Wrap up time in Blagnac

Trip's nearly over. Plane leaves for Minneapolis on Friday.
I'd say I feel right on time.

So I found a means to but a header or description for the blog, which it seems was needed. It'll do for now. Also I added the step of word recognition for those who wish to leave comments: you just have to the enter the word the screen shows you; it's an added nag but an easy way to avoid some of the spamming that's been showing up. We'll see if it works in the next couple weeks or so.

Of course we made it off Corsica in the end, really an adventure in and of itself. On Saturday they opened up the port of Ajaccio, so we all bundled into the rental cars and drove across the island, only to find a kilometer-long bumper to bumper situation. Usually the ferry thing is mundane; I can remember the first time with American pals going from Nice to Pisa via Bastia, all routine. Yet here your heart leaps to see the big yellow boat of Corsica Ferries, the only viable alternative to SNCM who are on strike. The tickets got changed just fine thanks to our capable friend Clementine, and we took the 23:30 boat to Nice and arrived at 5:00. Made it, oof.

That was the short version. And now I'm in the regretable situation of having to summarize a dig I've done, rather than recounting it in progress. What do you think? I had a splendid time, of course. But this dig was special for me in many respects, and I should mention an aspect or two.
This is more of the trowel and brush archaeology, where we hardly use the pick and shovel at all. A pity, as I enjoy using all those different tools, and because squatting in the same position for many hours of the day can be hard on the body, especially the back. Yet this kind of work became rather meditative for me, and the serenity of the site, being so remote from roads and the city, had a pleasant effect on how my days went by. When someone would finally engage with me for conversation, the hours would really fly. And what conversations I had! Though at first I was seperated from the team in a zone a few meters away, I had the pleasure of several discourses in which I delighted. Our crew included a Bulgarian girl named Nadejda, a pair from Flanders (i.e. Flemish-Dutch speakers from Belgium) Jonas and Inge, one Corsican Francois (in addition to our boss Franck who is Corse by origin) and the rest all French, and of course myself. One in particular, Ghislain, is quite active in the Socialist activist scene and degreed in History, gave me numerous perspectives of his on all sorts of social issues and approches (sp?) to effecting change- hats off.
But I enjoyed interacting with everyone on that dig, and I was in a right place of mind to appreciate all the differences. Having a boss such as Franck was a big change. Not only is he hard-working and professional, but he puts people at ease and works to make sure the details are taken care of, and also takes the time to give positive feedback! For me, a big difference. I've only now realized that having bosses who only give negative comments, well, it makes you unsure of anything you're doing, and you can almost never feel free to procede without direct authorization. Which is Not a smart way to run things, sorry.
And it seems that Franck was genuinely pleased with my work, and it was healthy to know that. He even made me "chef de secteur" or assistant supervisor of sorts, and even though this was more for joke's sake, I still had a bit of responsibility in conveying instructions and so forth, so it nice anyway.
I'm set on going back, if not next year, then the next. Oh and yeah, the site of Monte Revincu is important because it represents one of the few places for the Neolithic in the western Mediterranean where there is a continuity of activity for so long: from 4200 to 2500 B.C. or thereabouts. For those who might want to know.
This year was a special session besides: Franck informed us at the beginning that this season we'd be bringing in specialists from fields like geomorphology, ecology, paleonology and so on, to try and figure out what the terrain was like in these preHistoric times. Was it a desert as now? Was it wooded? Was it something else? By the looks of things, the reunion worked well, and these folk will be able to combine their expertise to give a solid picture of the ancient environment.
Now before the picture is formed, know that we were working in a green desert, with bushes of great size all over, and fantastic rock formations. And scores of wasps that came to pester us during lunch. Manageable, but not fun.

There I've done it and gone on for a bit. Some words about the future? No, not much today I think. Suffice to say I head home, and begin building the new phase, for which I have a lot of leads, ideas, and good ol' openness. Wish me luck.