Monday, September 1, 2008

Digging for my life

Ho there! It's been a while since I've posted, but that's due to a lack of Internet. The dig was amazing. The site: Dilston Castle, part of it from 1417 still standing, the rest from the 1600s was destroyed because the Earl James Radcliffe supported the Jacobite Rising (to reinstate the Stuarts as kings), he was one of only two leaders beheaded, we're digging the kitchens, servants areas, etc. The people (aside from two) were great, the site was amazing, and I spent less money than I thought. We bought our food at a grocery store and made our meals, aside from a few nights out at the pub. Of course my meals mainly consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, soup, and granola bars. The food at the pub though was really good. I had their Alston Pie (included ham and a bunch of good stuff) and their Chicken and Ham Pie with an amazing fluffy, toasty roll. One day I went into Hexham and went around the marketplace and a little greek restaurant for lunch. The people: Sophie 1, Sophie 2, Sarah, Beth, Jo, Donna, Holly, Grace, Frank, Kevin, Tom, Rob, Brian, Michael, and Max.

In the last week things became pretty exciting because on Wednesday Frank fell into a hole. This hole turned out to be the Castle's bathroom. On Thursday Max, Rob, and I dug out a bunch of treasure. On Friday Sarah, Sophie, Rob, and I continued digged and found even more gorgeous objects. These included: almost four full plates (one this amazing piece was blue and white with a nude Chinese woman, showing that they were really wealthy if they could afford Chinese pottery, two with very interesting and different brown and yellow designs, and another blue and white plate), several glass bottoms of bottles (some worth around 1,000 pounds), several pieces of bowls and chamber pots (one with a complete handle), several pieces of a glass perfume bottle, a really amazing top of a wine bottle, a couple vases (one with a complete handle), a brass button, a metal ring of some sort 5 x 5 inchs, several shards of window glass, metal nails, bones, etc. It was amazing.

I'm now in France, one hour away from talking to someone about my host family and three hours away from meeting my host family. I'm kind of terrified. I have yet to meet anyone from my program, but I will soon. I'm going to grab some food though before I talk to anyone so that my stomach will stop grumbling! I'll update you more later!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude... you should have pocketed some of that stuff

Anonymous said...

EMMY!!!!!!!!!
sounds like you are having a ball! i hope you have fun in Rome this weekend! tell ally i said hi!
i cant wait until i get to see you! your dig sounds truely fascinating and i hope you are loving your host family!
things are all well here, missin you tho!
love youuuu