I'll do this one right.

Tuesday 18th September 2018 

Indian Church Village, Belize 

Hello all, 

Last week of holidays. I’m in Belize till Sunday and then have just Monday and Tuesday to land, unpack and prepare for my PhD madness because it all starts on Wednesday! Well, actually I already have my first meeting on Tuesday with my supervisor. I am psyched. 

I want to do this one right. I want to be fully focused on studying, but also have a schedule that when I came back from classes/the library I will have time for myself, meeting friends etc. I remember I read a book during my time at King’s College called “Racing towards excellence” by Muzaffar Khan. I don’t remember the details in it (just the fact that something bothered me in the book enough to email the writer with follow up questions - he was cool enough to reply!) but I do remember that he wrote about setting up a ‘work schedule’ even when in university. Basically this means that you give yourself 8 hours of work every day during the week (even if you don’t have classes on some days, you are still supposed to be reading, writing, studying) so that you have a clear working schedule and time for yourself, so that you don’t mix them. I like that. 

(Also, there is a huge storm coming in and the thunder is insane! Perfect day to do some more reading)

I still haven’t heard anything from the pre-enrolment people. Starting to get nervous about it. 

On a different note, I am grumpy. I have been well grumpy for about a week now. The constant presence of people starting to get to me. And there are children. So many children. Also, it really pisses me off when someone takes my things without asking. I really don’t mind sharing as long as I still get everything done that I need to. Like charging my phone for example. Ugh, I need to stop being so grumpy! 

So my mind is a little all over the place but I was also thinking that when I have my own house I want to be able to go some days without buying anything, just feeding from the garden. I like that idea a LOT. 

Alright, done for now. 

First problem?

Alright,

So I finally managed to connect to decent 3G internet (trust me, it is NOT easy here in Indian Church Village) and wanted to pre-enrol, but hey, I can't. I can, of course, pay my fees but the pre-enrollment option is not working for some reason. I have sent an e-mail so will hopefully be able to sort all of this out soon.

I am getting more and more excited about starting!

Till later. 

Hello

Friday September 7th 2018, Indian Church Village, Belize

Hello world, 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Gabi and I am an archaeologist. That pretty much covers it.

Alright, so let's get into some more detail. I am currently 27 (as of last week) and am on my ‘year off’ from studies. In February this year, I officially graduated from my MPhil degree in Archaeology of the Americas at the University of Cambridge where I focused my dissertation on an elite Maya structure from the site of Ka’kabish, Northern Belize. Speaking of Belize. I am here right now. 

I’ve been coming here every summer since 2014 for fieldwork. My first year here I was excavating the British Colonial Period at Lamanai. Lamanai, which by the way has the coolest name ever because it translates to ‘submerged crocodile’ is one of the sites that go against all theories of a ‘Maya collapse’ or Maya disappearance at the end of the Classic Period. It thrived well into the Post-classic period well into the Spanish contact. Anyways, I will write a post on Lamanai later on as the site deserves its own entry. If you ever come to Belize, you MUST go see Lamanai. Seriously. 

Anyways, where were we? Ah yes, the story of Gabi. Quick recap of my life. I was born in Poland, in a town called Lublin but my family moved to Warsaw when I was just three so that’s the city I associate myself with as I have no memory of our life in Lublin (though I recently visited there and the old town is magically beautiful, I was speechless). When I turned 9 we moved to Vienna, Austria (their museums is where I got really hooked on Egyptian archaeology) and then after 5 years to a tiny town outside of Frankfurt called Bad Soden, in Germany that is. Later, after just 10 months (school year), we up and went again, this time to Bombay, India. There I stayed for two years before deciding to finish high-school at a boarding school in Surrey, England (and yes, it really was my own decision to go to that school). After two years at an all-girls Catholic boarding school, off to university I went. Doing what I thought was the responsible degree, I spent two years doing Business Management at King’s College London before having one of those revelations that life is too short and I need to do what I always wanted. And so, in my third and final year at King’s, I applied to UCL for another undergraduate degree, this time in archaeology. And here I am. Sitting in a hammock in wonderful Belize. Unbelizeable, huh? 

I have 2.5 weeks left before my PhD programme begins. I am kind of sort of shitting my pants. Doing a PhD in archaeology at UCL has pretty much been my dream from day 1 of my undergrad degree but now that it is real, I am crazy nervous. Pretty much all the what ifs you can imagine are crowding my head. And another thing. 

So anyway, I thought I would create this blog as a way of venting about the challenges and triumphs along the way and hopefully find other like-minded people to help me cope. 

Oh also, I’m a vegan when I’m in London and a vegetarian while in Belize (considering this is a tropical country with fruits all year round, it is surprisingly difficult to get a vegan meal here). I guess in that case you could call me plant-based? 

Alright, that’s it for now. 

Till later.