Next Stop - Amman, Jordan

Well everyone - its just about that time. As my daughter puts it - "only one more sleep to go"! It has been frantic couple of weeks in getting ready to hit the field - but I think I have remembered everything. Today I did some last minute shopping - in particular, shopping for those items I just can't do without in the field - they are (in no particular order):

- A small bottle of Clamato Juice (for those of you non-Canadian readers out there, this is a drink that consists of tomato and clam juice mixed together). This stuff is used for making "Caesars". Its a drink that you can add either the traditional Vodka - or Gin (for you Brits out there), then you can customize it with Tabasco and other "fixin's".

- Jamaican Jerk Spice. Jordanian fare tends to be rather bland and not very exciting in terms of spice, so I have found that from time to time, preparing a special dish of spicy Caribbean food can have a very postive impact on team morale.

- Instant Oatmeal. Many of you may be surprised that this item is on the list - BUT - at 4:15 in the morning the last thing you want to be doing is cooking up a breakfast - you are on autopilot, so I find that a quick bowl of instant oatmeal is just enough food to get me through to what we call "2nd Breakfast" at 9am on site. 2nd Breakfast can be many different things depending on the project...only time will tell what we'll be eating out in the desert - but I'll be sure to keep you informed.

- Sunblock. Ok, probably an obvious item - but you can't take just ANY sunblock, it has to be a "non-greasy" type....and waterproof. I have found that the cheaper brands of sunblock aren't very good, so I go with Coppertone SPF 50......basically, no tan..but this isn't a vacation folks!

Last but not least is the Marshalltown Trowel 45-5. This is the basic tool of the archaeologist. There are many rules in archaeology and one of them is "Thou Shalt Not Use Any Other Trowel Than A Marshalltown". Archaeologists from the UK disagree with this vehemently (Marshalltown Trowels are made in the USA) and it provides endless debate while on the field. My trowel has been with me ever since my first field school in 1988 back on the Greek island of Lesbos (that's right, I was a Lesbian for a couple of months back in college!!!) - ever since, I have taken it on every project I have ever worked on - I have misplaced it sometimes and even had people hide it from me (a very nerve wracking event) - but it allways turns up. Never mess with an archaeologist's trowel - you are just asking for trouble.

I know this has been a rather trivial post and I haven't really said anything useful - but to be quite honest, I am exhausted and just want to get on the plane at this point. So I must say goodbye for now and I will next post from the beautiful Jordanian oasis town of Azraq early next week.