So, favorite part of the day?

Singing All Creatures of Our God and King, in a cathedral, at full voice.

Awe inspiring.

I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the knowledge that comes from studying the scriptures, participating in the ordinances of salvation, and having the opportunities to build the kingdom of God.

I hope that I may be worthy to hear the Spirit and the courage to be obedient.

Wow, this morning has been huge for me.

Cheers.

♥ ♥ ♥

Matriculation

Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination.

This morning I...matriculated...was matriculated...performed a matriculation...?  Can I use this word as a verb?  Anyway this morning I walked across the Baily, borrowed a black gown, qued alphabetically, and finally entered the several hundred year old St. John's Chapel to announce my name, sign THE book for St. John's College, and have my (borrowed) gown placed upon my shoulders.  It was all very old school and awesome.  Seriously USA, you gotta try for some more pomp and circumstance.

In other news I am still getting over jet lag...and by getting over I mean caught in the throws of insomnia and exhaustion that has taken over my existence.  It is only bad between the hours of 10 pm - 3 am and 3 pm - 6 pm.  I don't know why, but those are definitely the times.

I am going through my checklist of things to do before the madness starts.  It is so strange to feel like you totally belong somewhere but have absolutely no idea what you are doing.  Things are all a little off (culturally, linguistically, gastronomically) but I feel peace and I really am trying to face each challenge with courage.  Except for the beans with breakfast, I ran from that like a bat out of hell.  Thank goodness there are so many breakfast options here - tender mercy there.

The first 24 hours...

 Whew, I have arrived in Durham.

Right now, despite a few difficulties, I am counting my blessings.

1. I made all of my connecting flights.

Turns out I was one of the few from the group I was in.  I met another Archaeology PhD candidate in Newcastle.  She and several other people ran into issues in New York and were 2 hours late to London.  Because of that they were put on standby for their flights and were put in a later "welcome wagon".  She was put on my flight but the guy she met in London was not and had to wait for the next available flight.  So my journey was long and hard but I made it through and am very, very grateful.

2. All of my baggage arrived.

Guys, this is a big deal for me.  Granted, I cannot get into one of my suitcases.  I bought a cheap TSA lock at Wal-Mart and it broke...and I haven't been able to catch maintenance yet for their huge clippers.  But I will, and I will be able to get into my suitcase because it is in my room.  Yes.

Also, special thanks to Alex who will probably never read this.  We met on the bus, you helped carry my 50 lb. bag up 4 flights of stairs, a crazy narrow staircase, and into my room.  You are awesome and I owe you big time.

3. My room is in the attic.

If you are worried I am being sarcastic about this comment you would be very wrong.  My room is in the attic where they JUST BARELY renovated.  I have a room all to myself and it has some serious character.  It was boiling hot when I got in but it has a little wall of windows and it circulates the air quite nicely when opened.  I have to be careful though, yesterday a MASSIVE honey bee flew in and spent a good 30 minutes checking out the beams in my room for a nesting place.  Yeah, I shut those windows once he left.  Now they are just cracked.

The girl across the way says the rooms are glorious in the winter.  While the rest of the college freezes, we catch all of the rising heat in our cute little rooms.

This is only half of the room, it is much bigger than the picture makes it look.

The other great thing about the attic is that I am above tree level.  While there are no mountains in sight, I don't have that claustrophobic feeling.  Also, the view is quite fantastic.

Tender mercy number...five million and three.

4. I slept through the night.

Jet lag usually does not hit me until day two.  It is so exhausting to travel across the world that my body literally collapses from exhaustion.  This morning I woke up under my duvet with a slight chill in the room and a smile on my face.  That is a good start to the day.

5. There are a MILLION lovely things to see.

I spent the morning on walk-a-bout running errands and just looking around my new city.  I didn't go super far but I did cross the River Weir a few times to go to campus, market, and home.  I am in love with these surroundings.  They are beautiful.  

I also saw TONS of runners which made me think of the little Juan and my familia.  It was a beautiful day.

So there are my top five blessings in the last 24 hours.

New Adventures.

I really need to post more but life has been crazy.
Because it has been so long this post will be quite photo heavy...
...and very long.

Enjoy!

Let's see...since my last post we had:

November:

We had the family (immediate and extended) over for Thanksgiving.
That was super fun and warm enough to play outside a lot.

Don't worry Cita, you may not have any more babies but you do have a dog that acts like one.

I was glad that I was able to see my family for Thanksgiving because I left for Jordan over Christmas break in order to work on the survey.

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December:

Funny enough, it was colder in Jordan when I arrived than it was in Utah.

Crazy right?

I couldn't get over how beautiful the country is in the winter and have decided that if I ever run a dig there it will be in the winter - summer stinks.

This is the fog being burned off by the sunrise first thing in the morning in Amman.

The sky in Petra blew my mind.

The winter light, which is softer and not as harsh as the summer, showed so many new things I had not seen before.  

Every day was stunning, which was good because working on the thesis made me very out of shape and the hike was very, very hard for me this go around.

Also, there were puppies.

I love puppies!

As "the technical specialist and consultant" I trained Bruce, Cyndy, and Tahani on the GPS.

It actually went really well.

It also meant that Bruce was so excited he didn't want to do anything else.

:)

Good times.

On the night before Christmas Cyndy fell off of her donkey.

We were on the last steep staircase before the top (and the staircase is incredibly short).

She did not feel comfortable so she went to get off the donkey to walk it.

Unfortunately her hiking boots caught in the stirrup and she fell.

In falling her donkey got scared and moved forward pulling her leg pretty badly.

We sat there, on the trail for some time stretching her leg and calming her down.

Word made it up and down the mountain pretty quickly.

Haroon came down from his shop and called the tourist police.

First they wanted her to ride a donkey down...hahaha nope.

So, an ambulance guy and army guy came up with a stretcher and we all carried her down the mountain.

She was on house rest for the rest of the trip.

On the 26th, Bruce and I hiked back up to continue the survey.

I took my little nativity figure, a gift from Sisters Hunter and Beckstead.

The survey went much faster with just the two of us and we had a good time.

Bruce really loves the GPS unit and climbing all over kingdom come.

Like I said, I could not get over the sky and scenery.

I LOVED IT!!!

Near the end of our survey we spent a day with Haroon as our guide and climbed to one of the top of the mountains above Ad-Deir.

Because the old Nabataean route is washed out, our route was a bit more precarious.

It was a really good thing Cyndy was not there.

Pieces (stairs) of the route that had not washed out.

The view at the top.

There was a strange green haze over the Jordan valley.

The survey wasn't the only thing I did in Jordan.

I finished my edits for my first 3 chapters (in Petra, on my little netbook - good grief the best purchase I have ever made), and finalizing some other things for my thesis.

Oh, also I worked on my PhD research proposal and CV a bit.

This trip was ABSOLUTELY VITAL to deciding on my PhD research.

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January:

....no pictures.

January was spent recovering from jet lag, a cold, and finishing my thesis by the end of the month.

There were some interesting and miraculous things that happened but I won't get into them here.

Actually I get into them here.

Before the first of February I scheduled my defense for February 27th.

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February:

Again, devoted to the thesis and applying for Durham.

By February 6th I received my last bits for my Durham application (letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc.) and SUBMITTED MY APPLICATION!!!

I expected to not hear back for 4-6 weeks so I tried to relax to finish all thesis stuff before the defense.
Bug and I did this by driving up the canyon and taking pictures so we both could calm the heck down.

Great legs Jen, great legs.

Also, it turns out I didn't have to wait 4-6 weeks.

I was accepted into Durham in 5 days! (February 11th)

I didn't even check my email until the 15th.

I surprised my parents and the next day accepted their offer.

More details on that ordeal here.

The rest of the month was spent at my internship and finishing my thesis.

I actually re-organized my typology and re-wrote chapters etc.

The process was a miracle.

The night before my defense I woke up with an infected eye and had to wear glasses to my defense.

Not a huge issue but my left eye was weeping and so I warned my committee that if I was only crying out of one eye then I wasn't actually upset, just infected.

My defense went REALLY well, I passed with minor edits, and went through the university approval and publishing process.

I also finished applying to St. John's and Hatfield at Durham and working on my loan documentation.

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March:

The beginning of March we drove to Colorado to go to Susan's wedding.

It was a blast.

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April:

The saddest part about April was finishing my internship.

Man I miss that place and those people so much.

It was also another sign that things are coming to a close and moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, the end of April

I GRADUATED!!!

 
 

I remember graduating with the BA.

It didn't feel real.

This felt real, this felt right, and I felt a marvelous sense of closure and accomplishment.

I am ready to move forward - this time without fear.

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May - July:

May 9th we left for Jordan.
Bruce, Cyndy, and I spent some time looking into a museum in Madaba and working with the Department of Antiquities but on May 13th we left with all five of us to Petra.
This was the back of the car, there was also luggage between each person and on our laps.

Seriously, we need to bring less stuff!

The weather this year has been incredibly strange.

It was considerably cooler and we had some rain.

During that first week the President of BYU came to see our project.

We went to a special dinner but with everyone there Mariana and I had to sit in the trunk.

It was a harrowing experience on dirt roads.

The dinner was marvelous though and we all had a good time.

Thankfully we had shades for each site this year.

I would have undoubtedly had heat stroke without them.

Some days we ate with the workers, and the others we ate with the cats.

When you break out the Pringles, they come running. 

BYU TV came up after the President's visit to do filming for our project and two other student videos.

We did a lot of interviews, walking in front of the camera, and showing them the sites.

Mariana and I took them to the top of Ad-Deir. 

They also wanted to stay the night at Ad-Deir to get shots/film and we got to stay with them!!!

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Some of the Bedouin brought a tourist to the top and they messed around for a bit.
They actually jumped from the split pediment to the center piece.
It was terrifying.

Abu Yusuf also made us dinner.
He grilled the chicken in an old arabaya (wheelbarrow) which was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

We went to the top of the Berg Berg to watch the sunset over the Jordan Valley and Ad-Deir.
It was wonderful.

Our kitty friend followed us to the top.

I think he thought we had Pringles.

Nope.

After they left business got back to normal.

One of our men caught a young falcon.
It became our mascot.

Mariana built it a nest out of her kaffia, on her lap, and it slept.

At some point they caught another one and brought them to site.
The Badul fed them lizards mostly but one day they caught a snake.
It really liked the snake.

I also had my first taste of camel milk.
Not fresh...I did not want to get a disease.
They had them at the store.
It was pretty nasty, I barely swallowed my little sip.

More days at site.

Aidth, little laughing Muhammed and big Muhammed - some of our best (and funnest) workers.

 The hike up passing the donkeys from the shop on top and mapping the end of the Great Circle excavation.

 Bruce fell about 10 - 12 feet from the ramp into the cistern.
His head landed between 2 rocks.
He told me one of his first thoughts were, "There is a God."
I told him that one day those thoughts of his were going to stick.
He was alright in the end but pretty shaken up and bruised.

Final day of excavation, smoothing out back fill piles.

We had a competition, Bruce's crew against mine.

Mine won.

 We spent the last week writing reports but on one of the last days Mariana, Elijah, and myself went off to Wadi Mataha on our own to explore.

We had a marvelous time.

Sometimes sacrifices must be made.

Actually, I sacrificed my shins in a drainage.

Despite bruising and swelling, we continued our excursion.

Miracle of the day - no broken legs and I was able to continue because it happened in the middle of nowhere.

We took the steps up to Al Khubtha and viewed the treasury from above.

 We decided we didn't want to go back the way we had come so we hired two Badul to take us down the Bedouin way to the Siq.

It was fun, beautiful, and insane.

Our guides were fantastic as we tried to climb on some pretty tense spots.

For example, this is Elijah and Ali holding Mariana so that they can try to swing her around the drop.

That is what I did.

It was terrifying.

We finished the day going back through the Siq towards Wadi Musa and getting pizza before we called the boss to pick us up. 

Finally, we made our way to Amman to leave for home.
...and find Ben & Jerry's...
...and eat at Burger King...

Jordan in conclusion:
1. I learned lots about directing a dig.
2. I discovered my "Alpha" voice - it is amazing.
3. I submitted and was approved for my loans to pay for school.
4. I was accepted to my college of choice - Go St. Johns!
5. I had a long, long list of things to replace and do on my arrival home.

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One of those were my glasses that broke in Jordan.
Goodbye glasses with an old prescription and broken nose piece!

I bought an extra pair of glasses a few months ago and loved them, still wear them, and will keep on wearing them.

But, I needed to replace my metal ones...

...and they happened to have a buy one get one free...

...and the total was less than half of my old pair of glasses.

Seriously guys, I will only buy glasses online from now on.
IT IS FABULOUS!!!

So, until next time!