I spent the last 2 weeks of my time in England on an archaeological dig run through the Institute of Archaeology, in the South Downs, Sussex. If I hadn’t experienced England in all its northern glory up to this point, these last weeks made sure that I was to be well taken care of in that respect. Now, I come from upstate New York, where Winter temperatures can frequently reach -30 ferenheit and I have never been as cold as on those soggy nights in the south of England. Weather like that puts British food, drink and a fair few of those stoic and stalkwart british sensibilities, into perspective. That being said, good company and an all around persistant attitude made the fieldwork go much more smoothly and the company very enjoyable.

This is the third long-term program I have perticipated in (second through Stony Brook) and I’ve come to a point where traveling for the sake of traveling has lost its appeal. I am, of course, always gratefull for the experiences and I would not trade these for anything, but I am beginning to feel an unreast and inperminance. This is likely due, quite simply, to the fact that when you meet new people and experience new places, while they are often strong friendships and life changing experiences, they are ultimately some of the most transient. You never can know if you’llbe able to travel back to see those old familiar places. Circumstances will change and allong with them, resources. An old friend was coincidentally studying near London at the same time as me and she, a more gregarious and outgoing personality than myself, described to me the exact same feeling.

Still, we learn and move on from these experiences like we do any other, at home or abroad. I have really enjoyed getting to know the British academic system, perticularly as it is the birthplace of archaeology. I dont know when or how I will go back, but I do hope that I will. I think that this experience has given me some perspective on the field in which I hope to spend much of my life working.

Its been a real pleasure, and as always I consider myself extreemly fortunate to have been able to study abroad again. It is one of the reasons I chose Stony Brook and the study abroad offices remain very helpful and a great resources for curious and adventurous students. I think this will be my last program though. It was this program and the Turkana Basin Institute field school that drew me to Stony Brook and now that I’ve done both, I feel quite ready to graduate next year.

Thank you for reading and I wish you all the very best. Stay curious and try and appreciate all the places you go.

Yours Sincerely,

Ben S.

My absence from blogging has been a result of just such a holiday in Cornwall where I backpacked along the South West Coast Path. No schoolwork, television or Internet, just beaches, sun and wildly indecisive temperatures. Although I value a productive days work, opportunities like this allow one to step back and introduce a little reflection into ones routine. Combine the quiet and the solitude with a hard days walk (week’s total of about 43 miles) and some well earned comfort food and you may just have the perfect vacation.

There are a lot of things in Cornwall, and by extension the British countryside, that I from my American perspective found fascinating. First, the entire trail wound through the backyards, gardens and farmland. If I did this in the states, I think I’d risk getting shot at. There is an unwritten understanding that if something has been used for a trail in the pas, it should always be used as a trail. I passed many a disinterested pony in those few days and more than once yielded the path to a herd of cows. Because of this, you find something that you really don’t see in the states, styles. These are clever inventions, allowing a human to pass between fields but keeping livestock from doing so. There are a number of varieties, with some as old as the slate walls they often decorate.

Another feature of this area is the small port villages dotted along the coast. They have the most deliciously unhealthy food and the most typical old Cornish villagers selling it. Much of Cornwall was roadless and remained so until the Second World War, when American groups, practicing for the D-day landings built roads and set up a lot of the infrastructure you see today. Also, it’s a perfectly idyllic setting for TV shows like ‘Doc Martin’, which I saw them filming in Port Isaac.

Also, King Arthur was born there. No, not really. There probably was a Saxon King Arthur but no Merlin, Camelot or whatever. That story really didn’t exist as we know it until it was codified by the 19th century romantics. However, the village of Tintagel still makes a big deal out of it.

Even by London standards, I am told, it has been a downright gloomy spring thus far. At Margaret Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday, it was still hovering in the low 40s and cloudy, but by yesterday there was outdoor revelry in Soho (Block party in full swing by mid afternoon) and (turns out, myself included) over zealous coat ditchers all around. Yesterday was the Feast of St George, England’s patron saint, in Trafalger Square where it was refreshing to see an abundance of good food treated as something exceptional rather than a given. Perfect timing, as it turns out, for the London Marathon, which I caught only the end of (I say end, but I arrived only about two hours after the start, and the first finishers had already come in). This 36,000 strong event is one of the “Big 6″ Marathons, for which to qualify is an achievement in itself (Boston, for example, requires times that only about 10% of marathoners have achieved).

Anyway, things have picked up here now that the weather has improved, and as the last few assignments for school are finished, Ill be traveling yet again before I head back home in about a month. I hear the weather is improving back home, so enjoy it (it is, I have found, a better bet that it will stay good there than it is here).

We’ve been staying in Fort William. Although unimpressive I. Itself, it is located at the heart of backpacker heaven, at the end of the West Highland walk and the beginning of the Great Glenn Way and nested at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the British Isles at over 4000 feet. Now, I’ve been to some very high mountains, but when a mountain goes from sea level to 4000 feet in the space of a few miles, it makes for some pretty amazing scenery. There is still snow on top and skiing is still possible for die hard thrill seekers.from here it is just a quick pop over to the coast and the Isle of Skye, itself a sought after destination for backpackers, myself included. An then there is haggis.

Now, British food has a reputation, often oversimplified as being, well, just god awful. This is based on the equivalence of starchy, carbohydrate and fat rich food with the bland and one dimensional. It can be, but if your prepared for it, it can be a comfort food seekers dream (and I do mean the naughty kind). I, for one, like haggis I.e. pork, lamb, liver, onions and suet stuffed in a sheep’s stomach and boiled to perfection. I mean really, what’s not to like? It goes sinfully well with fried eggs and toast and will fill you to the brim. However, a steady diet of this can become a bit old. Nothing else seems filling after this and if your not hiking a mountain every day this kind of stuff is likely to accumulate until your own stomach looks a lot like that sheep’s. so, nowthat I’ve sold Scottish food so well, lets talk about Scottish alcohol… For about ten minutes until were too smashed to appreciate it. This stuff will knock you down fast, so don’t believe that bullshit on Mad Men where there drinking full glasses of Scotch at 11 in the morning, you (and they) would be on the floor before that glass was half empty.

Bottom line: Scotland is pretty damn great. Good food, breathtaking scenery and a resilient stalwartness that doesn’t quit and isn’t afraid to put you in your place, vocally unambiguously and with a refreshing (compared to the english) regularity.

On a completely different, but still very British note Doctor Who premiered last night! Now I’ll spare an American audience the history of this cultural institution, suffice to say the show will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary in November, which is impressive for a plot-driven sci-fi television show (the longest running of these). I’m a fan, and have been since before the new series aired in 2005 (take that my fanboy contemporaries!) back when the special effects were … transparent to say the least (think Ed Wood with a better plot). I mention all this because, in a rare occasion to get out of the city and see the sights, where do I go? “the Doctor Who Experience” in Cardiff (Wales) of course! There are some pictures below, it was all good fun and the sci-fi nerd in me was tickled.

Anyway, I finally got my camera working and have been taking pictures of some great London sights, like Regents canal and Little Venice north of the City in Camden. Given how congested many of the more traditional tourist attractions allong the Thames can get, these little jewels are a nice reprieve for any semi-tourist/short-term resident and best of all, are free. Plus, getting out and walking around offers great opportunities to just sit down and read while enjoying a cup of tea (I just started “Hitch 22″ the late Christopher Hitchens’ memoir, one of my favorite social commentators and an incredible mind).

Next time I write, I’ll be on my way to Scotland, land of (some of) my forefathers and the inspiration for my high school graduation attire (yes it was comfortable, no I was not “fully authentic” as I was on stage facing 300 people). I’ll be running my first Marathon in the Highlands, which I still pinch myself over and we’ll see where I’m at after that’s through with.

Cheers!

Its been some time since I last updated this blog and the truth is that I have not felt in that time that I have experienced very much worth writing about. This is, of course, all a simple matter of perspective. I am biased by my own and limited to a superficial view of other’s. Still, these past few weeks have been filled with the last bits of coursework here at UCL and that is worth mentioning

I have already written a bit about the differences in course structure here at UCL. The trimester system essentially allows for two terms of in-class contact hours, themselves shorter than those I am familiar with, and one term devoted exclusively to examinations. My problem is this; I have no examinations. When we arrived at UCL I chose those courses (unintentionally I might add and 4 to be precise) which were assessed by essays or submitted work only. Other affiliates have had similar experiences, but by chance my coursework has been particularly light and because of this, I have most-of-a-term in which to do what I like.

A large part of this concerns the fact that we are, after all, affiliate students here at UCL. We can only experience a small sample of the coursework available. Still, I have found myself wishing that there was more of it, more time more coursework and more opportunity to explore the academics that I came here to experience. For example, there is a 4 day course in experimental archaeology (reproduction of archaeological tools and materials) that all first year archaeology students are required to take. This is taught in September. There is a course in Lithic (stony tool) technology. This is a two part course that extends from term 1. In order to get the most out of the coursework here, a full year abroad experience may just be the most appropriate choice.

That being said, if one has the time and resources London is a fantastic city from which to travel all over the region. All of my fellow affiliate students have taken weekend trips to Paris and continental Europe and seem to have really enjoyed themselves. Im going to Wales tomorrow for a little Doctor Who nerdery and without good public transportation this would never be possible. Britain is also an ideal place to go for long hikes and camping trips. One can really camp anywhere in the countryside and people are generally pretty friendly when it comes to pitching a tent in their field. Courses are finishing up here at UCL but the long Easter Holliday and third term should a great time for seeing a bit more of this Island. Ill keep you all posted in the coming weeks.

Cheers!

This is the destination for the organic organic food loving middle class of London and, although not entirely unreasonable, the prices are enough to make you think twice about how much you really like cheese (I REALLY like cheese, so common sense is rarely a factor here). Having said that, the food is absolutely delicious when you can get it and the start vendor sandwiches are more reasonably priced.

Camden town, although the home of many, many different food vendors, makes its name in the vintage, goth and slightly offbeat market. You can buy a leather bound journal, wool and leather corset and get a tattoo all within 5 minutes of each other. Many punk rockers made their name here and this legacy is alive and well in the stream performers. This is one of my favorite places to go and people-watch; there are more hair colors in a 1 block radius of here than in the rest of London combined.

Portabello road is THE place for antiques and even some nearby celebrity watching (Kingsington is the upper east side of London, but with Royalty) and any fans of the old Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks will find this a romp down memory lane (cudos to those who got that one). Streat foods and the ability to haggle (rare in London) make this a fun place for antique lovers.

There are other smaller markets, but these are the largest. Not exactly the places to save money, I only go for the cheep start vendor foods, but staples of London and good places to catch as a tourist (although avoid the mid day crush if you have any sense of personal space).

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m studying archaeology here and back home at Stony Brook. I came here to learn about the subject in an international context and to experience the discipline from a new perspective and it is for this reason that I recently attended a 3 day conference on Paleolithic (pre-10,000 years ago) archaeology at the British Museum. I find the subject a fascinating one because every human on the planet traces their ancestry to this period and eventually, all those liniages converge (specifically at around 200,000 years ago in eastern Africa).

I think it puts our societies into perspective in really important ways For many centuries, western ethnocentrism (the interpretation of societies in terms of the standards of the society of the interpreter) perpetuated the concept of primitive or exotic hunter-gatherers when in fact, 90% of all humanitie’s time on the planet had been shaped by these lifestyles and many were getting allong perfectly well even then. We evolved as hunter-gatherers and the shift away from that lifestyle is the abnormal state, as modern chronic illness and population pressures often demonstrate

Anyway, the archaeology of these populations can provide a window into their lifestyles, adaptability (arguably the single most important and essentially human characteristic) and more rarely, their symbolic lives. The collection now at the British Museum “Ice Age Art: The Arrival of The Modern Mind” is a beautiful snapshot of symbolism in the upper Paleolithic Europe (“the ice age” 40,000-10,000 years ago). However, that is a VERY loaded title to give to an exhibit like this, not least because it assumes that this is characteristically “modern human” and by implication, other forms of symbolism are not. What about later hunter gatherers after 10,000 years ago, who never produce this kind of art? Are they not fully human? What is the variable human approach to symbolic representation, why is it important to adaptability and how does this small regional representation (Europe is not, after all, a very large part of the inhabited planet) fit into the wider story of our species?

It’s a beautiful exhibit, and the conference on the European Paleolithic this past weekend was a great experience. All the researchers addressed interesting questions; I’ve just reiterated some of them. Alot of people are asking them and I think that this is what makes the field so interesting, because it asks the question of what it means to be human both in the past and the present and how the material record can start to answer this (I’ve just reiterated the mission statement of pretty much every anthropology department in the world so don’t think for a minute that I actually know what I’m talking about).

Link to the Exhibit’s website:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/ice_age_art/about_the_exhibition.aspx

So, I’ve come up with a few money saving techniques that have helped me keep my weekly expenses to a minimum and still allow me to enjoy the ocasional night out.

1. Eat in. Those little creature comforts you get with you’re morning coffee add up, especially in London and dinners can quickly get very pricy. If one has a kitchen in ones flat, or has a residential meel plan (I myself do not), at least keeping breakfast and dinner as in-home meals can go a long way towards saving for the rainy day fund.

3. Eat a substantial breakfast. I cannot properly express my frustration when people tell me they do not eat anything for breakfast. That old saying about its importance is absolutely true. Not taking this to heart throws oiff your metabolism for the rest of the day. Im not saying indulge in a full-english every day, blood pudding (it’s like soft meat loaf) beans, fish, eggs, toast, sausage and mushrooms is pushing it. I’ll fry up some toast with olive oil, some melted cheese, the ocasional egg or two and a fruit and am usually set untill lunch (although I do eat bigger breakfasts than some, as I usually run in the mornings).

3. Economize your out-of-residence meals. Now, this one may not work for everyone and I am of course not suggesting you eat an uncomfortable amount of food in a hurry; food is best when slowly and comfortably enjoyed. This being said, a hearty and satisfying lunch for a reasonable price can be found if one knows where to look. Those buffets I mentioned (think Indian buffet with breads, spinach, potatoes etc. not greasy buffets) offer alot of food for a reasonable price, which I find minimizes my hunger for a large dinner. My dinners are often far simpler, consisting of (depending on the size of my lunch) bread, olives, olive oil and vinigar and occasionally fried veggis or fish.

4. Reduce and reuse. If one needs to stock a kitchen and cook for oneself, frying pans and uensils can get very expensive. It is actually quite surprising just how many uses different utensils can be put too. My primary drinking glass is an old olive jar and boiled potatoes can be just as delicious if cooked in a high-rimmed frying pan. It’s not glamorous but having worked in a kitchen with a number of utensils at my disposal before, the food is no less tasty if the cooking method is a little less glamorous.

5. Walking is free. Also, its great exercise .

6. Alcohol is very much neither of those things, an observation only and not a suggestion, just something to keep in mind.

Eating in every day can be very fun and bolsters your cooking skills, which will invariably come in handy at some point in your life. Enjoy!

We have been doing more active fieldwork for the geology module than for ecology.  On our third day of the module we used our newly acquired skills with a compass and gps to follow an orienteering course, attempting to travel as efficiently as possible through the steep gullies of the Turkana Basin while following pre-assigned compass bearings.  My team was efficient, if inexact.  For the penultimate leg of the course my partners and I chose a gulley which curved too far to the east, delivering us easily to our destination, though well off of the path we were meant to be following.  On other days we have taken long hikes examining geological formations, looking at sedimentation and erosion effects, measuring the annual volume of the Turkwel River and looking for fossils at Kabua Gorge.  Kabua Gorge is currently a seasonal river bed which cuts across an area that used to be submerged by Lake Turkana when the lake was larger during the Holocene Highstand.  Examining sediments that used to be the bed of the lake and a sandy stretch of beach yielded fossils of turtles, crocodiles, mollusks, rodents and fish.

If I’m honest though, it is not the more active class schedule that has been leaving me so tired.  You cannot put me in an environment with explorable gullies and caves, rolling hills, towering dunes, and plenty of ridges and trees to climb; give me a GPS and expect me not to run myself ragged.  I’ve been out hiking almost every afternoon, and if I’m not hiking I’m playing Doom (Doum) Ball.

Doom Ball is a variant of baseball played with the dried nuts of a Doum (also spelled Doom) Palm tree instead of a ball.  Further modifications from the original game of baseball include the substitution of a hand carved bough of hard driftwood instead of a bat, and the removal of second base.  Doom Ball is played in the middle of the Turkwel River, the level of which rises every evening.  The game starts after class on a flat bar of exposed sediment and ends either when it is too dark to see the ball or the river has risen to ankle depth across the whole sandbar, whichever comes first.  Any contact between the bat and the Doum Nut constitutes a hit, so one must run on many balls that would be considered foul in actual baseball.  There is no strike zone so each batter has three swings, generally attempting to hit the ball off the sandbar and into the water where it will be more difficult to find.  Trash talking, distracting tactics and throwing and/or sliding in the mud are all encouraged, and contact is not penalized.  A good time is had by all.

When I last posted 2 weeks ago we were still working on our independent projects for Dino’s ecology module.   I was working on “light trapping” and counting mosquitoes, comparing the ratios of mosquito genera found at different locations around the TBI compound.  The mosquitoes got more abundant overall later in the week, following a bizarre weather front in which a storm pushed humid air out over the Basin.  For four days straight it was warm and muggy with at least a drizzle of rain every day and clouds and fog too thick to see the sun.  Perfect mosquito weather.  Given the number of Anopheles mosquitoes I observed, the malaria outbreak this week is hardly surprising.  The ecology module ended the first weekend in February with presentations of the data we had collected on Saturday and a field trip to Lake Turkana’s Central Island on Sunday.  Both Dino and Craig Feibel came on the Central Island trip giving us a detailed look at the island’s unique ecological and geological settings.  Central Island is home to a series of isolated crater lakes within the setting of Lake Turkana.  The Island’s three main craters each house a miniature lake with a unique chemical signature and different animals and plants inhabiting it.  Flamingo Lake is almost perfectly round, and is a startling shade of green from the algae growing in it.  The soils around Flamingo Lake are crusted with precipitated carbonates and the lake is of course home to a massive flock of flamingoes.  Crocodile Lake is lumpy, formed from a compound crater, the result of several different volcanic eruptions. Hiking around the ridge of the Crocodile Lake crater, one can observe massive schools of tilapia and of course their predators including terrapin, goliath herons, and the eponymous crocodiles.  While pausing in our hike to watch a terrapin surface for air we had the rare experience of seeing heron flying low over the lake get nabbed by a leaping croc.  That was probably the most exciting moment of the Central Island trip though there were other highlights including finding an almost intact flamingo skeleton, observing a roughly 8 meter long croc swimming (from a safe distance of course) and learning that one of the plants Dino had introduced us to in our ecology module produces edible berries that taste like a cross between black currants a nasturtium flowers.  We did not have time to hike to the third lake (Tilapia Lake)