Showing posts with label angkor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label angkor. Show all posts
cats and dogs
Monday, July 26, 2010
It was raining cats and dogs for more of sunday night and it was still raining heavily come monday morning. So, a rain day was declared and people were assigned various tasks - mostly catching up on paperwork, transcribing, cleaning and sorting artifacts, taking pictures of the ceramics, etc. A small group went out to unit 2 where they have the big wedding tent and could therefore work regardless of the weather. I'd say that it sucks to be them but I think I'd rather have gone and done some work than stay behind and do paperwork. Worse, my work was interrupted 2-3 time because someone unplugged me (i took out my computer batter and just plugged into the wall) and i had to reboot and redo things over again since autosave recovery can only do so much :(
it's only 8.30pm but i'm soooooooo sleepy! i've gotten used to the early starts (i even wake up automatically at 5 something am now) and the early nights but i just can't get rid of the panda look. bleh.
week 2 pics and post to come. hopefully the rest of week 3 goes better!
My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ week 1
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Here's week one in Cambodia complete with PICTURES!!! Yay! It actually went through!!
Read more...
My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ the basics
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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.
My Life in Ruins: Cambodia
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Day 1 in Cambodia!!
For some reason, facebook doesn't work at the research center. Hmm. Go figure.
Had to get up at 3.30am to catch my Air Asia flight at the ass crack of dawn. But the LLCT was pretty packed and I was surprised at how everything was open despite the early hour. Hmm. Touched down and had a bit of confusion at immigration (nobody on my flight had the visa forms, only customs) where I got rejected at the counter and was sent wandering until I saw ppl from my flight swarming this one dude for forms.
Anyway, I'm here and it's really, really hot and humid - worse than KL. Met most of the team and they seem pretty nice. Managed to explore Siem Reap a little and visit the market where I bought a hat for $2.50! Awesome. Even so, for a supposedly cheap destination, some things can be surprisingly expensive!
Work starts bright and early tomorrow. Bleh. But we get to put a unit in the Angkor Wat enclosure so that'll be pretty cool :) Still coughing but not so sick anymore. Things are looking better and better. Yay!
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