Realized I haven't posted in a while. I guess I don't have much to say. I had to stop loafing around so much and start reading for my exams and this afternoon I have a meeting with Prufer to do some thesis planning. I did however rework my Blockbuster Total Access (like Netflix) movie queue so I'm excited about watching some movies.

This Post Comes Straight to You From KS

Back in the States now. I have been doing a lot of loafing around the last week trying to figure out how I want to spend the next month. I have no real commitments until my jop starts on Aug. 13. I'm going to SoDak in the beginning of August and I will probably make a quicker trip this coming weekend to see the first annual folk music festival at the Prairie Aboretum. Sue and Nick did a lot of planning for it so I might go support, maybe cook up some chislic. Mmmmm ... chislic ... mmm.

The rest of the time I am planning to work on my thesis and on studying for the comprehensive exams I am taking in September. The department gave us a list of books we should check out to help us study. I went to the library last week to get some of those books and when I looked at the bibliography I realized there are hundreds of books on it. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to get to all of those before September.

On a side note, yesterday Javers and I went fishing off a dock at Lake Cheney. It was fun, but of course we did not catch anything. I saw fish jumping all around us, but none of them were lured in by our minnows. Later that night I learned that becuase the water is so muddy at Cheney the fish have trouble seeing bait so we should have put of something smelly and/or neon colored on our hooks. Ah, better luck next time.

In response to Erin's question/comment, I am headed home today. Yes, this very afternoon I will be boarding a plane to the States. Of course, this is after a three hour ride on a school bus to get back to Belize City. Right now I am in San Ignacio in the western side of the country. One of the project directors, Andy, and Willa and I came out here to check out some different Maya sites after the conference and then Willa and I went on a hike to a cave yesterday. The cave was littered with ancient Maya pots. There were even a few skeletons, including one that had been completely covered in caclite over time. Pretty spectacular. Our guide did a good job, but he was very romantically interested in ancient Maya spiritualism and mysticism so he discussed those things a lot and I got a bit bored before we hit the artifacts.

I hope everyone else is having a splendid summer. I am so disappointed I missed various 4th of July parties. I love fireworks (and US Independence because they all hate us for our freedom). Javers said they failed to use all the fireworks at the party he hosted so I think I can still get a show when I get home.

I have good news concerning my food poisoning. It took until yesterday, but I think my digestive tract is fully restored. Right now I am in Belize City, as I have been for the last few days attending a Belizian archaeology conference. The majority of the papers presented were very insightful and I got a few ideas from others on how to analyze and synthesize the data from some of my thesis research.

At the conference I got introduced to the guy who writes the Belize guide for Rough Guides travel guides. I did not bring a guide book with me so when I was in a local coffee shop I took photos of pages from their Rough Guides for my excursion to Guatemala and Honduras and for the trip here to Belize City. When I met the author I got a little excited and told him all about how I took photos of the books and how those photos saved the day sometimes. I used them to get to the right bus station and find places to stay and eat. He was pleased I was so excited, but courteously reminded me that by photographing the pages I had violated copyright laws and completely ripped him off. Oops. I don't think he was really upset, but he gave me a hard time about it every time he saw me for the rest of the conference.

This trip to Latin America has been a fantastic experience, but after seven weeks I am ready to come home.

Revenge of the Chow Mein con Pollo

That Chinese food I was so excited about last night totally came back to haunt me today. I think I had my first bought of Latin American food poisoning. It's the late afternoon now and I'm feeling better. Hopefully we can find a more sanitary place to eat tonight.

International Cuisine in Guatemala

I just had chinese food, chow mein con pollo and fried wonton, in the very Guatemalan city of Chiquimula. Very interesting and pretty good. Tomorrow I begin the trek back to Belize, but not without a stop at another archaeology site, Quirigua. Apparently this site hosts the largest stelae, or carved monuments, in all the Maya world. It is not a very large or popular site, though and the bus drops us off 4 km away so hopefully a microbus or taxi will come along and take us the rest of the way.