Wow. We've only put in three partial days of field work so far and I already feel a bit overwhelmed. After our two days (one night of camping) on Shiashkotan, we had an "easy" day of work on Kharimkotan. "Easy" means hiking across spongy tundra and through alder thickets for 5 hours, with about 2 hours spent digging a 1 m X 1 m test excavation (called a "Test Pit," or TP) to look for archaeological samples (which we found, but in low numbers).
See what I mean about not having the energy for ***more ***exercise at the end of the day?
Tongue out
I don't even really have the energy to catch up on all of my paperwork (site descriptions, excavation descriptions, photo archiving and labeling....). But this next round of camping will hopefully give me quite a bit of time to get caught up on all those things. We will work pretty normal hours (8-6 or so, with a good lunch break). That'll leave at least an hour or so of "free" time in the evenings and mornings! And, ironically enough, I'll have MUCH more space in my tent than I do in my bunk and cabin on the ship! And better yet, I won't have the constant drone of the diesel engines vibrating through my entire being!
I'm going to cut this posting pretty short. I'm scheduled to be back on the ship in four days (the 27th). Then I'll be looking at day trips or, gasp, days off (!) until Aug 1st!
--Dr. E