Long Time No See

Well, hey there! I still have some of those unpublished blog posts saved somewhere on my computer, but I definitely failed to document my graduate school experience. I'm sorry about that, guess I should turn in my blogging badge, because I obviously need to practice more.

So what's been going on with me, you may ask. Well, quite a lot but I'm not sure how positive I can make it.

First of all, graduate school, what an amazing experience. Our program is small but growing. In my year we had 20 people that became 19 after the first year. We are comprised of 18 girls, 1 boy. He dealt with it pretty well and wound up with a girlfriend from it, so hey, win win. The program includes 1 retired MSP Lt., 1 retired FBI special agent, 1 current MSP Captain, 1 PhD in Neurobiology, 1 PhD in Anatomy, and 2 PhDs in Forensic Anthropology. The classes focused not only on osteology, but anatomy, taphonomy, crime scene investigation, forensic pathology, statistics, as well as some field work. It's a promising program with a lot of potential, particularly the outdoor research facility that was recently greenlit to have human remains used there. It's 42 acres which includes a stream and 2 ponds, so lots of experiment possibilities. (There we go, commercial aspect done).


Now for some tough stuff, my thesis research didn't go quite as planned. We had to decide our topic in November of 2011 for graduating in May 2013. This is not a lot of time to research and find a topic of interest. I had a few topics but when I went to talk to my probable adviser, he pushed me into a different research project that he admitted would be very difficult to do. Well, I did it, it took a very long time and lots of connections to even be able to do my research, and after the initial meeting, my adviser was pretty hands off and not involved in the planning or much else. This project involved decomposition research in two separate environments, freshwater and marine. Securing a marine environment took 6 months. Eventually I was able to do my research at the MSP Marine Unit docks and the officers there were very helpful. Sadly, during the bloating phase of my decomposition research, the police had to step in and break that phase because of worry about pedestrian involvement. This was a terrible time for me, because it altered my data. In the end, I continued my research.

In addition to this set back with my thesis, I managed to fail my Advanced Osteology class. In our program, if you get below a B- you fail the class. The majority of our grade was based on 10 quizzes with 20 questions each. These were timed and we had a minute to answer each question. I am terrible under pressure and just couldn't handle it. As a result, the teacher became very upset and attempted to get me to leave the program. I was given remedial coursework and told that my graduation was delayed until September. This really hurt my self esteem. Fortunately I was assigned to a different faculty member for the remedial work and it became apparent to him that I really didn't need to do this. I ended up passing the final exam with an A after my remedial work.

This also resulted in my taking of our program's comprehensive exam in May 2013 rather than January. This was difficult as the test was on coursework I had taken in my two semesters. Sadly, I failed the written portion of that exam by 1 point. So I was scheduled to retake that portion in July. I passed! But my adviser/first reader has decided that I can't graduate until at least December.
Currently I am quite defeated. Which sounds ridiculous given the fact that I'm almost done, but I have my reasons. I won't waste this blog space ranting about the quality of the feedback on my thesis is, but rest assured, I have never felt so personally attacked without much constructive help on anything. My self esteem and worth have been severely damaged by all my setbacks.
In spite of these, I have managed to have some wonderful times. I made great friends, the kind I think you normally make in college but I was not as successful in that regard. I had some amazing experiences, including witnessing autopsies at the ME's office, attending two AAFS conferences, TAing a course for the first time, and having a week long internship under Dr. Murray Marks in Knoxville, TN. He is a great mentor and my time spent there was invaluable. I've also managed to apply and have an interview with the NYSP Forensic Lab. I don't hold out much hope about getting this job, but it would be a wonderful foot in the door to my desired field.

So that's the low down, there's more to tell I'm sure but in the meantime I'll try to post somewhat more regularly. I move back home in two days and hopefully being in the familiar setting will boost my self esteem and I can finish this thesis and be done with this program!

How Do You Define Uneventful? (5/30/2011)

Today was a somewhat uneventful day. Or as uneventful as it can be examining human remains in Butrint, Albania. We awoke and ate breakfast eagerly, because the 3 burials left at the forum were promised to our group to dig, as I had already dug I was simply going to be cleaning and analyzing bones while they went digging and hopefully reviewing enough to remind myself of what I'm actually doing. It's so odd, I remember stuff but then I can't explain it. Or I know I should remember something but I don't. I hate being ill prepared.

On the way to class we passed by what would end up being the highlight of our day, a flock of sheep being herded down the road and onto the small “ferry” that crosses the river. I say ferry loosely because it is really just a raft that is run across the river by a line and powered back and forth. All in all it probably takes less than 7 minutes to be moved from one side of the river to another. The sheep were very unhappy to be moved and protested and tried to run away quite a lot.

Sadly, we got word that the excavations were being done by the people already there and that none of us was to help. Apparently they had not only left the burials exposed to the rain storm but had also broken one by dropping part of its stone covering on top of the bones. My classmates and I were sorely disappointed and I know that Sarah and I felt bad because we had gotten to do a full day's excavation at the exclusion of the others. So we went and received a lecture as we tried to secure the remains that were from previous years that might be from both the helenistic and bronze age. We couldn't find much of those either.

After lunch we split into groups to receive a lecture on aging and sexing bones or to analyze the 2 very young skeletons we had waiting in our office. I decided to stay and help with the analysis. This turned out to be a bad idea. I was paired with Sarai, who is a difficult person to work with. She is very loudly opinionated and judgmental and really is only out to help herself. I sat down with my computer to help her take notes and was told that she was taking her own notes and didn't really need me. I helped her anyways and it was a slow and tedious process as we counted each individual bone fragment and attempted to side them. We aged the child at around 5 or 6, the little girl had her first molars growing but had yet to lose any baby teeth. All in all it was a rather unpleasant day.

After dinner we received a lecture on DMORT and their help with 9/11. It was incredible to hear from a person who had been on the scene, doing the hard work and helping the people receive identities and their families given some semblance of peace. The way he spoke made it sound like work that I would want to do. I can't say I'd really like it, because no one should like a mass fatality and recovery effort but I would feel pleased with myself by helping out in this way if my skills permit.

I also received my first odd bug bite. Don't get my wrong I've got a fair share of mosquitoes but this bug obviously had pincers and left what looks like a small vampire bite on my hip. It also hurt and was rather large. Didn't get to see too much of it though, as I flung it away quite quickly.

Did I also forget to mention that the Livia, the hotel we're staying at, has bunnies? As in, wild bunnies who live on the grounds and hop around us all the time? Because it totally does and some of them are young bunnies and all are adorable. No touching of course, they probably all have mange or something.

Looking forward to another day with bones!

Excavation (5/28/2011)

After a rather sleepless night, I was not feeling well at all we woke up and went to breakfast where we were informed that only 2 students would accompany the professor to the dig site and excavate the remains. Most people did not volunteer but around 6 of us were feeling highly competitive over those 2 coveted spots. I ended up winning the second of the 2 spots and eagerly awaited the excavation.

We followed the ethnobotanist on the site to the site, which involved climbing over the walls of the theater. This was bad because the guards for the park were very angry and whistled at us to get down off of the ruins. I was last in line because I moved slowly and so in fear I jumped down quite a distance to the bottom of the ruins and ended up spraining my ankle again. I had sprained it almost 2 years ago and it had never quite healed properly. It was fortunate that I brought my compression sock with my to the site as I ended up putting it on as soon as we got there.

It took a while to get everything sorted out but eventually Sarah and I were cleaning and excavating fill so that pictures could be taken. We had to remove a few bones but altogether leave the skeleton in-situ in the grave. It was definitely a child's body, most of the long bones were un-fused and the vertebra were mostly fused. The skull was a mess, having either exploded from moisture or crushed because it was in many pieces. The grave had obviously been disturbed at some point, by a rodent, root or something else we weren't sure what had caused all the movements because roots were present and rodent activity was evident. It took us until lunch to fully clean the remains and have them ready to be photographed and then drawn, which happened after lunch. We were worried a bit because of the fact that they bones had been moist in the soil but were exposed to direct sunlight and would dry out fast, making them easily crumble if handled without care. Fortunately when we finally did excavate the bones remained intact.

At first glance it had appeared as though most of the bones were broken, except for the femurs and innominates, it looked like everything else was in pieces but after further excavation we found a mandible and most of the ribs intact. We even found a biforcated rib, which is a nice find. We bagged everything as best as we could, trying to keep the sides separate to help us out later on when we needed to analyze and sort them. The artist on site helped us do all of the excavating and was quite excited. Sarah and I were both happy because it was our first excavation and I think we did quite well. Transporting the bones up to where the rest of the class was for cleaning and analysis ended up being quite interesting. Generally we would have brought them up in a crate but there were none so I moved things around in my backpack and we put all the bags in there. Sadly because my ankle was in such bad shape I had to walk the long path to the top where the museum was, rather than take the stairs. The path was actually quite creepy and I didn't enjoy my trek but I made it in one piece and we were able to lay out the bones on a table so they could dry from the condensation that had formed in the bags from the heat.

Cleaning was definitely needed but at that time there was no space so we decided to clean the bones the next day. All in all today was rough on my body but very rewarding to see that our work was not for nothing, as we removed the child and will now be studying him or her to see what they have to say.

Decision! And Other Adventures (5/27/2011)

Today was an amazing day! First we woke and finally obtained the remains from the current investigation. Sadly they had been left out and exposed to bird poop and the like, or sealed tightly in a bag where condensation quickly appeared. For bones, it is bad to go from being wet to dry quite quickly, as they fall apart rather easily. Bones are also hydrophobic and can explode from too much water, so we were quite worried about the state of the remains. We laid out one of the skeletons anatomically and I realized how rusty I am with siding. We had many tourists watching us as we did our work, which was out in the open near the museum. The Albanian children are extremely curious and love to touch everything and ignore when someone tells them to stay behind a certain space. I certainly kept an eye on my bag in case thieving hands wandered its way. After that we broke for lunch and began to try and do some analysis but the bones were just too dirty, it was decided that we should start cleaning them but I had wanted to go to the internet cafe in Saranda to check my email to see if I had heard from BU.

The only other person to come to town was Caitlyn, who is the oldest of us at 24 and is a mother. She is a teacher and came on the trip for the culture and the trip, not the bones. I felt bad leaving the bones to be cleaned but I really wanted to check my email. It was mildly awkward as Caitlyn and Alex are extremely flirtatious. It is pretty evident that they will have some sort of romance before he leaves on Sunday. He told us that if we didn't mind a short time at the internet cafe, he would take us somewhere special and we agreed.

Well boy was I glad I went to check my email, I did indeed have an email waiting in my inbox that was given the subject of “Decision from the Boston University Medical School”. Gmail actually lists the subject and then the first few words of the email in its inbox and so I saw “Dear Amy, Congratulations” and my heart leapt in my chest. I opened the email to find that I had been accepted to Boston University for their MS in Forensic Anthropology! I was so excited I couldn't contain myself and Caitlyn happily shared in my excitement. I also called my parents to tell them the news but apparently the school had already called home because I had emailed them saying I would be out of the country and they didn't know if they could reach me. I was so happy that I chose to go into town and felt so at peace. I didn't realize the large weight that I had carried on my shoulders about that. I had just assumed I was rejected and was waiting for formal confirmation. I can't really describe how amazing it feels to make the cut and have my life lined up! Of course there will be much to stress about when I return home, such as housing, financial aid and a job hunt but....I'm a graduate student!!

After that I was totally happy to do anything with Caitlyn and Alex and luckily he did not disappoint us. He brought us both to The Blue Eye. And this time I had my camera. The Blue Eye is a beautiful body of water in Albania that is the purest, clearest water I have ever seen. It is a place where water comes up from an underground tunnel as well as seeps through the ground from the mountain into this river of pure clear water. The blue of the deep pool is indescribable. It is the bluest blue I have ever seen and to see water so clear it looked like it wasn't there was amazing. We also could drink the water, which was so delicious I will never taste water like that again. It was truly a great experience and I was so happy that Alex decided to bring us there, especially since we might not be able to go within the next week.

After that breathtaking sight we returned to Saranda in order to visit a dessert shop and pick up some treats for everyone, which Alex paid for by himself, much to mine and Caitlyn's dismay. He also drove around talking to people and teasing us. Then he forced Caitlyn to drive his standard BMW because she had bragged to him about how great a driver she was. She was a good driver, and Albanian roads are scary so I'm impressed that she even did that. Of course I was told to keep both our visit to the Blue Eye as well as Caitlyn's driving experience a secret, which I have but it feels weird.

We returned to the Livia, our hotel in Butrint and during dinner I informed the professor and the dean that I had been accepted to Boston University. I was not sure how he would react as we had spent a day being lectured about the difference between a terminal masters forensic anthropologist and a phD anthropologist and he had seemed pretty down on the masters workers. He was very excited for me and everyone congratulated me. It was very nice. I'm so happy.

We were informed at dinner that a few burials had been found at the forum archeological site and that they wanted us to excavate so the excitement for tomorrow is palpable.

It's all about Politics (5/26/2011)

Today was the first day of our actual field school. We spent about a day on a bus coming from Tirana to Butrint. It was a pretty tough ride because there was no air conditioning, I think everyone passed out because we were just so sweltering. Today we were supposed to start in on the human remains but politics seems to be the name of the game here as it is everywhere.

Butrint is beautiful and there is only around 8% of Albania that has been excavated and it is filled with wonderful artifacts. There are artifacts here from Greece, Rome and many more. We are near a great site and will be analyzing remains dug up from burials near the forum here. It's amazing.

But politics have caused us problems. There is a man who has come to power in the park where the site is, he will be labeled Toad Man. Toad Man controls the remains. Toad Man wants more power over the people who work in the park, specifically anthropologists/archeologists. He wants bribes. My professors don't want to pay bribes. Toad Man is powerful with many friends and so negotiations with him have been tough. But finally we were able to obtain the key to the remains. Sadly the remains had been tampered with and seemed not the way the professor had left them. We also couldn't get our hands on the newer set of remains that had been excavated recently by the people digging in the forum.

The country has so many ruins of Roman and Greek cities. It is amazing to watch the layers unfold and see where architecture changed and how so much is uncovered. As this is my first foreign country I had a much different experience with the ruins, which are mostly free to roam over, the back of the theater being the only thing that you really can't climb on.

After our long wait to obtain the bones I headed into town with Caitlyn, Sarah and Sarai. We were driven by the son of one of the owners of the hotel we are staying at, a charismatic young Albanian man named Alex. He loves to flirt but is a good person, he loves his family and his homeland, he fought in the war over government. He also is part Greek and spends much time there. He didn't just take us to Saranda so we could go on the computer in the internet cafe, he also took us to a sweets shop, to get alcohol and then drove us to a historical castle and took pictures, it was all in all very nice, I sadly neglected to bring my camera so I had no pictures of my own from that time except a picture I took on my phone.

The first rain storm happened. It was quite unusual to see. Albania's landscape is flat plains surrounded by mountains that are impossibly tall. We watched the rain approach across the plain but the amount that rained here was really quite a small amount and passed quickly, lots of lightning and thunder however.

This country is beautiful and I am so excited to be here.

A String of Updates

Whoa, I haven't posted in a while but that doesn't mean I'm dead! For 2 weeks I didn't have internet and then it's been pretty whirlwind from there. I'll be doing several posts right now just to fill in the week and let me tell you, this trip never gets dull!!

So without further ado, here is what you've missed in my life!

Hey Look Ma, I'm in Europe!!

Well the last 48 hours for me have certainly been hectic and full of many changes. I graduated on Sunday with my BA and I am so happy. Our commencement was actually pretty good for the most part, Daniel Brooks, who works for the NYT actually gave a really good, funny, sometimes crude, inspiring and sobering commencement speech that I hope had several people pause and consider what he was saying. Yo Yo Mah also played the cello. Both of them received honorary degrees. I was so happy to toss my hat and cheer and then rip off that ridiculous cape-thing, is it a hood? and take off my robes. I swear the point of what you wear to graduation is to humiliate you.
I'd like to apologize in advance for my writing, I am now....27 hours with little to no sleep. I'm trying to not let jet-lag affect me all that much on this trip so I want to fall asleep in the evening.

Anyway, there was one thing that made the graduation not so fun, I won't go into details but someone I know and liked ended up being accused of a very heinous crime by one of my friends and that person was escorted out of my mini-commencement by the police. It was a bit hard to see and definitely ruined the joyful mood my friends and I were feeling. It was also the only thing we seemed to talk about after commencement.

In other news, nothing new on the BU front. I expect they'll email me on June 1 to let me know their decision so it's just waiting, and waiting, I never realized how suck wait-lists are.

Well Monday morning I headed out at 8:30am to catch a flight from Logan to JFK and then from JFK to Munich and from Munich to Tirana. The first flight went smoothly but the Lufthansa flight was delayed on the tarmac for over 2 hours and made us arrive a half hour late to Munich. My first flight across the ocean wasn't bad, there was pretty hefty turbulence but I didn't mind that. The only problem was my luggage was over weight. I'll just check a second bag when I go back, my suitcase is huge. (it barely fits in the hotel's elevator).

Sadly because the flight was delayed I had to rush through Munich airport and didn't even get to really try and see anything or absorb it. It seemed like a nice place, although the airport security seemed a lot more laid back and lax, which was frustrating to try and rush through security check to board my flight.

Met up with my fellow late-comer and he's a cool guy. Probably not into what I'm into in terms of entertainment but we've bonded over being the 2 who are behind.
Tirana is insane. I thought New York City or Boston was bad but this place is really awful for traffic. Everyone's bunched up, horns blaring all the time and pedestrians sure as hell better get out of the way if they want to live! Also, the way they park here is odd, some people park like we do in the US and others are half-way up the curb or trapping people in, or just parking perpendicular for some reason.

Our leader of our field school met us at the hotel (I got in a quick shower, thank goodness!) and took us to a restaurant then gave us a small walking tour of the city. I wish I could see more but I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open or spell properly. In any case tomorrow we head to Butrint where we will be for 2 weeks. Hopefully the day long bus ride won't kill us and we can all enjoy the beach side city as well as some courses in Osteology, my favorite subject.

I never expected Tirana to seem so...foreign. Which sounds stupid but I thought that streets and cars looked similar enough not to be so confusing but the streets and cars here seem so different. The look and feel is just...foreign. As well as how the people act. I was accosted by a little girl begging me for money, I obviously didn't give her any, I may be naive but I am not stupid. It's just interesting to me. I look forward to more exploration of the unfamiliar familiar.

I went out tonight with the group of people that I'm going to the field school with, they all seem pretty cool but I think I'm a bit too geeky for them. It's ok though, I just won't talk much about video games or bad movies. I hope that I can be friends with everyone. Time since sleep now: uh.......32??

Bed time.