Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

London, May 16th, 10:00 AM GMT

After months of anticipation, planning, panicking, and excitement, being in transit is such a surreal experience. My parents dropped me off at the airport yesterday evening, and I've arrived to a beautiful, brisk, sunny day in London! Travels began with one of the most chaotic adventures through lineups and customs EVER (woohoo YOW), followed by an awesome plane ride. I got shuffled around to a new seat, with no neighbour and extra leg room, so even though travel won't end until 8:30 am tomorrow (another 20 hours or so), things are looking awfully nice. Though the idea of spending the whole day in the airport is less than appealing, I'm currently writing from the arrivals lounge for Air Canada - a comfortable set of rooms equipped with private showers, a computer area, seating, and a pretty awesome breakfast; completely worth the 40$ fee since I'll be stuffing myself with their food until they force me to leave, abusing the wifi and draining the coffee machine. Many thanks to my unbelievable parents for taking such good care of me even when they're an ocean and a five-hour time difference away <3

Just in case you're reading along and haven't heard me prattle on about this adventure for the past six months or so, I'm currently on my way to join an excavation team, led by Queen's, who are working on a site called Humayma, (see details here: http://www.queensu.ca/classics/humayma.html) located an hour's drive outside of Aqaba, Jordan, one of the southernmost cities in the country. The group includes a number of students from Queen's as well as UVic, supervised by Prof. Barbara Reeves and her support staff, mainly "Senior Excavators" who have participated in the dig before. Together with myself and the other "Junior Excavators," we will be working to uncover several sections of a Roman fort, including a bath-house and what might be a brothel. Also working with our team will be a number of local Bedouin men.

Aqaba (pop 105 000 - Lonely Planet) is on the Gulf of Aqaba, a part of the Red Sea just a few km from Israel, and about 8 hours driving South of the capital, Amman, where around ten of the girls joining the dig for the first time (including me!) will be traveling together this afternoon. Hopefully we'll be able to stay awake long enough to get to know each other a little better! 

This is a really brief overview so feel free to comment, email, message, etc. if you have any questions or thoughts. I'll do my best to answer!

That's all for now! Best wishes from the UK :)

Sarah