Hello again everybody! So I know I'm a few days behind with this post, but there was no internet access in Athens and I therefore was unable to update this blog until just today when we left the capital of Greece and drove two hours on a bus for the tiny town outside of the Mycenaean citadel, aptly called by archaeologists and historians, Mycenae! Yes, I realize I have therefore already FAILED to update regularly, but in my defense, that was beyond my control. And I'm updating now.
I guess the first thing I'd like to tell you all is that everybody made it without anyone being pickpocketed or killed. Yay! For our efforts, Chris (one of the graduate students in charge) bought us all cookies. I think I'll avoid pickpockets from now on, especially if we're going to get free cookies out of it!
Since it is splashed all over CNN and every other news network (Greek or foreign) many of you likely know that there have been some riots in Greece over, of all things, money! I'd like to tell you all that we were right there in the middle of the action and were given gas masks on our pillows rather than those little mints...but that would be a big fat lie, and nobody likes a liar. Unles you're a really good liar, in which case people don't actually KNOW you're a liar, and then people might actually like you, but then I guess that whole "nobody likes a liar' phrase wouldn't TECHNICALLY apply to you...confused yet? What it all boiled down to was some interesting metro switches and a bit of walking, but other than that, Athens was still as loud and cramped as I remembered it. Of course everyone spoke Greek at you, and since my Greek is quite frankly atrocious, I did not communicate with many natives. I was however, able to order food by pointing and nodding, and most of the cafes had at least SOMEONE who knew some English, so I did not starve. Which is generally good...
In Athens we went and toured the Parthenon and the new museum, as well as the Ancient Agora and the National Archaeological Museum. All of them were great, just the Parthenon day was LOOOOOOOOONNG!!! It was the day after all of us had flown overnight into Athens and all of us were somewhere between Athens time and Home time (not necessarily the same times since we come from all over the place!). So it was a very quiet tour on our part. Not to mention it took a combined total of about 7 HOURS! Our tour guide, Maria, was a very nice lady, spoke fairly good Greeklish, but by the first hour or so, we were all ready for a nice long nap and maybe some γύρο με πίτα. The next day was the museum and wasn't so bad, mainly because this time she gave us a few highlights and let us free to roam. We all pressed our noses to the glass cases with the "Mask of Agamemnon", the Niello daggers, Vapheio cups A and B,  and countless other pieces that we'd all seen over and over again in Prof. Maggidis's slides for classes, but never in person. I'd just like to say, things look a lot bigger in photos than real life. For example, there were two rhytons (ritual drinking vessels) in the shape of a bull's head and a gold lion's head that we'd seen plenty before. In the pictures, these things seemed about as big as someone's head. Well... actually they were about as big as a wide-open hand. Still as cool as ever (especially the lion one, that one is still my favourite rhyton), but surprising.
After the museum, we were turned loose on Greece and told to shoot Erica or Chris a text of where we were and what we were doing for supper when the time came. Marjorie, Ella, and I did some shopping in the Plaka, the touristy, flea market area where you can get all the fake vases and mini models of the Parthenon. Needless to say, I ended my day with my wallet a bit lighter and gifts for everyone on my list. ;-)
Today we got to sleep in and then boarded a coach bus and drove down to Mykines (the Greek name for Mycenae). It wasn't that long of a ride, but we got to pass over the canal that cuts through the isthmus between the main part of Greece and the Peloponnese, where Mycenae is located. A big ditch, would probably be a big enough understatement to describe the canal. It's basically a straight-shot  with huge, rocky clifs carved out of the ground. People bungee off the bridge over the canal. It's such a straight drop that, if you don't know it's coming up, you can totally miss the canal itself. It's just, tree, tree, tree, tree, WHOOPS CLIFF!, tree, tree, tree, tree... They even gave us fair warning and some people actually missed the canal.
The town were staying in is close to the dig, but we still have to be shuttled up and back to and from the site. There are only around 200 people in this town and one road which everything is off of. Compared to Athens, it's like a ghost town! Marjorie, my sometimes-woefully-confused-but-generally-fun roommate, and I went exploring, found two gift shops and three restaurants/taverns, and saw only four people. I think it might be just because it's a Sunday and, like usual, bloody hot outside, but I'm not sure. Something just tells me this place doesn't exactly have a hopping night-life. But then, Marjorie and I are SUCH party-animals...
Tomorrow is a half-day and is orientation. I'll meet my trenchmaster (how cool does that title sound?), find out which sector I'll be working in, and then Prof. Maggidis will give us troops a rally speech (possibly) before we have to really start the main work. Yes, I know tomorrow is the Fourth of July, but it's Greece!
Okay, I think I've blathered on enough, so I'll leave you for now.  Check out the photo gallery because I'll be posting pics from Athens!
Για σας!

Hello anyone who is here!
When I was accepted into the D.E.P.A.S. Program at Mycenae, Greece this spring, I decided that I wanted to keep a journal of my time there. I'd write everyday, keep things in between the pages, even takes notes and draw pictures. It was going to be awesome!
Then I realized that, although I am a good writer, I am complete CRAP when it comes to drawing ANYTHING, let alone the details of an archaeological excavation. So I decided that, although I enjoy ancient things, it was time to bring myself into the 21st century. I decided to create this blog, hopefully chronicling my days in the D.E.P.A.S. program. I have no idea if I will be able to do it (keep up each day, that is) but I figured the first place to start it with a first post. I still have little over a month until I get in a big steel bird and fly across an ocean and a sea to start my adventure, but like my fellow undergraduate archaeology majors, I am STOKED!
To give a little background, this program is one that I have been looking forward to since I first started college. I had visited Mycenae in 2008 as a tourist (see the slideshow on my "Background" page for proof!) but I had not known about the D.E.P.A.S. program. All I'd known was that it was an ongoing archaeological dig and looked pretty darn cool! Believe it or not, I'd wanted to be a NASA flight controller (Mission Control and all that stuff) and was pretty set on becoming a rocket scientist. But I spent two weeks touring as many archaeological sites throughout Greece as I could and, well the rest is history (pun intended =) ).
So here I am, three years later, preparing to go back to Greece, this time as an undergraduate archaeology student and NOT a prospective rocket scientist. Funny how things change, huh? To prepare for D.E.P.A.S. all students have to take specific courses. One is Pre-historic Aegean Art and Archaeology, which I took in the Fall of 2010,and the other is an intensive Modern Greek language course, which I happily finished just a few weeks ago. Both are designed to help you when you go to Mycenae, to understand the context of the ruins you are unearthing and to at least partially communicate with the locals. Well...I guess I'm happy I can say "Please", "Thank you", and "My name is Katie" (or Κατερίνα if you want to be REALLY Greek).
I don't really know what it will be like over there, but talking to other majors who have gone on this program just makes me more and more excited to go.