Info Blast

[Sam]

Hello folks, Things are getting organized for an excellent summer in
Cayo, which is the name for the district where we live in Belize. John
says the site is still there, so we have some archaeology to do. The
secrets of the Maya await. Aaron sent along a few questions and
someone else was asking questions over the phone so I wanted to
respond here to them. And I will also send them along in an email
blast. This is from Aaron....

My name is Aaron Coons, I'm one of the student's attending the UMAP
program in Belize this Summer (I'm pretty sure I'm the only Canadian).
I just wanted to send out a quick update regarding how things were
going on my end, as well as put forward a few recurring questions I've
been wondering about. My flight down now looks to be booked and
confirmed so I was wondering if you would like those details sent out,
and if so to whom I should direct them.

YES PLEASE SEND ME ALL YOUR FLIGHT INFORMATION. WE WILL ORGANIZE PICK
UPS AT THE AIRPORT BASED ON THESE TIMES -- AT THIS POINT WE ARE ONLY
ARRANGING TO PICK UP PEOPLE ON SUNDAY but we may do Saturday as well –
I will keep you posted. IF YOU COME EARLY OR ARE IN CAYO EARLY -- IT
IS HOPED YOU WILL BE ABLE TO STAY AT THE SAME HOTEL PRIOR TO
EVERYONE'S ARRIVAL - HOWEVER THEY MAY ALREADY BE BOOKED. BUT DON'T
WORRY THERE ARE MANY HOTELS THAT ARE PROBABLY CHEAPER IN THE AREA.

My toolkit is coming together quite nicely I would say, I picked up a
garden trowel last week (I kid, I kid, haha). Actually my main concern
is, on an old packing list I tracked down somewhere, I believe through
the Cotsen Student Guide from a prior year's field school, it says to
pack a "Sleeping Bag/Pillow/Tent (if necessary)." Now, what all of
those items are actually necessary? I know that we will be staying in
the Midas Resorts' Cabanas, but I'm not sure whether I should be
bringing down a sleeping bag, a padded sleeping roll or something
along those lines, or whether full bedding would be provided.

FULL BEDDING IS PROVIDED -- HOWEVER SLEEPING NETS TO STOP MOSQUITOS
MAY NOT BE PROVIDED - LET ME FIND OUT. YOU WILL NOT NEED A SLEEPING
BAG - BUT IF YOU ARE DOING SOME TRAVELING PERHAPS YES BECAUSE SOME
PLACES IN THE MOUNTAINS GET COOL AT NIGHT.

Readings are coming along well for the field school, I've picked up
the Schele books in addition to some others as I'm currently writing
an undergraduate paper on the Maya collapse. I've seen in a few places
that those partaking in the undergraduate program have the option to
write a paper, although that is not a requirement. What exactly is the
process I would go through if I wanted to compose a paper based upon
some element of our findings, would I just discuss it with one or more
of you advisors while we're down there?

YOUR PAPER, IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO ONE AND WE ARE ENCOURAGING STUDENTS
TO DO SO, WILL BE BASED ON INDEPENDENT FIELD RESEARCH -- THIS IS NOT A
BOOK LEARNING ASSIGNMENT - IT WILL BE BASED ON ACTUAL DATA COLLECTED
IN THE FIELD. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A PAPER - THIS IS GREAT!!! AS
YOU MOVE THROUGH FIELD PROGRAMS DURING YOUR LIFE, THE ABILITY TO DO
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH ON REAL DATA WILL BE AN AMAZING PLUS. IF YOU ARE
INTERESTED IN SOMETHING PLEASE JOT DOWN A PARAGRAPH AND SEND IT TO US
-- THIS IS HOW WE WILL KNOW AT LEAST PRELIMINARILY WHAT YOU ARE
INTERESTED IN. ONCE WE GET SETTLED IN BELIZE, THEN WE WILL TAKE THE
TIME TO SIT DOWN WITH EACH OF YOU TO DISCUSS FORMALLY YOUR PAPER.
FOLLOWING THIS WE WILL ALLOW TIME TO BE SET ASIDE DURING THE LAST FEW
WEEKS OF THE PROJECT FOR YOU TO DO SOME OF YOUR OWN WORK. IF THESE
MEANS YOU HAVE TO BE IN THE LAB- THEN SO BE IT. THIS IS HOW WE ALL GOT
STARTED IN ARCHAEOLOGY -- SOMEONE GAVE US THE OPPORTUNITY TO THINK ON
OUR OWN AND AWAY FROM THE BOOKS. WHEN YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER THE ACTUAL
APPLICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND WHAT YOU CAN FIND IN THE MATERIAL
RECORD, AND HOW TO APPLY THE REAL DATA TO YOUR IDEAS OR VICE VERSA -
THEN IT BECOMES MUCH MORE INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING. WITH REGARDS TO
THE PAPER, WE ARE NOT REQUIRING IT THIS YEAR BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF
DATA AVAILABLE AT THIS POINT IS NIL, ZILCH, ZERO -- THE PROJECT IS
JUST STARTING!!! HOWEVER, THERE STILL WILL BE TONS OF SURVEY DATA,
TEST EXCAVATION DATA AND COMPARATIVE DATA TO OTHER SITES THAT WE CAN
USE. AND BECAUSE WE ARE CLOSELY CONNECTED TO THE INSTITUTE OF
ARCHAEOLOGY - WE CAN USE THEIR ARCHIVES TO DIG UP BACKGROUND DATA TO
COMPARE TO OTHER SITES. THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE ACTUALLY ENDLESS AND
BOTH JOHN AND I ARE EXCITED TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR TOPICS OF INTEREST.
THIS IS AN AWESOME OPPORTUNITY TO APPLY YOUR LEARNING DIRECTLY IN THE
FIELD.

Lastly I'm just wondering what the situation will be with internet
down there, as I plan on bringing my laptop with to use for taking
notes as well as working on the aforementioned paper. Poking around
the Midas Resorts site I see that one of their accomodations, La
Casita Verde, has access to wireless internet, but no mention is made
of that in the Cabanas section. Will we have access to wi-fi or even
to wired net within our cabanas or some sort of central commons, and
if we do is there an additional (read: exorbitant) charge associated
with that?

INTERNET WILL BE AVAILABLE -- HOW IT WILL BE AVAILABLE, I DO NOT
KNOW. ALSO CELL PHONES WORK BUT THE PER MINUTE CHARGE WILL BE
EXORBITANTLY EXPENSIVE. THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO CALL INCLUDING PHONE
CARDS AND I THINK ALSO YOU CAN CHANGE OUT THE SIM CARD IN BELIZE.
PHONE CONTACT IS NEVER CHEAP. SO THIS THEREFORE IS MY PLUG FOR YOU AND
YOUR GENERATION TO TRY SOMETHING NEW -- GET OFF THE GRID!!!!! TRY
ESCAPING THE CHATTER AND IMMERSING YOURSELF IN THE MOMENT. THAT IS
WHAT BELIZE IS ALL ABOUT -- YOU WILL SEE! GO FOR A SWIM IN THE RIVER,
PLAY SOME SOCCER, INVESTIGATE THE TOWN -- AND DON'T TEXT A SOUL. THINK
ABOUT BELIZE 900 YOURS AGO, LEARN SOME MAYA -- AND NEVER CHECK YOUR
MESSAGES. IT IS AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE. I HAVE BEEN DRIVING AROUND TOWN
THIS LAST WEEK WITH THE RADIO OFF AND THE PHONE UNPLUGGED, PREPARING
MYSELF FOR A LOVELY SUMMER.

I know that some of these questions might be unanswerable at this
time, and I know that worst case I'll be able to play things by ear if
anything changes while we're down there, but these are just a couple
questions that I continue to find myself asking as we get closer and
closer to the field school. Thanks for your time and any answers you
can provide, and I look forward to this Summer and meeting everyone in
a little over a month =) – Aaron

Thanks Aaron for the questions.

Here are a few more important things.

1. MAKE SURE YOUR PASSPORT IS GOOD. You must definitely have a
passport or you can’t come. No visas are required.

2. IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT H1N1 VIRUS (or your parents are).
Make sure you visit a travel clinic.

3. I am also attaching the official UCLA pamphlet hand out that you
should have already read, but perhaps you need a reminder of all the
important points.

4. Keep your parents informed. They get worried, sometimes a
student’s travels to a foreign country are more scary for the parents.
Assure them that you can always be in contact if there are any
problems with your well being.

5. I am also posting this on the Facebook page…. UCLA Maya
Archaelogical Program (UMAP).

6. Some students are wondering about the paper. The paper is
optional for the undergraduates – but supported, especially if you are
considering moving forward in archaeology. These sorts of things are
great for your resume or CV. We will talk in more detail about this,
but you should be considering a potential project topic that we can
then discuss.

7. The below chart needs to get filled out. PLEASE FORWARD YOUR
FLIGHT INFORMATION. We need to make pickups on Sunday and maybe
Saturday (we will let you know). This includes staff members who are
not listed below.

Name Coming from Email Arrival Time Airline
Abrams, James York College jamesab...@yahoo.com
Ballejo, Stephanie West Valley College
Stephanieball...@yahoo.com
Biferno, Melissa UCSD meechmale...@yahoo.com
Caves, Suzanne UCLA seca...@ucla.edu
Cechini, ReAnna San Joaquin Delta College
Dancing_Energi...@yahoo.com
Coons, Aaron University of Regina aaronco...@hotmail.com
DiNapoli, Robert UCLA skrilla...@ucla.edu
Flores, Gustavo UCSC gaflo...@ucsc.edu
Gamez, AnnMarie UCLA amg...@ucla.edu
Guirguis, Marian UCLA nefreter...@yahoo.com
Hyland, Tina hyland.t...@gmail.com
Koenig, Emma University of Colorado at Boulde
emma.koe...@colorado.edu
Ohara, Marisa Barnard College ohara...@hotmail.com
Olsen, Summer sumol...@yahoo.com
Peterson, Jillian Brigham Young University
capt_jay...@yahoo.com
Pitts, Sara University of Southern Californi
sarap...@usc.edu
Rao, Sunaina UCLA sunaina.ra...@gmail.com
Rhodes, Amy UCSD alrho...@ucsd.edu
Schaff, Melody UCLA melodynsch...@gmail.com
Walas, Zena UCSC zwa...@ucsc.edu
Woods, Joseph UCLA Extension dabo...@roadrunner.com