Orkney!

Hello all! I reached the Orkney mainland last night at 11pm. My flights took me from Boise to Minniapolis, to Paris, then I found out that my flight from Paris to Aberdeen, Scotlad was canceled because of strike! So I was re-routed to Dublin, then to Aberdeen. Because of the flight changes, I had very little time to make it to my ferry, so I was wworried about that when I finally got to Aberdeen. I went to collect my luggage and it didn't come. Neither did the luggage of any of the other people who were re-routed through Dublin. I gave the Airline my email, since it is my only form of communication, then I set out for the ferry. I made it in time and rode it for 6 hours to Kirkwall, Orkney. I met two young men, one from Wales and one from Manchester and we talked the entire time about differences in our languages and I learned lots of British sayings. I had a goo time but was exhausted. My professor picked me up, along with another student who was apparently on the ferry with me. Luckily there was still a store open at 11pm so we went by for me to buy some underwear--or "pants" as they are called in the UK-- shampoo, and some pjs. Thankfully I brought all of the absolutely necessary things in my carry on. (retainer, pills, tooth brush and paste) (Good to think ahead, Eric ;) Got to sleep 56 hours after leaving Boise. I was so tired. Definitely not enough sleep. Today me and the 12 other college students got to take a tour of this island. We went to Skara Brae which is a Neolithic settlement very similar to the one that we will be excavating at the Ness of Brodgar. It was amazing. Their houses were inside of hills, kind of like the Hobbits' homes, except there were tunnels all over. Also, they had a rather complex indoor drainage system for a toilet. They had jewelry and made art work. We got to see a lot of that at the museum there. We viewed several other neolithic sites and ruins. We also got to go to a cathedral called St Magnus' Cathedral. It dates back to the 12th century! It is still in use today. It was breath taking. I took lots of pictures, but you can probably find better ones online. I'm tired and I need to catch up on some sleep I'll try to upload pictures later. :) I'm so excited. If the weather cooperates, tomorrow we will go to the site and start our excavtions. Our professor says we will be dirty by lunch time, so we're going to get right to it!