Today at the site I finished up the NW quad I was working on yesterday. I uncovered the majority of what looks to be some sort of saw in that quad and have started on the NE quad, which contains the rest of the tool. I took my first soil sample, which will later be floated. My fear came true…I didn’t recognize the next floor layer when I got to it. Luckily, I had a good amount of PPT’s on the beginning of the next floor so I stopped excavating. No harm was done and I accidentally did exactly what we’re suppose to do, so it all worked out. Just glad someone else caught it! All in all today’s work at the site went well. I made sure to put my sunblock on and wore a shirt that kept the existing burn mostly covered. It helped that we had a nice breeze today and a few more clouds!

We left the site an hour early today because we were having a number of people from the community over for dinner. After we got all the artifacts checked in, I got a shower! It may sound silly to be so excited for a shower, but when you get that much dirt on you and you’re on a shower rotation it’s pretty exciting! Around 5:30 people started showing up. One man as he was coming up the steps of the house says “hey, look! An American penny!” It made me laugh for a couple of reasons. One, because I react the exact same way when I find a Canadian penny; Two, because it’s still strange to think I’m in a different country (It doesn’t feel like it most of the time), and Three, I have never heard anyone say that before. It definitely put a smile on my face! Carl, the spiritual leader said a blessing before the meal in both the native language and in English. After we all enjoyed a meal of beef stroganoff, roasted veggies, salad, and rolls as well as homemade cookies for dessert, Carl started a session of drumming and singing. This was my favorite part of the evening! After he finished the first song, he says “better get you’re umbrellas out, it’s gonna rain now!” The drum was passed around to a few of the elders, and others explained the dances that go along with the songs. Two of them everyone stood for, I’m not exactly sure why but that’s the etiquette. One that we stood for was a victory song. Others we heard included, both the male and female rain songs, the huckleberry song, wind, goodbye, as well as other unidentified ones. My favorites were the children’s songs. One was something along the lines of “what does the wolf say? hoooowwwwllll! what does the owl say? who, who!” and so on. everyone who knew the song got really into it and it was so much fun to see!

I really enjoyed seeing 3+ generations singing these songs, and just how strong they keep their culture and passing down the traditional language, songs, dance and so on. It was a really beautiful experience.

**I blogged regularly during the field school on a separate blog. I will be posting three of them on this one, but if anyone is interested in reading some more click here **

I am on the last stretch of my adventure in Finland. At the moment I am sitting at the airport getting ready to leave in a few hours. Over the past few weeks I have been taking my terrestrial field course. In the course I learned how to catch and ID ground and flying invertebrates, as well as small animals. I also learned how to ID different bird species. There were close to five different traps for the insects and about three different ways to track or ID bird and mammal species. Besides studying, I got to go on a bunch of hikes around the Oulanka Research Station. During these hikes I got to see a Finnish beach, the Russian border, and beautiful scenery. I also saw a ton of reindeer on this past trip. They were everywhere and really cute. I learned that the Finnish Santa doesn’t fly with his reindeer, they just sled. Speaking of sleds, on one of the hikes I went on I was shown a type of sled that students often take in the winter time to get to school. Even though I really enjoyed this study abroad and would definitely do it again, I am ready to go home and see my family and get ready for classes on Monday.

The boy sat in the middle, kicking his legs just enough for his white disdasha to sway. His grandfather sat to his right as he watched their cattle.

If the boy’s father weren’t scrolling through his cell phone the scene’s date wouldn’t be recognizable.

When the boy leaned over his father’s shoulder to peer at the screen I suddenly realized I am a witness to a shift in Oman.

I’ve felt it when hanging out with Omani friends over shisha as the World Cup played on a projector – I knew some would have to hide they’re socializing with western girls who don’t wear the hijab from their parents.

When I began this blog a year ago in a University of Montana classroom it was with the hopes of pushing through my mental roadblocks.

Though that was initially directed toward my illogical fear of technology, it shifted to every challenge that taunts me to exchange a life of seeking out other cultures for something that resembles satisfaction within the safety of routine.

Arabic has been my most recent challenge. Surprisingly, it’s been difficult to learn the ancient language in an over 90 percent white population in the mountains of Montana, where “diversity” consists of a revolving door of international students, barefoot Frisbee players and non-bra wearing women.

So I decided to move to Oman for the summer, almost without stopping to analyze what I would encounter.

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/om.htm

It was the last Friday before Ramadan and the Nizwa Animal Souk pulsed with the rapid pace of buying and selling. Ironically, this was where my mind stopped racing.

For the first timeI forgot the fact I should be making plans when I entered the colorful chaos of the Animal Souk. I became just another moving piece within the crowd.

I was finally in the Middle East

http://www.timesofoman.com/News/35594/Article-Nizwa-Souq-in-Oman-maintains-tradition-for-the-Holy-Month-of-Ramadan

I watched the boy’s father put his phone away, pick up a goat and join the market’s circle while shouting out a price in Arabic. He set aside technology for a moment to step back into a position his father had taught him and a job he was teaching his son.

If done right, the goat would be sold for about 50 rial and killed by sunset.

The dirt spotted animals were a stark contrast to the rotating men who moved like a unit – the few blue and brown dishdashas blurred into the white majority. The patterns were only broken when a man stopped to bargain with a potential customer.

While the borders of generational change are still visible within the routine of the Animal Market of Nizwa, my attention was caught by the family aspect. The Animal Souk resembled a school for tradition even while the rest of Oman seems to be developing a stark change from fathers to sons.

Maybe I’ll eventually be able to put into words the shift I feel like I’m living within or the beautiful people and culture I get to explore.

For now, as sleep is limited and words are hard, I will settle with snapshots of the life within one of the oldest markets in Oman.

***

For more photos and posts, check me out at http://katherynhoughton.wordpress.com/

For updates on my trip or other fun facts, follow me at @UMHoughton

FRIDAY

Block B had an exciting find, a bunch of dog coprolites! Which is fossilized poop. I’ve never seen so many people so interested or excited about a pile of dog poop before! We’ve been constantly cracking jokes at the gal who found them. It’s actually a spectacular find. Not many of them have been found in the Fraser Valley and a plethora of information can be recovered from them. I began working on a new quad, which had a TON of artifacts. In one corner I found a couple hundred fish bones/fragments…it took a long time to pick them all out. I also found another bone awl!! This one is a little bigger and has notches at the base of it. A few larger bones and even a rib (mostly dog, maybe some deer). A tooth was also in this quad. Some of my block mates thought it might have been a human incisor, but after closer inspection it wasn’t. The quad is located near a hearth feature, so the items I found are most likely meal remains and/or discard. I couldn’t believe how much was in such a small place! I had a shower and laundry day that landed on the eve of our day off, so I got to be clean for 2 days! That evening we went into town and hung out at the Legion. It was a much busier night so we chatted with a few locals and played some pool

SATURDAY

We all slept in a little bit and then headed into town. We got breakfast at The Reynolds again then ran a few errands that people needed to do. We had planned on going on a short hike up to a waterfall we had heard about, but decided going swimming sounded a bit better. Most of the gang went and we found a nice spot where the Cayoosh Creek meets the Fraser River. It’s the perfect swimming hole. A little protected spot that doesn’t have a strong current and the water is nice and clear. We hung out there for the rest of the afternoon and early evening soaking up the sun and swimming. Then we packed up and went to dinner downtown.

SUNDAY

We all headed to the site at normal time but were only there for half an hour before the rain got a little too heavy to keep excavating. Once back at camp we did lab work. I worked on floats and we put a huge dent in the amount of soil samples that have accumulated. After lunch the sun came back out and we were able to start excavating again. It was my night to cook dinner, and that went well. I made my version of 5 On Black’s (a restaurant in Missoula) rice bowls.

MONDAY

Today was really hot. It got to the point where everyone started moving slow and getting rundown by the heat. The worst part is that this was supposedly “mild” and we haven’t seen nothin’ yet. To try and avoid as much of the afternoon heat as possible we are going to be at the site by 6:30am and take 15 minutes off of our lunch break. I finally finished the quad that was chocked full of artifacts. I moved in the Northern most quads of unit 15 and the composition was much different. At first we thought that it was substrate (the foundational material of the area, meaning that there would be no more floors) but it turned out to be this mysterious clay baked material that we’re not sure the meaning and/or purpose of yet.

**I blogged regularly during the field school on a separate blog. I will be posting three of them on this one, but if anyone is interested in reading some more click here **

Today was my first day at the excavation site and my first coating of Bridge River dirt. I wasn’t allowed into the pit house yet because I have to be smudged by the spiritual leader of the community. This has been explained to me as an introduction to the ancestors. So I stayed on the rim and sharpened my trowel. Which sucks. It takes FOREVER. I still haven’t finished and my fingers have blisters. However the first sharpening is the worst and it won’t be like this every time. When I wasn’t sharpening my trowel I got to try my hand at sifting. I got covered in dirt and found lithics, fish bones and the most exciting being a large canine tooth! It was kind of an initiation! While sifting, I learned a quick review of how to recognize different elements and the procedure of recording everything. As well as the spit test. Pretty much as gross as it sounds. You spit in your hand and grab a little bit of the dirt that you sifted and try to roll it into a worm. The purpose being to determine the ratio of silt, sand and clay. I also got a run down on the site and the work that has been done there previously. A lot of information, that only added to my excitement about starting my first excavation!

Once back at camp, I got to shower! which is quite the luxury for only one day’s worth of dirt. We have shower rotations that only give us a shower every three days…yikes!! We also rotate laundry, cleaning, and cooking. Dinner followed by a group meeting for the four incoming students/TA’s rounded out the evening. It’s a little intimidating because I’m one of only two undergrads, but that just exposes me to more people with more experience in the field. And that can’t be bad!
I won’t be posting any pictures of the site or the artifacts because they belong to the Bridge River Community. I will try to post pictures of camp and other aspects of this adventure!

Home Sweet Home for the next 3 and 1/2 weeks! 

**I blogged regularly during the field school on a separate blog. I will be posting three of them on this one, but if anyone is interested in reading some more click here **

This is it. My last day in Australia. It’s bittersweet to say the least. I’m surprised I’m not crying like a baby writing this. I guess I’ll save that for tomorrow morning on the plane.

My last few days in Perth went very fast. One minute I was at Monday night training, the next I’m hugging the other trainers goodbye. All the boys were surprised we were leaving so soon; they thought we were staying the whole season. I wish! It was sad listening to them joke around with each other and us, knowing that in just a week I wouldn’t have that to look forward to each day anymore.

The last week passed fairly uneventfully. West Perth played in Melbourne for the Foxtel Cup Grand Finals on Tuesday, but sadly lost in the lowest scoring game in the Cup’s history. The players who didn’t go got together at Branchy and Trent’s place to watch the game and chow down on pizza. It was entertaining watching them placing bets on their friends and yelling at the TV like they were down on the field too.

After the game Myelle and I went salsa dancing again. It is such a blast! I need to find a place I can salsa back home. We brought our gym manager Mel with us this time. She’s so adorable when she dances. There was one guy who refused to let her go, even though she didn’t know what she was doing. He was surprisingly a good dancer. We went to the Moon like usual when the dance shut down and got our traditional nachos. I’m definitely going to miss those. And Good Times Jackson von Smith, Toby Basco, and Jimothy (all the waiters we made up names for). Missoula needs a place like that.

We visited the US Consulate, which we honestly should have done the first week. Good information, but not too helpful when we were about to leave. I didn’t think we would actually be meeting with the Consul General because we were told we were just meeting with staff, but she came in and talked to us for a good hour. Tip: when you travel to a different country, register with the US Consulate for the area you will be in. They put on events sometimes for Americans and it also allows them to notify your family if something has happened to you.

Friday night we went out with the Jetts employees after their work dinner. Such a fun-filled night. We ended up in a little bar in Subiaco with not very many people in it. Their boss kept thanking us for helping out in Dianella. We tried to go karaoke afterwards but they wanted to charge us $53 an hour to sit in a little room with just us and sing to each other. No thanks.

Saturday’s game was a mess. Literally. It had rained hard the night before and the Leederville oval isn’t the best in terms of turf. There were large sections of pure mud throughout the field, which developed into small ponds of muddy water during the seniors’ games. It was entertaining watching the boys slide around on the field, almost like a slip ‘n slide. Their white shorts were definitely not so white by the end of the game. I ditched my tennis shoes in Perth they were so destroyed from running water.

Happily the mud didn’t sway our boys too much in the way of injuries. Benny pulled his hamstring, but that’s the only major injury I can remember. When they came into the change rooms at halftime, everyone was covered head to toe in mud. They looked like vicious warriors returning from battle. Then again, they kind of are. The Colts ended in a tie, the Reserves won, and the League sadly lost, losing our hopes of getting into finals for a second year.

Saturday night we went out again, and boy were we feeling the sleep deprivation. I think over those two days I got a total of about five hours of sleep. Great idea. But hey I’m only going to be here once. We headed over to Leederville and met up with Branchy and Jordy. No idea where everyone else was; supposedly they were at the place next door. I’m still not too happy with most of the guys: they were supposed to come out with us so we could say goodbye. Looks like I’ll just have to come back someday!

Now I’m sitting in my hostel in Cairns, reflecting on this whole summer. It really has been amazing. I won’t go into all that now, but stay tuned for another post when I get back to Montana. Cairns is definitely a tourist town. Barely anyone I’ve met has actually been Aussie. Our first day Myelle and I went on a jet ski crocodile tour of the mangroves. We only saw two crocs, but the scenery made it all worth it.

Tuesday we got to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! Super impressive. So many fishies to see, and awesome coral beds. I managed to duck dive down while snorkeling (never done that before) and got to touch one of the huge fish that was swimming around us. I named him Jeffrey. In the process though I think I messed up one of my eardrums, even though I tried to equalize on my way down.

Yesterday we did a waterfall and wildlife tour which was fantastic. We saw the Babinda Boulders, Josephine’s Falls, Dinner Falls, two crater lakes, Millaa Millaa Falls, and my favorite, a platypus! I was so excited about the platypus. He was cute, but he was quite a ways away to see properly. We swam in two of the falls, and boy were they freezing! It was still fun though. And, as a Richards, it is standard for me to go looking for waterfalls. Just glad I wasn’t in a rental car this time.

So far I have seen practically every level of footy there is: everything from the pee-wees up to the big dogs in the AFL. I would say it’s comparable to playing YMCA soccer back in the states. The little guys are just learning the rules, while the upper levels are going hard at the ball. This post will be all about the differences in the levels of footy, because believe it or not there actually are some major differences.

Let’s start off with the little guys. Usually they play during the breaks of the bigger games, so their matches only last about 15 minutes. They have basically the same rules as the other levels, just more basic. But man can those little kids tackle! They are still allowed to hit each other just like the big guys do, and they sure take that to heart. Some of the marks these kids take are pretty incredible too for their age. It’s mostly just adorable to watch them all scramble around for the ball.

Next up is the amateur leagues. These are the community teams that lead up to the WAFL teams. They have all levels like the WAFL: Colts, Reserves, and League, and some also have a team called the Thirds (what I like to call the “beer league” team. Mostly older guys just coming out to get a kick on goal). These games aren’t nearly as serious as others I’ve seen. The coach doesn’t yell so much, and the players are definitely more relaxed. They care if they win of course, but they don’t make a huge fuss about it if they don’t. The boys who do exceptionally well in their amateur league get recruited by the bigger WAFL teams and go from there.

The hits in amateur footy aren’t that big, so not very many injuries thankfully. I worked with an amateur team out in Ballajura for two weekends. Their kicks aren’t super accurate, nor are their handballs. But they mostly are there to have fun so nothing else really matters.

This past week I worked a little bit with a country team for country week. A lot of the surrounding suburbs have footy teams that fall under each WAFL league; West Perth’s area is the Eastern Districts. They needed help with trainers, I needed the hours. Boom problem solved. I would say these teams are a tad bit more serious than the amateur teams. The ages range from 18 to 35 or sometimes older, but you definitely have to know what you’re doing.

What I noticed about the country boys was their kicks were more accurate, but still not amazing, and the hits were a little harder. We even had a guy blow out his ACL, LCL, lateral meniscus, and fracture the head of his fibula off of a hit. One of the more gnarly injuries I’ve seen. Again the coach doesn’t yell much, but it definitely is taken more seriously than the amateur teams as some of those players get recruited to WAFL teams as well.

Finally my favorites. My WAFL boys. There is such a huge difference between this level and the others. The Western Australia Football League (WAFL) is comprised of three levels: Colts, Reserves, and Leagues. The Colts feed into the Reserves, and Reserves into League. From League some of the players get picked up by AFL teams (Colts players can get picked up too if they’re really really good. West Perth actually had two I think in the past couple years get taken up). More on that in a bit.

This is the level that everything starts getting very serious. The coaches and players yell. The players also fight. People get hurt (concussion anyone?). The hits are big. There’s danger of being put out for an entire season from one mark gone wrong. If your jersey isn’t grass stained with dots of blood by the end of the game, you didn’t play hard enough.

As brutal as I just tried to make that sound, it is an incredible thing to watch. It’s a very fun game to watch, especially when a team works really well together. The kicks and handballs are far more accurate than any other level below WAFL. Training is far more serious. But the injuries are also more serious. This past weekend alone we had a strained hamstring, two blown shoulders, a broken nose, multiple corks, and a partially torn bicep. And on top of all that, all of those injured players will insist on playing in the next game (Jess will kill them before they try though).

The final level a footy player can reach is the AFL. The difference between this level and WAFL is that not only do these players get paid, they play teams from all over Australia, not just in Western Australia. These are the stars that all little Aussie kids look up to. They become fans from before they can walk and know the words to the chants by heart.

The two teams here in WA are the Freo Dockers and the West Coast Eagles. We got to go to the Dockers v. Sydney Giants game yesterday. That stadium is huge!!! It’s comparable to one of our NFL stadiums, and every seat was sold out. At this level, every kick could possibly lead to a goal, and every hit is vital. The players have reached the peak, the best of the best, but they still strive to prove their worth. They still play together as a team instead of just looking out for their own interests.

That’s one thing I appreciate about the players here compared to the US: in our professional sports, the players don’t really have anything to play for anymore besides money. All they care about is getting a championship ring to get the money, and they are willing to leave a team in the dust to get there. The players here seem to have a little more heart than that. You can tell from the way they play that they know how to work as a team, and aren’t just trying to up their personal goal tally. It’s just an intriguing difference to me.

So that’s footy just about summed up! I know it’s not the most interesting in the world to you guys back home, but footy has become my life down here (literally every Saturday is devoted to footy in some way or another). I definitely need to find a way to watch it back home or I might die of footy deprivation. Going back to watching football just won’t be the same after this summer.

Our last week in Italy was spent with morning lectures and afternoon group work. It was more stressing in finalizing our presentation during the last few days. Our group members, including myself, were faced with conflict and chaos at times. Most members’ work, in the end, was eliminated from the presentation all together. This meant for many, three months of hard work going down the drain. However, the main lesson from this experience was learning to put at top priority what the customer or consumer wanted and to accept change and make amendments as the project progressed. Fortunately, we were able to finalize and present on Friday, the last day of the program. The presentation was a success and PratoRosso was happy with the recommendations given.

In between group meeting and lectures, we were able to visit for an afternoon at Verona and at Lake Garda, and make one last site visit at Lonati, a sock manufacturer. Apparently, Verona was not as packed with tourists as it was in Venice. Also, according to my taste buds, I had the best Margarita pizza during my whole stay in Italy, in Verona. Best of all, my pizza was on fire when it was served. Our trip ended with a last dinner with our Italian classmates and professors.

These three weeks in Europe, one week in Germany and two weeks in Italy were one in a life-time experience I will cherish forever. With all its ups and downs during the trip, I learned much not only from a business aspect, but also from an international perspective. Doing business with a country is not at all easy, and in fact it is a challenge. Being able to learn a country’s culture and integrate it in a business proposal is important. Also respecting and being conscious of the differences in cultures is vital in doing business abroad. The world of business is not limited to the U.S.; it is international, in result making it even more important to learn how to do international business.

I also learned that both Italy and Germany have similar values regarding recycling. For instance, the Germans find it very important to recycle both plastic and glass bottles. In fact, they serve their beer in glass and charge an extra fee on customers for the deposit, which they can get back if the glass is returned. The Italians are the same. Coffee is never served in to go cups and in fact must be sipped at the cafe. The U.S. has such a fast paced culture that our food consumption is revolved around this aspect. Everything is to go: paper cups, plates, silverware, etc. All of which create unneeded waste that cannot be recycled. I am assuming this is why recycling is a part of the German and Italian way of living, because their lifestyle does not revolve around a fast-paced lifestyle.

My first week in Italy was filled with both excitement and anxieties. I traveled along with a group of other students from Wiesbaden, Germany to Brescia, Italy. It was an 8 hour long train ride with a stop in Switzerland to check passports and a stop in Milan, Italy to switch trains. However, one of the students realized she had lost her passport once we arrived in Switzerland. It was an excruciating few hours waiting for our passports to be checked and to see what would happen to our friend. Fortunately, it wasn’t until crossing the border and getting close to Milan that our passports were checked by the Italian police. I guess they couldn’t really send her back to Switzerland on Italian soil for not having a passport (because Italy is part of the European Union, there is no need for a passport if you travel between member countries). In the end she was able to cross with us.

Our first day was spent on our own, however, I couldn’t spend it how I wanted it for the first part of the day. It would have been helpful to know that Italian restrooms have the tendency to get stuck, thus locking the occupant in, which happened to me. My prison time in the restroom would not have lasted two hours if I would have been told that a tiny red ball tied to the ceiling was a switch to call for help (which, anyways, would not have worked for someone as short as me to grab and pull). However, the day ended well when I was finally able to jam the door open and was able to get on time to the walking tour of Brescia.

The rest of the week consisted of lectures in the morning and group project meetings in the afternoons. Our main assignment during the whole two weeks in Italy was to prepare a presentation for PratoRosso, an Italian Brewery, on how to use social media to their advantage by offering them recommendations. We had in advance finalized our presentation, but at our client meeting with PratoRosso we realized how wrong we were in our assumption of Italian culture and business. Our recommendations were too advanced and irrelevant at the stage the business was at that moment. During our two weeks in Italy we spent most of the afternoons restructuring our presentations and changing our content. It was truly a real life scenario of how working for an “international” business is more complicated than it seemed.

During the first week we made two site visits to Beretta, an Italian international weapons manufacturer and Ca del Bosco, a Prosecco (champagne) producer. FYI: The Italians take serious offense if you consider Prosecco as champagne (although it obviously is the same in taste and texture, my professors and all the students agreed privately), and according to the Italians, the French stole their idea and renamed it champagne.

The week ended with a team building activity at Lake Iseo and a day trip to Venice. At Lake Iseo we were taught team building through learning how to sail. Sailing in a small boat is truly team work. All members had an assigned task to oversee and execute when the captain (leader) commanded an order. If not all members cooperated, the result was the capsizing the boat. The last section of the team building activity was to get the sail boat back into sailing position if the boat did capsize.

I noticed that the Italians organize their waste according to categories. The food goes to the food waste, the styrofoam and plastic goes in another bin, carton in another, and so forth. However, the Italians are not as enthusiastic as the Germans in regard to recycling bottles. That does not mean they don’t recycle bottles, just that they are not as verbal to foreigners about leaving behind empty water bottles to be recycled. They do, however, have many beautiful water fountains that are safe to drink from, which my be the reason why not many natives purchase water bottles.