Oh, hey there.

I forgot this was here. But I think I’ll leave this up for when future travels come along!

Day 16-Day 20 – Kythira

Sorry it’s been so long! We’ve been having internet problems here in Karavas and I haven’t been able to post for a while. This gets me caught up to last weekend!

July 31 - August 4

Sunday

Got to sleep in until 11am or so; it was glorious. After that, Anne, Matt, Alex, and I packed up and headed to Platia Ammos to spend the day at the beach. That afternoon, we met up with Jon, who was staying at Lita’s parents’ house in Platia Ammos, to grab lunch at a Café Armonia. While we were waiting for our food, Jon taught me how to play backgammon, and I won the very first game I played! (To be fair, I did have a lot of help, but it was still really fun.)

After lunch, we all decided that we wanted to take a trip to the local lighthouse, so we all piled into Jon’s car and set off. Well… We took the wrong road, so we had to turn around. The next road we took turned into a walking path, and after traipsing around and getting stabbed by all sorts of pokey plants, we decided that was a dead end. Finally, we went down another road, took a wrong turn somewhere along the way, and ended up at the beach near the lighthouse. The lighthouse itself was up on a cliff, and we couldn’t get there from the beach, but we could see it. Good enough.

We spent a little bit of time at the beach, and I went cliff jumping for the first time! That was really fun. Kind of scary, but fun. After beaching it up, we got back to the ARC and cleaned up for the night’s excursion. We all piled into the 3 vehicles it takes to cart us around and headed off to the Monastery of Agia Elissa, a local saint of the island, where they were celebrating her festival day. The monastery was located on top of a mountain, and we got to sit there and watch the sun set over the island. It was absolutely beautiful. Once we left the festival, we headed back to Potamos to eat dinner at one of the restaurants. We didn’t leave until after 11pm! But in Greece, most people don’t eat until 9 or later, so this was nothing unusual. After dinner, it was back to the ARC and straight to bed because the morning would start again at 7 for our second week of work.

Monday

Spent most of the day clearing out an area near a spring above the Old Mill, where we had worked at the end of last week. An older man from the village had actually told us about this place; apparently it had been a picnic area when he was a small boy. And sure enough, once we cleaned out the brush and cut down more than a few trees, we discovered what we assume were stone tables and benches, along with a concreted, open area (possibly used for dancing?) with steps leading down to the nearby spring. There is also a plaque set into the stone nearby, written all in Greek of course, to commemorate the building of the Picnic Area in memory of someone from Karavas. Back when the area was still in use, it must have been absolutely gorgeous, and the perfect place to sit around and enjoy the evening with friends. Spent all afternoon at the beach with “the beach crew,” that is, Anne, Alex, Matt, and myself. Monday evening we spent some time inside going over GIS stuff with Richard and how the information we’d collected the previous week could be utilized once it was transferred to a computer. For dinner, Lita made us all moussaka, an eggplant based dish that’s sort of like lasagna.

Tuesday

Finally decided to break down and wear pants today, instead of shorts. I’d just gotten fed up with my legs getting all cut and scratched up every morning. As my luck would have it, Tim walked in around 7:45am and announced, “Today is lab day, we won’t be working outside.” Of course. Frank, Anne, and I went with Lita to Chora, the capital of Kythira, to look at the Archives, which have the recorded history of the island dating back to the 16^th century. Before we took off of the day, however, we had to say a very sad goodbye to Matt and Jon, who were both going home. I’m going to miss them so much! Okay, back on track. The coolest part about Chora, besides the fact that it is absolutely gorgeous, is that it houses an old, abandoned castle. The Archives are actually located within a renovated part of the castle. More beach time today! And for dinner, Alex, Frank, and Anne made burgers. They were delicious!

Wednesday

My birthday! But that didn’t get me out of working, of course. Most of the morning, Alex, Pana, and I basically went exploring. We were told to take the GPS and see how far upstream past the Old Mill we could go, marking important features of the stream on the way. We battled a forest of bamboo (not really bamboo, but it’s some hollow reedy thing that looks like bamboo, so close enough), thorns, and other prickly things on the way, but it was pretty cool. It’s not every day you get to take an adventure down a riverbed in Greece! The most exciting thing we found was what might be either a large cistern, or a bath, which was once filled by a little natural spring just uphill, but is now abandoned. Hopefully, we’ll get to work more with our discovery and find out what it was used for! Spent the afternoon at the beach (I’m beginning to see a pattern here), which was totally worth not being in the States to celebrate my 21^st birthday. After dinner, I was surprised with a cake, balloons, and sparklers for my birthday! Afterwards, the rest of the students through a little party for me, and we might have stayed up a little too late, seeing as that we had to get up at 7am, but I’ll get to that next. All in all, a fantastic way to spend my birthday.

Thursday

Day 15 - Kythira

July 30

Beach day! Got to sleep in until 9am this morning and we were on the road by 10(ish) to spend the day at Paleopoli, a beach on the south eastern coast of Kythira. We packed up around 2 and headed across the bay to the town of Avlemonas and got lunch at a little café. I had chicken souvlaki in a pita, which came with tomatoes, lettuce, tzatziki, and fries, all in the pita bread! It was really good.

We had some free time after lunch, so some of us went to check out a nearby old Venetian castle/fort. It was nothing big or grand, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. We headed back to Karavas for a while just to chill for a few hours, and then a few of us decided to get dinner in nearby Agia Peligia, a town on the eastern coast of the island, but much closer than Paleopoli had been. We had to call the taxi (yes, the taxi, not a taxi) and he didn’t speak much English, but we got things sorted out. He was a really funny guy. At the restaurant, I ordered a glass of the local wine and a crab salad. The salad was really good, but the cream was super thick so it was really filling. As fate would have it, Tim, Lita, Matt, Jon, and Pana were planning on going out to eat with Lita’s parents, and they also ended up in Agia Peligia and sat a few tables away from us!

Afterwards, we got the taxi back and we all hung out at the schiste table—for those of you who don’t know, schiste is a type of rock, and it’s very common on Kythira. We stayed up pretty late because the next day was Sunday, which meant sleeping in as long as we wanted!

Day 10-Day 14 - Kythira

July 25-July 29

Somehow, I seem to have gotten drastically behind in my journal entries, so what I’m going to do is describe the past week in a more general kind of fashion so I can hopefully get caught up! I think I forgot to mention in my last post that Lita’s son, Panayoti (we all call him Pana), is helping out with the project as well.

Our days start at 7am with a quick breakfast on our own and by 7:30 we’re on the way to the site. It’s about a ten minute walk through Karavas (the village we’re staying in) to the first site. Everything is super hilly here, so the first half of the walk is super-steep uphill working, luckily, the second half is all downhill, so it’s not too bad. The main goal of this program is to examine how water resources were utilized in this area in the past; we’re specifically focusing on water mills. We spent the first two days at the Mill 1. Most of the work we did involved just clearing out the brush, weeds, and trees that had grown over the site since it had been abandoned. I’ve become quite certain that every single plant on this island has some type of thorn or pokey thing on it. My legs and arms got really scratched up (and have continued to do so every day since. I’m pretty sure I won’t have fully healed legs as long as I’m on this island!) It rarely, if ever, rains here during the summer, so I’ve decided that all of the plants are just watered by the blood of tourists as they get all scratched up trying to get around. Wednesday and Thursday we spent at another mill, which we endearingly call Santa’s Mill, doing the same with clearing away brush and such. It’s called Santa’s Mill because it sits on the land of a man who, in all honesty, looks just like Santa. So if you ever want to know the location of Santa’s summer home, it’s Kythira. On Friday, we traipsed upstream quite a ways from the first mill—probably about a 20 minute walk—to find the third water mill, which in Greek is called “Old Mill.” And we did more of the clearing of brush. I’m beginning to see a pattern here…

Of course, exploring the Kythirian watershed and clearing brush aren’t the only things going on here. Both Jon and Richard have been working on gathering GPS data as well as measuring and drawing the sites we’ve been working on. Tim has also been taking notes and a lot of pictures everywhere we go, collecting his own information. There will be a lot more of this kind of stuff in the future once all of the sites are cleared out.

We break for lunch around 1:30 and head back to the ARC. On arrival, we were all put into groups who take turns shopping for food, preparing food, or cleaning up after meals. The first two days, my group (consisting of myself, Luke, and Pana) was in charge of shopping, so we piled into the car and Tim took us to the super market in the nearby town of Potamos, because Karavas is too small to have its own. It was really quite an experience trying to shop for food when everything is in Greek, but we got it figured out… mostly. Lunch is the same every day: sandwiches consisting of fresh baked bread, salami, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, and the most delicious condiment ever, tzatziki. There’s also always fresh vegetables to be found, and if we’re lucky, cookies for dessert.

After lunch, our afternoon is open for free time, mostly because it’s too hot to get any real work done. The first two days, I was too exhausted from travelling and jet lag to do anything, so I spent my afternoon napping and trying to catch up on sleep. Since then, my afternoons have been spent at the beach, which is a half an hour walk away. The walk can be a bit difficult, especially on the way back, since it’s all uphill, but the time spent on the beach is definitely worth it. I plan on looking nice and tan when I get back!

It’s back to work from 6 to 8:30 working on various things that don’t involve trampling briars and cutting down trees. For the first week, and for the foreseeable future, we’ve been divided into two groups. The first group has been set to work on gathering information on water mills about how they function and what they were used for. The second group, my group, is working with Richard in gathering information to put into the GIS program on his computer. Our goal is to use this information to see how people in the past utilized transportation, both for water access and for social reasons. So far, this has involved us walking around trying to find trails that are either abandoned or still in use, and has led to a lot of impassable overgrowth or private property fences. We’re planning on expanding this project in the future, so hopefully we’ll see more results.

Dinner doesn’t happen until 9pm or later, which is actually almost early in Greece. Most don’t eat until around 10pm. We’re all so hungry by then, but the meals are always really big. Wednesday and Thursday, my group was in charge of food prep, and lemme tell ya, we made some pretty delicious grub. Wednesday night we made chicken tortillas and spiced potatoes, and Thursday we made cinnamon pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Luke is a super good cook.

After dinner we get some downtime to just hang out, maybe have a few drinks, and play cards, and we’re usually in bed by midnight or so to start the day over again bright and early at 7am. It’s hard work, even with a daily beach trip, but I’m having a great time. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to come on this trip and I’m really looking forward to the next 3 weeks!

Day 9 - Athens/Kythira

July 24

Up before sunrise for the second day in a row! Had to wake up at 4:30am in order to meet with the other students who stopped by my hostel at 5am to pick me up so we could make our way to the bus station. We had planned on taking a taxi there, but it turns out, they’d all been on strike for a week and there was no end of the strike in sight, so we had to catch a city bus to take us there. Problem was, no one we asked seemed to agree where to find the bus we needed! After wondering around Athens in the dark for almost 40 minutes, and walking well over a mile carrying all of our luggage, by some miracle the bus we needed stopped right in front of us, even though we weren’t at a designated bus stop. By this point, we had been afraid we’d miss the bus to Neapoli, because it left at 6am. It was still perilously close by the time we got to the bus station because we had about 5 minutes to run in, buy our tickets, and board the bus. And we made it with about 2 minutes to spare!

Though I tried to stay awake and see the countryside during the bus ride, I was just too tired. Ended up sleeping most of the 6 hours it took to get to Neapoli. It is a beautiful town, right on the coast of the Mediterranean, and there are little restaurants and cafés lined up along the beach. We bought our tickets for the ferry and then grabbed lunch at one of these little restaurants. All four of us ordered souvlakia, which is a Greek kind of shish kebab. It was absolutely delicious too, especially since we hadn’t had time to eat breakfast that morning, and it was already 1pm!

The ferry left at 2:30 and it took us about an hour and a half to get to the port on Kythira. The views were beautiful, especially once we got out far enough to see Neapoli, a little town nestled in between the sea and the mountains. And there were other towns along the shore arranged in much the same fashion; very picturesque and breathtakingly beautiful. Once we arrived in the port, the leader of the project, Dr. Tim Gregory (we all just call him Tim) was there to pick us up.

Finally, I arrived at what I’ll be calling Home Sweet Home for the next month: the Amirilis Research Center (ARC). It’s a small little place, just a downstairs, upstairs, teeny tiny courtyard, kitchen, and two bathrooms. The girls—Anne, Laura, and myself—are staying in the downstairs room and the boy—Nate, Frank, Alex, and Luke are staying upstairs. There are a few other people who are working on the project with us: Matt, Tim’s grandson who is a student studying archaeology at Gettysburg College. Jon is a professor at Michigan State and he works with differential GPS and the drawing of the sites. Richard, an archaeologist from Australia, is our GIS (Geographical Information System—yeah, I don’t really understand it either) specialist. Luke is also technically not one of the students on the program. He graduated this past spring, and had previously gone on a dig with Tim, and asked if he could come to the Kythira program this year. The ARC is right beside Tim and his wife Lita’s house, so their garden is out back, which is filled with flowers and herbs and provides for some absolutely gorgeous views. Lita was born and spent a number of years in Kythira before moving to Australia.

Once we were all settled in, Tim and Lita took us for a little walking tour of the little town we were staying in, Karavas. As we walked around, we got to meet a few of the locals, and also got to see the church, the café/general store, and the bakery. It’s a very small village, but everyone is incredibly nice and the scenery is incredibly beautiful. After the tour, we piled into Tim’s and Jon’s cars and went to Lita’s parent’s house by the beach to eat an authentic, delicious, Greek dinner. This was around 9pm; in Greece, they tend to eat dinner rather late, which is something I’m sure will take a bit of getting used to. Afterwards, we went back to the ARC, and since it was so late, didn’t take long in getting to bed because we had to get up early the next morning when the real work begins.

Day 8 - London/Athens

July 23

Up at 3:30 this morning to catch at taxi to the airport. In my opinion, having to wake up any time before at least 6am should be illegal. Unfortunately, I seem to have a hard time with people seeing the wisdom of my opinions. Anyway, got to the airport on time with little trouble, although our cab driver was this little, nervous, overexcited guy and he made the situation a bit odd.

Okay, at the airport. First of all, Heathrow Airport is absolutely gorgeous. They’ve clearly put in a lot of work to be ready for the Olympic Games next year. Checking in was really easy; you actually do everything yourself from a little electronic station, which allows you to check over your flight details and will print out your boarding pass, and then you simply drop off your luggage and you’re good to go. Security was also much less of a hassle to get through than it had been in the US, but that’s hardly a surprise.

Unfortunately, Mom and I weren’t leaving from the same terminal, so we said a last goodbye before I went through security, and she headed off to her own terminal to take a flight home. I, however, was Athens bound.

Once through security, I grabbed a little breakfast at a small café on the terminal and ended up sitting next to an older couple from Australia. Turns out, they have a 19 year old granddaughter who’s interested in archaeology! She’s actually spending the summer in Israel on a dig, which I thought was very cool.

Found my way to the gate and had to wait a little while before boarding the plane. I’d planned on updating this journal some, but, as it turns out, I’d forgotten to recharge my computer, so I didn’t get the chance. The flight wasn’t too bad, at least as far as I know. I practically slept all the way through! I was exhausted after getting up so early. The plane landed around 12:30pm Athens time—it was about a 3 hour flight—and I made it through Immigration and Customs and got my luggage no problem. Now came the looooong wait to meet up with other students in the program who were flying in from Barcelona. Their plane was supposed to arrive around 3:45pm, but got delayed until 4:30, making the wait even longer.

Took the metro from Athens Airport into the city, and found the hostel where I would be staying the night, called the Pella Inn. The other students I met up with were staying in one just down the road from me. My bed was in a 6-bed girls dorm, and there were two other girls in there when I arrived; sisters from New York who’d been backpacking through Europe for the summer. They were really cool and we got along really well. Our room had a great balcony view of the Acropolis.

Went out to get dinner with the other students (their names are Anne, Laura, and Nate) to one of the many Greek restaurants in the area. I simply ordered a Greek salad to eat. Don’t be fooled by the name, however, there is very little—if any—lettuce in a Greek salad. It was mostly cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers, doused in olive oil. It was really good.

Went to bed not too long after that because it was already pretty late and we had to get up early again the next morning to catch our bus to Neapoli, where we could catch the ferry to our final destination: Kythira.

Day 7 - London

July 22

Last day in London! Mom and I let ourselves sleep in a little because we didn’t get back from the theatre until late the night before. Before we left the hotel, we packed up everything that we wouldn’t need before our flights left the next morning. This was quite a task for me because, somehow, my stuff had ended up strewn all over the room and everything was a right mess. Got it all sorted out eventually though, and then we headed out.

First stop of the day was a brief visit to 221B Baker Street, which was literally around the corner from our hotel. For those of you who don’t know, 221B Baker Street is where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective team of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson lived. They’ve taken the address and turned it into a little museum and gift shop.

Next was University College of London, another place I’m looking to apply for grad school. The woman at the reception desk, Charlotte, was very nice and very helpful. She’s actually an alumnus of UCL Department of Archaeology and she was more than happy to tell us all about it.

We grabbed a bus over to Hyde Park and ate lunch at the Hard Rock Café. As it turns out, our waiter was originally from Seattle, Washington! You meet people from all over in a place like London.

After lunch, we went shopping at Harrod’s and the surrounding shops. By “shopping” I mean that we walked around and looked at everything, but it was so expensive that I was afraid to even touch it! Harrod’s itself has become more of a tourist attraction than a store in some ways. They even have a little souvenir shop on the 3^rd floor! Although I didn’t buy anything, it was a rather pleasant day to spend the afternoon.

We went back to the hotel for a little bit to freshen up and prepare for our last night in London. We took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus where Mom bought some souvenirs and then we went to dinner at a restaurant called Bella Italia. The food there was very good; thanks to my friend Ellen for recommending it!

After dinner—because I have the greatest Mom in the world and I love her very much—we went back to Wyndham’s Theatre to wait outside the stage door to try getting autographs again. Even though we were quite early, we weren’t even the first ones there! But the wait was definitely worth it. Not only did I get the autographs of both actors but I got my picture taken with them as well! The perfect way to end a fabulous week.

Best part of the day: (1) the weather! Finally a warm, sunny day! (2) autographs/pictures from David and Catherine!

Worst part of the day: knowing that we would have to leave London way too soon

Day 6 - Oxford/London

July 21

Got to sleep in—sort of—in the morning and then we went to Paddington Station to catch our train to Oxford. As we made our way to our seats, we walked past the 1^st class cabin and I caught a glimpse of a man who I thought looked like Gordon Gee. For those of you who don’t know, Gordon Gee is the president of OSU, and kind of a celebrity figure in his own right. Well, once the train got into Oxford we hung out on the platform to see who was coming out of 1^st class. Turns out, it was President Gee! I went up to talk to him, telling him I was a student from OSU. He got really excited and asked me all sorts of questions and we had our picture taken at Oxford Station. So yes, I do have proof!

The walk into town was much shorter than it had been the previous day. It took us less than 10 minutes to get from the rail station to the School of Archaeology. When we got there, Barbara Morris, whom I’d been in contact with, gave us a brief tour of the (rather small) School. It had one lecture hall and two smaller seminar rooms, along with a lounge area for students and a study area for grad students. The rest of the building was dedicated to offices for the professors.

Since I’m looking into the Classical Archaeology Program, Ms. Morris recommended that I visit the School of Classics just down the street. The building looked almost brand new and was a bit larger than the building that the School of Archaeology was housed in, but unfortunately everyone was away on holiday and there was no one to give us a guided tour.

Mom and I then went to the Admissions Office to get a few questions answered about the admissions process, housing, etc. The woman we talked to was very helpful—more so than anyone had been in Cambridge, I might add. She made me feel a bit more reassured about the daunting process of applying to a university overseas.

On our way to lunch, we took a brief look through St. John’s College, which is, according to the gate guard, “the premier college in Oxford”. Not sure whether that’s true or if he was just boasting, but it was a well deserved boast. The college was both enormous and beautiful. (Side note: Oxford is set up the same way as Cambridge with the colleges, except it has 38 colleges and 6 permanent halls).

We took our lunch in a little café called “The Buttery”, and then did a bit of shopping and sightseeing of the city. We also had a brief look at Brasenose College. Not as large as St. John’s, but just as beautiful. Unfortunately, it was under construction when we visited, so we didn’t get to see everything. After that, it was a quick walk back to the railway station to catch our train back to London.

Thursday night means theatre night! Mom and I got all dressed up and headed to the West End (the theatre district in London) to see a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndham’s Theatre. Though they used the original lines that The Bard had written, the plot took place in the 1980s. For those of you who happen to not be Shakespearean enthusiasts, well, I’ve copied the plot from the theatre’s website because they can explain it better than I can:

Two young lovers Claudio and Hero are to be married imminently but the devious scheming of a resentful Prince looks set to thwart the nuptials.  Meanwhile, marriage seems inconceivable for reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick whose endless witty sparring threatens to keep them apart forever. 

Review: absolutely fantastic! It was witty, charming, and downright hilarious, not to mention that it showcased the talent of both David Tennant and Catherine Tate, two famous actors in the UK. And the theatre itself was gorgeous. I would definitely see it again, and again, and a fourth time, and probably more after that. Afterwards, we tried to go out to the backstage door where David and Catherine were signing autographs, but we didn’t make it in time and they went back inside before we could get anything signed. It was a bit disappointing.

After that, back to the hotel to flop exhaustedly into bed. The next day would be our last full day in London, and we had to make it count!

Best part of the Day: (1) meeting President Gee at Oxford! (2) watching Much Ado About Nothing

Worst part of the Day: being too late to get autographs. Bit of a bummer

Day 5 - Cambridge

I know I’m really behind, sorry! I’ve actually made it to Greece already, but I’ll keep doing this in strictly chronological order so as not to confuse anyone! I’m likely to be really busy every day, but I’ll update while I can!

July 20

The day started out early—well, at least it was early for me. Woke at 6:30am and after getting ready, Mom and I made our way to King’s Cross Station. Yes, that King’s Cross Station. Unfortunately, the entire station is under construction in order to prepare for next year’s Olympic Games, so we didn’t get to check out the fabled Platform 9¾.

A little over half and hour and we arrived in Cambridge. Mom and I grabbed a bite to eat and then began the long walk into town. Apparently, when the rail station was first built, the University wanted to keep it as far from the city center as possible. Consequently, it was about a mile and a half walk into town. But it provided a really great chance to see the layout of the town and get a feel for the area around the University.

I had earlier arranged a meeting with Mark Newman, the man in charge of Graduate Studies within the Department of Archaeology. He answered some questions I had about the University and gave us a brief tour of the department, along with a bunch of literature on the graduate programs offered. Unfortunately, the department’s Archaeology Museum was under construction at the time, so we didn’t get to see it.

After this, Mom and I made our way to the Tourist Information Center and managed to arrive just in time to go on a walking tour of part of the city. Our tour guide was a huge architecture buff, and it was really interesting to learn about all the different styles and eras of architecture that can be found throughout the city. We got to go into one of the oldest buildings in Cambridge, and Anglo-Saxon chapel built back in 1055AD. Right across the street, 18^th century houses and just down the block, a 16^th century church. Also during the tour, we got to walk through Queen’s College and the King’s College Chapel. Everything was just absolutely breathtaking.

A brief aside for those of you who may not know how the collegiate system works. There are 31 colleges within the University of Cambridge. However, the colleges are an entirely separate entity from the departments. The colleges were originally built as living places for the professors teaching within the University, and have since evolved to include students as well. The colleges are in charge of all of the social aspects of the students’ lives: housing, dining, entertainment, and private tutoring. As a comparison, I supposed it’s not totally uncommon to Greek life within a fraternity or sorority.

After our tour, Mom and I grabbed lunch in a little place called Café Rouge. While we were there, our waiter got into an argument with the manager. You could hear them shouting from the kitchen! Before leaving, we spent a little bit of time browsing through the local outdoor market in Cambridge, which they set up every summer in the town square. There was a lot of really touristy stuff, but also a wide array of baked goods and other odds & ends.

We decided to forgo the 1½ mile walk back to the rail station, so Mom and I grabbed a bus to take us instead. After the train ride back, we headed over to Paddington Station to pick up our tickets to Oxford for the next day, and then headed out for dinner. We wound up at a pub not far from our hotel called The Windsor Castle. The top of the building was actually shaped like the turret of a castle! Pretty neat.

After that, it was back to the hotel to chill for a little bit and then off to bed.

Would that I had more time…

It’s been a busy couple of days, so I haven’t really had time to write any new posts. I’ll have gobs of downtime at the airport on Saturday, so I’ll try to get everything up to date then. Having a blast so far!