Bugs, Sore Body, Mysteries. Dated June 5th, 2013.

I am pretty sure that I warned you previously that this blog was going to be a "no strings attached" kind of look into what my life was like last summer. That, obviously, hasn't changed. I will not be editing out specific happenings of my days in the field*. Editing my journal for a blog would take away the authenticity of my experience. Being a girl who has known nothing other than Western comforts, I believe that my words paint an accurate picture of what this culture shock was.  I preemptively apologize if it makes you squeamish, but you're just going to have to deal. Such is life.

*Disclaimer: I will edit coarse language with ****. My Grandma may read this. She doesn't need to see that s**t.

06/05/13
-Early Morning- 6 Am

There are spots on my body that I didn't even know existed that are sore. I'm really excited about getting into the field today. My trench is so fascinating. Like a big mystery my group needs to solve. I guess there is an option to write a paper to present in Cambodia in January- I am really thinking about it. Especially because I could probably use that writing to apply to Grad School. 

The only thing I have issues with is the washing of artifacts. OH MY GOD, SO TEDIOUS. It sucks because it's like you take a shower (you get filthy in the field) and then you get to deal with more f***ing dirt that is all over the artifacts. So you get filthy all over again.

In other news: THE BUGS HERE ARE F***ING MASSIVE. OH.MY.GOD.  So, yesterday I rode on top of the Jeepney- they take us to the site every day and you can ride inside or on top. So, first day into the field, where do you thinkg Jessie Pope rode? ON THE ROOF LIKE AN IDIOT. I can't lie, the views were beautiful. but that's where the fun stops. The catch of riding on the roof is you get to dodge tree branches. Sounds easy, right? Just move the trees out of the way as you go. 

WRONG. Guess what is in those trees? F***ing red ants, bees, millipedes,  AND SPIDERS BIGGER THAN MY HAND. I sh** you not, Joff (a guy with us) warned me about spiders. A second later I turn around and BAM. A spider with a torso as long as a tampon and legs longer than my fingers. Sweet mother of god. It was traumatizing. In that moment I decided that it was perfectly acceptable to be terrified of spiders. And in that moment I was. 

An example of a giant ass spider. She was on our way to the field, roughly 3 ft from our heads. It took a few weeks to notice her.

Then, of course, the beetles. There was a Rhino Beetle on our door two nights ago  and I didn't even scream over it. I think I'm starting to becoming jaded. Alright, time for breakfast and more dirt. Just remember, everything is more fun in the Philippines.

If I could give you an example of how big this guy was: make a hang loose sign with your thumb and pinky. Measure the distance between the two. Yep, that was the length of this guy's antennae. 

<3
Coop

P.s. I finally feel a poop coming on. 
Late at night:
Big, Big P.s.- I will almost always write about my day the next day. Archaeology is exhausting, but at least my ass will be nice :).

Oh, and when I put something in bold: I marked what time of the day I was writing Tucker. It was usually whenever I could squeeze time in.

Being abroad without the person you love is a series of  challenges. The biggest challenge? Communication. And not in the "we just don't talk any more" kind of way. It is more in the "I don't know if there is going to be power or internet access where we are going" kind of way.

While I was in South America communicating was relatively easy. The hotel we stayed in had internet in the main restaurant and although the area was rural a few places had some sort of internet access. Communication in Ifugao is another story. On a daily basis we would lose power for hours at a time. When we lost power we would scramble around to make sure any electronics were unplugged; if they turned the power back on while something was plugged in, it would blow up. This happened twice. Not a good look. At one point a storm came in and knocked out power for almost two days. Or maybe three. I can't even remember. Those days were such a blur.

Facetime dates with my main piece. 

You're 24??! You're MARRIED? YOU'RE MOVING ABROAD!?! (Part 1 of many, I am sure).

A week ago, at this exact moment, I finished up my interview with the company I wanted to teach for in China. I was trying to figure out how to get to Tucker, who was across town, and the struggle was real. His team  having their annual team dinner at what looked like a delicious Greek restaurant. I am not big on cabs, too expensive, so I just opted to stay in our hotel until they returned.

When Tucker came back to our little hotel nest he was definitely a little tipsy. And Tipsy Tucker is the best Tucker. A waiter had confused "iced tea" for "long island iced tea" and Tucker was handed the mistakes. Yes, plural. At the game the following morning the parents fawned over the persistence of Hubs at the restaurant. Apparently Tucker was going to stop at nothing to make sure I got to experience the fabulous Greek food like he did. In reality, he knows how hangry I get and did not want to feel the wrath of hangry Jessie come down upon him that night.

He is seriously the absolute greatest.

Four hours later, from this moment a week ago,  I was offered a position teaching in China. And I took it. Immediately. Lord knows that if I gave myself more than thirty-seconds to think about it I would've rejected the offer. I mean, I took it immediately after I realized the email was sent directly to my junk mail folder. Gmail freaked out and didn't recognize the address of the HR woman that sent me the position. This caused minor confusions when the recruiter congratulated me in an obligatory 'welcome aboard' email that was answered with minor confusion (and a lot of happiness) on my end.

My week since accepting the position has been full of, "Oh my gosh! China is SO far!" and "That's amazing! Do it while you're young!" and a little, " I could never do that" which I call total B.S. on. You can do it, you just don't want to do it.

Among all of these questions, and my personal favorite, "What about your husband?" What about my husband? He has a name, you know. It's Tucker. What about Tucker?

Well guess what?
We will still be married.
We will be completely in love.
We will obsess over each other.
We will talk at every chance, just like we do right now.
We will tell each other the mundane play-by-play of our day.
We will grow in our marriage. Probably more than we ever have previously.
We will always have each other to lean on when times get rough.
We will still be together.
I will just live really, really far away for roughly fourteen months.

We chose to share our lives at a young age and we get that. We got that a long time ago... Like nearly three years ago when we tied the knot. What we didn't choose to do was to quit our dreams simply because we got married. Newsflash: we don't live in 1950 any more. You can still be married and live your life. Even if that life takes you in a direction you never thought you'd go, you can still be married!  No longer is it about being adhering to the societal norm of "marriage" to Tucker or I. To us, it is about being happy. It's about looking at our life 60 years from now and being proud of our accomplishments both as a couple and as individuals. We are still individual people. We still have individual aspirations. We both still have places we want to go and people we want to see. None of that disappeared when we paid $66 to the state of Oregon and signed a piece of paper that legally (and symbolically) glued our lives together. None of it.

We get one shot at this life thing. We plan on making our shot the best it can be. Even if that shot means having to spend time a world away to follow our dreams.

"Manila: Day 1" Dated 06-01-13

Before I actually get to what the letter to Tuck Tuck said, I have to let you know that I was emailed explicit directions to walk off of the plane in Manila waving a paper with my last initial on it. My last initial is L, I didn't read the email until I'd already arrived in Manila and I hastily drew an L on the second page of the Turtle journal. So now, almost a year later, the L is faded and got wet (the Philippines are wet). I wrote the journal entry over the big, blue, highlighter L.

Hey Sunshine!

 Sorry about the big L. The directions left for me at the airport explicitly stated that I was supposed to be waiting with the first letter of my last name. 

Today was surreal. First- Manila is humid as f*ck. Even the girl from Florida is losing it in this humidity. I constantly have frizzy hair. Other than that- this is such a beautiful place! The atmosphere, the landscape, and most importantly the people.  Everyone said hello to us this morning. People, (old women even!) tried to give up their seat on the bus for us!

Storm: Today I experienced my first Manila rain storm. It was beautiful to say the least. We were riding in a Jeepney, which is basically a campus taxi that is a jeep with a long bed and no windows. It was POURING. I've never heard such loud rain in my life. It flooded in three minutes and it was an insta-traffic jam. The thunder was SO loud too.  (I was completely wrong about Jeepneys, I found this out later when we rode Jeepneys everywhere in Ifugao.) 

At this point I fell asleep mid-letter. I just spent nearly 24 hours traveling across the world. Give me a break. 

"Sunshine" Dated: 5-30-13

I wrote my husband a bunch of letters while I was in the Philippines last summer. I will continue the tradition this summer after I jet off again. Writing was my equivalent to talking to him since I stay in an area without consistent internet access and I didn't really have another choice.

 I truly do love to write, even though my grammar may not be the greatest. I also abuse commas with little shame. Nothing that I am blind to, but anyway, I wrote my husband these letters in a faded turtle journal that traveled around Luzon with me. Since they are what I lived through while I was abroad, I felt like I needed to share them. Mostly because I want a double record of what I lived through, but mainly because I want to share the joy of being abroad with the world and let others read the types of experiences you probably with have in the middle of no where Philippines.

So here goes:

Post #1
Date: 5-30-2013

Sunshine,

I didn't tell you, but a week before I left I bought a journal just to write you letters and tell you about my time away, even when I can't physically tell you. Let me give you a forewarning-
-This will be all my intimate feelings, thoughts and experiences while I am away.

To start off, I am on my flight to Beijing right now. I am watching Wreck It Ralph and I am crying. It all just hit me at once when I started the movie. You are actually my entire life. I don't know what I did to deserve you, but whatever it was, it was the best decision I ever made in my life. You are the absolute most incredible human beint I have ever met. I love yo uto the moon, Turtles. This is going to be a hard month and half for us, but I have so much faith and absolute love in our relationship that I know we are going to be fine. You make me so happy and I am so so so so so glad you came to Cassie's that one September.

Love Always,
Coop

Ps- I can't understand anyone on this plane. FML.

So this was post #1, of many. Obviously if you are reading this you know exactly what you are getting yourself in to. A lot of this is mushy, a lot of this will be about my life in Kiangan. Prepare yourself.

Exhaustion, Excitement.... Mainly the former, some of the latter.

This week has been rough on me. I am just coming off of Spring Break (without going away for the first time in 4 years) and I am not readjusting well.

For starters: I leave again soon... Really soon.  And I probably (hopefully **fingers crossed**) will be going away for a long time. A really long time. How long? To be determined. How far? Also, to be determined. Keep me in your thoughts, preferably along side the positive images and rainbows and kittens.

My brain turned off on Tuesday afternoon and I have not been able to keep it on long enough to function like a proper human being. To make matters even worse, it seems like everyone around me hasn't readjusted either. Granted, I work in education (which I truly love, I might add) and granted that I am probably taking everything too personally at the moment, I still would like the last sixish weeks of school to be relatively peaceful. I also know this is not going to happen BECAUSE I work in education and six weeks of peace is laughable by teacher standards.*

*(note: if you are a teacher who has experienced six weeks of peace during the term of your employment, please promptly contact me so that I may quit my current place of employment and throw my skills at yours. Quite literally. If you have six weeks of peace in a class room I am going to assume A. You're delusional , B. You've become best friends with a Unicorn and C. You live in Colorado, because, you know, that's legal there)

For seconders: I leave for San Diego on Saturday after noon and that is also adding to the zero level of functions going on in my noggins right now. Pretty sure my brain has already tricked me into smelling ocean breezes and sipping a sex on the beach.... maybe on the beach.

Saturday.... Just hurry up.

Please?

Success

I didn't exactly grow up living like Paris Hilton, which I am beyond ok with. My family provided more than enough to get by, with set backs of course. When I was 8 or 9 (I can't honestly give you an exact age because I I tried to block it out) much of our house was destroyed by a horrible flood. I know we lost a lot, but I was mainly concerned that my sand box had been washed away in the destruction. Granted we probably had three feet of water rushing through our living at one point, but I was pissed because my favorite plastic shark got washed away.

This huge life event was easily the catalyst in my urge to become some person who was wealthy and powerful. Probably because I felt so small and helpless at the time. All I wanted was to live in a big house. I wanted that damn Bentley. The prestige. All of those things. Graduating high school I was so determined to get out and become some high power lawyer who raked in millions. That's all I wanted. I didn't care about anything else, just that cash money or how I could grab as many material things as I could lay my hands on....

Now, here I am, nearly 25 (when the hell did that happen??) and working in a school district as a Teacher's Assistant. Not exactly what I imagined, but I'll take it all the same. My job is actually pretty great, tiny complaints aside. The shape of what I deemed as success has definitely (and thankfully) changed and is ever-evolving as I get older. As I get to experience the world in different ways I realize what I gauge as "success" is hardly a shell of what I started out with:

No longer is my "success" measured by how big a house I will have or how nice of car I will buy, but by how many stamps I can get into my passport? How many lives can I touch? How many lives can touch mine? How many adventures can these two legs take me on? What kinds of foods can I experience? What kind of cultural mishaps can I finagle my way out of? I may not have been able to buy a car by 25, nor will I probably be able to buy a house by 30, but I have got to dig up beads in the Philippines that were still just as bright and beautiful as the day they were buried. I almost died in Argentina during a freak rain storm that led us to traversing a mountainside and walking through knee-deep mud for nearly 5 (or more, who knows) hours. I've protested in Washington D.C. I got a stamp from Ireland in my passport dated March 17th. I got to watch a ritual pig slaughter. I've climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I rambled around the catacombs of the Smithsonian and accidently wandered into classrooms during lessons. I almost died on a flight out of Santiago, Chile. I've explored ruins of the Great Wall of China with my best friend. I've gotten lost in Nice, France far too late at night. I've gawked a Sun Fish in the Milan, Italy Aquarium. I've swam in waters beneath mile long waterfalls that simultaneously touched 2 countries at once (Argentina and Brasil). I've walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. I've thrown a surprise party for my best friend's birthday on a hostel rooftop in Montevideo, Uruguay. I've taken shots of tequila in Mexico. I've met some of the most incredible people on this great Earth.

My memories are as priceless as they are endless and I wouldn't trade or change them for the any amount of money (well, maybe some more plane tickets) or material wealth.  Success is such a fickle, fleeting thing. Right now my six month image of success involves climbing up and down rice terraces, digging in the dirt and impacting the history of South East Asia. And that image of success makes my heart beat just a little bit faster and my smile just a little bit wider.

We live in such a beautiful world and it would be a damn shame and waste to miss out on any of it because of some outdated indoctrination that I need a two story house with two kids, a Labrador and a white picket fence. I can work for all of those things when I am ready and willing. For now though, I am going to have fun experiencing this planet we call home.

Parents visit and I regret drinking, per usual

My beautiful family

Tried to get dad to take a photo, he opted for a selfie.

My family is in town for the weekend! Yay! Considering I haven't visited them since November seeing them has been wonderful. Even more exciting: my mom had gastric bypass surgery recently and she looks AMAZING!!

Mom and I

Last night Tucker and I splurged and took them to a San Jose Shark's Hockey game, needless to say, they were enthralled. Even more, they had a blast. I will let the photos speak for themselves at the end of my post. I also had far TOO MUCH fun and I am paying for it dearly today. Every time I drink I am happily reminded that this body is not built like a 20 year old any more. Every. Damn. Time

Mom and Pop being all cutesy on the way to the game. 

There are so many big things happening in my life this year!! This summer is about to be one of the craziest adventures yet and I can hardly wait! I will be leaving (hopefully) June 11th and returning in the middle of August. I am hoping Tucker can make a trip out East to meet up with me in August. We really want to visit Japan together and I am PRAYING it is going to happen! Fingers crossed!

Stay tuned for other BIG announcements about my next year. I am so excited for all the new things!!!!

At least he puts up with me :)

The Biggest Adventure

Last summer I spent in the Philippines, excavating a place known as Old Kiyyangan Village with some of the brightest and most caring individuals I have ever met. The entire experience was surreal.  Literally everything was out of my comfort zone. From arriving into Manila at three in the morning. To my first night in Kiangan, in my mosquito net fort, listening to a billion sounds that horrified me to the depths of my soul. The cockroaches (which are my biggest phobia) were bigger than I could imagine. The bugs. The long and disgusting days in the field. Tapeworms. The rain water showers. The lack of toilet seats. Forgetting what hot water felt like. Missing wine. Missing my family. Having no real connection to the outside world.

Even through all of those trials, I fell in love. I fell in love with everything the Philippines had to offer, down to the biggest and nastiest cockroach. I fell for the people, who accepted me with open and loving arms. The food- even though I haven't been able to look at Tilapia since I came home. All of it. I try to find one negative with spending all that time away in a place I could have never imagined visiting with no luck. Kiangan is, and always will be, my special paradise. My spot.

So, yesterday I work, I made the call. I am going back. I have to go back. Since I stepped foot off that island in July I haven't been the same. My husband has even told me he felt like I left a little part of my heart there. It is no secret by now that I most definitely did.

This summer I will be returning for a month to excavate the Hapao Rice Terrace cluster. Last summer I was blessed to watch a ritual pig sacrifice to question the spirits of the ancestors of our excavation and they happily told us yes. I can't wait to return. I can't wait to smell all the smells and eat salty fish in the morning.... and rice every day for every meal. This time I will definitely be more prepared for the adventure I am about to embark on, for we are staying in an even more rural locale that has almost a mile hike up uneven stairs. Every. Day. Back to subsisting on Sky Flakes and 86 cent rum.

I yearn to be back in the field. To go home dirty and hating myself. To get into bed and fall asleep instantly from exhaustion. To dig up priceless cultural artifact and expand knowledge of such a rural area. For the first time in my life I finally am a piece of something that is far greater than myself.

This is only a portion of my beautiful Archaeology family