I did remember an additional reason why it benefits me to write in a blog...this way I don't find myself telling the same story over and over again every time I get an IM. I just redirect people to the blog.

I have also started getting specific picture requests! I attempted to take a picture from my balcony this morning of the pyramids at dusk...but there was an overcast today, and actually it was so foggy that you could barely even see the outline of the pyramids. Maybe tomorrow.

We had a drastic change in weather the past few days, going from 90 degree heat, to overcast I mentioned with todays high not getting to much above 75ish. The sun really makes all the difference here. Even a breeze smearing the tiniest stretch of cloud across the sun seems to make you feel 5-10 degrees cooler. However this change from hot to cold over all could mean an approaching sandstorm. I will keep you posted.

This morning at work, i spent the hours between 7 am and second breakfast helping Amelia measure feature points for her 1:20 map of square 201. A 27 (not that that means anything to you). Afterwards, I asked her questions about brickwork and construction coursing and bonding so that I could be sure that I was recording everything as accurately as possible. Everything I've come to know so far is based on what I've read from the London Manual of Field Archaeology. I had been documenting everything correctly, but Amelia really helped me understand what I was seeing and what other information I could deduce from it, so I was pretty satisfied with that. She has been really helpful, so I was additionally happy that I could return the favor this morning by helping her measure feature points and take elevation estimates.

After second breakfast I got to do more digging! The feature I excavated yesterday was actually cut within another feature. After sampling the first one yesterday, we decided to cross section the outside cut and excavate and sample half of it. Man digging is so awesome. I can't wait to be on a project where a majority of the time we are digging up features and not just writing about them. It actually makes me really excited to look into contract archaeology in the states. Contract archaeology is kind of sub category outside of academia but you get to dig plenty!

I am relieved to say the least, that I really wound up enjoying the field work...I now just understand how chaotic projects can get and how crappy things are when there is a complete lack of organization...so many kinks have been worked out since last week though. It also helps to see the actual site continue to be unbackfilled...we just uncovered the stone houses from the Hassan excavations in the 30s and when you are standing on this expanding city scape and actually seeing the structures and the ruins, you can justify feature form filling a little bit more.

I do miss my animal bones though.