My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ the basics

Hello hello. Internet is pretty spotty so hopefully I can get this up. Oh yeah, facebook apparently doesn't work most times since the IP address switches between Vietnam and Cambodia or something like that. I dunno. Anyway, it's been a week and a half and so far, a really great experience. I recently got a message asking me what the heck I'm doing in Cambodia so until I can get photos up on facebook or up here, here are the basics.

Who:
Me.....and about 10-15 others. There's Mai from Seattle, Jenna from France, Dr. Stark from Hawaii, Shawn from Hawaii, Nick from Sarawak, Marie from the Philippines, Charlotte from Belgium/Vietnam, Noel from Singapore, Jim (Dr.s Stark's husband, also a prof at UH), Mei Mei (Dr. Stark's daughter) and about 4 Cambodian students from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh who are with us on a weekly rotating basis. We also have Rachna who's our APSARA liaison and a whole bunch of workmen who know Cambodian archaeology like the back of their hands. So, on site, I'd say there are about 25+ of us and about 15 of us off site. 

Where:
Cambodia, of course. But specifically, we work in the Angkor Wat enclosure and live at the Robert Christie Research Center in Siem Reap. It's a little far from Siem Reap's center but in a town this small, a little far means a 25 min walk or so. It does put us about a stone's throw away from the main entrance to the Angkor Archaeological Park though.

When:
From July 11th to August 10th.

What:
I'm in Cambodia to do field work. The project is part of the Greater Angkor Project (GAP) which is a collaboration between French, Australian and Cambodian researchers. The institutions involved are the University of Sydney, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient (EFEO) and APSARA Autorite. USyd is the main coordinator which makes sense since GAP is mainly funded by the Australian government via the Australian Research Center. What this means is that they have a really nice research center and some very, very nice (and expensive) toys to play with. It's really a sweet set up.

The professor in charge of this month long dig is Professor Stark from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She's been brought on to the project and this is supposed to be the 1st year of a 5 yr collaboration. If everything works out, she's the prof I'm hoping will take me on and be my adviser this Fall. I don't know how likely it'll be seeing as she already has two new Vietnamese students this yeah but I can always hope, yeah?

Anyway, briefly, our goal this field season is to look for Angkorian/Post-Angkorian deposits in hopes of answering questions related to settlement patterns and the habitation of Angkor Wat. That said, it means we're working directly IN the Angkor Wat enclosure. Totally awesome. Well, it's really hot and all that but how many people can actually say that they excavated in Angkor Wat? Every time I look up, I can see Angkor Wat. I eat lunch under a tree a few hundred meters behind Vishnu's butt in the west gopura and near by one of the libraries along the causeway leading up to the main wat.


 I guess that's it for the basics. I'll try to get more up if the internet doesn't crap out on me. And pics will come soon for the same reasons.