Good luck with finals

Despite the fact that I haven't had to take an exam for approaching 3 years now, as long as I call myself a student people will always assume I have finals at the end of the "semester."

So right now I'm doing the "heart" of my research abroad (that is, research that I can't do in America). This means surveying landscapes and studying inscriptions. The second part is pretty official and regulated by the government and boring. The first part is...well let's just say I'm making it up as I go along. Things to consider:

• No road map exists that isn't misleading, usually by leaving off roads and villages, often more significant than what is on the map.
• Sign posts, especially for archaeological sites, are inversely proportional to the distance away from your destination. In other words, when you start out, you think it will be easy because there are frequent signs. But as you get closer, there are none, including at intersections, and heaven forbid there be one at the actual site itself!
• Even better, the villagers NEVER know where archaeology is. So if you ask them, 100% of the time they will point you in the wrong direction or at least, give you the wrong distance you have to travel. Today, I went bouncing back and forth between two villages because each thought the site was in the other. Finally, I used my eyes and found the acropolis above one of them (which meant the "site" was under the modern town. Done and done)

In conclusion, if somebody updates the Blue Guide to Turkey, they win a form of my subservience of their choice. I'd do it but I can't afford the gas...