A Pictures Worth A Thousand Words Right??

For lack of time, but AWESOMNESS of class subjects and mass amounts of learning here is a January/February Photo Summary: Expert Witness, Forensic Taphonomy, and Crime Scene Investigation!!

Airplanes – Out of curiosity comment YOUR go to airplane drink below this post!!

There is this weird thing about airplanes…..I have been on over 15 planes in the last year and no matter where I am going day, night, summer, winter, when I am on a plane my entire life flashes before my eyes but not in the way that the phrase is normally used.  Its like there is every phase of person on any given plane!! For example right now I am on a plane eastbound from New York to Manchester England and in 18 A B C and D, the row directly behind me,  there is a family with three boys and a little girl and all they wanna do is put the tray table up and down and up and down and poke each other constantly……that was totally ME at one point, less than twenty years ago….ring any bells Beau? Do we all start out pretty much the same…..then there is the teen girl in all of her wrath directly to my right….

Actually I had to book mark this place in my blog and retype this section post-flight because I was afraid she would see what I was writing and possibly bite me or bash me on Instagram or Twitter or something.  We didn’t get off to a great start I don’t think she was happy to find me in the seat next to her because she attempted to take the window seat two away from me but when the true owner showed she had to move back over…….I was like hymmmmmm Do I smell or something?? Sticking true to teen form (I totally have used this move before) she hid her iPod that was turned on during take off and landing, though not so slyly her music was still loud enough for everyone to break out in a massive lady gaga plane flash mob!!!! Lucky for her and I guess me too, Marry the Night just so happens to be my guilty pleasure jam!!…….. The next stage of my life was sitting only three seats to my left in 17 A B and C…..team mates, three girls in there late teens, not sure what sport, but they are definitely a team.

It’s unmistakable the way they work together and carry “OH SO INTIMIDATING” matching jackets with their names and numbers patched on proudly.  The one on the left is fidgeting looking out the window and always complaining (HEF?) and the girl in the aisle with the longest legs (ASH?) is making constant cracks at the one on the far left….then there is the MEDIATOR the “middle” ground if you will!! She’s calm, quiet, and just smiling as if the two girls on either side of her have no idea the memories they are creating for her even in that moment and she’s so happy to be surrounded by them…… Wait now I have to briefly go back to the brigade of children…….the littlest boy has just walked up to my arm rest and has done the extremely popular and yet sometimes freaky awkward STAND and STARE….you all know about this….resturants, airplanes, target….there is always that little kid who just looks so scared/curious/possessed who just freezes in front of you waiting for something???  (This little one picked up the poking techniques from his siblings, monkey see monkey do) but unfortunately, when I poked him back he gave me the one eyebrow stranger danger look and quickly returned to his daddy!!

RIGHT moving on!! So up two seats and to my right 15 E and F will be labeled for the sake of this blog as the “newly weds” …..once again you all know exactly who I’m talking about…..the couple who put the arm rests up from the moment they sat down and then for the rest of the flight you have no idea what parts of whom are in what seats ….. I really can’t even see either of their heads above the chairs anymore. The only reason I even know that there are two people there is because of the mixture of random giggles, slaps, and whispers……by the time I get off this plane I have a feeling they may be ALOT closer to being the family behind me than the two of them realize!! I could say WOW gag I hope that is never me, but who am I kidding they are having a blast and meanwhile I’m saying please excuse the typos that follow as there is a full on WWF match now happening in the row behind me…….

Princess Doom, and Slammy Skywalker are more tangled than the “newly weds”  in front and as dad referees with enthusiasm mom takes in long deep breaths with her eyes closed and fantasizes about sticking her kids in the overhead compartments!! Now that’s a flashback and flashforward …….definitely seen that look from mom before…..and hope instead to become the enthusiastic referee!! (Dont worry mom I know someones gotta do it!! and you do it WELL!)  How is it possible that gramps, two seats to my right, is snoring through such an epic sporting event happening right in his backyard…..on the other hand the alternating fist and heel pulsations almost feel like I’m in a massage chair…..thaaaat feeeelllllsss gooooood!!  Ha ….alright so by far my favorite people on the plane are sitting directly diagonally to my left……16 B and C.  They look to be in their late 50s early 60s (Side Note: Is it weird I could age them more accurately from their skeleton than looking at them??)…..the husband is in the aisle seat with his headphones on and he keeps nodding off with his head tipping forward slowly and just enough to get in the way of his wife’s light.  Problem is she needs that light in order to see her NY Times crossword puzzle.  Damn its a SUNDAY and she’s almost done!!!  AND is she phased by her husbands cranial eclipse….NOOOOO……her right hand is busy holding the pencil that she’s also chewing on, never blinking, never removing her eyes from the page, she just ever so gently, yet effectively, takes her left hand across her body and puts her index finger right to her hubby’s forehead pushing his head back against the seat and out of her light!! It looks like she may have done this once or twice before! As calm as she is with him he is equally relaxed and never fully wakes or reacts.  I definitely hope I am there one day! She should have just stored her baggage like this!!

PLANK INTERRUPTION… “Something to drink miss??” ……..”um yes do you have spicy tomato juice??” ( I don’t know what it is about planes but for some reason that’s all I ever wanna drink) “yes sure do” …….SCORE WOOT WOOT!!  For some reason I always put WAY too much thought into my order….it’s like caffeine or no caffeine?? Hot or cold? Ice no ice??  ALCOHOLIC OR NONALCOHOLIC??  If the person to my right or left orders what I really want ….is it weird to say, “Me too” or “I’ll have the same”??? Then we both are thinking……do we have more in common then our beverage choice hymmmmmm???  To be honest I have come to the conclusion that if your feeling chatty and you want the same thing as your neighbor, OR if they are an attractive member of the opposite sex, even if you don’t like the drink GO FOR IT!!……..cause when you say ” I’ll have the same ” it’s like you have just opened yourself up to the AIRPLANES number one pick up line “BUSINESS OR PLEASURE??” ……You may ask how I have become so knowledgeable on the subject???  Well ONCE, and mom I know you will remember this one, I was sitting next to this very cute guy and when it came time to order… I was like I WANT spicy tomato juice?? Ummmm WAIT NO..he will think I’m a total weirdo…..so what do I get? WATER…..ugghhh what!!!! Where did that come from?? That is like my LEAST favorite beverage and the last thing I want to be associated with is the word: BORING…..then to top it off what does he order?. Yep that’s right…” Do you have that spicy tomato juice?.” You have got to be kidding me! So lesson learned….if only  I woulda ordered tomato juice, we could have been soul mates, but I’ll never know now!! I wonder how many people meet there spouses on airplanes?? I bet more than most people would think….an interesting way for fate to intervene.  Reading back through this post I realize I may have passed some judgements and am curious which may be accurate?? I travel most often completely on my own…..I wonder what people would think about me? Can they tell from my watch that I’m a freak about being on time? Do they know from my smile that I had braces for five FREAKIN years? Can they tell that since I’m traveling alone that I am single?? Do they think my few tears are from watching my favorite Nicholas Sparks movies or do they know it’s because I cant stand watching the NYC skyscapres out the window shrink down to nothing??  Do they think I’m English, a New Yorker, or can they tell from the travel size Tabasco sauce in my bag that I desperately miss the Mexican food from my home in Southern California.  This may all sound a bit creepy, but I don’t think anyone realizes that if you have all the time  of a coast to coast plane ride you really can learn a lot about someone without even talking to them.  College sweatshirts…..iTunes playlist…..meal choice….movie/entertainment choice…….book……size of carry on etc.  HAHA….just realized I may have fulfilled on of my life long dreams to be Harriet the Spy!  Alright that’s about enough and my battery is flashing red.  (COMPUTER DIED)…..Back in England now, and I have realized that I really do hate airports and planes as I always find myself laughing out of either fun or frustration and also crying out of both depression and joy.  BUT airports and airplanes are the reason that I got to visit my two very pregnant cousins, see my siblings reactions when Santa brought them their goodies, eat over 25 authentic tacos in a week, go snow skiing in Utah, line dancing with my brother, hiking with the parents, NEW YEARS IN NEW YORK with NICKERS!, had two beautiful days and nights starting my 2012, (think I can add deportation to the list of airports and airplanes to thank for those two days!! wink), lets not forget DUNKIN DOUGHNUTS COFFEE, they definitely don’t have that in England.  I know I haven’t posted in ages, and of course now that I’m bogged down with exams I have the procrastination inspiration to fuel this epic post, but I just wanted everyone who I saw over this last vacation to know that it wasn’t until I came home that I realized I missed it so much and THAT KIND OF MISSING is the best kind to have because it means that I have people who I love and people who love me that may be far away in geography now, but will always only be a plane ride or two or three away!!  Can’t wait to see you all again soon, and to those I didn’t quite get to, I love you too (Melly, Emily, Bails, Uncle Tom, Hank and Bennett you guys are all in thoughts too)!! Well its back to books, bones, and bad coffee for me! Totally understand if this was a tough post to get through, hope I didn’t bore you all to death, good news is I could now tell your Age, Sex, Ancestry, and Stature from your BONES!! ❤ Block!

OOOTTAFVGVAH

Hello all, I have survived my first official week of not “school” but “uni” and have quickly come to realize that as a graduate student in the UK there are only two things you really need!! 1) A very loud and persistent alarm clock (though when that fails there is always the very loud and persistent ice cream truck playing Yankee Doodle Dandy at 8am as my backup) and 2) An electric kettle!! (which as some of my friends from my archaeology trip very well know, was only introduced to me last summer and has officially now changed my life!)  My lovely alarm plays the “house” theme song and gets me pumped every morning to go put on my lab coat and examine some skeletal features and pathologies.  The kettle so graciously provides nearly instant and endless amounts of caffeinated beverages including but not limited to coffee and breakfast tea, all of which are essential to staying up extra hours to study!! It is also great for when the preoccupied students of Webster street forget to top up their PRE-PAID GAS METER (whaaaa?? I know….these actually exist) and as a result may have to use the electric kettle to heat water in order to wash their hair in the sink.  Mom I know what your thinking and yes it happened AGAIN.

Anyways I am lucky enough to have a third…..you could say luxury….for graduate students……a MAILMAN! This nameless and very kind mailman has delivered seven out of my nine thirty pound boxes all on separate days, he has brought me my new bank card, he has brought me the TWO FOR TUESDAY dominoes pizza coupon I used today, and most importantly he has brought me all of the beautiful birthday cards from my wonderful friends and family in the States. Very much thanks to said mailman and family+friends!! Alright on to business, I have gone ultra nerd over the last week spending around six hours in the bone lab each day learning how to identify, side, and describe all of the bones, features, muscle attachments, and nerves that reside in our SKULLS.  As you can see I took a picture in lab of both an articulated skull and a surgically dis-articulated skull which separates all of the bones along their natural borders allowing you to see them individually.  In most forensic or archaeological cases most of these small fragile facial bones are broken or go missing in excavation.  The second photo you see are my highly artistic anatomy drawings of each bone and all of its features.  The orange dots signify a feature or function of a bone that I must know for my first spotter test on Thursday.  As you can see the skull is very complex and my own brain is a bit perplexed trying to sort out lefts, rights, laterals, medials, posteriors, anteriors, etc.  As I am learning and studying like a madwoman I thought it only fair to give you all a bit of a challenge as well!!  The title of this post is  OOOTTAFVGVAH, and no this is not the sound a Preston rugby player makes when he suffers a cerebral hemorrhage (a “bloody” brain), it is in fact an acronym for something I have to learn and memorize  for my exam.  The first reader (not currently attending my program) to tell me what this acronym is for will receive an actual snail mail postcard from yours truly along with cheesy Preston souvenir!! Creative yet incorrect answers may merit a snail mail postcard aswell.   In international news…..my roomie from NYC just successfully performed in her third sold-out showing of Mixtape Confessions (her fabulously fabulous one woman show)!! Nickers I’m so proud of you and I wish I coulda been there!!  Also in international news my recently nine year old little brother just received his first, of  what I’m sure will be many, “do you like me? fill in the bubble yes or no…….return to me by Monday!” notes.   I’m not sure what he decided to do, but I wish him luck and have to commend his little girlfriend for her BOLDNESS!! Way to go sister!! PS. keep the international news coming…I miss all of you in the states and am so thankful for all of your updates and emails.

As you can see I have mostly bones on the brain (I even formed my pub glow sticks in to what was meant to be eye orbits and temproal bones), but I am also having a ton of fun and meeting alot of new people.  Alright I have been procrastinating while updating this blog so unfortunately I now have to return to my kettle…… pour myself a large hot chocolate….. and continue the madness that is Developmental Anatomy.  I think I will start with examining the burn, sharp projectile, and blunt force traumas present in the film Gladiator starring the extremely forensically relevant and oh so handsome Russell Crowe.  Planning to hit the pubs after my exam on Thursday and am looking forward to chatting with some of you over the weekend.  Love you and miss you all.  Sammy Spheniod (in honor of what is now my favorite piece of the skull)!!!

Brain, Body, Bucket List

Both friends and family I know I have Been neglectful to my Blog But it stops today. As most of you know I was recently deported back to the United States to get my Visa in order and good news I’m all fixed up.  I cannot think of a situation where I felt more stressed then when I found out I would have to return to NYC but thanks to my roomie, friends and even the people I met in the last week……I’ve realized that everything happens for a reason and I could not be more grateful for that extra week in NYC it was one of the best I’ve ever had.  Today is my first full day on my own in England and already I have stories…but I shall return to that shortly.  Its time to get my priorities straight.  I’ve got a new fresh start in a new city in an OLD country and I have a mission to complete while I’m here.  A year from now I will hopefully have a publishable research dissertation about something to do with human remains. Topic TBA.   Right so I have decided in this new place my checklist shall be as follows 1)Brain(s) – this year is going to be one of learning and expanding my education.  Though New York has served its purpose with all the night life, dancing, increased alcohol tolerance…..and has slightly expanded my vocabulary (probably not for the better)….my brain has been neglected and I intend to right this wrong.  Feeding my brain and digging through other human brains (both dead and alive) is priority number one!!  2) Body – this one wont be so difficult to stick with I hope.  Time to shape up…. I’ve been out of cheer for a year now and I need to find a new routine…. I’ve decided to attempt adding vegetables to my daily intake along with (and those who know me know this will be a huge challenge) MORE WATER.  For those of you who don’t know….this has been not only been a recent anxiety of mine as I have a reoccurring dream that my mother has to set up an intervention with my room-mate and sit me down to tell me how concerned she is about my dehydration.  HA (thanks mom)!  Problem is I don’t enjoy water much but I intend to give it my best effort.  New motto: At least one glass of water for every glass of Whiskey!! Okay so we all know that’s not gonna happen……need my water wings(you know who you are)!!  Im also considering skipping over Zumba to try and take some of the martial arts classes offered at my school gym!! (Id love to add “mental and physical ninja” to my resume).

Anyways it’s not just MY body that lands at priority number two.  A year from now I would like to be able to identify and side every bone in the human body both adult and juvenile.  If I can master all of the teeth and muscles that would be a bonus!  Also I should be able to identify common bone pathologies, and skeletal traumas (ballistics, burns, stabs, breaks, blunt force, etc.) Then at least if all else fails I could be a consultant for the show CSI or Bones or something.  Alright so on to priority number 3) The Bucket list – There are so many things I wanna do with the next year this list is really endless…but I really wanted to mention it in order to get readers feedback on what they suggest for me to do while I’m over here.  I’ve been told about the lake district which isn’t to far from me and is supposed to be beautiful (and FREE to explore)!!  Any other ideas??….or if any of you are traveling over the pond let me know so I can make sure to see you while your here.  Today I’ve managed to clear my immediate bucket list of pre-school starting things.  Lets fast forward through the mundane….walked to the bank…..international office…met with professor…met with tutor…..met with student….bought my oh so sophisticated lab coat…….. (See Photo Above if you haven’t already)…..went to the library…..got stuck in one of the security gates at the library…..got laughed at for being stuck in the security gate at the library ……..escaped the library…….met with financial aid lady(very nice)….got a subway five dollar footlong for only two pounds!!…….got my phone set up…..jumped for joy when I could BBM once again……..had a not so yummy coffee…..and then THE WALK HOME!!!  The unpredictable yet oh so predictable Preston sky decided to go from zero to sixty in ten seconds.  Pretty soon it was raining so hard I could barely see my hand in front of my face and my uggs were soaked through almost immediately, but for some reason, call me a crazy weird marshmallow, I loved it.  I developed a noticeable spring in my step and was grinning from ear to ear… letting out an involuntary giggle every couple steps.  I was doing pretty well blending in with the Europeans until the storm…suddenly it was like I had a giant “kick me” sign on my back……everyone walking past me looked like they had just climbed out of a dunk tank….. and with my inappropriate reaction to the rain it was like they thought I was the one who hit the target that DUNKED them.  At one point a guy stomped by me cursing loudly at the sky while I was jumping in every puddle I could find….lets just say he thought I was a complete freak and looked at me like I was the rain GRINCH!!  “Dear Sir – I promise I was not happy and joyful because of your unhappiness – Ps. sorry if I splashed you!! Sincerely, girl today purposefully not using her red umbrella!”  Anyways I’m sure the rain will get old eventually but for now I’m enjoying it.  Dad I think that’s your storm chaser attitude in me!   Alright well I’m gonna now try to be appropriate again and snuggle up with a tea, some wooley socks and watch the rain from inside…..Ill post again soon after my first week of classes.   I love you all and you folks in NYC don’t think I’ve moved on already…..I miss you guys every minute of everyday and cannot wait the three months until I get back to see you!!  Love you Latitudians…..PS. if any of you are at work just picture me freak dancing “the boss” behind his back and hopefully that will cheer you up on what is bound to be a long Friday night!! – Samantha Bones

The Good, The Bad, and The VERY VERY UGLY

Wow it has been forever since my last blog…but I have to say without having mounds of application materials and references to gather and send away to meet a million deadlines and requirements I have had less things to procrastinate on and therefore less time spent using blogging as my main form of such procrastination.  I have been inspired by recent cards from my grandparents on both sides…..(Thank you Grandma Fee, and Gramsy and Grandpapa Winters) to give you my life updates and this was the best way I could think of to do so!!  Lets start with The Good…..and lets get one thing straight right away…most everything I have going on in my life is very good at the moment!!  All my applications for graduate school starting in Sept 2011 are completed and sent away.  As many of my close family members could have predicted due to my normal spelling habits and use of goofy incorrect grammar my GRE score in the verbal section ranked just above 65% of the population taking the GRE, HOWEVER even better than good…great infact..I was able to pull off an 800 perfect score on the math section.  This will hopefully cause only slight hesitations in accepting me as a graduate student as luckily forensic anthropology papers are usually very scientific and quantitative not requiring quite such a robust vocabulary!!  Another good I have been able to cut back ever so slightly in my waitressing job to allow me to have two nights off a week and continue my three day a week internship at he natural history museum. I have logged over 120 hours of volunteer internship time in the mammals collection lab, and will continue through Spring.  Today in fact I learned to use a new technology called a NextEngine 3D laser.  Can you believe they trust me with a close to four thousand dollar piece of equipment?? Its pretty incredible what it can do for how small the machine is and I spent the whole day scanning the tibiae and tali of Gibbon Apes.  As my knowledge of human morphology has improved when I opened the box today I began to notice very obvious differences in our skeletons to other primate skeletons.  The funniest and most obvious being that in humans the femur or thigh bone is typically the largest and longest bone in our body. However in Gibbon’s it seems that even their radius (one of the forearm bones) is almost twice as long as its own femur.  This has to do with the way that they reach, and use their arms to navigate through trees, and when they walk on two legs they must hold their arms over their heads to prevent them from dragging on the ground!! For some reason this image makes me think of my brother Beau because I can picture him imitating a monkey walking in such fashion.  In other good news I also finished reading the autobiographical book by Dr. William Bass a retired forensic anthropology researcher and creator of the body farm at the University of Tennessee.  I will add more about his book later but all of the details wont fit until I get past The Bad section and on to the VERY VERY UGLY.  In also very very anticipated and Good news I have officially been accepted to study forensic anthropology at the Masters level at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  PROS: it is in Edinburgh, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful cities in the world…its in Scotland which is a part of my own heritage that I would love to explore and say that I have experienced…it is the home university to a female researcher that is interested in the quantitative and three dimensional analysis of modern human remains in both forensic and archaeological contexts (aka exactly what I’m interested in!!) AND I could easily visit Dublin to see all of my Summer excavation friends for only fifty dollars round trip!! CONS: the British pound exchange rate to the dollar is $1.60 = 1 pound….which means grad school there is gonna be 1.6x as expensive as it seems like it would be, however private schools and out of state tuition like NYU’s comes in at around the same or worse given that it is a two year program rather than just one like in Scotland. I would also have to leave the city where my boyfriend lives and all of the amazing friends I have met at latitude! Many Many things to consider, haven’t really decided if kilts and or driving on the opposite side of the road would be considered a pro or a con yet??? Any comments?? I am very very excited to say that I am leaving on a two week trip to visit Edinburgh and Preston in the UK to see both schools I have gotten into with my Dadio.  Then LUCKY ME!! I am going to stay with my friends that I met in Greece who are from Dublin for a little vacation.  I truly cannot wait I am so excited to see them all.  I’m hoping the trip will give me a better idea of where I belong for school next year.   Also I have been asked to have an interview with a professor from Michigan State University for their Masters in forensic anthropology program.  I do not have as many details about this program because they have not sent me an official offer yet, but I should be having a phone interview with this gentleman in the next week or so…seems promising.  Side note also the Men’s UCSB Gaucho basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament…yay go Gauchos!! Okay….I’m sure there are many other good things I could go on about but in the interest of seeing a movie with Avia, my NYC other half in only an hour I am going to move on to The Bad… (which as I mentioned previously isn’t really all that bad!) The bad is this….I need to get my wisdom teeth out soon! ahh!! They are not feeling so good at all….need to find a New York Dentist to get a cleaning and such.  Also not so good but not really so bad is that I have not been offered admission to University of Tennessee, University of Florida, City University of New York, or NYU’s PhD programs.  I am still waiting on a few Master’s programs in the states but apparently my resume was more impressive to peeps oversea!!  Okay so I think thats pretty much it for the bad list…like I said not much to worry about!!  NOW FOR THE VERY VERY UGLY……DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN. WARNING THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT TOPICS HAVE TO DO WITH THE UGLY TRUTHS THAT ARE FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY….IT IS ADVISED THAT IF YOU HAVE A WEEK STOMACH OR BECOME EASILY GROSSED OUT BY BUGS, GUTS OR TRAUMA STOP READING NOW…….SERIOUSLY STOP…….ARE YOU STILL READING THIS?? WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS…OKAY WARNING IS COMPLETE…EXCEPT ALSO TO WARN THAT THE FACTS BELOW ARE NOT 100 PERCENT ACCURATE AS I HAVE NOT BEEN FORMERLY EDUCATED I AM ONLY RECITING MY INTERPRETATION OF ANECDOTAL STORIES FROM THE BOOK ABOUT THE BODY FARM!! So now that I have finished reading the book about the creation of the body farm I have learned that the body farm was created with the main purpose of establishing time since death to help investigators match cases with missing person reports…or even rule out suspects based on alibis and time of death.  I also learned about some of the techniques that they use to analyze soft tissue (or as my professor Sabrina Curran always called them…The Squishy Bits).  First off bugs and their attraction slash presence in human remains are one of the most popular ways to determine time since death.  Blow Flies…..they can smell blood from miles away and it is only a matter of hours before a corpse is covered in them.  they lay eggs and by the development of the eggs and larva scientists can tell how much time has past since death.  These little slimy buzzing creepy crawly creatures are actually forensic friends….they can also help scientists discover the site of any trauma or open wound.  The bugs like us like to raise their family’s in nice warm nutritious and safe environments, and the best place for that is in a fresh open wound.  The site of the largest and most severe amount of decomposition is usually where the bugs have set up their buffet and usually the sight of a wound or trauma.  I know its very gross and hence the warning and title of the very very ugly…but these little guys and great scientists have formed an alliance to put people behind bars in cases of foul play.  Just when I thought things couldn’t get any uglier or smellier or grosser I learned about the ways to tell how long a decomposing organism may have been in a body of water.  Turns out skin an inactive bodies when immersed in water excrete a slimy wax that surrounds them in the water.  Based on the thickness and amount of such filmy wax scientists can also determine time since death of things that have been found in rivers lakes oceans even bathtubs.  Another interesting and very mother nature research project or I guess really just observation is that it rains in alot of places of the world…(shocking I know)….but when it rains things get washed downhill…downstream…..basically just the convenient path of gravity….and this water takes minerals soils debris and even skeletal remains downstream with it.  In a forensic case lets say a partial skeleton was found on a hill… or even what could be a dried up river bed…….follow the likely path of running water from that point and more and more skeletal remains are bound to be found…. potentially crucial ones that make it easy to identify an individual (always hoping for teeth).  Anyways not sure any of this is even making sense anymore cause my brain is a bit dead and my fingers are fading fast.  Hope you have gotten a little glimpse at what I have been up to over here and updates about school and life in general. As you can see the good the bad and the ugly here are all very exciting interesting and LIFE IS GOOD!! Sincerely Sammy Jones Bones

Why would you move from California to New York???

Alright everyone I know I have been missing for quite some time now but it’s because I have been finding my swing my swagger my self in the big apple.  I finally have a routine and I’m ready to share it with you all.  First and foremost I started waitressing and as of this very day I am finally caught up on rent and believe will be able to continue as a financially independent entity from this day forth!!!! YAY!!  MOM…..DAD……we did it!!  I was lucky enough to be hired at a very cool four-story sports bar called Latitude and the best part is I can see it out my apartment window so the commute in the wet cold rain outside is all of about 60 seconds.  I have been working there for about four weeks now and am usually there Thursday through Monday sometimes starting around 2:30pm and sometimes not leaving until 2:30am…but its great I love it!! (Side note I also was voted best costume at Latitude’s Halloween party last weekend….see picture!!) Anyways back to the good stuff…each day that I am there I experience the same exact conversation with at least three of my tables…….customer: Where are you from….you obviously not from here………me: Oh oh yeah I am actually from California I just moved here two months ago………customer: WHY WHY WHY would you ever leave California to live here WHHHHHHYYYYYYY (with their hand up to the sky)??  So in the beginning I didn’t have much to say really other than hahaha I DON’T REALLY KNOW WHY.  But now that I have spent the last four weeks answering that question I do.  The obvious answer is that I wanted to be closer to Michael, and I was originally planning on having a career as a Wall Street mogul, and though those might have been the reasons why I chose to come here I now have much more reasons to stay.  NEW CONVERSATION ENDING…….me: I am here because I am going to be a forensic anthropologist……….customer: ohhhhhhh like on bones…COOOL……..me: yeah kinda, and so I am interning at the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (I always feel so awesome saying that) and I am working on applications for schools in the area starting next fall….customer: WOW that’s great …sounds like an adventure.   So that’s my story I am interning at the museum Monday through Wednesday mornings in the mammals department three dimensionally scanning old world monkey femora for morphology variation analysis. I am also sitting in on an undergraduate Human Osteology class at Hunter college on Thursdays and a graduate level math class called geometric morphometrics at Stoneybrook college on Fridays.  In my spare time, which has significantly decreased since I moved here, I am reading a biography on Dr. Bill Bass the man who created The Body Farm (which I will come back to) and I am also studying for the GRE which I will take on December 13th…collecting recommendation letters, transcripts, and resumes to send out to GRADUATE SCHOOLS BY JAN 1st.  As of now I am planning to apply to three different PhD. programs in physical anthropology, NYU, CUNY, and U Tennessee.  So NYU and CUNY are probably my best bet because I have been working directly with all of the professors in those programs at the museum so they have gotten to know me and know my interests well…however both of the programs are geared more towards the evolutionary side of physical anthropology not the modern human forensic aspects of it.  This might not be a bad thing though because I could seek out forensic training through outside opportunities for graduate student in the area while also gaining a broader education that may help in job placement once I would finish school.  Now for Tennessee, home to one of the very few truly forensic graduate school programs.  It is really one of the only places in the US that has a PhD program strictly in forensic anthropology.  It is also home to The Body Farm.  Warning those who become queasy, faint, or pass out when thinking of dead people may want to stop reading here!!!  The body farm is a place where people can donate their body to science and these bodies are then placed in all different kinds of environments temperatures etc.  such as the trunk of a car……underwater……buried in sand, mud, gravel, anything you can imagine.  These bodies are then observed by the scientists as they decompose in order to learn how to best judge time since death on unidentified human remains.  Since the creation of the body farm modern forensics has come leaps and bounds in identification of individuals, accurate time since death and cause of death estimations used in law enforcement cases all over the world.  I have been in contact with professors at all three schools and am excited to see if my past experience and education will grant me the chance to attend any of the three!!!  So that is my routine….my plan…my path for now and I really am beginning to enjoy myself here in the city.  I’m going to post the links to the three school programs here if any of you are interested in checking them out!!!  I will hopefully blog again soon and I am so looking forward to seeing many of you over the Christmas holiday when I come back to California December 20th-27th!!!  Love Always Samantha Bones

NYU MA:  http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/programs/biology/index.html

NYU PhD:  http://anthropology.as.nyu.edu/object/anthro.grad.physical

CUNY PhD:  http://web.gc.cuny.edu/anthropology/physical.html

UTenn PhD:  http://web.utk.edu/~fac/

The Best Friends That Anybody Could Have!!!

Alrighty, so I know I have been MIA for the past week or so but I had a lovely week long visit from my wonderful friends Ashley and Heather officially dubbed the California Girls by the few New York friends I have made so far.  We had an amazing week in new York and I’m gonna recap all of the fun filled activities we did all week.  So they arrived Tuesday and we decided to head straight to the Yankee game in the Bronx. At the time they were seeded first and were playing the number two team, the Rays.  The Yankees scored five runs in the first inning starting with a lead of home run.  It was great we all got Yankee gear and put fake tattoos all over us…Heather even finished her first beer (what a moment we were so proud).  I think the Yankees have been missing us they have been breaking down ever since that game!!  I even brought my baseball glove and got pretty close to a right field foul fly ball…maybe next time!! The next day we went to Chevy’s happy hour for margaritas and saw an early afternoon movie called Easy A.  It was pretty good and we all had some giggles and then we decided to go out for dinner to ten cent wing night at a place called Croxley and Ales! It was raining and the lightning was awesome.  It was also pretty entertaining for all of us to be walking in the rain with our umbrellas trying to avoid taxi splashes!!  The wings were amazing and we kept em coming thirty total wings for only three dollars crazy right!!  I also joined the Croxley Ale club which means that if I go back enough times and try forty different beers from their selection I get a free t-shirt and membership into the exclusive group. HAHA funny to think that t-shirts gonna cost like ($6 for each 40 beers = $240), interesting marketing strategy, it better be one amazingly cool t-shirt!!  Thursday was an unbelievable day and night.  Ashley had her debut performance in a street show in which a very springy man did a front flip over her in Central park!!  She was a great addition to the show.  The we decided it was time for the three of us to put on a show of our own.  We got all dressed up and headed out to a small Mexican bar for some happy hour margaritas and appetizers.  This was just the warm up however, because on Thursdays there is a restaurant/bar called Johnny Utah’s that hosts a mechanical bull for any and all to ride and or watch.  We had been preparing mentally all day and were building confidence before we headed over.  When we got there we went straight to the line to fill out consent and liability waivers for the bull got our big longhorn hand stamp and away we rode!!  The bull was brutal but the three of us were extremely tough cowgirls and all did an amazing job holding on for dear life!!  I was fairly certain they were going to offer us all jobs before we left!! haha but that was wishful thinking since at that time I was still unemployed!!  We each went multiple times and I think Heather even borrowed a mans cow boy hat for awhile before he noticed.  The bull driver loved us and the crowd was cracking up!!  The next three days were extremely rough though because all three of us were having trouble walking after the gym and riding the mighty bull.  Our fingers, forearms, glutes, and quads were so sore it was quite comedic!!  It somewhat reminded me of Greece this summer because there is said to be an old sport in which men would run at a charging bull grab the horns and be thrown over the bulls back.  Probably a bit more dangerous that what we were doing, but I still felt like i was flying through the air quite alot!!  It was a blast.  FRIDAY…..oh epic FRIDAY!!  hahahaha I still laugh just thinking about it!!  Since I hadn’t yet celebrated my birthday in true New York City fashion the girls decided to recreate September 15th, my 22 birthday, on Friday.  It started off innocently with my wonderful and very sentimental gifts that morning when I woke up (thank you ladies) and ended in complete madness (the good kind)!!  Before we went out Michael and some of his Co. Workers graciously decided to host a table at a huge fancy dance club called tenjune.  We invited tons of friends and it was so great to have drinks and see everyone all dressed up!!  One of our friends even got kicked out for too much fist pumping!! I was having a wonderful time being the bartender and making wonderful drink creations for everyone to enjoy.  Unfortunately/fortunately for me it was everyones mission to make sure Sammy had a “very good” night on the town AND DID I EVER!!!  I had so so so much fun….so much in fact that the two greatest friends in the world had to drag me outta that place…up two flights of stairs and even force me into PJs when we got home!!  (Thanks once again ladies you truly are the best).  Its safe to say the next day didn’t even begin until around 1:00 in the afternoon.  All of us were exhausted from the week plus it was a rainy day so we decided to lay low!!  We went to what was supposed to be brunch but was really like linner around 4:00pm at this funky restaurant called ma peche, where all of us just stared at the menu at first thinking NO WAY!!  Everything turned out to be amazing though.  I had this tomato watermelon salad, spicy rice noodles, and crack pie, and everything was so delicious I’m definitely going back!!  Then we went and saw our second movie of the trip, You Again, which in my book was much better than Easy A.  It was a fairly predictable chick flick but there were definitely some twists and turns, I recommend it!!  Sunday we woke up a bit earlier and had the breakfast of champions, SHAKE SHACK!!  Then we went off to a a large street fair to roam around and be a bit lazy, buying some cheap trinkets and interesting food.  Then we hung around in Washington Square park listening to some live piano and watching the little kids in jealousy playing in the giant fountain.  The next day our only plan was to head back to Croxleys for another round of wings and to watch the Yankee game.  It was pouring rain outside so we were very lazy and stayed in our jim jams all day inside watching the rain.  Than we decided to do something very SAM ASHLEY AND HEATHER…… RAIN BOOT PHOTO SHOOT!!  It was fabulous we broke out my big camera and got all dolled up for some balcony rain boot and umbrella shots. It was a very girly and fun way to end their visit, and we got some great pictures out of it too!!  I miss them terribly already, but they definitely helped me settle in and realize that our friendship wont fade even though its is now spread over 3,000 miles coast to coast!!  I love you guys so much for visitng me and making my birthday so special.  More to come on the job front ASAP!!

Recap, Rest, Realization and No Regrets

Wow, where to start.  I guess I will pick up where I left off…our last week at the project.  It was such a busy time and stressful for all of the professionals there trying to gather as much information and clear as much of their trench as possible before it had to be backfilled and remain untouched for the next few years.  The site is not going to be excavated next summer so everyone was trying to do as much as possible to wrap everything up.  Once again being the floater that I was I was passed around in the last couple days of excavation and actually got to learn how to mix cement in order to restore the walls that were uncovered this summer and were to remain exposed so that they would not be destroyed by very unlikely but possible rain showers in the fall and winter seasons. I actually quite enjoyed the job of making cement and restoring the walls because it was kinda like doing a big mosaic art project.  I had to wear these huge gloves and then hammer in the partially dried cement with a tiny hammer (I got way more messy than usual which was great!) and it even got me out of backfilling for the last day.  I really had no idea my hands could possibly sweat that much until wearing giant rubber gloves in 100 plus degree heat.  Every time my arms went upright sweat poured out of the ends of the gloves it was pretty gross but kinda funny at the same time.  Then at the end of the week we introduced our bean dip as our final presentation and it went over extremely well.  I have never seen any archaeologists so eager to excavate such a delicious tasty trench.  It was great and everyone elses presentations were great too.  A couple of power points and some great videos…all gave a huge laugh.  The three boys (Nick, Paddy, and Brendan) outdid us all with their final video which is now posted on youtube as I heart Istron (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EU1OVp18Rg).  I highly encourage you to watch it…there are alot of inside jokes and impressions that may be somewhat weird or startling but you will be able to see where we all lived…the site…and all of the other good times we had!  After the last day of digging and our last official night together before some of the field school students were planning to leave we introduced a great North American drinking game that most of the Irish and Europeans were not familiar with called POWER HOUR.  Power Hour was probably the best idea we ever came up with.  We all wore our PP 2010 matching t-shirts and took a small shot of wine every minute for an hour straight.  Though it started as very lively and fun it ended in about a fifty percent fatality rate (by fatality I mean having to go home to pass out or be sick) but luckily I triumphed over Power Hour and made it through the whole night unscathed.  Some of my Irish friends that were conquered by Power Hour were later quoted as having “no regrets and the time of their lives” so in the end it was worth it completely.   I had a blast singing my last night of Karaoke and once again spending the majority of the night on the beach before retiring to bed.  It was a great night that I will never forget…so many fun and exciting memories made with so many great people!  The next day everyone was very slow to start, but we all went down to the beach for our last trip as a group  and then that night we went to site and crashed the staff’s annual gin and tonic party that they do every year at the close of the season.  It was so nice because the sun was setting and it really made us all realize how rare and beautiful the view we had been staring at for the past six weeks was.  I knew then that I would miss Istron and the people there so much! It was a bittersweet feeling to know that everyone was leaving very soon.  We went for our last dinner at Zygos and then our last night to walk the beaches of Istron.  The next morning was completely depressing when so many people left but I still had my roomie Derv and we wallowed and wept together as each group of people said their goodbyes. I wish I could explain to you how close you can become to not only the group as a whole but each person in only six weeks.  I can’t believe how lucky I was to have been surrounded by such interesting, crazy, hilarious, loving people for that whole six weeks.  I have made friends that I know I will keep forever and made memories that I couldn’t possibly ever forget. After a fairly miserable trip home from Istron to San Diego, other than an extremely exciting reunion with a couple of field school students in the Athens airport, I feel like I slept for a few days until I recovered from the jet lag….lack of sleep and extreme celebrations of the last week.  Looking back on the whole experience I know that the work I did in Crete didn’t feel like work at all.  Its been three weeks and I still have moments where I wish I was out in the crazy heat of Crete digging away…or down in the pool movie theater…or arguing with Brice over if I was going to draw pottery or go to the beach….or singing karaoke with my friends, all of which I miss so much.  This was definitely a life changing experience for me and I think I have realized that what is so important is that when you are looking to the future and in my case looking for a career path…you gotta go with your heart and find something that you are passionate about.  For me I think that is Human Osteology in forensics and or bioarchaeology. This adventure was just the beginning of what I think will be such a fun exciting and fulfilling future and I am so anxious to see where this takes me from here.  I cant wait to have another opportunity to go out into a new place in the world and do another dig even though I’m not sure any could compare to PP 2010.  I know I could have spent my senior year in college taking a little less class and enjoying Santa Barbara and my California friends much more…and I could have spent the summer starting a high paying finance job in New York city…had I not taken on this Anthropology minor, but I am so glad that I did and that my family was so supportive of me.  I can honestly say I have No Regrets looking back on the experience…NONE!!  I finally feel like I have found something that makes me smile when I think about it…and I think it would be pretty freakin cool to tell people I was a Forensic Anthropologist working for the FBI out of some High tech lab solving murder mysteries or even identifying ancient remains.  I know that is still a long ways off, possibly more school, I know more studying, and most definitely more bone, but it feels closer now than it ever did before, so thank you to all of you who have made this possible…My parents…Professor Brice Erikson…My Osteology Professor Sabrina Curran…My friend Leslie for recommending PP…and everyone else who has encouraged me to follow through with this rediscovered passion of mine!!  Thanks and just in case your curious I am planning to continue blogging about my experiences now that I have moved to New York City so be on the look out for some posts in the near future!!  With much love, Samantha Bones!!

Busy Busy BEE!!

Hey everyone so sorry its been so long since I have written, but its the last week of excavation and so everything has been pretty busy and we have all been volunteering for extra projects left and right to help out.  The weekend was jam-packed with fun since it was our last official weekend with the whole group even though a lot of us will be here this weekend as well.  Friday was our last karaoke night and then there was a ridiculous meteor shower on the beach that about fifteen of us went down and watched.  It was so cool.  Unfortunately I lost my very cool charm bracelet while lying on the beach, but just today a man came up to site and said he had found a charm bracelet so I got it back, HOW LUCKY AM I??  Then On saturday all of us were dead walking zombies from staying up so late the night before but we made it on to our last field trip to the Aios Nikalous museum, where they store many finds from the similar sites near by.  It was actually very small but very cool because all of the things we have found broken into pieces were so similar to the restored pots and vessels in the museum that you could kinda see the big picture!!  We also saw many things we would never find like royal jewelry, including the very famous bee pendent found in a sight I visited earlier called Malia.  That night we had our last BBQ.  Which was great and then we went into the big town for the last big Hurrah!!  It was great fun we all danced and danced and actually even all took one flip-flop off and flopped it in the air to the beat.  What can I say a bar full of 30 archaeologists can get pretty weird.  Unfortunately another girl suffered the exact same knee injury as me just not quite so severe when she was raging on the dance floor.  I’m telling you the knee brace is becoming quite fashionable in Crete, especially Istron.  Today and yesterday I was in the Apotheke, and then I will be on site for the rest of the week, but it was kinda a nice break after the weekend and I have spent most of my afternoons drawing pottery and getting ready for my final presentation tomorrow.  We were given groups and told to make something that explains what we have learned in our field school, but they aren’t meant to be too serious.  A lot of groups are doing funny documentaries, or music videos which I will try to post eventually so you can get an idea of what we all do everyday.  My group is making a layered mexican bean dip to symbolize what we have learned about stratigraphy (layers of soil) and dating them according to their properties.  We are also marking off the trench boundaries with toothpicks and floss.  Then everyone will be able to excavate it with tortilla chips!!  YUMMM.  I will let you all know how it turns out!! Today my apartment all wore plaid shirts tucked into our jean shorts and pretended to be from the south.  It was pretty hilarious to us but I think most people thought we may be on the verge of dehydration delirium.  It has been over 100 degrees the past two days and people on site are dropping like flies.  Heat stroke is very scary so we are encouraged to take breaks and drink loads of water all day.  OHHHHH very weird thing…MY FACE IS TAN!!  I barely recognize myself its very strange!!  Hope you all enjoyed the pic I put up last week, I will try to put up some more action shots soon.  We have a site photographer and he does an end of the dig slide show, and I know he has a bunch of me so hopefully I can rob them off of him later!!  Well I miss everyone and I’m not sure how much I’ll get up here to write this week because we have so much extra to do but then after the week ends I will have a couple free days before I leave.  Love you all , hope everything is well!!  XOXO Samantha Bones

Tomb Raider

 

 

Okay so I wasn’t here to write yesterday, but it was a very exciting day!!  I was on site and I was given the opportunity to dig into a structure we found to see if it was possibly a grave.  SAMANTHA BONES to the rescue!!  I was very flattered that they would choose me and that they would leave me in such an important area to fend for myself.  I dug down a section of about eight by thirty centimeters and when I got about twenty centimeters down I began to uncover toe bones and two heels.

Everyone was very impressed about how I excavated the grave and left all of the bones unharmed.  However, even though I was very excited along with Sylvia (the grave woman) in the picture with me…the rest of the directors were kinda bummed cause a skeleton means we have to slow down and reassess the situation!!  So though we may have a tomb, there must be a risk assessment and other things that may postpone further excavation.  I also had my second hospital visit today and though it took freaking forever!!! I got in to see the doc (a different one from last time) and he said I have a tear in my MCL but that I should be back to normal in 6 weeks with no strenuous exercise and keeping my brace on as much as possible.  It hasn’t really been bothering me much though, so thats good.  I have also been volunteering to work for the only UCSB professor (Brice), drawing profiles of classical pottery sherds that will eventually be published.  HOW COOL IS THAT.  I’m going to be a published pottery artist (which I have been told is highly needed on sites and would yield a bit of money should I decide I really like it).  Probably topping off at only half of what I would make on Wall Street in NYC in my first year, but still something!!  PS.  I have an interview at a Risk Management Education firm when I get back to the states (Thanks to Shelly!!) so wish me luck for that.  I did really like pottery drawing though it made me think of my mom and grandfather and their artistic abilities!!  Hopefully I inherited some of those skills from them.  Once my drawings are scanned in and scaled I will try to put them online if I can.  I miss everyone so much, and I also miss going in the ocean…the winds changed here and there is a bunch of trash in the water…VERY GROSS.  We actually organized a giant beach clean up and picked up bags and bags of trash!!  I honestly don’t know what this places beaches or economy would be like without all of the diggers…we are always buying so much food and drinks!  I’m really having such a good time and I have gotten used to the freakishly long hours and blazing hot sun…WAIT TILL YOU SEE MY LEG BRACE TAN!!  There is only one week left and I have to say I am gonna miss rolling around in dirt all day, eating at least one Gyro a day, movie nights, swimming in the ocean in my clothes straight after digging, and sleeping in my bikini out of the heat!!  BUT I CANT WAIT FOR A FREAKIN BURRITO AND TO SEE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS I MISS ALL OF THE ABOVE SO MUCH. Can you believe it some of my Irish friends have never eaten a burrito….lets just say I will be overnighting them each one when I get home!!  That’s all for today…Im on sight tomorrow and then off to Friday night karaoke, but I will try and update at some point before that!!  XOXO Sammy